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February 24, 2020 - September 28, 2022
The individual consciousness also has toxins. The hells, hungry ghost, and animal realms are in us.
This is HUGE for me. I think the roots of my suffering are in loneliness and my sense of worthlessness. That's the button I can push to unleash all suffering upon myself.
If we sit there and allow the negative thinking connected to past experiences to come up, we are eating the toxic matter of consciousness. Many of us sit and think, and the more we think, the more angry, upset, and in despair we become.
Truth
Hearer Disciples, Self-achieved Buddhas,
Every time we think about being abused, we are abused once again. But actually that is not happening now; it is all over. Thinking like this, we can be abused every day, even though our childhood may have had a great deal of happiness and sweet moments. We ruminate on our hatred, suffering, and despair and it is not healthy food.
Our mindful breathing and steps are able to pull us out of thinking and help us be in touch with the wonderful things of the present moment, nourishing us and bringing back the joy of being alive. We are happy as we walk, happy as we sit, and happy as we eat when we know how to stay in the present moment and stop the thinking.
Until we begin to practice the Second Noble Truth, we tend to blame others for our unhappiness.
Looking deeply requires courage. You can use a pencil and paper if you like. During sitting meditation, if you see clearly a symptom of your suffering, write it down. Then ask yourself, “What kinds of nutriments have I been ingesting that have fed and sustained this suffering?” When you begin to realize the kinds of nutriments you have been ingesting, you may cry. Use the energy of mindfulness all day long to be truly present, to embrace your suffering like a mother holding her baby. As long as mindfulness is there, you can stay with the difficulty.
In the second stage of the Second Noble Truth, “Encouragement,” we see clearly that real happiness is possible if we can stop ingesting the nutriments that cause us to suffer.
When we direct our attention toward our suffering, we see our potential for happiness. We see the nature of suffering and the way out. That is why the Buddha called suffering a holy truth. When we use the word “suffering” in Buddhism, we mean the kind of suffering that can show us the way out.
There are many practices that can help us face our suffering, including mindful walking, mindful breathing, mindful sitting, mindful eating, mindful looking, and mindful listening.
In the third turning of the wheel of the Second Noble Truth, “Realization,” we not only vow but we actually stop ingesting the nutriments that create our suffering. Some people think that to end suffering, you have to stop everything — body, feelings, perceptions, mental formations and consciousness — but that is not correct. The third stage of the Second Noble Truth can be described as, “When hungry, I eat. When tired, I sleep.”
The last of the ten ox herding pictures in the Zen tradition is called “Entering the Marketplace with Open Hands.” You are free to come and go as you please. This is the action of non-action. Suffering no longer arises. This stage is not something you can imitate. You have to reach this stage of realization within yourself.
At the third stage of the Second Noble Truth, you only have to be yourself. The form is not important. But be careful! First there has to be genuine insight, genuine freedom.
Practicing mindfulness helps us learn to appreciate the well-being that is already there. With mindfulness, we treasure our happiness and can make it last longer.
Psychotherapists need to help their patients be in touch with the Third Noble Truth, the cessation of suffering.
Please ask yourself, “What nourishes joy in me? What nourishes joy in others? Do I nourish joy in myself and others enough?” These are questions about the Third Noble Truth.
When you are suffering, look deeply at your situation and find the conditions for happiness that are already there, already available.
When we begin the first stage of the Third Noble Truth, we already have some happiness, but we are not exactly aware of it. We are free, but we don’t know that we are free.
The first turning of the Third Noble Truth is the “Recognition” of the possibility of the absence of suffering and the presence of peace. If we do not have peace and joy at this moment, we can at least remember some peace and joy we experienced in the past or observe the peace and joy of others. We see that well-being is possible.
The second turning is to “Encourage” ourselves to find peace and joy.
To practice the Four Noble Truths, you yourself have to touch deeply the things that bring you peace and joy. When you do, you realize that walking on the Earth is a miracle, washing the dishes is a miracle, and practicing with a community of friends is a miracle. The greatest miracle is to be alive. We can put an end to our suffering just by realizing that our suffering is not worth suffering for!
The Buddha faced his own suffering directly and discovered the path of liberation. Don’t run away from things that are unpleasant in order to embrace things that are pleasant. Put your hands in the earth. Face the difficulties and grow new happiness.
At first, your joy is limited, especially the kind of joy that is just covering up suffering. Embrace your suffering, smile to it, and discover the source of happiness that is right there within it.
Don’t throw away your suffering. Touch your suffering. Face it directly, and your joy will become deeper. You know that suffering and joy are both impermanent. Learn the art of cultivating joy.
Practice like this, and you come to the third turning of the Third Noble Truth, the “Realization” that suffering and happiness are not two. When you reach this stage, your joy is no longer fragile. It is true joy.
The Fourth Noble Truth is the way out...
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Practicing the first turning of the wheel of the Fourth Noble Truth, we “Recognize” that the Eightfold Path — Right View, Right Thinking, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Diligence, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration — can lead us out of suffering, but we do not yet know how to practice it.
