--- ai_generation_date: '2026-08-15' ai_model: gemini-3-pro-preview audiodharma: talks: - date: '2020-05-25' mp3_url: https://audiodharma.us-east-1.linodeobjects.com/talks/11448/20200525-Gil_Fronsdal-IMC-four_noble_truths_patipad_1_of_5_the_fourth_noble_truth.mp3 speakers: - speaker_name: Gil Fronsdal speaker_url: https://www.audiodharma.org/speakers/1 talk_start_time_seconds: 0 title: "Four Noble Truths: Patipad\u0101 (1 of 5) The Fourth Noble Truth" url: https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/11448 video_unavailable: false location_city: Redwood City, CA video_unavailable: false youtube: id: slvDzXy3pbI imprecise_upload_date: '2021-05-04' title: 'Dharmette: Four Noble Truths: Patipada (1 of 5) The Fourth Noble Truth' upload_date: null uploader_str: Insight Meditation Center uploader_url: https://www.youtube.com/@InsightMeditationCenter youtube_url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slvDzXy3pbI --- # Four Noble Truths: Patipadā[^1] (1 of 5) The Fourth Noble Truth - [Gil Fronsdal](https://www.audiodharma.org/speakers/1) _This is an AI-generated transcript from auto-generated subtitles for the video above. It likely contains inaccuracies, especially with speaker attribution if there are multiple speakers._ ## [Four Noble Truths: Patipadā (1 of 5) The Fourth Noble Truth](https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/11448) With this talk, I begin the five-part series on the Fourth Noble Truth. We've already done three weeks—one week each on the first three Noble Truths. In a sense, the fourth builds on the first three; it is a continuation of the first three. I would like to begin with the metaphor of the mind being like water. It is an ancient part of Buddhism to refer to the mind in different ways as if it's water. What is nice about water is that it's not ice, and it is also not invisible gas as it evaporates. Beautiful, clear water has this wonderful quality where you really see the water, but you also can see through the water to what is in it. In this way, of being in the mind, being part of the mind, and having the ability to see through that clarity of awareness, we know we are aware, and in that clarity, we see what is there. The way this is expressed as a metaphor in the ancient texts is a person standing on the edge of a lake—a person who has good eyesight and is able to look down into the clear lake. The water is so clear that deep down you can see the bottom of the lake. You can see pebbles and snails moving around, and you can also see the fish moving around slowly. In the same way, when the mind is clear, it looks deep into the mind, deep into our experience. It sees the things that are stationary—the pebbles—and it sees the things that are moving and coming and going, all seen in clarity. This metaphor of looking into a clear lake and seeing the fish and things in it is used for a mind which is prepared for full awakening. Somehow, when the mind is settled, calm, and unagitated[^2], where the mud of the hindrances[^3] has all settled down, then the mind is ready for a very deep letting go. It is perfectly a freedom and a releasing of the deepest forms of attachment. The Four Noble Truths are central aspects of this movement towards this freedom and release. As I've been saying these past weeks, there are different interpretations for what these Four Noble Truths are, but the earliest predominant understanding that we find in the ancient teachings of the Buddha is different than what we might expect. Those of us who have learned the Four Noble Truths from modern teachers or modern books expect them to be one thing, but the Four Noble Truths predominantly are deep insights into seeing what is there, seeing its arising, and seeing its ceasing. You are really seeing the coming and going of phenomena. Now, you can see this in ordinary life. The metaphor I like is being on the riverbank, leaning against a tree, just watching the river go by. Of course, you see the river flow, flowing and flowing. That's what a river is; it's flowing. Some people get very relaxed and contented just watching a river flowing and flowing, and you can do it for hours sometimes. There is something very captivating and relaxing about it. But what we are talking about here, at least in the earlier teachings of the Buddha, is deep meditative experience. We have done the inner work, the inner clearing, settling the mind and settling our issues. We have meditated long enough that the mind gets quiet and still enough to become more and more like a clear lake. The mind becomes able to see the fish, the snails, and the pebbles of our mind—to see the details. At some point, we see them coming and going. What we are seeing at this level is deeper than the experience of our stories, our concepts, and the ways in which we sew together our reality through desires, aversions, and wanting. We are just allowing things to be at the sense level, at the "pixel level" of experience—the individual data points that arise and pass in experience. It can be a very pleasant, meaningful, and inspiring state to have the mind with that level of clarity and subtleness, seeing things come and go. When the mind has that kind of openness, clarity, and room for leaving things alone, there is a sense of freedom in that. There is a sense that we are granting everything its freedom. Rather than _we_ becoming free, the deeper freedom of Buddhism is that we give everything else its freedom. Everything is allowed just to be as it is. Now, remember we are talking about a very deep state of meditation. We are not having to contend with the social complexities of life at this point. In this very deep state, we can just grant freedom to everything that comes: thoughts, feelings, sensations, whatever. That sense of freedom is there without understanding the "cause" of our suffering, without the stories about why things are. There is no need to ask the question "why," or to have an explanation, or to have an understanding of things per se, except that we understand that things