365bet娱乐

Dukkha, dukkha's causal arising
And the overcoming of dukkha,
And the Noble Eightfold Path
Leading to dukkha's allaying.

(Dhp. 191)

Today, the aspect of Dhamma to be expounded for the increase of awareness and understanding is that of the Four Noble Truths. These are called the special province of the Buddhas and are only expounded by them so that one may say that these Four Truths lie at the heart of the Dhamma. Usually when Lord Buddha taught them, He would first explain more mundane subjects and gradually lead up to these Truths. There are many places where he has first spoken of Giving, then Moral Conduct and the dangers of sensual pleasures with the advantages of a life based upon Dhamma, which leads to birth in realms of heavenly experience. Then, when people's minds were prepared for these Noble Truths, He would speak about them and those people, already full of joy at having heard the Way so clearly explained, would not only understand the meaning of the words of the Noble Truths but would also penetrate to them in their own minds and bodies. Just as the outer practices taught in Buddhism correspond to outer understanding, so the inner, the core, corresponds to the very nature of experience.

This word 'experience' is very important if one wishes to understand the essence of Buddhism. When one considers, 'what do I search for from day to day, even from second to second?'-then what is the answer? Surely, the reply is not for a set of beliefs nor for certain rituals, but that simply one looks for the experience of happiness. This is a guide to what all beings seek all the time-happiness. All beings, human and otherwise, play a sort of game, a rather grim game, all through their lives, for they try to catch happiness, running here and there after it, while trying to dodge all sorts of unhappiness, all sorts of experience which is not satisfactory. Many people, especially those with no religious practice, do not know the method to adopt in order to win the game in the way that they desire, so they resort to wrong methods which the wise who have seen and practiced the right way, declare to be 'fouls.' How does one go about fouling in this game? It is by pursuing the pleasures of the senses in order to satisfy the craving for happiness. But instead of arriving at the goal one finds that one's fouling leads to penalties against oneself. These penalties are not awarded by another person but are purely the results of one's own wrongly-directed actions. Now the foolish player of this game redoubles his fouling tricks and loses himself in a mad scramble to find satisfaction in any way and at any cost. The wise player, however, realizes that fouling gets him nowhere nearer the goal and so changes his technique.

In this simile, there is an introduction to the first pair of the Noble Truths: Our experience is unsatisfactory but we want to find happiness. We crave pleasures, life and so on, and instead of happiness we reap the unsatisfactory. Let us now look at these Noble Truths in detail. The first is called the Noble Truth of Un-satisfactoriness. It is called 'Noble' because it leads onwards to the goal of real happiness. It is a Truth because to those who are not blind, it is self-evident in the world, as we shall see in a minute. Un-satisfactoriness, is in Pali language 'dukkha', and sometimes translated as 'suffering.' But 'Suffering' is at once too coarse a term and yet not wide enough to embrace the meaning of 'dukkha'-while un-satisfactoriness is too cumbersome, so I propose to use the Pali word 'dukkha' and to define it as we go along.

In the ancient texts coming down from Lord Buddha and the great disciples, there is often mentioned a list of things; which constitute dukkha, the first of which is Birth. "Birth is dukkha" says Lord Buddha. Now we take our births for granted partly because we have forgotten all about them! Birth here really means 'conception' for that is when one gets born from a Buddhist point of view. A question which is worth considering but which few people ever think about is, 'Why was I born where I was born, and born as I was born, and not otherwise?' Upon some future occasion when Kamma and Rebirth are the subject for exposition, this question may be answered. Meanwhile, in whatever way one was born there is dukkha for one is again becoming entangled in a body, which cannot be said to be one's own but to which one is attached. Birth means craving and attachment, and craving and attachment mean dukkha. So having got oneself bound up to a body, (at the moment of conception), one finds oneself confined in a womb utterly helpless and yet often having the memory of a past life when one was relatively free. In that womb one has to stay for nine months and nothing can be done about that. Eventually, one is forcibly ejected from the womb, an experience in which the child suffers even more than the mother. Children are not known to laugh when they are born, on the contrary they cry-and they have good cause to do so considering the state that their craving has brought them to. Moreover, we are being born from second to second as our psycho-physical organism changes constantly but this kind of birth only becomes obvious to those with minds already well-trained.

