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Four Noble Truths: Samudaya (2 of 5) The Conditionality of Suffering

For this second talk on the Second Noble Truth, the truth of the arising of suffering, I'm going to talk about a variation of what I discussed yesterday. Yesterday, we explored the common interpretation that the Second Noble Truth is the cause of suffering. A variation of that is that rather than looking for a cause, the Second Noble Truth is pointing to the conditions, the conditionality of suffering. What we want to discover here are the conditions for the arising of suffering.

There is a strong tendency in the teachings of the Buddha to avoid what could be called causal language. Causal, in the sense of a deterministic cause, implies that when X happens, Y will necessarily happen. If it were deterministic in that way, there would be no room for practice. We would simply experience the inevitable results of what happened in the past, and there would be no point in practicing or doing anything differently. With an unbroken continuity of past causes, our experience would be something we just have to endure. The Buddha was quite explicitly against this view.

Another reason he was reluctant to talk about direct causes seems to be that causal language lends itself to the idea of an agent—someone who is the cause. So, rather than repeatedly talking about an agent, the Buddha chose language and descriptions of reality that focus on how conditions come together. It is the conditionality, the flow, the process of conditionality that gives birth to the world we experience.

In this regard, the Second Noble Truth is not looking at a deterministic cause, but rather at the necessary condition for suffering to exist. If the necessary condition is present, it doesn't have to lead to suffering, but if there is suffering, that necessary condition must be in place.

This might start to look like complicated philosophy, but it has a lot to do with how our perspective on our lives changes as we begin meditation practice. In ordinary life, it is completely natural to look for causes over time. If I was angry with my friend yesterday, and now my friend doesn't want to see me, I suffer. The cause of that suffering is what happened yesterday. That is the ordinary way of seeing, but it requires a more complicated analysis involving the past, present, and future.

When we look at a meditative experience, we are focusing on the conditionality in the present moment. What is happening right now? By observing the present moment experience, we can discover awakening and real freedom. We don't have to analyze what we were doing yesterday or figure out the distant root cause of our feelings. In meditation, we are looking at the moment-to-moment experience as it arises.

One of the remarkable things about quiet, deep mindfulness meditation is that we can watch things arise without referencing a self. I didn't plan that thought. I didn't will that thought. Of course, a particular thought is happening within me, but "me" as an agent doesn't seem to be operating it; it is just a thought. A thought arises, and we don't identify it as "me."

You can watch something arise without identifying with it, and it's possible to see how, with the arising of one thing, something else arises. This happens not as a necessary result, but in relationship to the first thing, with the first acting as a condition. For example, if I have a thought about a high school girlfriend, that's just a thought that can come and go. I might have those thoughts periodically over my adult life with no emotional charge attached to them. But it might be that I get angry. The anger doesn't necessarily have to follow the thought about the girlfriend, but without the initial thought, that specific anger about what happened wouldn't occur.

It's possible to have both of those arise and simply see them in the clarity of awareness. In that clarity, we're not involved in them, picking at them, or reacting to them. They just seem to float up, appear, and then the next one appears based on the first one. There starts to be a kind of freedom in relationship to them—a freedom from reactivity.

In the meditative mind, rather than looking for a cause, we look for conditionality. Conditions allow us to see a bigger picture. Often, when we look for a cause, we identify a single thing and say, "That's the cause." But there can be a wide range of conditions that add up to our suffering.

For example, imagine I am driving down the freeway to work every day, and I see a billboard for some wonderful product. I salivate and really want it. It's hard not to get off the freeway right then to go buy it. Every day I feel this tremendous desire to buy that thing, and I suffer because of it. I get to work frustrated and anxious, barely able to keep my attention on my job because I'm thinking about this thing I want. Then I tell myself I don't have the money to buy it, and I become frustrated with myself. The story goes on and on.

The cause of all that suffering might be my desire for this thing, but I can't seem to give up the desire because I am very stuck in it; it is too strong. However, if I look at the conditions, one of the conditions for that strong desire and obsession is seeing the billboard. So, I decide to take a different freeway or a different road so I don't see the billboard. Lo and behold, I don't get triggered in the usual way.

It's a silly example, but it shows how, when we start looking at conditions, we can see much more of the situation and find more places where we can intervene.

One of the ways we intervene in the world of conditionality is simply by allowing something to be. Craving or strong desire arises, we see it, and we know it's a condition for further clinging, grasping, and all kinds of other things. But in the meditative mind, we just see it as a single event of craving and let it be. This is described as cutting the chain of conditionality right at the point of craving.

It is said that one of the conditions for craving is that we experience something as pleasant or unpleasant. There is a direct experience of something, and it is possible to see the pleasantness of the experience, and then watch the desire arise. Because it is so clear how one follows the other, we can begin to allow them to be separate, rather than linking them together to form strength. The sequence of conditions is cut between feeling and desire, and thereby we find some freedom.

The Buddha talked a lot about conditionality. This is one of the ways the Second Noble Truth has been understood, and it can be quite helpful to see it this way. As I said, this really comes to fruition and is seen clearly in the meditative mind. Tomorrow, in the next talk, we will explore how going deeper into concentration lends itself to the next interpretation, which is probably the most common interpretation of the Four Noble Truths that the Buddha taught.

I want to thank you, and I look forward to our next time together.