Four Noble Truths: Cause Of Pain

The second noble truth is that pain has a cause and the cause is arises from clinging. If we cling to what’s impermanent we will suffer. We can look at the cause, in everyday life. All we have to do is ask the question: What’s the cause of this distress that I’m feeling? Just that question can open the field.

Transcript

So we're in the second week in our series on the Four Noble Truths and these are considered to be the central teachings of this Buddhist path.

The myth or the lore of it is that the Buddha's first teaching was to a group of ascetics that he had practiced with and what he shared with them was this teaching on the Four Noble Truths that he realized.

So across all the Buddhist traditions in all the countries that it's gone to they all rest on these four truths,

These four discoveries.

And even though there may be different practices and appearances and rituals they all believe in and derive their teachings from these Four Noble Truths as a framework to understand our life better.

And this framework of the Four Noble Truths it doesn't require or assume for us to believe in something that can't be experienced or proven or seen for ourselves.

This is something that we can discover for ourselves and some of you have shared that discovery in the past week that we've been practicing together on this topic.

You know these discoveries that there is pain in this life and there is a cause and the cause is reactivity,

Is clinging,

Kind of contention with this moment's experience.

And there's a possible end to this affliction of suffering and reactivity.

And there's a path,

A way out of this endless cycle,

This hamster wheel of reactivity and contention.

I shared in the meditation this understanding of dukkha can be understood as a squeezing of the heart.

So this week is the second Noble Truth that this squeezing,

This pain has a cause and the cause arises from holding on,

From clinging.

If we cling to what's impermanent we suffer,

We will experience pain and we can look at the causes in everyday life.

All we have to do is ask the question,

What's the cause of this pain that I'm feeling?

This squeezing on my heart?

And just the question can open up a field.

So what is it that we cling to?

In the text it's stated that we cling to what are called the five aggregates,

The five aggregates of who we are.

So the body,

Our feelings,

Our perceptions,

Our mental formations and consciousness itself.

And these five,

They're constantly changing and unfolding.

So if we hold on to them,

We experience pain.

But if we allow these psychosomatic ways that we see ourselves to just sort of flow like a river,

Then we can find our ease.

In the polycanon,

The middle length discourses are called the Majima Nikaya and it's written thus,

Most people fail to see reality because of wanting.

They are attached.

They cling to material objects,

To pleasures,

To things of this world.

This very clinging is the source of suffering.

Craving gives rise to Dukkha,

Stress,

Pain.

By understanding and relinquishing desire,

We become free from suffering.

The path to full freedom is the abandoning of our desires and craving.

So this may make you think that desire is kind of the culprit and that letting go of desire is the aim.

But just to say that desire isn't the problem.

Desire itself is just part of being alive.

You know,

We wouldn't be here if it weren't for desire.

It's that we get hitched and connected and caught into clinging to what we want.

That's where the problem is.

We get caught.

We don't want to create aversion to having desire.

There's nothing wrong with desire.

Right?

That's why we're here.

So the exploration is wise understanding of desire.

The arising of desire is like the basic thirst to exist.

The metaphor for desire and craving in the Pali,

The word for it is called Tanha.

And it literally means unquenchable thirst.

So the desire that's emphasized has this characteristic of being thirsty.

Imagine that.

Being just absolutely parched,

Desperate for water.

So the compulsion,

The drive,

The preoccupation with getting something to drink can be all that a person thinks about.

And that thirst,

That compulsion is the cause of pain and suffering.

In the Buddhist cosmology,

One of the sort of psychic domains is described as the realm of the hungry ghost.

And the hungry ghost figures are depicted with these scrawny little necks and huge bellies.

And they're riddled with this powerful desire that they can never satisfy.

And we all kind of have some version of that,

The hungry ghost syndrome.

So in mindfulness practice,

We're learning to look and ask the question,

What is the cause of my stress,

Of my pain?

Can we find out the cause?

What is the cause of my sorrow,

My pain?

What is the cause of this ouch,

This ouch in my body?

And when we learn what the cause is,

When we ask the question,

We begin to see and let it evolve and show itself without judging what it is like,

And I shouldn't feel that way.

Let's let that go.

First things,

You just want to see it.

Let it show itself.

And then what happens is we can relax with it.

And letting go happens when we can relax.

The causes that the Four Noble Truths are interested in is our contribution to the pain of this world.

How we thirst,

How we have compulsion.

You know,

That strong desire for something to exist,

To have it,

To want it.

And that strong compulsion for something not to exist,

To push it away,

To get rid of it.

What's our contribution to this pain,

To this stress?

And one of the antidotes that the Buddha offered to his monks was develop concentration.

For those that have concentration will see things as they are.

They will see suffering,

The arising of suffering,

The ceasing of suffering,

And the practice of the ceasing of suffering.

And what's interesting about that phrase is that the Buddha said this hundreds of times in the suttas.

It refers to how all experience arises and passes.

Nothing in our experience is constant.

You will see suffering,

The arising of suffering,

The ceasing of suffering,

And the practice of the ceasing of suffering.

Everything is constant.

Impermanence,

The change that is always,

Always happening.

And this understanding is known as liberating insight.

And it's liberating because when we see things arising and passing,

Arising and passing in our own experience,

Then we have a much clearer sense of how we want to hold what's arising and how we resist it.

When we see the appearing and disappearing of things,

There's space.

There isn't anything to hold on to,

Just arising and passing.

And what we're practicing here in meditation is to keep allowing things to come and go.

To let it be there and be there and be there.

And then we get up off of our meditation cushion and we take this practice into our life.

To let it be there and be there and change.

So one of the ways to understand these Four Noble Truths is not from focusing on the causes of suffering or the conditions that lead to suffering,

But rather from this deep insight into the nature of it.

The nature of suffering is a process of inconstancy,

Of change,

Of coming and going.

And somehow seeing that nature,

I've found can be deeply liberating.

It doesn't require us to find the cause or ruminate on the conditions of it.

We don't have to dig very deep.

We just understand that it's changing.

Oh,

Look at this.

This is pain.

Inconsistent,

Impermanent,

Arising and it will pass.

The Buddha's big insight was that suffering is not an inherent part of human experience.

And what we can do is let go.

So again from Ajahn Chah,

If you can let go a little,

You'll have a little peace.

If you can let go a lot,

You'll have a lot of peace.

If you can let go absolutely,

You'll have absolute peace and tranquility.

And he also said,

Even though we can't let go,

We're aware of these states continuously.

Being continuously aware of ourselves and our attachments,

We come to see that just grasping,

That such grasping is not the path.

We know it,

But still we can't let go.

But the knowing is 50%.

Just intending to let be and let go opens the door.