Search results for: "The Four Noble Truths"

  1. Page 39
  2. Ironies
     … So again, even though when the Buddha teaches the basic principles of the teaching, the four noble truths—suffering, the cause, the cessation of suffering, and the path to the end of suffering—these are things that can be immediately present, but we need somebody to point them out to us, because we keep missing them. Even though the Buddha’s teaching is about … 
  3. Respect, Confidence, & Patience
     … After all, the Buddha taught the four noble truths because he had the right attitude toward suffering: that there must be a way for human beings to overcome suffering, to gain release from suffering. He had the right attitude toward the amount of work it might take to do this, at the same time seeing that once this task was accomplished it would be … 
  4. Tranquility & Insight in Tandem
     … With each of the four noble truths that we chanted just now, there’s a duty. It’s not that when stress arises you just watch it, and when the cause arises you just watch it, and when the path arises you just watch it come and go. The Buddha never taught that. Stress is something you want to comprehend. In other words, you … 
  5. Decisions
     … You can see this in the structure of the four noble truths. The Buddha talks about the duty with regard to the second noble truth, which is the cause of suffering. He says you let it go. And what is the cessation of suffering? It’s precisely that: the letting-go of the cause of suffering, the letting-go of craving. But that truth … 
  6. Self-Reliance
     … learning to look at things in terms of the four noble truths, i.e., looking at things in terms of where there’s stress, where there’s a cause of stress, what things you can do to put an end to stress, and the actual fact that stress and suffering are ending. That’s a framework you want to keep in mind all the … 
  7. Self View & Conceit
     … Basically, what you’re doing is asking yourself the questions of the four noble truths: “Where’s the suffering? Where’s the stress?” In this case, it’s very subtle. It’s hard to call it suffering, but it is stress. It is a disturbance. When you notice it, the next questions are: “What action is causing it?” and “What can you do to … 
  8. Refuge for All Beings
     … Even the duties of the four noble truths are not duties he imposes. He simply says, “If you want to put an end to suffering, this is what you’ve got to do.” It’s the same with generosity. A king once asked him where should a gift be given, and the Buddha said, “Wherever you feel inspired.” After all, the Buddha was not … 
  9. The Mirror Inside
     … That’s what’s disturbing your concentration, so that’s what you want to look at. “What am I doing that’s weighing the mind down, and how can I stop?” That’s the whole message of the four noble truths, which is why the Buddha started his discussions on the Dhamma with the image of the mirror. You’re reflecting to see that … 
  10. A Sense of Yourself
     … That’s the message of the four noble truths. So you examine yourself in terms of these four qualities. See to what extent you really are an admirable friend to yourself. And then the Buddha adds two more qualities to look for. One is your learning in terms of the Dhamma. This is an aspect that’s sometimes downplayed in the forest tradition. You … 
  11. Common Sense
     … That’s how he arrived at the four noble truths, and that’s how he arrived at true awakening: simply noticing that thoughts and feelings have an effect on the mind, and that some thoughts and some feelings have a better effect than others. That’s the whole principle of the path. You try to develop thoughts and feelings that lead to an end … 
  12. A Healthy Attitude Toward Happiness
     … That’s the good news of the four noble truths, the Buddha’s teachings on suffering. Years back, I was at a commemoration for Ajaan Lee. Every year they would have a large Dhamma talk at the end. They’d either invite a senior monk from Bangkok or they’d invite one of the great ajaans from the forest to give the closing talk … 
  13. Strength Training
     … After all, as the Buddha said, the four noble truths have four duties. The first one is to comprehend suffering. Then you let go of the cause of suffering, to realize the cessation of suffering, but to do that, you’ve got to develop the path. That takes work. So if you’re in this for the long haul, this means, one, that you … 
  14. Relationships
     … There’s a reason he taught the four noble truths, saying that this is the best use of your powers of concentration: to learn to focus in on the issue of suffering that you create through your own craving and how you can put an end to it. This teaching is based on a wish for well-being: the desire not to create suffering … 
  15. Comprehending Pain
     … He talks about the four noble truths and how each of the noble truths has three types of knowledge related to it. The Dhamma wheel lists all twelve permutations of the four truths times the three levels of knowledge In the case of the first noble truth, the truth of stress, the first level of knowledge is simply that this is what stress is … 
  16. Mastery
     … Directed thought and evaluation, the categories of the four noble truths: These all involve thinking, analyzing, understanding. You may think you’d like to go to a state of pure peace and stillness, that you don’t want to be bothered with thinking at all, but if you don’t learn how to analyze things in this way, there are a lot of actions … 
  17. Accepting the Way Out
     … his teaching on this/that conditionality, the four noble truths, dependent co-arising. They can seem awfully technical and awfully far away. But they do have a compassionate purpose. And it’s important that you learn how to translate the abstractions into the immediacy of what you’re doing, so that you can see, “Oh yeah, there is a fabrication going on.” The breath … 
  18. Clinging-Aggregates in Context
    When the Buddha talks about the five clinging-aggregates, it’s always in the context of the four noble truths. In fact, it’s his definition of the first noble truth, the truth of suffering, or stress: Clinging to the five aggregates is stress. It’s important to keep that context in mind because sometimes you hear the five clinging-aggregates defined as the … 
  19. The Lightning Bolt
     … In other words, you try to look at it in terms of four noble truths and the duties of the four noble truths. Then you look at your own life and say, “Okay, what in my life needs to be changed? Which potentials in the mind should I develop and which potentials in the mind should I let go so that I can develop … 
  20. Worldly Narratives
     … The leaves in his hand are what he taught about the four noble truths. The reason he taught those truths was because they were useful for putting an end to suffering. So, as he said, he wasn’t the sort of person who would teach things just because other people believed them. He taught rebirth because it’s a really useful truth, in the … 
  21. Victory over Death
     … Your duties, of course, have to do with the duties of the four noble truths. We’re here to comprehend suffering, to abandon its cause, to realize its cessation of suffering by developing the path. The Buddha doesn’t impose those duties on us, but he does tell us, from his perspective as an expert, that these are the actions that will lead to … 
  22. Load next page...