”The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.”
23 August 2023
“The Heart of Buddhism”
“The core of the Dhamma is the four noble truths: the truth of suffering, the truth of the cause of suffering, the truth of the cessation of suffering, and the truth of the path to the cessation of suffering. If you can understand these four truths, you can become enlightened.”
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Question: Can Than Ajahn explain about the Four Noble Truths?
Than Ajahn: The Four Noble Truths is the truths that the Buddha had discovered. The first truth, the Buddha called it, ‘the truth of suffering.’ The Buddha said, ‘What is suffering?’ Being born is suffering.
Once you were born, you have to suffer. You have to feed yourself. You have to struggle to stay alive. No matter how hard you struggle or how well you live, you will have to get old, get sick and die. This is not good for us. Nobody likes to get old, get sick or die. The Buddha called this, ‘suffering’.
So, the first noble truth is the ‘truth of suffering.’ Birth, ageing, sickness, death and separation from the loved ones are suffering.
When we live in this world, we have people and things that we love. But one day, we will have to lose them all. We will have to be separated from them. When that happens, it makes us unhappy, sad and suffer. Hence, the Buddha said that ‘birth is suffering’. Because once we were born, we have to get old, we have to get sick, we have to die, and we have to separate from the things and people that we love.
The second noble truth is ‘the truth of the causes of suffering.’ What causes us to suffer?
The Buddha said that what causes us to be born or to suffer is our cravings or desires.
There are three kinds of craving or desires.
First is craving for sensual pleasures i.e. craving for seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching. When we have this type of craving, we have to have a body. In order to have a body, we have to be born so that we can do what we crave for. We have to have eyes, ears, nose, tongue and body in order to be able to satisfy our cravings, our sensual desires or our sensual gratification. This is the first kind of craving which causes us to be born.
The second kind of craving is the desire to be something or somebody, i.e. to become rich, to become famous. This will also cause us to be born.
The third kinds of craving is the desire not to be i.e. the desire not to get old, not to get sick, not to die, not to be in trouble. But when you are born, you can’t run away from these things.
These are the three desires that will cause you to be born. The Buddha called this, the second noble truth – ‘the truth of the cause of suffering’: the three desires that causes us to be born i.e. the desire for sensual gratification, the desire to be and the desire not to be.
The third noble truth is ‘the truth of the cessation of suffering.’ The cessation of birth, ageing, sickness and death. The Buddha had discovered that there is a possibility that we can discontinue this cycle of birth and death using the fourth noble truth.
The fourth noble truth is the way that will lead us to the cessation of birth, ageing, sickness and death.
The fourth noble truth is ‘the truth of the path leading to the cessation of suffering, the Noble Eightfold Path.’
This is the path that will stop our birth, ageing, sickness and death.
The Noble Eightfold Path consists of: sammā diṭṭhi (right view), sammā saṅkappa (right thought), sammā kammanta (right action), sammā vācā (right speech), sammā ājīvo (right livelihood), sammā vāyāma (right exertion), sammā sati (right mindfulness) and sammā samādhi (right concentration). If you can develop the Noble Eightfold Path to the full extent, then you will be able to stop birth, ageing, sickness and death.
So, these are the Four Noble Truths that the Buddha had discovered and taught to the world. Whoever follows his teachings and develops the Noble Eightfold Path, one will be able to stop birth, ageing, sickness and death.
The Noble Eightfold Path practice will also eliminate the second noble truth. It eliminates the cause of the first noble truth (the cause of suffering), which are the three cravings. Once you have the Noble Eightfold Path, you can eliminate the three cravings. Once you have eliminated the three cravings, then you will discover the third noble truth, ‘the truth of the cessation of suffering’.
“Dhamma in English, Apr 10-15, 2018.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
YouTube: Dhamma in English.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi_BnRZmNgECsJGS31F495g
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