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Four Noble Truths: Patipada (5 of 5) The Flowering of Ease

So, hello and welcome to this last talk on the Four Noble Truths. I guess it's the 20th talk on this topic, and this can be kind of the concluding talk, the summary talk, or something.

I want to start by bringing up a statement that the Buddha made, that the Buddha teaches suffering and the end of suffering. This very pithy way of talking about the essence of what the Buddhist teachings are about clears the air; it clears it all to point to just the essential elements of what this is about. It's one of the things that we can keep in the back of our mind: that all of the teachings of Buddhism, the practices of Buddhism, and the way of life that Buddhism supports are for this purpose—to come to the end of suffering, the end of the unease or distress and stress that we might have.

With that principle as a guideline, we then practice, live, and reflect on our lives with that in mind. What I'm doing now, does that lead me to greater suffering, or does it bring me freedom from suffering? Is this perspective I'm using now supportive to move to the end of suffering? Does this understanding, this practice, this activity that I'm doing really help not just for the short-term ending of suffering, but really the long-term?

That's an important point because some people are just looking for relief. Relief is not the same thing as release. Relief is temporary. It's just getting back into comfort, and it can even be an escape from really looking deeply into our lives. The task of ending suffering requires us to look deeply, to really be present for something, even for the great difficulty we have. If we're too quick to avoid the suffering, the pain, and the difficulties of our lives, then we're not really working for the long-term ending of suffering. We have to really be present.

Putting the Four Noble Truths at the center of Buddhism is something I just really love because it's putting a very pragmatic purpose in the middle of Buddhism without the need for a lot of other beliefs. There are no supernatural beliefs, no creeds that you have to believe in that seem too foreign from what you're about. Putting at the center of it something that most people can identify with and feel as a way forward is not much different than if you have a thorn in your foot: you pull it out. If you feel the pain of the thorn, you pull it out. There might be a little bit of pain at first to pull it out, but for your long-term well-being, it's good to pull it out so it doesn't dig in deeper.

The Buddha talked about a thorn in the heart. What he discovered with his awakening was that there's a thorn in the heart, and that thorn can be pulled out. There is something extra going on within us that brings on the suffering that we contribute to—this thorn—and it can be pulled out. We can come to the end of suffering.

I like to think of this as a very naturalistic form of religious life in that it is really orienting itself around a very natural aspect of our felt experience. We can recognize this in itself. You don't need a big book on Buddhism or a PhD in Buddhism to begin appreciating when there's suffering and the absence of it, when there's unease and when there becomes ease, and to use that as a guide to really look deeply.

These Four Noble Truths are fourfold perspectives that help us with that task of looking in at suffering and coming to the end of it. It turns out that there are many different perspectives that different teachers and different people use in this fourfold framework to help them look at suffering and coming to the end of it. These different applications and perspectives probably worked for them to some degree. And maybe they'll work for us in some settings in our lives; at certain times, certain perspectives are more useful than others.

I've tried in this four-week series to point out that part of the perspective for understanding the Four Noble Truths depends a little bit on the state of our mind, or where we are engaged in our own ordinary life. In a complex ordinary life of work and family, our very ordinary way of thinking is to look at cause and effect. Sometimes we spend a lot of time asking, "Why did that happen?" Rather than saying "Don't do that"—that is completely appropriate sometimes, and very deep relief, release, and healing can happen by understanding a cause. Some people will journal, talk to friends, or talk to therapists to really try to unpack what goes on until they find some core thing that they see as the primary condition that needs to be unraveled and worked out.

To help point us to something that we have some ability to do something about, we must really look within ourselves. There are causes of suffering outside of us. Sometimes we can deal with them and address them, but maybe sometimes we can't. But to really look at, What am I contributing to this suffering of mine? What's my role in it being there? Even if 90% of the cause is external and 10% is internal, it's a very maturing, liberating, and deepening process to look at that 10%. Not to ignore the 90% out there, but this is where that seed of awakening, the seed of very deep peace and maturation of wisdom, can grow when we really look inside.

The tradition in this perspective will say, look at the craving. Look at thirst. Look at drivenness and compulsion. Where is that in the system? And then let go of it. Bring it to an end. Because it's difficult to do, live a life that sets in place the conditions that allow you to become settled and clean enough to look deeply into what's going on here. So that's a little bit more of the traditional understanding of the Four Noble Truths.

A whole other perspective, which is a powerful current in the teachings of the Buddha, is first to look at the conditions, to look at the ecology and the landscape of suffering. This is where, as the mind becomes quieter and mindfulness becomes stronger, we can take a wider look at what's going on. So we're not just caught up in cause, and caught up maybe with "me, myself, and mine" and "you over there" and what you're doing. We take it out of the realm of over-identification around self, and start seeing that there's a wider field of conditionality—of conditions that are in play here. We learn to engage in that world of conditions, shifting, moving, developing, and letting go of conditions to help us with the overcoming of suffering. This is a part of developing the Eightfold Path, putting in the conditions that support this deeper letting go of the causes of suffering.

