Скачать или смотреть Basic Buddhism #5 January 4, 2024

#5 Four Noble Truths

Fireside Chat Course: Introduction to Basic Buddhism for the West and Beyond
Saturday, January 4, 2025
Kenneth K. Tanaka

Lay guest speaker: Kaethe Kauffman Honolulu, Hawaii
Buddhist Institution representative speaker:
Hoshina Seki, President, American Buddhist Study Center, New York

1. Background of this teaching
a. The Buddha’s hesitation and Hindu god Brahma’s exhortation
b. He is said to have first taught a less demanding teaching to lay persons, that of moral teachings with the ultimate goal being an entry into the heavens.
c. Then the Buddha taught the Four Noble Truths to the 5 monks who once trained with him.
d. Thus, the Four Noble Truths is an advanced teaching, one that requires serious attention and effort. Recent scholarship has revealed that “the Four Truths of the Noble One or Ones” is the more accurate translation of “cattāri ariyasaccāni.”


2. The Four Noble Truths: Call for change in our outlook, thus a religion of awakening and transformation.
a. First truth: We all experience suffering (duḥkha).
b. Second truth: The cause of our suffering lies in our attachments or the
Three Poisons
c. Third truth: Our suffering ceases when Awakening is realized.
d. Fourth truth: There is the Eightfold Noble Path for realizing
Awakening.


3. First truth: We all experience suffering.
a. Eight kinds
1. birth (a very devout Buddhist medical examiner)
2. aging
3. illness
4. death
5. having to meet up with people and situations we do not like
6. having to separate from people and situations we like
7. not getting what we want
8. Being attached to the five physical-psychological components
or constituent functions (skandhas) that make up my experience:
“The Greedy Dog” as an example
a. body and five senses
b. feelings or sensation
c. thoughts
d. intention or volition
e. consciousness and decision


4. Second truth: The cause of our suffering lies in our attachments or the
Three Poisons
a. Attachments, defilements, afflictions, blind passions, etc.
b. There are as many as 108 of them. The most often mentioned are the “Three Poisons.”
1. G.A.S. = greed, anger/hatred, & stupidity
2. D.A.I. = desire, aversion, & ignorance
c. The “Buddha and vaccum cleaner” joke.


5. Third truth: Our suffering ceases when Awakening or change (in outlook) is realized.
a. Nirvana (state where G.A.S. has been “blown out”)
b. “Transformed state of personality characterized by compassion, peace, deep spiritual joy and an absence of negative mental states and emotions such as doubt, worry, anxiety and fear.” (music band, “Nirvana”)
c. “The Monk and Hot Dog” joke
d. For us layman, suffering cannot cease completely. 1) We can, however, better understand why we suffer. 2) And we can certainly reduce the level of our suffering.


6. Fourth Truth: There is the Eightfold Noble Path for realizing Awakening.
a. We will discuss this in the next chapter in greater detail.
b. This demonstrates, again, that Buddhism is a religion of awakening rather than a religion of belief.
c. Religion of awakening calls for us to practice.


7. The aim of Buddhism is to deal with duḥkha or suffering of an unawakened way of life.
a. That is why, the Four Noble Truths begin with the first truth, that is, “We all experience suffering (duhkha).”
b. The difference between “difficulities” and “duhkha.” The former has to do with the objective dimension, while the latter has to do with the subjective dimenion of our lives. The former has to do with “what happens to us,” while the latter has to do with “how we respond to what happens to us.” (page 109)

“Difficulties are mandatory, but suffering is optional!”

c. Despite this reality, Buddhist temples in Japan and elsewhere cater to people’s worldly desires.

d. While we cannot control much of what happens to us on the horizontal dimension, by practicing the Four Noble Truths we should be able to enjoy better human relationship. But this would be a natural outcome of us exemplifying greater wisdom and compassion towards others.

e. Again, for us layman, suffering cannot cease completely, but we can certainly 1) better understand the reasons why we suffer and 2) make some meaningful changes in my life to reduce it.

f. Buddhism is not so much concerned with how the world began or the how large the universe is. Instead, we are like the person shot with an arrow in the metaphor of the “Poison Arrow.” (page 143).

g. This does not mean that Buddhism is unconcerned about the happiness of the world.

h. If the ideals of the Four Noble Truths can be implemented widely in our contemporary society, it would accord with the aspirations and policies of the late President Jimmy Carter, especially those after he left the White House.

“Difficulties are mandatory, but suffering is optional!”