This is the final talk in a series on the Four Noble Truths and in the past three weeks we've explored the first three and this fourth is kind of the building blocks,
Builds on them.
And the way that it's expressed in the ancient tradition is one understands suffering,
One understands the arising of suffering,
One understands the ceasing of suffering,
And the fourth statement is that this is the practice leading to the ceasing of suffering.
The practice that leads out of our stress.
So for this fourth realization I'd like to use the metaphor that is also used throughout the ancient text and that is the mind is like water.
So clear water,
And I'm sure you can see this in your own mind's eye,
Has this beautiful quality.
You can see the water but you can also see through the water to what's in the water.
And in this way it can be the same as with the mind.
We can see the mind,
Be part of the mind,
But also have this ability to see through it.
And that's the clarity of awareness.
We know that we are aware and in that clarity we see what we're aware of.
We see what's there.
The way that this has been expressed in the text is that a person is standing on the edge of a lake and is able to look down into the clear lake.
And the water is so clear that they can see all the way to the bottom.
All the pebbles and the little snails moving along and all the fish.
And it's the same when the mind is really clear.
We can look deeply in the mind,
Seeing deeply into our experience and noticing all the comings and goings.
All the comings and goings and we can see it clearly.
I've been pointing to in these past weeks our practice of these Four Noble Truths is really in the seeing the arising and the ceasing of all experience.
It's that clarity of just seeing things arise and leaving them alone.
And seeing experiences come and go without getting involved with them.
We're free of it and it's free of us.
So the perspective that I've been offering is really that the Four Noble Truths are predominantly these deep insights into seeing what is there,
Seeing the arising of what is there,
And seeing the ceasing,
The coming and going of phenomena,
The coming and going of dukkha,
Of stress,
And the freedom that exists within seeing it.
The most common interpretation of the Four Noble Truths that you're all probably familiar with is there's suffering in the world and there's a cause and the cause is craving so we let go of craving.
And this interpretation that I'm sharing is a layer deeper.
It's a deep insight into impermanence,
Seeing the arising of a phenomena that is coming and going.
We experience pain or stress when we hold on to an experience that is coming and going.
When we align with that it's coming and going,
We are free.
So the end of suffering involves letting go and sort of putting down the attachment to things that come and go,
Right?
And even though that's easy to say,
We know it's not easy to do because these attachments that we have can be very deeply rooted,
So deeply that they're unconscious,
They're in the subconscious.
We can't even see some of the ways that we're attached.
You know,
This is the deepest understanding of delusion.
We're not even aware in which we are deluded.
We're not seeing clearly.
Sometimes we experience pain and suffering in our life.
It's just a big mass of dukkha.
Things are not good.
We don't see any causes,
We don't see the conditions,
We just feel it and we feel lousy and we feel bad.
So because of the challenge that there is of letting go and experiencing the freedom from this stress,
There is a path,
There is a way,
There's a set of practices that a person can do to set up these conditions.
It's kind of like clearing the field of all the extra,
So we can settle and see,
You know,
See deeply what's going on.
Get through the,
Let the water,
The mucky water settle.
That's how we we come to a place of freedom.
And the path is represented as the Eightfold Path and we've been exploring this on Wednesdays,
So if you feel so inclined you can listen to those recordings on the website.
And it's a wonderful set of eight practices.
And just to say that the Eightfold Path,
They're not beliefs,
They're not some supernatural power or creed.
You don't have to take anyone's word for it.
This is something that we discover on our own.
But what we come to see is the practices that we engage in.
They begin changing how we are.
When we engage with these path factors,
We begin to live in a more contented way.
I can't really describe how that happens.
I can only share my own experiences that it does.
So with that in mind,
You know,
We can ask the question,
Is what I'm doing now in my life leading me to greater suffering?
Or does it bring me freedom from suffering?
The end of suffering?
Is this view,
This perspective that I'm using right now,
Supportive for me to move to the end of stress?
Is this understanding,
This practice that I'm doing right now,
Because we're all always practicing something,
Is this activity that I'm doing,
This mindset that I have,
Does it help me?
Not just in the short term,
But in the long term.
You know,
That's an important point because,
You know,
Some people are just looking for relief from suffering,
From difficulty.
And relief is not the same as release.
Relief is temporary.
It's just kind of like getting back into our comfort zone.
It can even be like an escape from really looking deeply at our lives.
Just a little relief.
The task of ending suffering requires us to look deeply and be present,
Even with our great difficulties.
If we too quickly try to avoid feeling discomfort,
Then we're not really working for the long-term ending of suffering.
We're just trying to get that relief.
The long-term end of suffering is a release.
This path is very pragmatic.
It's not much different than,
Let's say,
If you had like a thorn in your foot.
You know,
You pull out the thorn.
That's pragmatic.
You know,
You know the feeling of the pain of the thorn.
You pull the thorn out,
And there might be a little bit of pain at first,
The pulling out of it,
But then you put a band-aid over it and your long-term well-being,
It's good.
You know,
The thorn is gone and it heals and it doesn't go in any deeper.
So the Buddha,
He talked about a thorn in our hearts in the same way.
What he discovered with his own personal experience was there was this thorn in his heart,
And even though it was uncomfortable,
That thorn could be pulled out.
The Buddha teaches a lot about the tremendous value of being very,
Very still and quiet.
Cultivating a clear mind and kind of resting in this peaceful abiding.
You know,
As we sat this morning,
I was really experiencing the deep quiet of our practice.
The river of life just flowing,
And certainly thoughts arise.
They're in constant.
How like the constant flow of arising and passing of feelings and sensations and thinking beyond concepts,
Beyond ideas,
Even beyond causes and conditions.
Just this very primal level of experience.
Suffering really happens,
And I encourage you to check this out for yourself.
When we try to stop and hold on to or resist this flow of experience,
Our practice is to see and experience the flow and then let go into it more deeply.
And that impact of experiencing that,
You know,
It's quite profound.
This is our practice,
And practice takes time.
Time and practice is really all it takes to experience this great inconstancy,
This constant flow,
And to let go into it.
So we're in that process,
You know.
The path factors are a process of liberating,
Process of liberation.
In a way,
It's like by entering the stream of this path,
We've planted a little seed.
And part of what we're doing is we're creating fertile ground for it,
Learning how to water it,
And how to make room for the seed to grow.
And at some point,
We have to get out of the way and let the natural process just move through us.
So this is the perspective of the Four Noble Truths that I offer for your consideration and your reflection.
Thank you for your kind attention.