At a deeper level, especially in meditation, the Buddha teaches a lot about the tremendous value of being very, very still, quiet, vibrant, and having a very clear mind. Resting in this peaceful mind and allowing the stream, the river of life, just to flow. We see the inconstancy^[1] of experience, how it's constantly flowing and moving and arising and passing. Some of the deepest, maybe subconscious areas of holding on and clinging are best addressed not in the world of concepts, ideas, causes, or even conditions, but rather at this very primal level of experience, at the foundation of experience having to do with how moment-to-moment experience is flowing and moving.

Any kind of suffering we have involves some attempt to try to stop, block, hold on to, or resist this flow of experience. To experience that flow and then to let go more deeply—the deepest letting go is in this field of inconstancy. But to come to that quiet state of mind where inconstancy can have that powerful of an impact, you have to have already let go of a lot to be that still and quiet.

I've offered three different perspectives here. There are many other perspectives for these Four Noble Truths. I'll end with what I said at the beginning of the meditation: we all have a capacity for freedom from suffering. From the suffering that we contribute to, to the forces inside our own heart of conflict, holding on, resistance, fear, greed, hatred, resentment, envy, and conceit—we all have a capacity for peace and for ease. It exists in us originally, perhaps as a little seed. That seed needs to be nourished and watered. And if that seed is nourished and watered, given the right fertile conditions, it will grow into a beautiful plant.

This idea that what's in us is there ready to grow and unfold points to a very positive view of human nature and our potential. There's something really good, wholesome, and wonderful waiting for us, a liberating process that moves us to peace. Part of it is learning how to create fertile ground for it, how to water it, how to make room for this plant to grow, and how to get out of the way. How to let something which is a natural process move through us that's distinct from our personal efforts to make and do and accomplish and attain and acquire—all the actions of the self. This is certainly okay in some settings, but there's something which is deeper than self, or larger than self. There's something within us that's not associated with what we identify as the self or what we define ourselves by, that mostly we don't do, but we allow.

This allowing of peace, the allowing of freedom from suffering, allowing the possibility to become free to happen, is the whole point of the Four Noble Truths. This ennobling freedom is something that we all can do.

Q&A

I'd like to say that yes, we're going to continue next week with these early morning sittings. I haven't decided on the theme for next week yet. I can tell you some ideas I have if you please don't commit me to it. I think the top of the list is to do five talks on what's called the Seven Factors of Awakening. They were requested earlier that I teach about it. The other is to do five talks on metta^[2], loving-kindness. Sooner or later I'll do all of these, but I'll do something next week starting Monday at 7:00 AM here in California.

How about the Eightfold Path? The Eightfold Path is a little bit what I talked about this week. In one of the interpretations or ways of understanding the Fourth Noble Truth, it is defined by the Eightfold Path. The Eightfold Path as the Fourth Noble Truth is the conditions that enable the cessation of suffering. It's a beautiful path, and certainly someday we could do a series of talks on the Eightfold Path.

Could you please say something about the killings of so many of our African-American brothers and sisters by the police? How does the Dharma guide us in facing these situations? I think that the Four Noble Truths also apply in our society. Sometimes I like the idea that the Four Noble Truths don't have any pronouns associated with them. Sometimes what we want to do is actually turn our gaze and study the suffering in the world. Really look at it clearly and be a witness to it. Sometimes the world needs us to be a witness for the suffering of the world, to not turn away from it, and to use our capacity to have some ease with what's tremendously painful to stay present and really see it and take it in and try to understand.

It might mean that we have our hearts broken. My heart breaks regularly with what's happening. The killing of African-Americans in this country is more than heartbreaking; it's wrenching that this should happen. But be willing to stay open and to feel that and to look at it, to become wiser by it, and allow yourself to become different because of it. Allow yourself to become a better person.

The more distressed you feel about what goes on in our society, the more important it is that you do something about it. It doesn't mean that you go to Minneapolis and talk to the police chief. It means that somehow in the way that your life is lived, you learn something more about what's going on in our society so you can become changed. You do something that benefits people in this regard. It could be very small what you do. But if we're not changed by the things that upset us, then I think we're probably not free. Be willing to look at what's happening, be a witness to it, take our time with it, and then be changed and try to be an agent of change one way or the other.

I've been meditating for many years. While my concentration has improved, my mind still wanders so much and anxiety arrives. Is this normal? I think it's best to consider everything normal, to normalize everything. Because then it's a little easier to be at ease with it. Seeing whatever's happening with you in meditation as normal, then the question is, given this that's happening, what is wise? What is a helpful way to go forward from here?

