02. The Four Noble Truths - Teaching 1
20.04.2024
This weekend we are celebrating the life and teachings of B Shakyamuni but also the life and teachings of Ven Geshe-la. We can make our life more meaningful by changing our internal perspective and become just like B Shakyamuni.
We are all moved by the suffering of others, and at times feel helpless. We also find our own suffering difficult and we’re searching for solutions. In this way we are like B Shakyamuni when he was Prince Siddhartha.
To go on a spiritual path we have to go against mainstream thinking. If we follow this path because we understand and believe that this is the way to end our suffering and the suffering of others, then this is our choice. In this way, we are also like B Shakyamuni.
We need B Shakyamuni’s blessings on our mind.
Everybody wishes to improve their present state. 3 types of beings:
- Small scope - wish to improve the situation of this life
- Special small scope - wish to improve the situation of this life and future lives.
- Middle scope - recognise the disadvantages of samsara as a whole and wish to become a superior being
- Great scope - wish to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all beings
We are all of those.
To accomplish any of these wishes, we need to engage in appropriate methods. Wisdom has to be developed. Lamrim is the stepping stones to enlightenment. They are all held directly or indirectly in the 4 Noble Truths. They are called Noble because they are known by the Noble Ones.
1st 2 truths teach the nature of samsara and its causes.
The 2nd 2 truths teach us how to abandon it.
True sufferings
This includes internal and external sufferings. Although not all suffering is a painful experience, they are always in the nature of suffering. Like no matter where you are in the ocean you are always wet. Helps us to understand why we are never really happy and why our experiences of happiness are only fleeting. We’re set up to fail when we’re in samsara. Everywhere we go, whatever we touch, is in the nature of suffering. There is freedom in this. We can stop looking in the wrong places for happiness.
We need to know manifest suffering, changing suffering, and pervasive suffering. We’ve never been able to put an end to suffering, even though we’ve put in so much effort into overcoming it, fixing it. That’s because it’s manifest suffering which is only surface suffering. There’s more to it.
Changing suffering shows us that our happiness is only a reduction / release in the suffering of a previous discomfort. E.g. if you’ve been standing for a long time and then you sit down. If something is a true cause of happiness it cannot be a true cause of suffering. Everything in our world we have to eventually stop because it becomes suffering. We spend our whole life trying to reduce our pain and we can’t.
Pervasive suffering teaches us that everything in our world can cause us pain. We kind of know this and that’s why we have so much anxiety and worry. Our pain and suffering come from all directions and we don’t expect it because we’re only looking out for manifest suffering. If we understand this we will gain a qualified renunciation.
In this human life we have to experience birth, sickness, aging, and death. We have no choice. We have to experience having uncertainty. Every moment of our life is uncertain. We have no satisfaction, because even when we experience what we want it doesn’t last. We lose our status. No permanent companionship. We have to continuously have to part with what we like. We have to encounter what we don’t like.
Its a sad list but its also helpful because it’s normal.
By contemplating and meditating on this we develop qualified renunciation and bodhichitta. Everyone suffers from the same sufferings we do. If we don’t know what samsara really is, how can we develop a wish to free all living beings from it?
The 4 Noble Truths also prepare us to realise emptiness. It gives us an understanding of the temporary nature of existence and reduces our attachment to it. We own nothing. Everything is just a temporary relationship.
If we realise the body and mind we relate to will completely disappear at the time of death, we will be prepared to accept that we’re not truly existent.
From this point of view Buddha taught that our suffering has good qualities. It opens up doorways to understanding and connection with others.
True origins
Why? Delusions, and actions motivated by these delusions, are true origins. The causes of our suffering are our previous negative actions of our body speech and mind. This is hard hitting because we have to take responsibility. (This is not saying that anyone has the right to cause suffering to anyone).
JPGF p 359 - There are six causes of delusions:
- The seed
- The object
- Distraction and being influenced by others
- Bad habits
- Familiarity
- Inappropriate attention
The whole of the spiritual path is ceasing to perform negative actions and learning to control our mind. Within our mind we have all sorts of seeds - good ones and negative ones. So like a good gardener we have to weed out the bad seeds and nurture the good ones.