The Second Noble Truth

Samudāya –Origin of suffering

The second noble truth is that the origin of Dukkha can be known.

The origin of Dukkha is commonly explained as craving or thirst (Pali: tanha)

conditioned by ignorance (Pali: avijja).

On a deeper level, the root cause of Dukkha is identified as ignorance (avijja) of the true nature of things.

Our day-to-day troubles may seem to have easily identifiable causes: Thirst

Pain from an injury

Sadness from the loss of a loved one.

In the second of his Noble Truths, though, the Buddha claimed to have found the cause of all suffering.

The Buddha taught that the root of all suffering, tanhā comes in three forms, which he described as the Three Roots of Evil.

The three roots of evil

•Greed and desire, represented in art by a

rooster

•Ignorance or delusion, represented by a pig

•Hatred and destructive urges, represented by a

snake

Let us study about Buddha’s

The Fire Sermon

“Bhikkhus, all is burning.And what is the all that is burning?The eye is burning, forms are burning, eye-consciousness is burning, eye-contact is burning, also whatever is felt as pleasant or painful or neither-painful-nor-pleasant that arises with eye-contact for its indispensable condition, that too is burning.

Burning with what? Burning with the fire of lust, with the fire of hate, with the fire of delusion. I say it is burning with birth, aging and death, with sorrows, with lamentations, with pains, with grief, with despairs.”

(The Fire Sermon (SN 35:28), translation by anamoli N,Thera)

Eye

Eye-consciousness

Eye-contact

Pleasant or painful

Not pleasant or not painful

Further explanation

The reason that we experience suffering comes ultimately from our mind. According to Buddhism, our main mental problems or root delusions are:

Attachment

Anger

Ignorance

Because of these delusions, we engage in actions that cause problems to ourselves and others. With every negative action

(karma) we do, we create a potential for negative experiences.

How can attachment bring us suffering?

“One takes a coconut and makes a hole in it, just large enough that a monkey can

squeeze its hand in. Next, tie the coconut down, and put a sweet inside. What happens next is pure attachment. The

monkey smells the sweet, puts his hand into the coconut, grabs the sweet and ... the hole is too

small to let a fist out of the coconut.

The last thing a monkey would consider is to let go of the sweet, so it is literally tied down by its own attachment. Often they only let go when they fall asleep or become unconscious because of exhaustion.”

How can anger bring us suffering?

All of our actions have consequences. Doing harm to others will return to us as being harmed. Anger is one of the main reasons we create harm to others, so logically it is often the cause of suffering

to ourselves.

“Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.”—

The Buddha

How can ignorance bring us suffering?

We do not realize all the consequences of our actions, we do not understand other beings and we do not understand why

the world is exactly the way it is.

So we often end up in situations where we do not take the best

actions.

The more complicated explanation refers to the most profound aspect of Buddhist philosophy:

ultimate truth

or

emptiness.

simply: reality is not what it seems to us. As reality is different from our opinions about it, we get

ourselves into trouble.

As long as we fail to realize the ultimate truth, we will be stuck in cyclic existence. While being in cyclic existence, we will always

experience some aspect of suffering.

END

The Third Noble Truth

Nirodha –Cessation of Suffering

The Buddha taught thatthe way to extinguish desire, which causes

suffering, is to liberate oneself from attachment.

This is the third Noble Truth - the possibility of liberation

from suffering.

“The Buddha was a living example that this is possible in a human lifetime.

Bhikkhus, when a noble follower who has heard (the truth) sees thus, he finds estrangement in the eye, finds estrangement in forms, finds estrangement in eye-consciousness, finds estrangement in eye-contact, and whatever is felt as pleasant or painful or neither-painful- nor-pleasant that arises with eye-contact for its indispensable condition, in that too he finds estrangement.”

(The Fire Sermon (SN 35:28), translation by anamoli Thera)N,

A little on NirvanaNirvana means extinguishing. Attaining nirvana - reaching

enlightenment - means extinguishing the three fires of greed, delusion and hatred.

Someone who reaches nirvana does not mean to disappear to a heavenly realm. Nirvana is better understood as a state of mind that humans can reach. It is a state of profound spiritual joy, without negative emotions and fears. Someone who has attained enlightenment is filled with compassion for all living things.

“When he finds estrangement, passion fades out. With the fading of passion, he is liberated. When liberated, there is knowledge that he is liberated. He understands: 'Birth is exhausted, the holy life has been lived out, what can be done is done, of this there is no more beyond.”

(The Fire Sermon (SN 35:28), translation by anamoli Thera)N,

After death, an enlightened person is

liberated from the cycle of rebirth, but Buddhism

gives no definite answers as to what

happens next.

END

The Fourth Noble Truth

Magga –Path to the cessation of suffering

The final Noble Truth is the Buddha's prescription for the end of suffering.

This is a set of principles called the Eightfold Path.

The Eightfold Path is also called the Middle Way:

it avoids both overindulgence

and severe asceticism,

neither of which the Buddha had found

helpful in his search for enlightenment.

Solution?

What is The Middle Way?

Buddhists describe the three ways of life by comparing them to strings of a lute.

The loose string is like a life of

careless indulgence and makes a poor

note when played.

The tight string is like a life of extreme

hardship and denial, producing another bad

sound when played and, worse, likely to

snap at any moment.

Only the middle string, which is neither slack nor tense, produces a harmonious note —

it has the same qualities as the Middle Path.

Those who follow this way, avoid the extremes of indulgence and denial.

They do not seek endless pleasures, and they do not torment themselves with pain, lacking and

self-torment.

The Fourth Noble Truth is that the Middle Path leads to the end of

suffering.

End

The Four Noble Truths