Dhamma Talks - Four Noble Truths :: Buddhapadipa Thai Temple

If we ask the question “What does the Buddha try to tell us?” The answer must be “He tells us about the truth of life, how to get rid of the illusion which imprisons the human mind.” The truth exists in this very world. It will never be lost; even if this world is destroyed by time, or whatever, this truth will still exist. There are many truths hidden in nature, waiting for someone to discover them. For example one truth is that the world is round, but it took a long time to discover that until Aristotle presumed it from the lunar eclipse and he wrote about it in the book entitled ‘On the Heaven’ 340 years before Christ. Besides this, gravity was discovered by Galileo and gravitation was discovered by Sir Isaac Newton and heredity was discovered by Darwin. All these truths are the truths of the world and there are still many truths left to be discovered on this earth.

The Buddha knew many things about this very world, but did not teach all of them to the world. If he had taught all the knowledge he had, the world would have taken many life-times to learn what he had discovered. Even so they might not finish it. With this realization, he taught only what was necessary for human life. He illustrated this by the simile of a wounded man who was shot by an arrow. He though in serious pain, asked who had shot him, what he looked like, why he had shot him, what kind of material the arrow was made of. He did not allow a doctor to cure him until he knew all the answers; only then would he allow the doctor to treat him. He would die before he knew the answers. He did not know that what he should do first; was let to the doctor pull the arrow out, and then get treated. After that he could ask whatever he wanted to know. All those questions would have led to knowledge, but it was not necessary to know the answer at that time. The Buddha said, “Life is short”, since we have a short time to live on this world, we cannot learn all the things of this world. For this reason we should choose the most suitable knowledge to develop our life standard. The Buddha once compared his teaching to a handful of leaves, to his disciples he said that the leaves in his hand were few, if they were compared to the leaves in the forest.

These things; both happiness and suffering, have appeared in every life for a long time. The happiness feeling is shorter than suffering even though they take an equal time in human life, but the feelings of happiness and suffering are totally different. This is because suffering is oppressive and causes mankind lots of pain, so the time passes by very slowly; as the Buddha said, “The human being is overwhelmed by suffering physically and mentally. Many activities in life lead to suffering.” In order to help mankind out of suffering, he taught about suffering and its solution. “When suffering does not arise, mankind will find happiness automatically”, the Buddha added.

The Buddha taught the Four Noble Truths (of life) namely; 1. Suffering does exist in this very world, 2. Suffering has a cause, 3. There is liberation from suffering, 4. There is a path leading to the cessation of suffering. These truths are very basic from the beginning to the completion of every life. The first truth, suffering, has stayed with mankind for the longest time; it may take a short time according to the clock, but it seems to stay with us very long, redoubling the perceived time. Some sufferings are small, but when we ignore them, they will become bigger and bigger, so the Buddha said that mankind must first know suffering.

In fact we have happiness, suffering and equanimity; the happiness we have is full of desire, when one hour passes, we need more and more. No matter how many hours pass, we still want more. The character of happiness is magnetic so the time of happiness passes so quickly. Suffering is oppressive and depressing; when it happens to us, just five minutes is too long for us. Suffering is full of provocation and draws out from us such things as resentfulness or malice, or ridicule. It makes us use insulting language, destroy living things or non living things etc. As for equanimity, it just passes us by.

“Suffering has a cause”, the Buddha was the first one who discovered this and taught it to the world. Suffering has an origin which is an interdependent part of a system. It is not the result of a single cause but combines many factors which make it arise. We are definitely one factor of it; we are a part of suffering, and what are the rest? The rest in fact we face in daily life. Sometimes we cannot see this clearly, because one of the three characteristics, namely ignorance, blocks our knowing, and this ignorance destroys our wisdom. When we are overwhelmed by suffering, we don’t have enough wisdom to realize it. Those who are overwhelmed by suffering are compared to a drunk. He has no restraint when he is drunk, but when he is sober, his consciousness is back to normal. Suffering is not like drunkenness, which can be relieved with time. Suffering needs to know the cause and use Dhamma to get rid of it.

“There is liberation from suffering”, the Buddha said, there is a method of getting rid of suffering. This process must be well analyzed. Sometimes the method is difficult to put into action, but it is good to have it. When we know it is difficult, we have to make an effort to do it. The method has not just arisen of its own accord, but because suffering is known to be a problem. The liberation method depends on the problem. It is compared to a patient who gets a bit sick, but can be cured easily. If he gets seriously ill so that he needs to be operated on, he needs to go to see a good doctor; so the healing depends on the illness. In the same way the method of liberation from suffering depends on the suffering.

“There is a path leading to the cessation of suffering”, by this the Buddha means the practical approach which gives most importance to the mind because the mind is the controller of verbal and physical actions. There must be not only right thinking, but, most importantly right understanding. And then come right thought, right speech and right action by which is meant mental action, verbal action and physical action. The first thing to which the Buddha gave most importance is right understanding because it is the origin of all wholesomeness. If there is no right understanding here and now, we have to cultivate it by learning and practising good teachings, and then we perform actions. A man who has no right understanding cannot perform good actions just as a traveller, going to a certain destination, if he sets off in the wrong direction, cannot get to the right destination. It is worse than that, some people do not even know that they are going the wrong way, some don’t know their destination. Some are lost but if they ask others, and listen to their advice, can come back to the right path, even though they might wait some time to get back to the right way.

The true skill of life is the art of living with purpose. This life-journey is full of beautiful scenery. It is certain that on the path we may trip over some obstacles on the way, but that makes us stronger. What is important is that we should not give up easily before getting to our destination.