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Four Noble Truths: Nirodha (2 of 5) Freedom from Craving

The topic today is continuing on the Third Noble Truth, which is the noble truth of the cessation of suffering. In the most classic discussion of this, as I said yesterday, it's the cessation of that craving that leads to further birth or rebirth. However, most people, in interpreting and using the teaching about this Third Noble Truth and also the Second Noble Truth, don't really make reference to how this particular classic teaching has to do with rebirth, but rather how it applies to daily life. In our life, in all kinds of ways, craving has a phenomenal role in how we suffer, and we want to learn how to be free of that craving.

The way this is discussed in the Third Noble Truth is the freedom from, the non-clinging to, the non-attachment to, and the non-enchantment with craving. It has a lot to do with our relationship to craving.

When I was a new meditator, I had a lot of knee pain. I learned that in order to be able to sit and breathe in a relaxed way and not be miserable, I had to notice the reactivity I had to my knee pain. There were all kinds of reactivity, but I remember there was a period of time where I saw clearly the relationship between my self-pity in having all this pain and the severity of the pain. I'd have the knee pain, I would resist it, react to it, have self-pity, and my little muscles around my knee would tighten, and the pain would get worse. If I let go of the self-pity, the muscles would relax, and the pain was better. Because it was so intense, I felt like I had no choice. I had to really track myself carefully to make sure that there was no self-pity, and to let go of it as it came up. Then I would just be with the pain, and it wouldn't be as bad.

Learning how the reactivity we have is extra is a powerful thing to do. We have extra reactivity to desires themselves; we reach for them, we want them, we don't want them, and we feed them and fuel them. Even the negative not-wanting something to be there keeps us caught in the cycles of wanting and not-wanting.

The clarity of mind of mindfulness begins seeing the conditional relationship between different ways in which we react and respond. In that clarity, we can begin leaving things alone. We can leave desires alone and not pick them up, cravings alone. We can see them arise, but we don't do anything about them. Or we can see that the cravings and desires have an underlying condition. That condition might be as simple as something pleasant or unpleasant, something pleasant or painful that we're reacting to, and the desires, the cravings, the resistances arise in dependence and conditional dependence to the pleasantness or unpleasantness.

To see that clearly in the mind, so clearly we can just leave it alone, then we don't have a problem with the craving. We don't have to make the cravings bad, or a sin, or evil to have them. We just see it as another phenomenon that's arising, that's appearing, that we don't have to get involved in. We just look at that—it's like watching a cloud going through the sky, just a natural phenomenon that's going through. The non-involvement with craving can be that strong if the mindfulness is clear enough. It's phenomenal to begin having a very different relationship to inner life, one in which we don't have to judge, or be critical, or be reactive to. You see it, and in the clarity of seeing, we are not involved with it, we're not picking it up; it's just there. In that clarity, we also start seeing the conditionality, as I'm saying. It might be as simple as really seeing the connection between pleasant and unpleasant, and how we react to it with desires, aversions, and craving. By seeing that conditionality, we can leave things alone.

We start seeing that things exist conditionally, and as conditions, they're impermanent. They're inconstant, coming and going into existence. For the Buddha, this ability to see how things are conditional, how things arise because of other conditions, is one of the things that leads to freedom. One of the reasons for that is that we see that our experiences are not permanent, they're not everlasting, we're not stuck in them.

I remember once, many years ago, when my first son was quite young, and we were having a difficult day with him. I remember we were kind of hovering over him, this teeny little toddler, trying to manage something. My wife looked up at me and she said, "We're having one of those kinds of days." As soon as she said that, I noticed how much I was operating, almost unconsciously, as if this difficulty we were having was going to be forever. That was kind of my mindset. Of course, if you had asked me, I knew it wasn't going to be forever, but my subconscious, the way it was reacting or responding, was as if that was the case. When she said, "We're having one of those kinds of days," it kind of popped that bubble of permanence. "Oh, it's just a day. Okay." And then I could relax and settle in, and be much more at ease with what was going on.

The Buddha said something very interesting. He said if you see any experience—and here the focus can be our own psychophysical experience, our mind states, thoughts, feelings, or desires—if we can see any of these things as they arise, as they appear, we're not going to believe that they don't exist. They do exist in a certain kind of way; they've appeared. However, if we also see that they pass, then we won't believe in their absolute existence. If we see them arise, we don't believe in their non-existence. If we see them pass, we won't believe in their existence. The idea here is permanent non-existence or absolute non-existence, as if it doesn't exist, versus if it really does exist permanently. It's a fascinating distinction the Buddha makes.

If things neither exist permanently nor don't exist, how are they? They are processes that are constantly changing and evolving. In fact, the conclusion of this little teaching he gives is to emphasize that things are constantly arising and passing. Seeing that begins to loosen up the hold and the grip of our craving and our desire.

We begin shifting our relationship to craving, desires, and aversions, so there is no passion for them. There is a powerful word in the ancient language for a kind of lust, clinging to them, grasping for them, being enchanted by them, depending on them, resting our life on these desires and aversions. This freeing up so that there is no clinging, no craving—this is a phenomenal thing to do because it frees up what's wholesome within us. It frees up the goodness of our hearts in a powerful way, and allowing the goodness of our hearts to flow is one of the great pleasures and treasures of Buddhist practice.

I say that today because a lot of the goal over and over again in the early Buddhist teachings has to do with absence—obviously with letting go, not having clinging, not having craving, not having resistance. It's about letting go of holding, abandoning craving. It's all a kind of absence of something, but it's a glorious absence, because in the absence of what blocks or obstructs our minds and hearts, our hearts can develop and flow. This is the naturalness, the Dhammatā^[1], or the Magga^[2], the path. Over and over again, the Buddha presents the path to practice as a path that develops, grows, and unfolds over time, like a river flowing down a slope or a plant that's germinating and flowering. If we can get out of the way and no longer obstruct what's here, it's phenomenal what begins to unfold and open in the practice. The path opens up for us.

So, on Nirodha^[3], the cessation of suffering, I said yesterday that Nirodha also means non-obstruction. To really develop a clarity of mind that can see the arising and passing of things clearly enough, we see pleasure, pain, discomfort, the desires in relationship to it, and are able to just see that without it obstructing anything, without us getting caught and tangled with it. This is one of the goals of practice. This is one of the ways in which we are able to cut the clinging, the grasping, the entanglement that gives birth to suffering.

So that is another kind of little take on this topic, and we'll continue with Nirodha, the cessation of suffering, tomorrow. Thank you.