The Fourth Noble Truth

This is the fourth and final talk in the series on the Four Noble Truths. In this exploration, we will discover that path that leads to the end of suffering. The Noble Eight Fold Path. Thank you for listening.

Transcript

This talk is the final talk on this series of the Four Noble Truths.

So in the past three weeks,

We explored the first three,

And this is the fourth,

And it builds on the previous three.

So it's a continuation.

So I'd like to begin actually with a metaphor that I used in the meditation,

The metaphor of the mind being like water.

And as I spoke about in earlier talks over these past weeks,

Metaphors are used throughout the ancient text.

And the mind being like water is a prominent one that comes up a lot.

And what's so beautiful about water is when you think about clear water has a really beautiful quality,

You can see the water,

But you can also see through the water to what's in the water,

Right?

So in this way,

We can be in the mind,

Being part of the mind,

But also have the ability to see through it.

It's that clarity of awareness.

We know that we're aware.

And in that clarity,

We see what's there.

So the way it's expressed as a metaphor in the ancient text is that there is a person standing on the edge of a lake.

And they're able to look down into the clear lake,

And the water is so clear that they can see really deep down to the very bottom.

So they can see pebbles and snails,

And they can also see fish like slowly moving around.

And in the same way,

When the mind is clear,

We can look deeply into the mind.

So as we look deeply into our experience,

We can see things that are kind of stationary,

Our pebbles,

And we can see things that are moving,

That are coming and going.

So it's all seen in clarity.

And this metaphor of looking into a clear lake is used in that it is a mind that is prepared for full awakening,

For full awakening.

So that the when the mind is really calm and settled,

Unagitated by the mud really of what are the hindrances of our life,

Everything is settled down,

Then the mind is ready for this deep letting go.

And these Four Noble Truths are a central aspect to that release.

And over these weeks,

I've shared just sort of a different interpretation of what the Four Noble Truths are.

And the earliest of these four understandings in the early teachings of the Buddha,

They're different than what are customarily taught.

So this understanding is that the Four Noble Truths are predominantly these deep insights in seeing what's there,

Going deep into the mind,

Seeing what's there,

Seeing it's arising,

Seeing it ceasing,

It's ending,

And really seeing the comings and goings of this phenomena.

A metaphor that I really like is seeing the river flow by.

We see this,

We can't see this every day here among these three rivers that we live among.

So grateful for the river.

So we can stand by the bank of the river and maybe lean against a tree and watch the river go by.

And just watching the river flowing,

It can be so relaxing and one can become very contented.

Just watching the flow of the river.

It's like the mind just coming going.

And when we do our inner work,

The inner clearing of the mind,

Settling the mind and setting,

Sort of settling our issues,

The mind can get really quiet and really still.

And it becomes more and more like this clear lake that we can see deeply into.

And we can see now more of the details of the comings and goings.

And what we're seeing at this level is deeper than our stories.

The stories are just flowing deeper than our concepts.

It's more of a sense level experience.

The balm of awareness that gentle touch of awareness.

It can be very meaningful to have the mind at this level of clarity and settledness,

Seeing things just coming and going,

Coming and going.

There can be a deep sense of freedom when we essentially allow other things to just have their freedom,

Their own freedom.

So we give everything that comes to us the freedom to be everything is allowed just to be as it is.

Everything is just part of this flow.

So the way that this is expressed in the ancient text is that one,

Us,

We understand suffering.

One understands that 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,

What we just did,

Leading to the ceasing of suffering.

It's the practice of seeing the arising and the passing away of phenomena.

It's the clarity of just seeing things and leaving them alone,

Just seeing them come and go without any involvement.

We're free of it and it's free of us.

So here there's just freedom,

There's no entanglement,

No involvement,

No wanting.

And there can be this deep cessation of letting be.

And when we let something be,

It lets go of us.

And we do this practice every week together.

Only many of you do this every day.

This is the practice that we do over and over again.

And it keeps opening us more and more.

And at some point,

These practices get deep enough that letting go happens in a very deep way.

And so what occurs is that these four liberating insights,

No longer are we just understanding them.

There is suffering,

There is an arising and there is a ceasing.

And there is a practice leading out of it.

Those are the understandings.

What happens is we're fully awakened to it,

We're experiencing it.