are constantly flowing, moving, and developing. The way this is expressed in the ancient tradition is that one understands suffering, one understands the arising of suffering, one understands the ceasing of suffering, and the fourth statement is that one understands that this is the practice leading to the ceasing of suffering. This practice is pointing back to—or explaining—that it is this seeing of the arising and ceasing, in that clarity of just seeing things come in the clear lake of the mind, and the freedom that comes with leaving things alone. Just seeing that things can come and go without our involvement or engagement means that we are free of it, and it is free of us. Here, there is freedom. There is no involvement or entanglement here. There is no greed or wanting for it. There is a very deep cessation, not only of the things coming and ceasing, but also a cessation of our clinging, craving, and wanting of them. Here is where freedom is found. So this is the practice, and this is a practice that we do over and over again. If we take ourselves back to this level of practice and truly experience it[^4], to be saturated by it, conditioned by it, and relaxed by it, it keeps opening us and freeing us more and more. The more we discover the deeper holdings—the places left over where we are still clinging and attached—they begin to dissolve and we begin to let go, sometimes dramatically and sometimes slowly. At some point, when this process becomes steep enough, the letting go happens in a very deep and thorough way. At that point, these four liberating insights no longer remain just what we understand, but what we are fully awakened to. The language in ancient texts goes from understanding to becoming fully awakened. When we are fully awakened, the texts then refer to them as the Noble Truth of Suffering, the Noble Truth of the Arising of Suffering, the Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering, and the Noble Truth of the Practice leading to the Cessation of Suffering (the full awakening). This is what it is. It is the deepest letting go, the deepest releasing of things—a full awakening. This is a very different understanding of the Noble Truths than the idea that the Noble Truths simply point to the cause of suffering, saying that craving is the cause and we must let go of craving. This is actually a deeper understanding. The craving idea of the Four Noble Truths[^5] is something we will talk about later; that is a later application of them. But at its heart, the way it is talked about in the early tradition is really this very deep experience and insight into inconstancy[^6], seen over and over again until it leads to awakening. It is a kind of two-step process: first, there is a very deep understanding—"Ah, this is the way, now I know what the practice is"—followed, sooner or later, by it maturing, growing, and developing into greater and greater release and freedom. Regarding the word "Noble" that is talked about here, it doesn't refer to the truths, but rather refers to the people who have become noble—people who have a certain kind of dignity or value. The ancient word is _Ariya_[^7]. It is a little bit unfortunate what happened historically with this word in the 20th century in Europe, but this is an ancient Indian word originally for a class of people who were considered the nobles, or in some ways the conquerors of parts of India. But the Buddha took it on to refer to a certain worthiness, fullness, or value of someone who is fully freed and awakened. Technically, the ancient Pali language doesn't really say "Four Noble Truths," even though that is how we keep translating it into English. The most likely grammar of the phrase means "The Truths of the Noble Ones." This is very important because Buddhism focuses on the transformation of people, not the idea of abstract truths. It is the insight and realization of those who are realized, of the Noble Ones. This is the background for going[^8] more deeply into this Fourth Noble Truth that we are going to talk about this week. We will see tomorrow how this relates to the Eightfold Path. Traditionally, in subsequent interpretations that came down through the centuries and reached us today, the most common understanding of the Fourth Noble Truth is that it _is_ the Eightfold Path. But the Eightfold Path in the early tradition is also very different than how it has come to us. It is more intimately related to awakening itself than has often been presented. It is often presented as the beginner's path: you do these practices, and they lead to awakening. But it is actually an expression of awakening itself. It is an expression of this deep cessation, this deep fulfillment of seeing the arising and passing of phenomena, leaving things alone. When the mind becomes really clear, in that great clarity, peacefulness, and ease of mind—that is where we find the Eightfold Path. We will talk more about this tomorrow. Thank you very much. --- [^1]: **Patipadā:** A Pali word meaning "path," "way," or "method of practice," referring to the path leading to the cessation of suffering. [^2]: Original transcript said "uneducated", corrected to "unagitated" based on the context of the mind being settled and calm. [^3]: **Hindrances (Nīvaraṇa):** In Buddhism, the five hindrances are mental factors that hinder progress in meditation: sensory desire, ill will, sloth and torpor, restlessness and worry, and doubt. [^4]: Original transcript said "the greeley experience", corrected to "truly experience it" based on context. [^5]: Original transcript said "supportable truth", corrected to "the Four Noble Truths" based on context. [^6]: **Inconstancy (Anicca):** A Pali word meaning "impermanence" or "inconstancy," one of the three essential marks of existence in Buddhism. [^7]: **Ariya:** A Pali (and Sanskrit: _Arya_) term meaning "noble," "excellent," or "worthy." In Buddhism, it refers to an individual who has attained a stage of awakening. [^8]: Original transcript said "Goudy", corrected to "going" based on context.