The Four Noble Truths

A Practical Guide to Life

Buddha took a practical approach to his teachings, which he delivered by talking to people with real problems. He approached it as you would approach a problem that you face. First, you need to know what the problem is. Then you need to understand its nature and its extent. Once this is understood then you can discover the causes of the problem and then how to eliminate them, thus freeing you from the problem.

The fundamental problem that Buddhism tackles, is the nature of our existence and it is framed like this: There is suffering in the world. There are causes of that suffering. There is an end to suffering and there are means by which to obtain the end to suffering. These are the Four Noble Truths, the foundation of Buddhism, even the entirety of Buddhism.

Sometimes people think that Buddhism must be a rather pessimistic religion when it emphasises suffering, but this is a misapprehension. Because Buddhism tackles the essential challenge of life, it also provides a means by which to overcome it. This means that Buddhism is actually rather optimistic – we are all capable of overcoming life’s obstacles and moving beyond them. We can all achieve enlightenment.

 

1. All Existence is Dukkha.

The word dukkha has been variously translated as ‘suffering’, ‘anguish’, ‘pain’, or ‘dissatisfaction’’. The Buddha’s insight was that the nature of existence is a struggle, and that suffering is built into existence.

To understand suffering, we have to understand its’ different forms. There is obvious suffering, that comes in the form of pain, or immediate difficulty in the moment. We have all experienced stubbing a toe or a nasty stomach bug. And emotional suffering, whether through losing a loved one through death, a broken relationship, a falling out with a friend, loneliness or even boredom.

What is sometimes harder to appreciate is subtle suffering, and this is because it begins with happiness. Can you remember a wonderful time in your life when you were really happy? Perhaps you were free of responsibility, in love, living in the sun? As you remember it are you just happy? Or is there a pang of loss, because you are no longer in that moment? I remember one magical evening as a young twenty-year-old, I was with friends singing songs by a bonfire in the wilds of the Welsh countryside. The weather was warm and a beautiful girl decided she liked me. It was a magical few hours. Yet in it was the seed of suffering – it couldn’t last and it couldn’t be sustained. Its memory is even bittersweet, as it has gone and can not be regained.

All happiness contains the seed of suffering.

It may sound little pessimistic, but let’s face it honestly, even in the height of pleasure we can all be aware of the fear of its inevitable end. We even have expressions for the manifestation of this, ‘the honeymoon period’, ‘young love’, ‘make hay whilst the sun shines’, implicit in these expressions is that the bliss of this period will certainly be followed by loss of that bliss. Did your favourite food taste better the first time you had it or the thousandth? Was the first kiss the most magical? If you have an elderly parent or grandparent, do you feel the pain of remembering them as younger and stronger? Recognising the built-in suffering is the first step to alleviating its effects upon you.

What is happiness to you?

In our western cultures we often associate happiness with material gain, whether it be big houses, fast cars, expensive clothes and accessories, big holidays or lottery wins. Yet despite our addiction to these ‘things’ we also instinctively know that they don’t really hold the answer to our happiness. Why do our ‘idols’ who seem to have it all, end up in rehab clinics, addicted to drugs or committing suicide? Why do 70% of lottery winners end up losing it all again?

To embrace the first noble truth is to truly understand how suffering, both obvious and subtle are built into existence, built even into happiness. In realising this we can free ourselves from attachment to it. To many of us, this can seem pessimistic, but in truth, it is the reverse. Understanding and practice of the four noble truths can lead to much greater happiness, one that transcends our momentary and fleeting experiences.

What are you attached to?

There is a Tibetan word, samsara, which describes all these ‘things’ to which we become attached. By realising that attachment to samsara causes suffering we can begin to liberate ourselves from that attachment. If we think our happiness is dependent on regularly buying new clothes, or accumulating ‘things’, then inevitably we will be unhappy when we can no longer obtain more things. If we can break that attachment, we are breaking chains that bind us to an endless cycle of desire, satiation, sadness and desire again.

 

2. The Causes of Suffering – Samudaya
   

The natural human tendency is to blame our difficulties on things outside ourselves. We might rail against the actions of others, mean bosses, bad drivers, an oppressive political system, an unfair social system, vengeful gods, or just plain bad luck. Instead, the Buddha identified that the root of our suffering lies not in these external things but in our own minds. In a stroke, this single observation turns people from victim into the master of their own destiny.

In order to master our own minds, we need to understand certain principles that govern them. The much-abused term, Karma, is one such principle. Literally Karma simply means ‘activity’, whilst its deeper meaning is about cause and effect. Everything that we do, say and think is a cause, and they all have a resulting effect. To understand this is to make us aware and mindful of all that we do, say and think.

Another important principle is that of Kleshas, which is a Sanskrit word meaning ‘mind poison’. There are five primary mind poisons that have both an emotion and a deeper concept attached.

