Buddha's Teaching Of Freedom: Four Noble Truths

You know,

What's very close to my heart is to kind of bring together the kind of the this,

Certainly in terms of not just the Four Noble Truths,

But certainly with the Four Noble Truths,

And make,

You know,

Really look at it practically in terms of our lives.

It's been really helpful for me to really shine kind of the spotlight inward.

You know,

When I am caught up in something,

You know,

I'm wanting something to be different than it is.

That's often the form Dukkha takes,

You know,

I'm wanting something,

I'm wanting this person to be different,

Or this situation to be different.

And,

You know,

There's a there's a holding,

There's a kind of holding clinging to that.

And how do we work with that?

How do these teachings,

You know,

Whole body of teachings,

And particularly this central teaching of the of the Buddha on the Four Noble Truths?

How can we use it?

And I often think of it,

I often think of the the metaphor of,

Of a key,

You know,

Of like using the Four Noble Truths as,

As a key to unlock a door to get us out of something that's not fun,

Like being imprisoned,

For example,

That we can,

You know,

Have a key,

And this is a key to get out.

And,

You know,

What I wanted to do was really point to,

You know,

Particularly that kind of recognizing where we are in some way kind of hooked.

And,

You know,

Post quite possibly for quite a lot of you,

You might not have been in the place of being,

You know,

Caught up in feeling angry about somebody or something or kind of wanting,

Oh,

I need to have this,

You know,

That may be something more for daily life.

But I think we're all familiar with it.

And we can just do a little bit of a mental exercise to kind of think,

Oh,

Yeah,

Yesterday,

I was caught up in that.

And to be able to see like,

Okay,

I'm caught up.

And,

And really to see this,

As I say,

This nexus,

This relationship between how I'm meeting my experience and the suffering,

Because those are,

You know,

In the Buddhist understanding of dukkha,

Suffering and freedom,

They're inexorably intertwined.

And if we're gonna,

If we're gonna find our way out of suffering,

We have to see what our own role is,

With the suffering,

In terms of suffering,

How we're creating the suffering.

Now,

Again,

I've got to be careful about saying that I'm not saying like,

We're certainly we're not blaming ourselves for that.

I'm not putting it out in that way or judging ourselves,

Or saying somebody else isn't responsible for what they're responsible for.

Not at all.

It's I'm really just talking about just accepting,

Like,

If we are in that place of being hooked,

What is my my role in,

You know,

In perpetuating that,

And kind of kind of wanting to kind of bring this back to,

You know,

Just the overall teachings of the of the Buddha.

You know,

Yeah,

What I say is that,

Like,

For the Buddha,

This question of suffering,

And the end of suffering was really an existential one,

An existential question.

You know,

It was the reason he,

Let me say why it was existential,

Existential in the sense that how we address this question of suffering is,

Is,

Is freedom possible?

Is it possible to let go of suffering?

Is it possible to end suffering in our lives?

This question,

In a sense,

Is for the Buddha was the most important question in life,

You know,

Much more important than the question of,

Well,

Can we send people to the moon?

Or even,

You know,

Even can we end poverty,

Because if we're going to end poverty,

We really need,

As well as the technologies and the actions and the policies and the practices,

We also need that transformation of the heart to be able to really see each other in a wholly different way.

So,

You know,

In a sense that the bedrock for everything is the transformation,

Certainly the Buddha's understanding,

The transformation of the human heart,

I mean,

This transformation of our,

You know,

Your,

My heart,

My way of being in the world,

That we can,

We can change our hearts,

We can transform our hearts.

And when we do,

Then a life of the deepest peace and joy and freedom is possible.

And if we don't,

Then we just keep kind of going around on the kind of the treadmill or the cycle,

The circle of suffering,

You know,

In,

You know,

On the,

You know,

In,

In Buddhist language,

Called the wheel of samsara.

Samsara really means mindless wandering,

Endless wandering,

You know,

Just wandering round and round and round.

We probably experienced that in our own lives at times,

You know,

Where we get caught up in,

You know,

I keep doing this over and over again,

Why do I keep doing it and,

And,

And,

And not,

You know,

Being able to find our way out of it.

And it's really in that nexus I was talking about of seeing,

Okay,

What am I holding on to,

That is perpetuating the suffering?

And then if I can see that,

Then I can let go.

You know,

As a wonderful Dharma teacher who died a few years,

Three years ago,

Rob Burbea,

I spoke about it,

He says,

It's this seeing that frees,

It's the seeing that frees,

It's the insight into that holding that allows us to let go,

That frees us from,

From suffering.