The deepest release,

Oh,

Arising and passing,

Arising and passing.

So this is a little different understanding of the Noble Truths.

The most common interpretation of the Four Noble Truths is that there is suffering in the world and that there's a cause.

And the cause is craving.

And craving,

Because craving is the cause,

We let go of craving.

The interpretation that I just shared is deeper.

It's a deeper insight into inconstancy.

This is the practice that leads to the end of suffering,

Practicing the seeing of the arising and passing.

The clinging that we do,

The compulsive kind of wanting that exists for us human beings,

It's very much like an addiction for many of us.

The end of suffering involves letting go and abandoning and putting it down,

Putting down our attachments.

But as we know,

It's not easy.

It's not easy.

These attachments that we have can be very,

Very deeply rooted.

And they can be deeply subconscious.

We're not even aware of how we are clinging.

We can't even see some of the ways that we're attached.

And sometimes our suffering,

It occurs as just a big mass of suffering.

So we don't see the causes and conditions of it.

We're just feeling lousy and bad.

So because of this challenge of letting go deeply and experiencing the freedom from suffering,

There is a path.

There is a path.

There's a set of practices that we can do that sets up the conditions to begin clearing the field to help us settle,

To help us see more deeply and more clearly.

And that's how we can come to a place of acceptance and letting go.

So the path is represented in the Four Noble Truths by the Eightfold Path.

So the practice for the end of suffering is this Eightfold Path.

And it's a wonderful set of eight practices,

Not beliefs.

It isn't some sort of supernatural power or a creed that you have to believe in.

You don't have to take anybody's word for it,

Except your own.

But what we come to see in the practices that we're engaged in is they begin to change the way that we are with our experiences.

They allow us to live more contentedly.

We live in a more settled way,

Regardless of the conditions.

So the Eightfold Path is a prescription of what to do,

But it's also presented as a description of what liberated people are like.

So once a person becomes really free of attachments and clinging in life,

How they live their life is described as the Eightfold Path,

Even without actively doing it,

Because there is an absence of clinging that leads to freedom.

So it's a person who understands,

Who has woken up to this flow,

The arising and passing of phenomena.

So when you really let go of clinging,

We follow this ethical piece of the Eightfold Path quite naturally.

I like to think that the practice that we do,

Or the practices that we do,

It could be any practice really,

Meditation practice or practicing the Eightfold Path or a mantra practice or a yoga practice.

It all contains,

All these practices contain elements of the goal of freedom itself.

And one of the ways to practice is to allow ourselves to practice so that the means contains part of the goal,

The way.

So the way that we do it contains the freedom.

The goal and the means,

They're not so separate.

But to allow the goal to be inhabited,

To actually be embodied in the very way in which we go about it and how we practice whatever our practice is,

Then that freedom exists just right there.

And when we're doing this,

We're being very careful that we're not clinging as we do it.

That can be tricky sometimes.

So this is what we're doing.

But let's be careful about how we do it.

Let's do it with some determination and clarity and dedication,

With love,

But without further clinging,

Without using it to,

As material really,

To be critical of ourselves.

We're fine that happens.

The Buddha said,

I teach suffering and the end of suffering.

And in this very pithy way,

This really talks about the essence of what the Buddha's teaching is about,

Kind of clears the air.

It's one of the things that we can keep in the back of our mind,

That all these teachings in this Buddhist practice,

This way of life is for the purpose to come to the end of our suffering,

To the end of our unease,

To the end of our distress,

And the stress that we might have,

All of the practice.

So with that in mind,

We can ask the question,

Is what I'm doing right now,

Is that leading me to greater suffering?

Or does it bring me freedom from suffering towards the end of suffering?

Is this perspective,

This view that I have of whatever the situation is that I'm using right now,

Is it supportive in moving me towards the end of suffering?

Is this understanding?

This practice that I'm doing,

This activity that I'm engaged with,

Does it really help?

Not just for the short term,

But for the long term.

It's an important point because some people are just looking for relief.

And relief is not the same thing as release.

Relief is temporary.

It just kind of gets us back into our comfort.

It can even be an escape from really looking deeply in our lives.

But the task of ending suffering,

The release,

Requires us to look deeply,

Really be present,

Even with the difficulty that we have.