Then follows "Decay is dukkha." We crave perhaps to remain young but however strong our craving it cannot prevent the body from becoming infirm or the mind from shrinking and becoming unworkable. A famous discourse of Lord Buddha says: And what is old age? Old age is the ageing of beings belonging to this or that order of beings, their getting frail, decrepit, gray and wrinkled, the failing of their vital force; the wearing out of their sense-faculties-this is called old age." It is surely not necessary to stress any more that this is dukkha.

At all times during our lives we may come to know "Disease is dukkha." Whether mental or physical disease, one does not wish to experience it but without taking any account of cravings in the mind for pleasure, the body or the mind just become diseased. They go their own way without consulting that shadowy person called 'me' or 'myself.'

Following upon the heels of both old age and sickness, there is death. "Death is dukkha", where there is birth, death inevitably follows, in the heavens and the hells as well, just as it is natural among human beings and animals. Of course we may say: This is obvious and it does not need to be taught by the Buddha or anyone else. But the contrary is actually true since people very rarely consider it natural for death to follow birth-if they did, they world not appear to be so grieved and shocked when people dear to them die. A very important insight into the truth of the Dhamma is when one sees in oneself "Whatever has the nature to arise, all that has the nature to cease." Death is inseparable from birth for ordinary people who do not know the way out, and to reach the Deathless state of Nibbana a good deal of effort is required. The Discourse says of death: "And what is death? The departing and vanishing of beings out of this or that order of beings, their destruction, disappearance, the completion of their life-period, the dissolution of their constituent parts, the discarding of the body, this is called death."

As a supplement to this range of dukkha we have the sequence: "Sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair are dukkha" --and who can escape from these things in life? Does not everyone experience them? Indeed, it is the wise person who acknowledges these experiences as inseparable from life-for the life of all beings, human and otherwise, bears this out, throughout history and before there was history.

Then there is another well-known aspect of dukkha: "Not to get what one wants is dukkha,"

Now this is like a summary of all the above factors, each of which is treated in this searching formula, which we may quote in the case of death:

Maranadhammonam bhikkhame sattanam evam iccha uppajjati:
'Aho vata mayam na maranadhamma assama na ca vata no marana agaccheyyati.
Na kho pan'etam icchaya pattabbam. Idampi yam piccham na labhati tampi dukkham

(meaning)

"In beings subject to death the wish arises: 'O that we were not subject to death, O that death were not before us!' But this cannot be got by mere wishing, and not to get what one wishes is dukkha."

If one does not wish to experience dukkha, then hard work must be done upon oneself. But we have not yet mentioned the most important though the least easy aspect of dukkha to understand. The very constituents of one's character, made up of physical and mental parts, are dukkha. Why are they dukkha? The body, feelings, memory, volitions and consciousness are all impermanent and yet we in our delusion regard them as permanent. They are always bound to dukkha but in them we seek real happiness. Then again, these constituents of our persons are changing processes not belonging to anyone and yet we think of body and mind as 'mine', as though there was some person called 'I', 'me' who lived in them.-but where can such a person be found ? Since these constituents of ourselves are themselves dukkha, we can never escape from it-we have and experience dukkha, un-satisfactoriness, all the time. Now the wise person is concerned with real things and not with fantasy and since dukkha is all too real, a wise person looks at it squarely. The strange thing is that the more one flees away from looking at one's own dukkha, the more dukkha one experiences for the more frightening and insecure the world appears to be. But on the other hand, the more that one looks straight at dukkha, which is the nature of experience, the more one becomes happy. Scholars trapped by snares of books in the western world have supposed that Buddhism is gloomy and pessimistic-but they have never seen Buddhist peoples, Thais or Tibetans, for instance, who are among the world's happiest peoples. But realists are always happy while those who try to fool themselves, they are never happy 'but forever haunted by fears. An outline of this first Noble Truth of Dukkha has taken up a large part of this exposition and the reason for this is that few people indeed have any natural inclination to face the true nature of their everyday experience and so dukkha has to be emphasized to correct the balance.

