Search results for: "The Four Noble Truths"

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  2. To Comprehend Suffering
     … And right view, of course, is the four noble truths, focused on the issue of stress, suffering—dukkha is the Pāli term. In its ordinary, everyday meaning, dukkha means “pain.” Sometimes you hear it described etymologically. Du- means “bad”; kha- can mean either “the hub of a wheel” or “space,” the idea being, in the first case, that it’s like a hub that … 
  3. The Duty to Be Positive
     … Each of the four noble truths has a duty, and thinking about thoughts that wear you down—about what’s wrong with you, things you’ve done in the past that you feel ashamed of—is not one of your duties. Those sort of thoughts are not to be developed. What you should develop are factors of the path. And one of the factors … 
  4. Using What You’ve Got
     … That’s pain in terms of the four noble truths. This is why, when the Buddha uses the word dukkha in the three characteristics, it’s not quite the same as dukkha in the four noble truths. The three characteristics are just the way things are in and of themselves, but the suffering in the four noble truths is something that’s created by … 
  5. Guardian Meditations
     … It’s within this context that the four noble truths make sense. After all, suffering is a result of a particular mental action, or a series of mental actions — craving and ignorance being primary. If mental actions didn’t have an impact on your life, the four noble truths would be meaningless. This, of course, directs us to where we have to practice: We … 
  6. Conviction in the End of Suffering
    There are some people for whom the four noble truths seem to be like this: Things are inconstant—that’s the first one. Things are stressful—that’s the second. Things are not-self—that’s the third. And I can learn to be okay with that—that’s the fourth. Now, those are not the Buddha’s four noble truths. But it’s … 
  7. Stop Squirming
     … There’s suffering in the four noble truths and also suffering or stress in the three characteristics. The stress of the three characteristics is something that’s simply everywhere. It’s part of the fact that everything is conditioned by causes, maintained in being only for a little while, only to change. That kind of tenuous existence is inherently stressful. But fortunately, that’s … 
  8. Perceptions of Self & Not-Self
     … The other is the four noble truths. The first truth is the truth of suffering, which is clinging to the five aggregates of form, feeling, perceptions, fabrications, and consciousness. There’s a duty with regard to that truth, which is to comprehend it—in other words, to understand it to the point of having no more passion, aversion, or delusion around suffering. The second … 
  9. The Right Medicine
     … Simply knowing the four noble truths in the sense of having heard them or read about them is a good place to start on the practice, but it can’t be the end of practice in and of itself. You’ve got to take those four categories and apply them to what’s actually happening. Each of those categories has a duty. You want … 
  10. What’s Worth Doing?
     … The three characteristics are used in the context of the four noble truths, to help you see clearly when you’re doing something that’s not really in your best interest, and then you can stop. You can let go. But as for the parts of the path that you still have to develop, you still need to have clinging and even some conceit … 
  11. Questions in the Practice
     … The questions that the Buddha recommends focus on the Four Noble Truths, which are simply an extension of the questions on skill and lack of skill. In other words when you start asking the question of skill, it implies cause and effect: actions have results. It also implies that some actions are preferable to others because they give better results. Once you’ve got … 
  12. Some Assembly Required
     … If it didn’t make a difference, there wouldn’t be the four noble truths, or, if someone did talk about the four noble truths, they wouldn’t make any difference. This is one of the reasons why the Buddha said that if you believe that everything you experience is caused by the past, you’re left unprotected and bewildered. Bewildered in the sense … 
  13. Intelligent about Change
     … You try to develop and maintain these things—because, after all, that’s one of the duties of the four noble truths: to develop and maintain the factors of the path. All too often, people talk about the three characteristics—or the three perceptions—totally without reference to the four noble truths. The four noble truths carry four different duties, and one of those … 
  14. Craving & Clinging
    Luang Puu Dune had an interesting way of explaining the four noble truths. Sending the mind outside, he said, was the cause of suffering. Suffering was the result of sending the mind outside. The mind seeing the mind is the path, and the result of the mind seeing itself was the cessation of suffering. His explanation fits in with a theme that you see … 
  15. The Fourth Frame of Reference
     … Each of the four noble truths entails a duty, but nibbana is something beyond the four noble truths, something outside of the framework of the four frames of reference and their attendant duties. It’s not an activity in any way. So it’s helpful to look at this fourth frame of reference as a series of guidelines. When a problem comes up, figure … 
  16. Turtle Mind
     … This leads to a second way to develop turtle mind, which is more connected with the four noble truths. The Buddha says we suffer in the fact that we cling. The word for clinging,* upadana,* can also mean to take sustenance, to feed. For most of us, this is our relationship to the world: We’re trying to feed on what the world has … 
  17. Right View about Right View
     … The other principle is the four noble truths. Now, you notice that the three characteristics are not on that list. In fact, the word “three characteristics” is never applied by the Buddha to the teachings on inconstancy, stress, and not-self. He calls them perceptions. In a couple of cases, they’re also called contemplations, which means that they’re ways of looking at … 
  18. Learning from What You Do
     … This is what the four noble truths are all about. What kind of desires lead to suffering? What kind of desires are actually part of the path to the end of suffering? You’re not going to find out unless you test them. Fortunately, you don’t have to reinvent the Dhamma wheel every time you make a decision. The Buddha gives you some … 
  19. Brahmaviharas & Noble Truths
     … And although the book was wrong, there was one way in which it was right, which is that the four noble truths are very closely related to the four brahmavihāras. There was another book that came out decades ago, What the Buddha Taught, which was organized around the four noble truths, but the author couldn’t figure out how to fit the brahmavihāras under … 
  20. Imagine
     … That’s what the four noble truths are all about. That’s how the Buddha came up with the four noble truths. He was trying to figure out the problem of suffering, tracking down the cause to see if there was some way of attacking the cause so that he could bring suffering to an end. And just the way the questions were framed … 
  21. Right Next to Ignorance
     … The formal definition is ignorance of the four noble truths. But you can hear the four noble truths, learn about them, memorize them, and still be ignorant. The definition could be translated in another way: We don’t see things in terms of the four noble truths. That’s getting closer. In other words, knowledge means that you look at your experience—what’s … 
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