So this morning is the beginning of a series of talks on the Four Noble Truths and this week will be on the First Noble Truth but today I'd like to just say a few introductory words about it in general.
We've practiced these Four Noble Truths throughout the six years that we've been together but they're core teachings of Buddhism and what's so interesting about these teachings is that the understanding is that even a child can understand what they are but at the same time an older person with lots of life experience might not understand their depths and I think that that's somewhat true.
The Four Noble Truths provided kind of an ever developing series of insights and perspectives for our understanding.
That's why there's not just one teaching and then done,
We revisit them and there are many teachings on the Four Noble Truths.
In the history of Buddhism there are different interpretations and applications on how these truths apply to so many areas of our lives and this idea goes all the way back to ancient times.
So the Noble Truths provide a wonderful framework to continually study how to live a life with more meaning,
More depth and in regards to that one of the teachings around these Noble Truths is that there are particular tasks for each one.
So there's something that you can do and for the doers out there you know this is good news.
So the Four Noble Truths have to do with suffering and the end of suffering and it's said that while addressing his suffering,
The suffering that he encountered,
The Buddha was immersed in a noble search.
So there's this nobility or kind of a sense of worthiness in addressing and meeting suffering and then finding a way through it and coming to the other side of it.
If we don't address the suffering within us,
The suffering around us,
We become a greater victim to it and we're not doing this investigation,
This immersion to diminish ourselves in any way.
We're not looking to suffer better.
I've said that quite a bit.
It's not about that.
Instead we're looking at suffering as a dignified and ever-changing process.
The Buddha said that when he was looking for an alternative to suffering,
What he was searching for is long-term happiness that's not dependent on the changing nature of circumstances of our lives.
And just to say that we use the word suffering a lot when talking about these Four Noble Truths and it might not be the best translation for the word Dukkha but it's a translation that I'll use today since it's the most common one and I'll offer up some others on Thursday.
Some people hear the word suffering and immediately think about the big sufferings of their lives.
The losses,
The tragedies,
The paralyzing aspects,
The diagnosis and it may be a little overwhelming to even hear the word suffering.
There might be some aversion to it but the word Dukkha which is translated most commonly as suffering is meant to define a whole range of ways in which we feel stress and distress.
A whole range from the big to the small.
You know it points to the big suffering that we have.
It points to the things that are most challenging in us.
The inevitable things that will encounter sooner or later that we can't anticipate and points to our every day the way someone will say something and the experience is like ouch ouch that's Dukkha too.
The Buddha is said to have lived a really privileged and luxurious life and he really didn't know about in the in the suttas the large existential like challenges of sickness old age and death and as the myth goes he escaped from the palace that he lived in and supposedly saw sickness old age and death for the first time as a 27 year old man.
Can you imagine being that protected for that long?
I would imagine that it probably came as a pretty big shock to him and maybe some of you have been shocked by your encounter with these things.
I'll never forget my grandmother when she was 94 I had to take her to the hospital kind of unexpectedly during the afternoon and she was so surprised what is happening to me and I had to gently say you're getting old your body's getting old nothing is happening but old age.
Sometimes there are really sudden losses and deaths and just those losses can just turn our life upside down right.
Just knock the wind out of us.
So at looking at the four noble truths we're looking at the truth of grief of mourning and pain and anguish.
We're seeing that these powerful feelings are actually doorways into something that's on the other side of them.
On the other side of anguish is peace is freedom.
So Dharma practice can open us up to a deep respect for and an acknowledgement of these things.
Its intent is to allow us to really see and understand them well and as we step into this really tender and challenging area I'd like to invite you to do so with some care and some faith some stability of practice.
As we go through the four noble truths I'm going to borrow a statement that I learned from my teacher Gil Fronsdal which he teaches when he begins this study and it's helpful it's been helpful for me to remember.
Your suffering is my suffering.
My suffering is your suffering.
Their suffering is our suffering.
Our suffering is their suffering.
Your welfare is my welfare.
My welfare is your welfare.
Their welfare is our welfare.
And our welfare is your welfare.
My breath is your breath.
So just remembering this not so individual and separate may be helpful.
