So we're halfway through the Four Noble Truths.
And we're kind of now at this point where we can start to consider the good news of Buddhism,
You know.
The third noble truth involves the end of suffering.
And in the Pali,
The word that is translated to the cessation of suffering,
The end,
Is nirodha.
N-I-R-O-D-H-A,
Nirodha.
Which more literally means without obstacles.
So the absence of obstacles.
And this is the good news,
Right?
So last week we explored the second noble truth that suffering has a cause.
Or actually that was on Tuesday,
Excuse me.
And that the cause is craving.
And we looked into the areas of our everyday life when asking that question,
Like what is the cause or what is my contribution to the pain that I'm having?
To the stress that I'm having?
When we look deeply and see our contribution,
There's probably some compulsion or drivenness for something that we can't really stop.
A drive that we can't stop.
And this is represented by this word craving.
Craving has a phenomenal role in how we suffer.
And we want to learn how to be free of that craving.
And the way that this is discussed about in the third noble truth is the freedom from the craving.
And so that has a lot to do with our relationship to it.
You know,
Usually we have a strong reactivity to our desires.
We reach out for them.
We want them and then we feed them and we fuel them.
And even the negative,
Not wanting something,
It keeps us caught in this cycle of not wanting,
Pushing away.
And meditation is a process of stilling that,
Quieting that,
Relaxing that,
Being easy with it,
Like the meditation this morning.
Being easy with it.
With mindfulness,
We begin seeing the relationship,
The conditional relationship between the ways in which we react and the ways in which we respond.
A lot of our dissatisfaction,
Our pain,
Our stress can disappear when all of that constructive conceiving and interpreting aspects of the mind have quieted down.
You know,
Craving in and of itself,
We don't have to make it a bad thing or a sin or evil.
We can be easy with it.
Just seeing it as another phenomena that's arising in our experience,
That's appearing and we don't have to get involved with it.
It's really that saying,
Like,
Look at that,
Look at that.
Just starting to see it.
Like watching a cloud,
You know,
When we're watching a cloud move through the sky,
It's really this sort of,
Look at that.
Just seeing.
Just a natural phenomena that's going on.
That's what craving is.
That's what wanting is.
And the non involvement with craving can be strong if the mindfulness is clear enough.
So this is the cultivation that we do.
To start to begin to have a different relationship to our inner life.
And one which we don't have so much judgment for or being critical with,
Just seeing,
Knowing and having that clarity of sight and not picking it up,
Not getting involved.
Just here.
I love the definition of Dukkha as being a squeeze on the heart.
That's what it feels like when we are in pain,
When we are stressed.
There's a squeeze there.
And so we're cultivating this clarity so we start seeing the conditions that lead to the squeeze.
And it might be as simple as just seeing the connection between pleasant experience and unpleasant experience and how we act with desire towards the pleasant,
Wanting more of it and how we push away and have some aversion to the unpleasant.
And what's it like when we see both and we leave it alone?
We start to see that things exist conditionally.
And as conditions,
They're impermanent.
They're inconstant.
They're coming and they're going.
To see how things are conditional,
How things arise because of other things,
And we've talked about this in the Dependent Co-Arising.
We did a whole series on that.
But to see this,
It's kind of one of the things that leads to freedom.
When we see that things in our experience are not permanent,
They're not everlasting.
We're not stuck in them.
So then nirodha,
The cessation of suffering,
Of pain,
The non-obstruction as it's translated.
To really develop clarity,
To see this arising and passing and we're not getting involved with the pleasure or the pain or the discomfort.
We're able to see that nothing is obstructing our view.
We're not getting caught.
We're not getting entangled.
This is one of the goals of practice in a way.
And it's not easy.
But it's worthwhile.
Only even in just that it feels better when the heart isn't being squeezed.
Right?
So what's really important is the ability to be present for the flow and the change of how things come and go.
The Truth of Impermanence.
There is a chant that's done.
All things are impermanent.
They arise and they pass away.
To be in harmony with this truth brings great happiness.
So when we can really be present for the flow of change,
To really see it and just be in the flow of it,
This brings great happiness.
This is where freedom is found.
To let the flow unfold.
The coming and going and releasing our hold.
So it's really that instruction this morning of be easy with it.
Relax.
Float.
So just open to the space where there's nothing to hold on to.
Nothing to cling to.
We talked about this yesterday in a sense it's kind of like falling through the air.
And at first maybe there's panic like I'm gonna hit the ground.
But then you realize there's no ground.
And then you just fall.
It's a radical letting go.
So here the interpretation of this third noble truth,
The cessation of suffering,
The end of suffering has to do with seeing two things.
The arising and the ceasing.
The inconstant nature of things.
And to be in flow with that.
To be in the flow with that.
To see that that's where freedom is found.
Being in that flow and not stopping it,
Not resisting it.
Allowing it to move through us.
And there might be a movement towards holding on or contracting or craving.
And then we relax.
The deep liberation that the Buddha emphasized over and over again comes from this meditative experience of impermanence.
So that nirodha,
Non-obstacles,
The cessation of pain and stress can come to an end.
It's possible.
Moment by moment.
It's not like okay done.
End of suffering.
Moment by moment.
It's possible to live without the pain,
The insecurity,
The oppression of this human life.
So next week,
The fourth noble truth.
Here's how.