And if we're too quick to avoid suffering,

To avoid pain,

The difficulties of our lives,

Then we're not really working towards the long term end of suffering.

It requires this deep presence,

The healing balm of awareness.

So this path is very pragmatic.

Many people feel it's a wonderful way of responding to our difficulties.

It's almost like,

Well,

It's not so different than like having a thorn in your foot.

You know,

You pull it out,

That's very pragmatic.

So you know you have a thorn and you feel the pain of the thorn,

And you pull it out and there might be a little bit of pain at first.

But for the long term well being,

It's good to pull it out.

So it doesn't go in deeper and cause more problems.

And so the Buddha talked about a thorn in the heart.

There's a thorn in the heart.

And what he discovered in his practice,

What we do was there's this thorn in the heart,

And it can be pulled out.

And it might sting.

So you don't really need a big book on Buddhism or a PhD in Buddhist studies to begin to really appreciate when there is suffering and the absence of it.

When there is unease and when there becomes ease.

And to use that as a guide to really look deeply.

And these four noble truths,

These four perspectives,

They can help us with looking at the task of suffering and coming to an end.

It's so,

I can think of many,

Many instances just in the past week where I could see the arising of the suffering and the ceasing of it.

So the Buddha teaches a lot about the tremendous value of being very,

Very still and quiet,

Getting a very clear mind and resting in this peaceful mind and really allowing the stream to flow,

The river of life just to flow.

It's another big metaphor in the early text.

So seeing this inconstancy of experience,

How everything is constantly just in flow and moving and arising and passing,

Really working with that,

Inclining the mind towards that.

It's beyond our concepts and ideas and causes,

Even conditions.

It's a really primal level of all experience.

And any kind of suffering that we're involved with,

Any kind of suffering that we have,

In some way,

What's happening is there's some attempt by us generally to stop it,

To stop the flow,

To lock down,

To hold on to something,

To resist the flowing experience,

Damming the river,

Trying to control the water.

So the practice is to experience the flow.

Many of you that are on this call today live in this valley of three rivers.

Get yourself down by the riverside.

See how it's ever-changing,

Always moving,

Just like you.

To experience the flow,

We can then start to align with it and to come to this quiet state in the mind where inconstancy can be that powerful.

First we have to get quiet.

So this practice that we do,

Time and practice,

That's all it takes.

This is the offering,

This perspective of the four noble truths.

We all have the capacity for freedom from suffering,

From the suffering that we contribute to,

To the forces inside of us,

Our own conflicted heart,

Our own holding on,

The way in which we resist the fear,

The greed,

The hate,

The resentment,

The envy,

The conceit,

All those things that we have.

We have a capacity to be free of them.

We have a capacity to have peace and ease that exists.

On this path,

These four noble truths,

At its essence,

It's like a little seed.

We plant the seed,

But it needs to be nourished and it needs to be watered.

And if that seed is nourished and watered and given the right fertile conditions,

It'll grow into a beautiful plant.

And this idea that what's in us is there and it's ready to grow and unfold and move,

It's very positive.

It points to a very positive human nature,

Our potential.

So there's really something very good and wholesome and wonderful waiting for us.

This process of liberation,

Of peace,

It's a process.

So part of it is to create the fertile ground.

How do we water this?

How do we make room for the plant to grow?

How do we get out of the way so the plant can grow?

How do we let this natural process move through us?

It's very different than our personal efforts to make and do things,

To accomplish and to attain and to acquire all the kinds of things that we generally do.

They're okay,

But there's something which is deeper than this small sense of self.

There's something within us that's not associated with the way that I identify with Lisa,

Me,

Or me.

It's that healing balm of awareness,

Allowing awareness,

Allowing of peace,

Allowing of freedom,

Allowing the possibility of being free from suffering.

That's kind of the whole point of this four noble truths.

They use the word noble because it's a nobling.

It's an ennobling action that we can do.

So thank you for being part of this practice and inquiry into the practice of the four noble truths.

Reviews

I like your interpretation of the Four Noble Truth - I felt and I'm still feeling/sensing the truth of the endless rising and ceasing of suffering and that seeing is fundamentally liberating ... in this moment :-). THANK YOU LISA 🙏 I'll come back to your teachings.

Beautiful presentation.