When we see that,

You know,

It's like,

You know,

If the image of the burning coal,

It's like we see it so clearly,

And boom,

That doesn't always happen that quickly.

But we,

The seeing,

We see in,

In our own suffering,

What is true,

Really for,

For everyone,

We see the,

The truths of impermanence,

That everything is changing.

And when we're suffering,

We're not,

We're not recognizing impermanence.

We're thinking that,

You know,

Often with thinking,

Oh,

This horrible feeling,

This anxiety or stress that I'm feeling,

Or this fear,

It's going to last forever,

Or this craving is going to last forever.

We,

You know,

We,

We live under the illusion,

Quite often,

That something which is temporary and changing and impermanent,

Is going to go on,

It's going to keep on lasting,

Because if,

If we knew it was going to go,

And if we were willing to expand our,

You know,

Our window of tolerance to be with difficult feelings,

Then it would go.

You know,

As the Tibetan say,

Tibetan Buddhists say,

You know,

These emotions,

These thoughts,

These mindsets,

They self liberate,

You know,

They free themselves,

We don't even need,

We just,

In a way,

What we need to do is just get out of the way,

Get out of our own way.

And then,

You know,

Even a really,

Really strong emotion,

You know,

Of like really intense fear,

If we can,

You know,

If we have the resources and the capacity to open to it,

It will come and go like everything else.

And it only really becomes afflictive when we identify with it,

When we treat something like that as the truth,

Rather than,

Than a changing impermanent phenomenon.

We see that,

Then,

You know,

Then letting go is possible,

You know,

We can see that we can,

But insofar as we get caught up in it,

We believe in that story that the mind is telling us.

We also create a sense of a separate self around,

You know,

Whenever we're clinging,

You know,

Whether it's to something we're wanting,

I've got to have it,

There's a sense of a self that gets created.

And the self isn't something real and solid.

It's a mind creation that is really a,

You know,

A solidification of my clinging,

You know,

Of my you know,

Of my holding,

It's like,

With that clinging,

Got to have this got to get rid of this,

I hate this person,

I hate this situation.

There's a me,

And there's a them or it or her or him,

Them,

Whatever,

You know,

It's a,

You know,

The situation.

You know,

There's,

There's a separation.

And in that separation,

There's dukkha,

There's unsatisfactoriness,

There's suffering.

So for the Buddha,

This question was,

Was absolutely central,

And all of the teachings.

So it was an important enough question for the for Siddhartha,

You know,

Is often referred to as the Bodhisattva at that stage,

Because he's not yet the Buddha.

He's someone on that path to awakening,

He's kind of committed to a path to awakening.

So the Bodhisattva leaves this,

You know,

Life in Beverly Hills,

Or,

You know,

Whatever,

Potomac,

Wherever,

You know,

Fifth Avenue,

You know,

That's luxurious,

That's comfortable,

That kind of 2500 year ago version of that,

You know,

A noble life and four palaces,

One for each season,

But realizing that there's a there's,

There's a deeper,

Deeper issue at stake than just everyday happiness,

You know,

Everyday,

You know,

Comfort and having all of the,

You know,

All of the food and the drink and the experiences that we think are so wonderful and lovely,

That ultimately,

They don't solve the lasting questions,

You know,

That,

That when we get old,

And we die,

Sick and die,

You know,

What use is going to,

Is it going to be to us to have had,

You know,

A life where we had,

You know,

Luxurious meals and all these wonderful experiences,

Experiences are great,

I'm not putting them down.

But if we if that's what we're looking for,

Looking for happiness in,

Then it's not going to be a very good way of,

Of experiencing genuine happiness.

Yes,

Yes,

We can have fun unless it's great to have visit places.

And I love to do that as much as anybody,

But,

But it's not,

But real happiness is about the transformation of the heart is about the inner,

Inner transformation,

Rather than,

You know,

Getting having,

You know,

Or even doing.

And so,

You know,

So he became a wandering,

Wandering,

Mendicant,

Wandering,

You know,

Begging bowl,

You know,

Nothing owned,

Because this question of suffering and the end of suffering was so important to him,

You know,

It was,

And he was willing to engage in these very,

You know,

Rigorous training in meditation,

What we learned from the suttas from the discourses,

He,

You know,

Became a very adept meditator in two different,

You know,

Traditions offered leadership of those groups,

Etc.

But he's no,

I haven't solved this question of suffering.

And then he goes on his,

You know,

As many of you know,

The,

The austere path way,

He punishes the body in order to,

You know,

To,

To attain freedom.

