The Noble Truths

I read a book called “Asian Philosophies” by John M. Koller and I’d like to share a small portion of it. Before I do that, I’d like to share a quote from a book, which was recommended to me by a good friend called “The Mind’s eye” by Henri Cartier-Bresson. This book is actually on photography. Cartier writes, “Buddhism is neither a religion nor a philosophy, but a medium that consists in controlling the spirit order to attain harmony and, through compassion, to offer it to others.”

The four Noble Truths taught by the Buddha are number 1: “The truth of what suffering is”. This noble speaks of arising and brings up all the sufferings that we as humans go through. It speaks of the suffering of birth, death which includes sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and disparity. More suffering that is mentioned here is “association with the unpleasant, dissociation for the pleasant” and “not to get what one wants ”. The first one is about humans finding rebirth and death as a cycle of suffering. The Buddha goes on to believe that humans see themselves as changing and perceive their core as unchanging and think of themselves as “separate, not only from other beings, but also from their own body and mind”. The Buddha believes that this thought that most humans share is ignorant and believes that all things are continuously changing and are consistent with all other forms or beings. The Buddha finds no separation between beings and does not see the beings as permanent. The main point here is that it is ignorant, and a failure bound to happen if one were to detach or separate themselves, along with being permanent and staying unchanged through the five aggregates (physical process, process of sensation, perceptual process, volitional process, and the process of consciousness) when all these five groups are constantly changing processes. The second noble is “The truth of the conditioned arising of suffering”. The main suffering that is discussed here is craving. It is explained that craving is “a strong, desperate form of desire that moves a person to extremes in trying to attain or avoid something”. An example would be a person who is addicted to sex and they would do anything in their power to get it even if it had to go as far as raping a person. This act brings suffering, however this is not to be confused with the craving and desire of food, or the desire for a toothache to get better. Desire becomes suffering when the craving is selfish or greedy.

The third noble is about elimination: “The truth that suffering can be eliminated by eliminating its conditions”. This noble mainly speaks of nirvana, which is a positive outlook to try and eliminate craving that leads to suffering. The positive viewpoint of nirvana “refers to the peaceful and joyous life free from suffering that is achieved by extinguishing craving for performance”. The fourth noble is “The truth that the way to remove the conditions that give rise to suffering is to follow the middle way, constituted by the noble Eightfold Path”. This noble is the Buddha guide to life. This noble is to eliminate both craving and ignorance. It speaks of making ones speech, actions, motives pure and stopping the inflow of other additional cravings. This noble includes “right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration” along with the right view, right intention, and livelihood. These four truths are experienced by Buddha to eliminate suffering (duhkha).
I think these four nobles constitute sufficient analysis of duhkha, both its rising and elimination. The Buddha explains each suffering very clearly and it shows how they come to be suffering. It is either through ways we cannot control (labor pain), or through things, we can control (ignorance of self permanency). Buddhism recognizes suffering and tries not to reduce them but in fact to eliminate them through good, pure practice, self and mental discipline. The sufferings are negative; nonetheless, the Buddha sees the positive side and brings it out for a better life through love, compassion, wisdom, and moral conduct. :)