The five mind poisons – Kleshas:

• Avidya – delusion – Ignorance
• Mana – Identification of self with ego – Pride
• Raga – Attachment – Desire
• Dvesha – Aversion – Anger
• Irshya – Fear of death /Will to live – Envy

Ignorance or ‘unwisdom‘ can be said to be the root of all other negative emotion, for we can only feel angry if we are deluded enough. Without ignorance, we could not entertain anger. It is also ignorance of our true nature, confusion about the nature of reality. It can be an absence of understanding, but also positive delusion. Until we understand the Four Noble Truths, then we are in a state of avidya.

Pride and ego develop early in our lives. We begin by thinking that we are the centre of the known world. As we grow into adults it can express as our continual judgement of others. We place our own opinions above those of others and dismiss the views of others as of lesser importance. We identify with family, tribe or nation and consider those outside of that group as lesser. Or if the ego is too inflated, we consider everyone as beneath us.  Sometimes we strip others of any semblance of humanity and direct murderous thoughts, words or actions toward them. When we are free of pride, we experience all things equally, good and bad, pure and impure, all beings are equals on the same journey toward enlightenment.

Desire or Craving is also attachment. We are never satisfied, there is never enough. We desire a partner, a possession, yet when we have it we want more, better, more beautiful things, always the grass is greener on the other side. It consumes the mind and distracts it, keeping it constantly busy craving the objects of desire, mourning the loss of them, holding on to things and to people. If we don’t get what we desire we become frustrated, dissatisfied, miserable, sorry for ourselves. When we are able to free the mind from desire, it is a great liberation. It releases a huge amount of energy that the mind usually devotes to pointless desire. It brings great peace and tranquillity.

Anger or Hatred is a highly destructive emotion, which has the effect of separating us from others. If we are able to fully release ourselves from anger then that separation dissolves and everything is experienced in unity and harmony. It is also connected with aversion, the fact that we are repulsed by or averse to certain things that we encounter, either within us or in the outside world. It is the counterpoint to desire. Aversion can take the form of fear, which is the prerequisite of anger. When we run from what we fear we magnify it and diminish ourselves.[1] Extreme fear or terror manifests as hatred, a desire to destroy that which we think has the capability of destroying us.

Fear of Death is the ultimate attachment

We are attached to life itself. Nearly all humans experience this fear, as Carl Jung put it;

“…the unnatural intensification of the fear of death in our time, when life has lost its deeper meaning for so many people, forcing them to exchange the life-preserving rhythm of the aeons for the dread ticking of the clock.” [2]

There can also be an associated emotion of envy, as the old envy the young, fear of death begins to get bigger. Envy is another great separator, as we promote others and diminish ourselves through the distorting lens of envy. If we truly have no fear of death, how can we be envious of others? For we have learnt to let go of our ‘attachment’ to life. This is not the same as not respecting the blessing of life. We cannot be careless with such a gift as life, but we have to learn not to grasp at it. Whatever we love and respect, we must also willingly release when called upon to do so.

3. The End of Suffering and the possibility of liberation – Nirodha
   

As we are the ultimate cause of our difficulties, we are also the solution. We cannot change the things that happen to us, but we can change our responses to the events, circumstances and situations we face.

The truth is that we are all interdependent – we affect others, others affect us, this is karma in action. If we accept that, then we know that if we carry out unvirtuous actions we will cause suffering, whereas if we liberate ourselves from those unvirtuous actions we remove the possibility of experiencing suffering in the future. Our fate is in our hands. We are innately aware of this and it is exemplified in pieces of western wisdom such as, ‘be good to people on the way up as you’re going to meet them again on the way down’.

Take some time in your every day life to observe people as they go about their business – do they look happy or are they suffering? Can you spot how suffering people keep generating more suffering? They scowl at others, they speak impolitely and without respect, then they are outraged when others are unpleasant back to them. Conversely, people who smile and offer a kind word end up receiving smiles and kind words. Can you see how you get what you give out.

The Buddha taught that the way to enlightenment, is to liberate oneself from attachment and liberate ourselves from aversion. In so doing we become aware of our true selves, we become enlightened. Enlightenment is not some mythical state beyond our reach, we can take steps toward it now and every moment of our waking lives. We just have to take practical steps to change our habitual patterns.

Actions

To this end, we have to work tirelessly to guard our actions, our words and our thoughts. All of these three things can be virtuous or they can be unvirtuous. If you consider your actions, there are three obvious ways to be unvirtuous: to harm others, sexual misconduct and stealing. It is not difficult to see how they promote unhappiness and suffering. Be mindful of your actions. Take time at the end of a day to look back at your actions and assess whether they were beneficial or harmful. Awareness leads to change.