And,

You know,

We're familiar with that it's in many,

Many different spiritual,

Religious traditions,

You know,

People doing really austere practices.

And by the sound of things,

If you read the suttas,

Read the discourses that,

You know,

He was very,

Very close to death,

You know,

He was,

You know,

Punished the body so much that he,

You know,

Was a hair's breadth away from death,

You know,

He hadn't eaten,

You know,

Lived on a grain of rice a day,

You know.

And,

But then there's this insight,

This understanding,

This actually a memory he has from being a child,

And entering into while his father was leading a harvest festival,

Entering into a state of deep peace and well being and remembering that when he was maybe eight,

Nine something years old,

And sitting under a rose apple tree.

And,

And,

And that kind of gives him a glimmer that,

Well,

This is that,

That perhaps,

Not even more than perhaps that,

That the path to ending suffering isn't through,

Through austerities isn't through punishing the body,

And that pleasure can be part of it,

As long as it's not a clinging pleasure,

You know,

So the pleasure of,

You know,

Wonderful,

Calm and bliss of meditation,

Those can are very important,

Those are something to be developed and enjoyed.

Pleasure isn't in itself isn't wrong.

It's only when there's clinging,

It's the clinging that's the problem,

Not the pleasure.

And states of meditation,

As some probably experience can be deeply blissful,

Peaceful,

Calm,

Tranquil,

Joyful,

All of those things.

Maybe not a lot of the time,

You know,

For,

You know,

Practice can be tough,

But,

But those are those can be the fruits of the practice,

Not the end of the practice,

But,

But fruits of the practice.

And so he recognizes that and then the rest kind of sitting under the Bodhi tree,

The realizations,

The insights that he comes to,

And he teaches out of this understanding for 45 years,

And,

And the teachings that have come down to us,

Really,

You know,

Are all around,

You know,

They all revolve around this first teaching that he gave,

Which was a teaching on the Four Noble Truths.

Because,

And coming back to that metaphor of the key,

It's so central,

Because it really does unlock the door,

If you like,

Of suffering,

You know,

As a way out of suffering.

Because if we can,

If we can come to that,

Seeing that investigation of,

Firstly,

You know,

Is there suffering,

And for most of us,

A lot of the time,

There will be some kind of suffering,

You know,

Some kind of mental anguish,

Anxiety,

Fear,

Wanting,

Distraction,

Confusion,

There'll be some version of that.

But what we typically do,

Tell me if I'm off base here.

But what we typically do is we some we find ways of covering it over.

You know,

We find,

We develop habits of avoidance.

You know,

If I'm feeling something that's not very nice,

Not very comfortable,

Oh,

I don't like this.

And I can go and get a glass of wine,

Or a pill,

Or a cookie or a piece of cake or an ice cream,

Or whatever your,

Your,

Your poison might be,

Whatever your pleasure might be.

And,

And for a while,

At least kind of tamp down the feelings of fear or anxiety or wanting,

Then,

You know,

It's understandable that we would do this unless we see a better way,

You know,

A way,

And for most people,

There isn't most people,

And this is where compassion really has to come in.

For most people,

It's not even on the radar screen to think that there is a way out of these expressions of suffering that we get these habitual expressions of suffering,

That we get caught up in what it's not even,

You know,

It's just not even it's not not even in in the realm of it's not even in the field of awareness to think,

You know,

I had a just a little bit of an aside,

But maybe maybe,

You know,

Might be helpful to kind of get this across with a conversation I had with a family member.

I won't go into more details,

But with a family member,

Very,

Very,

Very smart,

You know,

Many,

All the ways,

Very smart,

Intelligent,

You know,

Way,

Engaged in the world,

Etc.

But asking about about pain,

And,

And,

You know,

Had this discussion about pain and like,

Well,

Pain,

And he said,

Like,

Well,

Pain is just pain,

You know,

You feel pain,

And you feel,

You know,

It's pain,

It's painful,

You know,

And I said,

Well,

Actually,

You know,

Pain is also about how we relate to the pain,

You know,

It's not just a solid thing in itself,

Because I might I might have something that's painful.

But if I can meet it with kindness,

With acceptance,

If I can make space for it,

If I can do the inner practices that we were doing in meditation,

And we do in this,

You know,

On this path,

Then we may be able to meet that pain,

You know,

It got real pain in the body,

Not in any way denying the reality of pain.

But our relationship to our pain can certainly attenuate the pain,

It can lessen it,

It can lessen the,

You know,

The,

The afflictiveness,

The difficulty that,

In a sense,

The pain of the pain,

You know,

We're not,

You know,

It's often said,

I don't know the exact science of this,

You know,

But,

But,

But that some 60 or 70% of our pain is how we relate to it.