I'm happy that your concentration has improved over time. It might be that at some point when you're able to sit quiet enough and concentrated enough, what needs your concentration is the anxiety itself. At some point when the mind wanders off, don't come back to the breath to get concentrated. Turn your attention towards the suffering. Towards the anxiety. That anxiety might need you.

One of the things I like to teach is you want to help your anxiety feel safe. You want to be able to hold it in the palm of your awareness, and just let it be safe. Do not criticize, do not try to fix it, do not try to get rid of it, because then anxiety is going to feel even worse. Rather, hold it and be a witness to it. See what happens and see what you can learn and see what it wants, and really understand just by being with it. Sometimes anxiety and fear held that way will reveal what's going on. Sometimes it'll just begin to finally relax: "You know, I'm being held, I'm being seen here."

Can you post the IRC oatmeal recipe on the site? I felt so taken care of at IRC. Well, that's very sweet. Those of you who haven't been to IRC [Insight Retreat Center] might not know, it's the teachers who make the oatmeal in the morning at the retreats. We make breakfast and put it out, so it's our job to make the oatmeal. I think it's a standard oatmeal recipe. The only difference maybe from what the box says is: be sure to put a lot of love and mindfulness into it.

How do we know if we are practicing with right effort? Previously, I think I was straining too much, so now I'm wondering if I'm going too easy. Great question. This is the perfect question for finding right effort. Everyone needs to find it for themselves. Am I straining? Am I trying too hard? Am I trying too little? Am I complacent or too easygoing?

Inevitably, people will swing back and forth between those two, sometimes at extreme ends. As practice goes deeper, the swings become narrower and narrower. But there are always little swings going on. You're not always looking at the question of what is right effort—sometimes you're close enough. But then you kind of feel it. Tuning into suffering and tuning into unease is actually very important for meditation practice, because if we become increasingly sensitive to where the unease is, where the stress is, and where the discomfort is, sooner or later you'll feel the discomfort of trying too hard. And you'll feel a kind of discomfort, a dissatisfaction that comes with not trying enough. In this way we become our own teacher and we make little adjustments to find our way.

I am interested in how to apply the Eightfold Path in everyday life. Wonderful. I'll think about maybe spending time on the Eightfold Path one of these weeks.

Is there a permanent part within according to the Buddha, like the purusha or atman? Your view on reincarnation? Yeah, it's a very important and big part of the religions of India, this idea that there's a permanent everlasting atman or kind of like a soul; sometimes we translate it as self within us.

The Buddha was very interesting in that he was very pragmatic. He was really only looking at what we can actually see for ourselves and need to see for ourselves to become free of suffering. I would say he was not that interested in whether there is or is not a permanent self. He did have a teaching called anatta^[3]. It isn't so much that there is no self, but rather in the world of experience—what we can actually directly know for the purposes of liberation—nothing in our experience is that permanent self. If there is a permanent self beyond the realm of experience, I think the Buddha would have said it's not really that relevant.

With respect for other religions that do emphasize that, we could look more carefully at those religions and see that there are a lot of similarities. In some ways, these two different traditions are not that different. Even though one posits one thing and one posits another, they're all looking towards liberation and all have to work through many of the same issues to get to what they think is a liberated state.

How can I best support you in your practice? Ah, well, that's very nice to ask. Just you asking makes a difference for me. I am supported by the people who practice. If you practice sincerely, that inspires me and supports me and will support many, many people. That's really the best way that I can be supported.

Is there a book from Bhikkhu Bodhi^[4] that you recommend? I think just about everything from Bhikkhu Bodhi is very, very much worthwhile reading. He's a great thinker and I use his translations a lot. His commentary on the suttas, his reflection... he's a wonderful thinker and a wonderful practitioner, and a really sweet, kind man. It's always useful to read Bhikkhu Bodhi.

How can the Buddha help me lose weight? There was apparently a king in the time of the Buddha, Pasenadi. They were kind of friends. Pasenadi was overweight and the Buddha seems to have given him some advice, but I don't know what that is. It's in the suttas, I don't know quite where it is. Hopefully, mindfulness and concentration and the inner practice that we do helps us to have the right attitude, the right approach, and right discipline for whatever is needed in terms of weight, whether it's losing weight or whether it's learning to be at ease with the weight that we have.

I'm sorry if I missed some of the questions here, but it's time to end. Thank you. I feel very fortunate to have this chance to unfold these teachings on the Four Noble Truths in the way I did. I hope it's been clear enough and helpful enough. For some of you who don't know much about this, maybe it was a nice beginning to reflect a little bit about this very important Buddhist teaching.

Thank you, and I look forward to perhaps seeing many of you again on Monday. Bye-bye.