Search results for: "The Four Noble Truths"
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- Two Types of Dukkha… That’s the suffering of the four noble truths—the suffering that comes from craving. The Buddha has you focus attention on this second kind of suffering because you can do something about that. When you do something about that, then you don’t have to suffer from the other kind of stress. After all, arahants live in the same world we do. Their …
- How to Use the Three Perceptions… And when do you apply these perceptions? Here it’s good to think back in terms of those categorical teachings, especially the ones in the four noble truths, because each of the four truths entails a duty. And it’s in fulfilling the duties for the four noble truths that you pull out these perceptions when they’re appropriate. For example, with suffering or …
- What Should & Shouldn’t Be Done… But there’s one big dichotomy in the Buddha’s explanations of dependent co-arising, which is that if you approach the different factors with ignorance of the four noble truths, you’re going to suffer. If you approach them with knowledge of the four noble truths—in other words, knowledge of what leads to the end of suffering, what should and shouldn’t …
- An Issue of Control… As he said, it’s the beginning of right view, and it’s totally in line with his teachings on the four noble truths. If you check through the Canon, you find there are only two sets of teachings that he says are categorical, in other words, true across the board. One is the distinction between skillful and unskillful action—the word here is …
- Dependent Co-arising Right Now… Ignorance is defined as not seeing things in terms of the four noble truths, because you’re basically seeing things in terms of your identity in a world. If you look in terms of the four noble truths, there’s no mention of identities or worlds at all, just what the suffering is, what’s causing it, and whether its cessation is possible. The …
- Unparadoxical Happiness… Ajaan Mun even said that it lies beyond the four noble truths, because each of the four noble truths has a duty. Even the cessation of suffering is something you have to realize. But once it’s realized, there’s nothing more that needs to be done.
- The Power of Truth… To help with that search, we look at things in terms of the four noble truths. There are certain duties that go along with them, and when we fulfill those duties, they’ll take us to something deathless. That experience of the deathless is what guarantees that they really are true, and really are noble. We might look at the truths, think about them …
- Negotiating with the Committee… Especially when you reach the experience of the deathless, you say, “Oh, there’s a happiness that doesn’t require feeding and doesn’t require any of those other skills.” In fact, it can be found only by letting go of your skills, compared on the range of skills, although it’s in line with the skills of the four noble truths. We talked …
- The Not-Self Discourse… So in line with the four noble truths, the main topic of the first talk, he wants the five brethren to see that these aggregates are not worth clinging to. They’re not worth craving. Wherever there’s craving and clinging for them, there’s suffering. Then the Buddha goes on to expand the range of the discussion. In the beginning he had them …
- The Dhamma Mirror… Instead, he talks about seeing them in terms of the four noble truths, because with the four noble truths, you have to reflect, “What am I doing?” The three characteristics don’t necessarily have you reflect in that way. Trees are inconstant. Buildings are inconstant. This sala we’re in right now, actually was built to be inconstant—impermanent. It was supposed to be …
- How to Listen… Then, when the Buddha could see that Yasa was ready, he taught him the four noble truths. This goes into the fifth factor for how to listen, which is appropriate attention*—yoniso manasikāra*. It’s basically a matter of asking the right questions. When you first get the mind to settle down, your thought is, “How can I make this last?” There’s nothing …
- The Noble Truths of the Breath… This is where breath meditation connects to the four noble truths. Because the way you fabricate the body is by the way you breathe. The way you fabricate the mind is through your perceptions and feelings. The feelings are not emotions; they’re feeling tones—a sense of pleasure, a sense of pain, or neither pleasure nor pain. These feelings have a huge impact …
- Give Before You Get… When he talked about the four noble truths— which are basically truths focused on the fact that you’re suffering and there’s a way out—even before mentioning the four noble truths, he’d prepare people’s minds with what he called the graduated discourse. And the graduated discourse started with giving: how wonderful it is to give, what good mind states you …
- An Island above the Flood… not seeing things in terms of the four noble truths. This is where mindfulness comes in, because mindfulness remembers the duties associated with those truths. If something unskillful comes up in the mind, your duty is to comprehend it and abandon it, and then to give rise to skillful qualities in its place. So again, you’re not just “being the knowing,” you’re …
- More than Ordinary Heedfulness… seeing things in terms of the four noble truths and then applying the duties appropriate to the truths to what you’re actually doing. The four noble truths raise our sights as to what is possible for human beings to do. We can put an end to suffering. We don’t have to keep coming back to suffer again and again and again. It …
- Discernment on the Path… One of the most frequent ones is that as you see the four noble truths, it’s like a person watching fish move around and being still in a clear pool of water. In other words, you see precisely what’s happening. But it goes beyond just seeing. Another image for discernment is the plastered wall of a fortress. They would put plaster on …
- Admirable Friendship… Then we take that principle deeper into the four noble truths. Try to comprehend suffering. Abandon its cause. Realize cessation by developing the path. To look at our experience in these terms—in terms of skillful and unskillful actions as they relate to the four noble truths: That’s what appropriate attention is. And the main point of appropriate attention is: If you’re …
- Patience… When the Buddha talks about suffering in the four noble truths, it’s the suffering we place on ourselves unnecessarily. Like that old question Ajaan Suwat would ask about the mountain. “Is the mountain heavy? Well, yes, it’s heavy in and of itself, but as long as you don’t pick it up, it’s not going to be heavy for you.” That …
- The Not-Self Discourse… How many more eons do you want to keep on doing it? Now, the five brethren had the advantage that they had actually experienced the deathless already and they were looking at this teaching in terms of the four noble truths. In fact, that questionnaire makes sense only in terms of the four noble truths. If you believe that all there is in this …
- Scribe Knowledge, Warrior Knowledge… Ajaan Mun expresses this by saying that you start with the four noble truths. Actually prior to that you start with mundane right view, which is a belief in kamma, action, and that moves into the four noble truths. After all, craving, the cause of suffering, is an unskillful form of action. The path is a skillful form of action. The path is a …
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