And if we have a pain,

And it's like,

Oh,

I don't like it,

I don't want it.

And we put like walls up around it,

We're actually exacerbating the pain,

We're making the pain more difficult.

Or if we have a fear,

And then we have,

You know,

We don't want to look at that fear,

Because it's so scary,

Then we've created another fear around the fear,

And we can kind of create walls around walls.

And,

And then we,

We don't go,

We avoid ever really going into the direct experience of like,

Okay,

This is here right now.

What happens when I bring a kind,

Accepting,

Non judging awareness to this fear or this pain,

Or this feeling of discomfort?

What happens?

And,

You know,

What,

What we will find happens is that something changes,

Because our relationship,

It's not fear,

Pain doesn't exist as a thing.

Fear doesn't exist as a thing.

It's always a relationship.

You know,

It's me feeling fear,

It's you feeling fear.

Sometimes it may be us feeling fear,

You know,

Something happening,

We're all experiencing some shared,

Shared reality,

Shared,

Shared experience.

But even then,

Our each of our experience of it,

Experiences of it will vary depend on depending on what are the qualities that we bring to this experience to this moment.

And because I mean,

The deepest,

You know,

You know,

Understanding in Buddhism,

The truth of emptiness is nothing has a permanent existence.

It's always relational.

It's always something is always a product of different conditions coming together.

You know,

It's me or you meeting a particular situation and how we meet it is,

Is fundamental in how we experience it,

It actually changes the nature of the experience itself.

There isn't an experience,

The experience comes from the meeting of,

You know,

The news or the feeling or the emotion,

And what we bring to it,

How we meet it.

So again,

It's coming back to this relationship,

This nexus with here with our experience.

So again,

Coming back to,

To the Buddha,

This,

You know,

This,

This question of suffering and the end of suffering is an existential question.

And all of the teachings,

Everything that the Buddha teachings comes back to revolves around,

Around suffering and the end of suffering.

It's,

You know,

I was thinking,

You know,

It's like the alpha and the omega of the teachings,

It's the beginning and the end,

You know,

This,

You know,

If we,

If we can work this experience,

This situation,

We,

If we can work with the truth about suffering and the cause of suffering,

And the possibility of ending suffering,

We're actually,

We actually have the key in that this is the,

I would say,

The essence of the Buddha's teachings is we,

We have the key to unlocking the,

You know,

Take this,

Use it in your own life.

So it wasn't as if like,

Oh,

I'm only telling this to a few people.

This was the teachings available to,

But it's almost like secret,

Because,

You know,

Most people would be like,

Oh,

No,

No,

There's something flawed in,

You know,

Pain is pain,

You know,

Going back to my example,

You know,

It was like,

You know,

We were talking about,

Well,

Pain isn't just pain,

Pain is,

Is in the relationship is,

Is core to that,

To how we experience our pain,

If we can understand this.

And if we can,

We can really see how the way we meet our experience,

Transforms our experience,

Changes our experience,

And that meeting our experience,

Wholeheartedly saying yes to what's here,

Opening to the joys and the sorrows,

And everything in between,

Then this is,

This is the way that we untangle the tangles.

I have a lot of a lot to share around this.

But I'm not think what I'm going to do is just given time today,

I think I'm going to maybe talk more about this next time,

Because I want to talk,

You know,

Talk about some metaphors of,

Of being caught up in suffering,

You know,

Particularly,

Particularly the,

The,

The metaphors of being hooked and being tangled.

So I think what I'll do is just for the last few minutes of this talk,

And,

You know,

I just highlight a couple of the metaphors and what this one I've,

I've talked about it,

You know,

A couple of times in the past,

There's a,

There's a wonderful short teaching of the Buddha called the Jata Sutta,

J A T A,

And Jata means tangle.

And the and it's a very short,

Short teaching.

And it's about a,

You know,

Guy,

Brahman guy comes to the Buddha.

And he says to the Buddha,

A tangle within,

A tangle without.

People everywhere are tangled in a tangle.

And he says,

Master Gautama,

The Buddha's family name,

Master Gautama,

Who can untangle this tangle?

So lots of tangles in that,

You know,

Tangle.

And,

You know,

For me,

I love this metaphor of a tangle,

Because I think so much of the suffering I've experienced in my life,

You know,

Is being entangled.

And I,

You know,

I think of it as like a ball of wool of different colours and all rather would up together and you can't really use it because it's kind of all tangled together.