In the second turning, we “Encourage” ourselves to practice this path. This is realized by learning, reflecting, and practicing. As we learn, whether by reading, listening, or discussing, we need to be open so we can see ways to put what we learn into practice. If learning is not followed by reflecting and practicing, it is not true learning.
Transformation is gradual, but once we see clearly the causes of our suffering, we can make the effort to change our behavior and bring our suffering to an end.
In the second stage of the path, there is an increase in freedom every day. The path becomes real as we put into practice what we have learned.
The moment we resolve to stop feeding our suffering, a path appears in front of us, which is the Noble Eightfold Path to well-being.
The third turning of the wheel of the Fourth Noble Truth is the “Realization” that we are practicing this path.
“This is suffering. This suffering needs to be seen clearly. The roots of this suffering need to be clearly understood. I have seen this suffering. I have seen how it manifests. I have seen its content and its roots.” These are practices, not mere proclamations. “Understanding things as they are” (yatha bhuta jñana) emerges from our life and our practice.
“With my own ears I have heard the Buddha say, ‘Bhikkhus, whoever sees suffering sees the making of suffering, the ending of suffering, and the path that leads to the end of suffering. Whoever sees the making of suffering sees suffering, the end of suffering, and the path. Whoever sees the ending of suffering sees suffering, the making of suffering, and the path. Whoever sees the path that leads to the end of suffering sees suffering, the making of suffering, and the ending of suffering.’ ”1 Interbeing is an important characteristic of all the Buddha’s teachings. When you touch one, you touch
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It is important to understand the interbeing nature of the Four Noble Truths. When we look deeply into any one of the Four Truths, we see the other three.
Looking into the First Holy Truth, we see in it the Second, Third, and Fourth Truths. The Four Noble Truths are one.
We need suffering in order to see the path. The origin of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the path leading to the cessation of suffering are all found in the heart of suffering.
The Buddha said, “The moment you know how your suffering came to be, you are already on the path of release from it.”
Let us reframe the Four Noble Truths. “Cessation,” the Third Noble Truth, means the absence of suffering, which is the presence of well-being. Instead of saying “cessation,” we can simply say “well-being.” If we do that, we can call the Fourth Noble Truth “the Noble Eightfold Path That Leads to Well-Being.” Then, instead of just calling the Second Noble Truth “the origin of suffering,” we can say that there is an ignoble eightfold path that leads to suffering, a “path of eight wrong practices” — wrong view, wrong thinking, wrong speech, wrong action, wrong livelihood, wrong diligence, wrong
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We might like to renumber the Four Noble Truths, as follows, for the benefit of the people of our time: (1) Well-Being (traditionally number three, “cessation of suffering”); (2) Noble Eightfold Path That Leads to Well-Being (traditionally number four); (3) Suffering (traditionally number one); and (4) Ignoble Eightfold Path That Leads to Suffering (traditionally number two, “arising of suffering”).
Ar ya ashtangika marga (“a noble path of eight limbs”) suggests the interbeing nature of these eight elements of the path. Each limb contains all the other seven. Please use your intelligence to apply the elements of the Noble Eightfold Path in your daily life.
The first practice of the Noble Eightfold Path is Right View (samyag drishti). Right View is, first of all, a deep understanding of the Four Noble Truths — our suffering, the making of our suffering, the fact that our suffering can be transformed, and the path of transformation.
The practice of mindfulness helps us identify all the seeds in our store consciousness2 and water the ones that are the most wholesome.
Right View is to recognize which seeds are wholesome and to encourage those seeds to be watered. This is called “selective touching.”
At the base of our views are our perceptions (samjña). In Chinese, the upper part of the character for perception is “mark,” “sign,” or “appearance,” and the lower part is “mind” or “spirit.” Perceptions always have a “mark,” and in many cases that mark is illusory.
We have to ask ourselves again and again, “Am I sure?” Until we see clearly, our wrong perceptions will prevent us from having Right View.
To perceive always means to perceive something. We believe that the object of our perception is outside of the subject, but that is not correct.
The source of our perception, our way of seeing, lies in our store consciousness.
Our perceptions carry with them all the errors of subjectivity. Then we praise, blame, condemn, or complain depending on our perceptions. But our perceptions are made of our afflictions — craving, anger, ignorance, wrong views, and prejudice. Whether we are happy or we suffer depends largely on our perceptions. It is important to look deeply at our perceptions and know their source.
Definitely. But I despair of escaping from my perceptions or their source, or the narratives I've strung together from my perceptions, which then shape the way I perceive the next experiences I have... endlessly, as it seems.
We have an idea of happiness. We believe that only certain conditions will make us happy. But it is often our very idea of happiness that prevents us from being happy. We have to look deeply into our perceptions in order to become free of them. Then, what has been a perception becomes an insight, a realization of the path. This is neither perception nor nonperception. It is a clear vision, seeing things as they are.