Those who are afflicted by a sort of un-nameable nagging that "All is not well with themselves" usually take to searching for pleasures in order to cure-they hope-the sense of frustration or dissatisfaction. They are driven on to look among sense-pleasures for these by the kind of craving (tanha) called 'sensuality-craving.' Now craving is at the root of dukkha, it feeds dukkha and where craving exists, there dukkha is experienced. This is the second Noble Truth concerning the arising of dukkha.

As craving is the principal condition for the experience of dukkha, it is craving that we shall examine here in some detail. In the analysis of this Noble Truth, as given in the First Discourse of Lord Buddha, three types of craving are mentioned. We have touched upon the first, that is, the sensuality craving. Now sensuality (kama) is of two kinds: defilement-sensuality and objective sensuality. The first is the passionate desire burning in everyone not Enlightened for the experience of pleasures. Shut a man away from all sensual enjoyments and his defilement sensuality will begin to manufacture enjoyments for him-we say he experiences hallucinations with feasts of glorious food, or scenes of beautiful landscape-whatever, in fact, this kind of craving desires. Deprived of music, the musician may begin to hear it but what he hears is what his own craving for sensual experience creates and projects. In the ordinary run of worldly life it is this craving which drives people on to eat this special food or go to see that wonderful place, to hear this music, or to have that kind of bodily contact. To be completely at the mercy of this craving is to lead a life not far elevated above that of the animals, which are also impelled by this same strong sensuality-craving.

The other aspect of sensuality, which has already been mentioned, lies outside oneself, it is 'objective sensuality' which is concerned specially with the objects perceived through, eye, ear, nose, tongue and body. Thus, this craving has the internal defilement aspect of greed, lust and so on, joined with the external objects of sensual experience: sights, sounds, smells, tastes and touches. This kind of craving is usually strong amongst young people but the wise, whether young or old, endeavor to keep some check upon sensuality-craving for thereby they check the dukkha which they would otherwise experience.

The second kind of craving is called 'existence-craving' and means the craving to go on existing as a person. It is seen in the fact that one cannot determine to die, for death requires some more forceful condition than mere determining. But if craving for existence was not strong, one could determine, "I shall die"-and one would be able to die. This would be a useful accomplishment for the very sick who could then release themselves from their sufferings. But this cannot be done by mere wishing but only by relaxing the grip that one has upon life. People grip hold of, or crave for existence in three aspects: existence in the worlds of sensual experience, in the worlds of pure form and in the formless worlds. It is not the place here to expound this at length and to explain what the various worlds are. Suffice it to say that while human beings live in the upper reaches of the world of sensuality, the animals dwell upon the lower reaches, while the heavens of various sorts of experience compose the form and formless ranges of existence. According to one's kamma, or intentional actions, one craves to take birth in a realm appropriate to the sort of fruits, which one will have to experience as a result of that kamma. This kind of craving, while we are not without it as we go through life, is especially in evidence at the time of death and just before it. Craving for existence is really the keeping together of the sense of 'I' or 'myself' and people in whom this is particularly strong have no desire to hear about Nibbana which, being the extinction of craving, seems to them to be nothing but utter annihilation. But if one craves for continued existence, then one has to take what goes naturally with existence: that is, dukkha. Even heavenly beings experience the dukkha of finding out that they are impermanent and must pass away, while in this world dukkha cannot be escaped from either in human or in animal existence.

