Four Noble Truths in Daily Life

Dr.Thynn Thynn

The Four Noble Truths are the cornerstone of Buddhism. Understanding them helps us in daily life. The First Noble Truth is Dukkha, or Suffering. The Second Noble Truth is Samudaya or Cause (of Suffering). The Third Noble Truth is Nirodha or Cessation (of Suffering). The Fourth Noble Truth is Magga, the Noble Eight-fold Path leading to the cessation of Suffering.

M: When I hear the First Noble Truth, that life is Suffering, I think Buddhism is a pessimistic, negative philosophy.

T: Yes, some people misunderstand it that way. But this is because the teaching has not been fully understood. When Dukkha is translated as Suffering, it is understood as gross physical suffering. But in truth, Dukkha can be experienced on many levels; the actual meaning of Dukkha encompasses the whole range of human experience from very subtle dissatisfaction to gross misery. Dukkha is the inescapable fact of old age, illness and death. It is being separated from what one likes,and enduring what one dislikes.

At the most profound level, Dukkha is the failure to understand the Insubstantiality of all things.Everything is insubstantial; nothing is concrete, nothing is tangible. To be ignorant of or go against the natural state of Impermanence is itself Suffering.

Buddhism is negative only if we look at the First Noble Truth in isolation. But if you look at the Four Noble Truths collectively, you will find that they are positive, because the three other Noble Truths show the way out of Suffering.

M: But how do we incorporate the Four NobleTruths into daily life?

T: That is not difficult. To begin with, you have to see Dukkha in its entirety before you see your way out of it. You don’t have to be in physical or mental agony to understand Dukkha. It is everywhere around you. Right now, how do you feel about the pounding noise next door?
< Noisy construction work was going on at a neighbour’s house.>

M: I feel irritated because I want to have a peaceful experience and listen to you and learn what you are talking about. I fact, I’m trying to eliminate the noise from my consciousness, but I can’t.

T: Because that is not the way to solve the problem.

M: The noise annoys me and I want to stop it, I have a craving for the workers to stop.

T: Well then, you have already set up a desire that the noise should stop. How did the desire arise? It arose from your dissatisfaction with the current situation. In other words, you desire a peaceful circumstance right now. Since you can’t have it, you’re annoyed. there is already aversion in your mind.

Suspose your were in the midst of doing something that was very important to you. Then this aversion might flare up into overt anger, hatred, or even violence. Aversion is already a stressful state. Anger, hatred and violence bring on even greater stress and suffering, both to oneself and others. These are the truths that we have to face in every moment of our daily lives. But we are not aware of this aversion and suffering.. We blame our Dukkha on someone or something else.

This lack of awareness is called avijjā, or ignorance – that is, ignorance about the Four Noble Truths. This ignorance is described as an unawakened state. If you wake up to your own state of mind, right now, you will see what is happening there.

Can you look into your mind this very moment and see what is happening there?

M: See what?

T: What happens to the annoyance.

M: When I become aware of the annoyance, it sort of lessens.

T: As soon as you’ become aware of the annoyance, the aversion fades away. It resolves in the mind.

M: Yeah, a little bit.

T: Is it still there?

M: You mean the annoyance? It’s much less. It is still there but it is much less now. (Laughter) I see. So, it’s not a question of putting the irritation out of your mind. It is a question of accepting the fact that your mind is irritated and annoyed.

T: You are right. The issue is not the noise. It is your reaction to the noise. You have to deal with yourself first before you deal with the noise. Now, what are you going to do about it?

M: That’s my next question. We have a number of choices. We can move away from the noise. We can ask the workers to stop hammering. We can continue to sit here and try to maintain our awareness of the noise to minimize the irritation.
You have to be clear. Is it awareness of the noise or the awareness of your own state of mind?

M: Awareness of my own state of mind regarding it.

T: Right. There are many situations in life when you will not be able to eliminate external factors. We cannot eliminate or control most of the external factors but we can do something about ourselves. You begin with yourself. Since, you are born with a freewill, it is absolutely up to you what you want to do with yourself.

M: Are you saying that since I cannot make the noise go away, I can just choose to accept it?

T: You must understand the difference between accepting things blindly and accepting them intelligently. Acceptance can be complete only when you harbour no judgments. Now let’s go back to the Four Noble Truths. Your dissatisfaction with the noisy circumstance is the First Noble Truth of Suffering – Dukkha. Your desire or craving for peace is the Second Noble Truth – Samudaya which is the cause of Dukkha. Now as soon as you look within yourself and resolve the annoyance, you are free from the cycle of desire-aversion-desire. Aren’t you? Now look into yourself again.

M: The annoyance is already gone! It is amazing that you had to bring the noise back again in to my awareness.

T: Let’s look at what we’ve been going through. You’ve seen that it’s possible to break the cycle of suffering by merely looking into your own state of mind. This in actual fact is mindfulness of the mind, which is the basis of Satipaṭṭhāna mediation in Buddhism.

Do you see now how practicing mindfulness can lead to the end of suffering?

M: No, not yet. How does mindfulness relate to the acceptance of the noise?

T: The acceptance is the result of mindfulness. The act of mindfulness is a transcending act. It transcends likes and dislikes, and purifies our vision. We see things as they are. When we see or hear things as the really are, acceptance comes naturally.

M: You’re aware of the noise. You get rid of the clinging to silence and you accept the noise. You accept that the noise will be part of the experience.
There is not even ‘You’ there. There is just acceptance.

M: Aahh

T: The acceptance comes from the freedom of the mind in the moment. As soon as the cycle is broken, you no longer feel annoyed. When your mind frees itself emotionally from the noise, it assumes a state of equanimity and acceptance.

M: You’re not expecting it to stop and you’re not expecting it to get louder.

T: That’s right. You’re free of any conceptualizing regarding the noise. You arrive at a point where you can just hear it as it is. With that hearing of the noise as it is, acceptance is already part of the situation. You can’t force yourself to accept it. That’s why I’m very careful using these words. When you say, “I accept’, that usually means ……

M: I’m in control.

T: Yes, that’s right and that doesn’t really solve the problem. The kind of acceptance we’re talking about is a natural spontaneous absorbing of the environment, being one with it.

M: Oh, I see. There ceases to be a division between the noise and my experience of the noise. So there is nothing to accept or to be annoyed about.