Speech

In your words you must also guard against unvirtuous speech: lying, slander, aggression and useless speech. To lie is to tamper with the very fabric of reality and can be a cause of enormous suffering. Although the subtleties of unvirtuous language can at times be harder to distinguish, knowing from which emotions they emanate can be a good guide. Language that comes from negative or disturbed emotions will cause suffering[3]. Think about what you say and make it respectful to others and to yourself. There are people that are habitually rude in their speech, but there are also people that in their desire to be nice, apologise constantly for things they have not done. Both are wrong. The first lacks respect for others and the latter lacks respect for the self, both lead to suffering.

Thoughts

Finally, your thoughts. Imagine your mind is a garden. Unless you maintain awareness of what is happening in your mind, all sorts of disturbing and negative ‘weeds’ will grow up and choke out the flowers that you truly wish to cultivate. By mindfully observing your thoughts, it is absolutely possible to weed out recurring negative thoughts, to release them and liberate your mind. If you work to liberate your mind, your speech and actions will naturally follow. This is why Buddhism utilises meditation and mindfulness, as tools to train the mind. This is the cornerstone of practice – developing awareness.

 

4. The Path to the end of suffering – Magga
   

 

Buddhism places responsibility for personal growth and for the suffering of all, squarely on the individual. We all bear our portion of responsibility. In the fourth Noble Truth, Buddha showed the way by which we can end suffering, known as the Noble Eightfold Path.

The Buddha never created a set of rules and his teaching was always directed at those to whom he was speaking. Instead, he offered guiding principles. Buddha acknowledged that all people are different, every individual will follow their own path, and that responsibility stays with the individual. If you create a book of rules, someone will enforce the rules and create more suffering. If all you have to do is follow rules, then you no longer have to think about your actions. You no longer have to take responsibility, as the rulebook is taking it.

The Noble Eightfold Path is a set of guiding principles, also called the Middle Way: it avoids both indulgence and severe asceticism, neither of which the Buddha had found helpful in his search for enlightenment. You don’t have to live in a mud hut but constantly craving a mansion will just cause suffering.

The Noble Eightfold Path – the Dharma Wheel

You don’t need to approach the eight stages in any particular order. They all support and reinforce each other. Symbolically the Noble Eightfold Path is represented by the Dharma wheel, accompanied by two deer. The wheel represents the capacity to transport you, and the spokes that hold it together are the eight spokes of the Path. According to an early Buddhist story, Brahma presented a wheel to Buddha urging him to teach humanity the path to enlightenment, as he did so, two deer or antelope emerged from the forest to gaze at the wheel, one female and one male. They represent the masculine and feminine and also the compassion that guides the wheel.

The eight stages can be grouped into Wisdom (right View and intention), Ethical Conduct (right speech, action and livelihood) and Mental Discipline (right effort, mindfulness and concentration).

The Buddha described the Eightfold Path as a means to enlightenment, like a raft for crossing a river. Once you have reached the opposite shore, you no longer need the raft.

You don’t have to be Buddhist

You don’t have to be a Buddhist to use the practical tools that it provides. These tools are a practical method for reducing suffering and generating freedom and tranquillity in our lives and in the lives of others. As in mastering anything in life, whether a musical instrument, a language, a sport, we have to practice. Life itself is a process of practice.

For those of you reading who may be in places of extreme pain or suffering, it can feel like liberation from pain is a long way away or even unobtainable. Yet just by beginning to practice, it is incredible how quickly you can begin to reduce suffering. The simple act of becoming aware of recurring negative thoughts begins to reduce their hold over you and over time silences them completely. It doesn’t matter where you start this journey, only that you are travelling.

QUESTIONS FOR SELF REFLECTION

Q1) Is it more productive to spend our time trying to spot the fault in others or examine ourselves?

Q2) Does the idea of giving up attachment evoke an emotion – fear, anxiety, worry? If so can you see why?

Q3) Can you extend compassion to yourself while on this journey? Will you forgive yourself when you slip up (as we all do!)?

Q4) Do you practice mindfulness meditation to help you develop an awareness of your own thoughts?

Q5) Have you taken time to observe karma in action with others – how suffering generates more suffering and joy creates more joy?

 

 

References:

 

1. Thrangu Rinpoche, Geshe Lharampa (1998). The Five Buddha Families and The Eight Consciousnesses. Translated by Peter Roberts. Namo Buddha Seminar. Retrieved from: www.rinpoche.com/teachings/5families.pdf
2. Jung, Carl (1959). Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Sky. Princeton University Press
3. Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche (ND). The Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. Retrieved from: http://www.samyeling.org/buddhism-and-meditation/teaching-archive-2/kenchen-thrangu-rinpoche/the-four-noble-truths-and-the-eightfold-path/