On the other hand, there are those who crave for non-existence, the third kind of craving. They do not want to live again, or they do not want to live any longer. Take the case of a person whose life has been full of pain and suffering and who, upon coming to the end of it, earnestly desires that he might cease to exist and know no more of sorrow. The same applies as we said above: this cannot be done by mere wishing. Although his craving not to live, not to exist, is strong, his kamma, the intentional actions committed by him is stronger and will surely drive him into an appropriate state of existence. If one wishes not to be reborn again, then this must be accompanied by effort to destroy craving, greed, aversion and confusion, which lead to rebirth. The state of no-rebirth or Nibbana is gained through effort and mere desire is not enough, for Nibbana is the end of desires and cravings. There are also those who crave not to live any longer-they have the death-wish and commit suicide, but this forcible extinction of one's present life is most unwise. Most people kill themselves when they are overpowered by some strong mental defilement. They may hate themselves and so do away with themselves with self-hatred in their minds, or they may feel despair that their desires for money or for a particular person are not fulfilled, so with thwarted desires they get rid of themselves, hoping to put an end to it all. But they do not know, or do not think about kamma. For to die with an evil, unwholesome object in the mind, is to invite rebirth in accordance with just that evil. Suicides of all the usual types are therefore said to gain rebirth upon the planes of suffering, where dukkha is intense, although even such birth is impermanent and followed by a passing from that state to be reborn elsewhere. And so on.

We have stressed here what we know and what we have in this world, for the first two Noble Truths deal very much with our ordinary experience. But the third Noble Truth, which is Nibbana, being at present beyond our experience, is never greatly discussed in Buddhist texts, for it is to be experienced for oneself and not only to be discussed. The ancient texts describe it in largely negative terms: "It is the complete fading-away and extinction of this very craving, its forsaking and giving up, the liberation and detachment from it." All the grasping at 'I' and at 'mine', all the defilements of mind which lead one to grasp, such as greed, aversion and delusion, all must be given up. When the wise person relaxes his hold upon what is not really his own, that is, he does not grasp at ownership of either mind or body, then that is the attainment of Nibbana. With the relaxation of the grasp upon things not really possessed there comes the attainment of both wisdom and compassion. One has wisdom because one realizes in truth that one is a continuity, a flow of physical and mental processes, one sees oneself as one has always been but without fear. Those who hide from the truly-so have cause to fear, but those who see the truth in themselves and with wisdom, they have attained the perfectly secure. Perhaps the most famous of all descriptions, if it can be called that, of Nibbana which is also the Third Noble Truth, is contained in these lines spoken by Lord Buddha: "There is, monks, that plane where there is neither the element of earth, nor water, neither fire, nor air; nor is there the plane of infinity of space, nor infinity of consciousness, nor the plane of nothingness, nor that of neither-perception-nor-non-perception, neither this world nor another, the moon nor the sun. Here I say, monks, there is no coming or going or remaining, no uprising, but this is itself unsupported, without continuation, without a mental basis-this is itself the end of dukkha." And it is "the unborn, the not-become, the not-made, the uncompounded", in which can be found security and peace for such as we who are born, are becoming, have been made by ourselves and who are compounded of many unstable elements.

Just as all our life consists of various sorts of experience, through the five senses and the sixth, the mind-sense, so Nibbana is also not to be found apart from the nature of ourselves and it is also experience, but whereas most people, captivated by craving, are led about their experiences by their own craving-twisted minds, those who perceive Nibbana are, so we are assured, quite free from craving and perceive the Truth without distortion.

If Lord Buddha had not taught the Noble Eightfold Path as the fourth Noble Truth, it would indeed be possible to call Him just a man of high ideals. It is this Path of Practice which was summarized in last month's exposition* (see Book IV page 18) so we need not repeat it here. It is this practice path, which enables anyone who will practice to see the goal of Nibbana for themselves and in themselves. The Four Noble Truths: Dukkha or unsatisfactory experience, how it arises, its utter cessation and the practice-path leading to that cessation, lead from the ordinary base of our lives right up to the goal called Sublime Happiness. Those who see dukkha may observe how it arises. Wishing to leave dukkha and find Freedom from dukkha, they practice the Eightfold Path.

EVAM

Thus indeed it is.