So you kind of have to do that,

That unravelling and untangling.

And so he asked the Buddha that and the Buddha doesn't say to him,

No,

That's not true.

He kind of takes as a given.

Yes,

Yes,

The people are tangled in a tangle,

Who can untangle,

Who can get out of this tangle.

And the Buddha says,

You know,

Basically says,

One who is trained in wisdom and meditation and living virtuously,

That person who's fully trained,

You know,

A follower of the way,

A follower of the Dharma,

You know,

Who's really done the work,

Can untangle or has untangled the tangle.

So I think a lot of our,

A lot of our,

Of our suffering is a lot of our experiences is,

Is being finding ourselves tangled,

Entangled,

And,

And finding our way out of,

Of the tangle.

And as again,

Again,

Coming back to that,

That,

You know,

That central kind of investigation of where for me right now,

Today,

In this moment,

Or maybe tomorrow,

Or maybe,

You know,

Next week,

You know,

Where do I find myself caught up in suffering?

Where do I find myself experiencing this dukkha,

This unsatisfactoriness?

And how can I,

I mean,

How am I holding on?

What am I holding on to that perpetuates this suffering?

And can I in seeing that holding,

Can I loosen it?

Can I let go?

Can I let go a little?

Can I let go a lot?

Can I let go completely?

I was going to,

I was thinking of it this morning,

As I was kind of going,

Thinking about the talk today,

That what came to me was every,

Every letting go,

No matter how seemingly small,

You know,

Even if it's just a small,

What seems like a small letting go,

A kind of small opening,

Is a microcosm of the Buddha's awakening.

Every letting go,

No matter,

However seemingly small,

Because it's,

I mean,

Small and big are just kind of really the mind's creation.

Who knows what's really small and what's really big.

But however,

You know,

However,

It may not seem like an earth shattering thing.

But each time we are able to let go,

Even a little,

We find some freedom,

Somebody that we were feeling really judgmental about,

No,

I hate this person.

Oh,

They're always doing blah,

Blah,

Blah,

Blah,

Blah,

Blah,

That we,

That maybe we just see,

You know,

Get a glimpse of their suffering.

And we say,

Oh,

Yeah,

They're having a really hard time.

Maybe we open our heart opens to them,

And we no longer so much looking at them through that lens of,

They're a bad person,

They're this,

They're that.

And now we're looking at them through much more through the lens of kindness.

Nothing has changed,

Except something has shifted in our own way of seeing that allows for some freedom.

And what I want it,

What I'm saying here is that even that what might seem like a small letting go is a microcosm.

It's the smaller,

A small encapsulation of that incredible awakening that still,

You know,

Resounding down like a bell rung 2500 years ago,

That was still kind of ringing through the flowers through the,

Through the ether,

You know,

From the Buddha's awakening.

You know,

We think of that,

Oh,

That I could never awaken,

You know,

And it is,

I mean,

It was an extraordinary insight into suffering into human,

The human condition.

But,

And each letting go is really is really a mini version of that.

And when I thought of that,

I thought,

Oh,

That's actually quite inspiring,

You know,

Because even the small things point to the bigger things.

And,

You know,

I often share Arjun Chah's,

You know,

Let go a little,

You'll experience a little piece,

Let go a lot,

You'll experience a lot of peace,

Let go completely,

And you'll experience complete peace,

Your struggle with the world will be at an end,

That every little letting go,

Little in quotes,

It points to that possibility of letting go.

So I think it also,

If we allow ourselves to take it in,

Can be a real encouragement to keep on,

To keep on practicing,

To let go a little bit more,

And experience maybe a little bit more freedom,

A little bit more opening of the heart,

A little bit more peace and joy.

And,

You know,

All that that opens up,

You know,

As this is a gradual path of training,

That sometimes includes,

You know,

Some really sudden,

Powerful awakenings.

But overall,

The Buddha laid out,

You know,

A gradual training to to wake up and find freedom from suffering.

I won't even get into Pema Chodron's wonderful image of Shempa.

I've shared that,

Talked about that a little in the past of,

Of being hooked.

It's a great,

Great metaphor from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition of,

Like a,

You know,

A fish being caught with a hook of how we get hooked and how we work with it.

But I'll save that for next time.

So I hope that this,

I hope that there's some things in what I've shared today that will maybe be encouraging,

Maybe,

You know,

Helpful.

And if not,

Don't worry about it,

There's lots of other good things out there in the world.

Leave it on your cushion.

Thank you for your kindness.

Thank you for your attention.