The First Noble Truth - There is Suffering in Life

Over the next four weeks we'll take a look at the Buddhist Four Noble Truths.  These four topics are foundational teachings in Buddhism and offer insights into the suffering and dissatisfaction we all experience in life. The good news from these teachings is the promise that freedom from suffering is possible and available to everyone. 

The Four Noble Truths help us (1) realize that suffering is a real part of life, (2) what causes suffering, (3) how we can lessen or remove suffering, and finally provide us with (4) an eight step training program for finding freedom from suffering (The Noble Eightfold Path).

“The very first noble truth of the Buddha points out that suffering is inevitable for human beings as long as we believe that things last—that they don’t disintegrate, that they can be counted on to satisfy our hunger for security.” - Pema Chödrön, When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times

All things and experiences are impermanent. They come and go depending on constantly changing conditions. The issue for us is that we really don't want this to be the case and it causes us a lot of suffering. The suffering can take many forms across a wide spectrum of experience from extreme physical and mental pain to the many subtle inner struggles and conflicts that arise in this human life. The Buddha spoke of "the noble truth of suffering: birth is suffering, aging is suffering, illness is suffering, death is suffering; union with what is displeasing is suffering; separation from what is pleasing is suffering; not to get what one wants is suffering. . ."  Through meditation and direct experience we can become increasingly aware of our own relationship with suffering and begin to better understand the role we play in its arising and find freedom from it.

Restlessness

Restlessness is often talked about in Buddhism as “monkey mind.”  Living in a culture that can’t sit still and has a tweet-centered response time, it’s not surprising that our minds are frequently restless and on the move.  When we are dissatisfied with the current conditions, we urgently and relentlessly looking for something better somewhere in the future.  Or, we are attempting to keep one step ahead of the results of our past experiences that we feel or believe didn’t go so well.  Restlessness, and its close relative worry, are outcomes stemming from how we perceive or view our experience in the world. The clearer we can be about our views and their accuracy and relevance in the present moment, the more we are able to adjust and fine-tune our restless minds and feel more at home now.  

Sloth and Torpor

Sloth and Torpor are experiences of mental and physical tiredness or dullness that affect our attention and concentration.  Aside from actually just needing rest, these states can arise if we’re discouraged, frustrated, bored, feeling hopeless or resistant to current experiences.  Because these states arise from how we view current conditions, we can often notice a complete change in our energy when conditions change.  If you dislike doing laundry, there may be a subtle or not so subtle shutting down or loss of energy.  If someone calls while your doing laundry and invites you to do something you enjoy, like going to dinner or going for a bike ride, you quickly find that energy was present and available all the time.

Aversion

Aversion is often described hatred and ill will and any of its many colors: anger, fear, sorrow, ill will, annoyance, irritation or a judging mind. These show up as resistance to experiences we don’t like or want in our bodies, in our minds or in the circumstances and conditions of life. With aversion, as we saw with attachment, is it most beneficial to look at the reactive state that comes up inside us rather than solely focusing on the object we're angry with or about.  

Travel and Stillness - Pico Iyers

“Anybody who travels knows that you’re not really doing so in order to move around — you’re traveling in order to be moved. And really what you’re seeing is not just the Grand Canyon or the Great Wall but some moods or intimations or places inside yourself that you never ordinarily see when you’re sleepwalking through your daily life.”

— Pico Iyers



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Attachment

It isn’t unusual to have uneasy or insecure feelings lingering in the background of our experience in the face of everything constantly changing in life (impermanence).  It’s also not unusual for us to think that it’s us against the world and that we are separate from everything and everyone else and forget that everything is interconnected and dependent on everything else (interdependence).  In response to these uncomfortable sensations we often want or desire or crave or grasp after things we believe might reduce those wobbly and isolated feelings and stabilize and solidify our lives (attachment). We eventually realize though that those things change too and don't really soothe the isolation. The task for our attention and reflection then is likely to be more about being open and present for things the way they really are, in what ever way they show up in our lives and minds.

Real but not True

I was reminded today of a concept and a contemplation tool that I have found very useful and wanted to share.

Here is a brief article by Tsoknyi Rinpoche about this strategy who describes it an invitation to sit with the reality of a strong emotion and ask yourself if your reaction is based on current circumstances or on remembered past experiences. With clarity about that we can know that our reaction is real but not true. It feels real in every way, but it isn't necessarily true because it is based on past experience and not current circumstances.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/Tsoknyi-rinpoche/emotions_b_1398325.html