171: Retreat Dhamma Talk 66: Mindfulness of Dhamma (Part 4 of 4): The 4 Noble Truths

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SPEAKER_01: 0:02

Retreat series Dhamma Talk number sixty-six. Today we are going to discuss the part four of the Dhamma nipassana. Or mindfulness of Dhamma or contemplation of Dhamma. According to Satipattana Vipassana Meditation Practice. Okay, this part four is the last of the Dhamma Nupasana. And it is about contemplation on full noble truth. In Pali it is called Ariya Sasa. Ariya means noble person. Sasa means truth. It's about the full noble truth. As we are talking for our wider audience online, some of me be familiar with what full noble truth is, and some would not be as familiar. So we are going to approach more on explanation on a theoretical aspect as well, quite a bit, in fact. So this noble ones, noble ones, aria. Those are the people who have seen these truths, these four truths. They have seen, which means they have experienced. And they are free from all form of mental defilements. That is Ariya. So these four noble truths, the first one is called in Pali Tukha Sisa, the Noble Truth of the Suffering. Second one is Samutia Sisa. In English, the noble truth of the origin of suffering. The third one is dukkha niroda sisa. The noble truth of the cessation of suffering. The fourth one is dukkha niroda gamini bdipata. The path leading to the cessation of suffering. Most commonly known as the noble eightfold part or the middle way. Those are the four noble truth. So let's see the first one, the noble truth of suffering, dukkha sisa. Dukkha, it's in English translated and most commonly used as suffering. Or some people use unsatisfactoriness. Dukat means suffering or unsatisfactoriness. But the precise meaning covers a lot wider than those words can convey. And dukkha means anything that is disgusting. And it doesn't have any happiness without happiness. And it has no substance. In fact, it is hollow. That's what it means by no substance. And it is impermanence. That is the meaning of dukkha. Anything that is disgusting without happiness has no substance and impermanent. That is the complete wider range, the meaning that covers the word dukkha. And as we all know, whenever we approach anything physical or mental, situation, condition, object from the Buddha taught us to approach in four different ways. Whenever it is possible, it's always possible, of course. And also whenever it is beneficial, sometimes one, sometimes two, sometimes three, sometimes four, based on beneficiality of the content of the subject you are discussing. So what is the characteristics of dukkha? In one word, it's called affliction. Affliction. Anything that afflicts the nature of affliction is the characteristics. Misery. If you see misery, that's a sign, that's a characteristic, that is suffering. Affliction or misery. And function. What is the function of this dukkha? That function of dukkha is to burn. Anybody who's in contact with suffering is you will have a feeling, a sensation of burning. It burns. Or it'll make you miserable. That's the function of dukkha. Manifestation. Manifestation is say coming into beings. Coming into beings. That's more precise. Loosely put, you'll be born again and again and again, coming into beings. And also an occurrence. You will occur again and you will occur again and occur again. That's a manifestation. So that is if you approach that way, you will understand what dukkha is. Of course, there's the cause, approximate cause, but we will deal it because the next truth is the cause. So we will skip here. Dukkha, they are Buddha put it in three categories. There are three types of dukkha. The first one is called dukkha dukkha. It's translated as intrinsic intrinsic suffering. Dukkha dukkha. So what are they if you want to specifically point out? Birth is suffering. Aging is suffering. Death and sorrow is suffering. Lamentation. Pain, grief, excessive distress. Those are suffering. Associated with peoples or objects that you don't like is suffering. To be dissociated from things and people that you love and like, that is suffering. Not getting what one cannot get or one cannot obtain is suffering. These are like quite very obvious that we all know, we can all agree upon. So we don't really need to expand a lot. We all understand what they are. And in fact, some teacher might say this is not the suffering. Dukkha what the Buddha's meant. In a way it is right, and in a way, one can disagree. Because it is written in the scripture, all these things are suffering, and many more, of course, going to come. So the Buddha wouldn't just simply put it that way if it is not what he meant. These things what we just said itemized, they are in a way it is very useful tools. These sufferings are very useful tools. Let's look at in our lives. And if you don't have it, the people around you, you might know. We go about every day, everything is normal, what we call normal, a little bit of stress, a little bit of disagreement, we don't call it suffering. No, that's normal of life, norms of life. Even though there's a lot of disagreements and things like that, dissatisfaction. But we all are one time or the other, we come into great distress, great difficulty, under great pressure, on a certain situation, and at that time we really feel that stress, that pain, that pressure. Around that time we all crawled with our head into the sand. We feel like we want to run away. It is overpowering. That's what these obvious suffering makes you. And when it comes to that, it comes to a point that you are really under great distress. What happened? We look for a way out. We look for a way out. Some people they go into alcohol, alcoholics, drugs addicts. These are the way out, easy way out, easy to get. Become addicts. Or some people go into great depression. Crawl up never come out. And some people see counselors, psychiatrists, regularly through up some people who can afford it. These are the pressure of these great distress, the great obvious suffering. Everybody has a different threshold level, but whenever our thresholds are met, we crumble at that time. Those are different ways of escape. But there are some people around those times, suddenly, you know, there's nothing I can do. And then they turn around and look into the direction of spirituality. Based on your belief, you might go more into God or this or that. Based on your belief system, religious system, whatever the affinity you have, spirituality. That is the time we really look into it, and some people look into it, go into it, practice it, behave accordingly as instructed, and they feel relieved. And after that, modern-day word is they become a new man, a new person, born again, that kind of thing. So this dukkat dukkat has a significance of change of life. It is very powerful to put you in a different perspective, to put in a different track. And for the Buddhists, of course, and some other religion as well, meditation. For the Buddhists is meditation. That is when one really direct the effort to look into that meditation. Will this help? And then you practice, you live accordingly, and then suddenly you find the benefit because this is the first hand. You are under great distress, and you as you follow it, because there's a great pressure, that stress, that pain, so you really work on it, and you can experience the result immediately in a very short span of time, because you put so much effort into it, and after that you become a totally different person, a person with a different outlook to life, different attitude to life. That's why this dukkha dukkha has a great value to a large number of people. So don't think this is useless in a way if you know how to use it, it is great. So these are the obvious ones. And of course, there is another one in one line, the Buddha said the five aggregates is suffering. Five aggregates is what? Matter, feeling, perception, mental formation, and consciousness. In other words, matter is and the consciousness, mind and matter. It is animate as well as inanimate. Everything is suffering. That line. Suffering based on change. So what does it mean by suffering based on change? Because in our life, it's a big span, and even in a day or even within an hour, if you really observe and be careful, you will see your mood swing. Happy and suddenly, not so happy, happy, something dissatisfied, happy, angry, swing. Happy, sorrow. Just watch within an hour. If you are carefully watching, you will see your mood swing. That's a change. And it's changing all the time, but we are not quite aware of it. That is, if you're mindful. But in general, you can see moot swing mean good mood, high mood mean pleasant feeling. Bad moods mean unpleasant feeling. Pleasant feeling to unpleasant feeling change. Unpleasant feeling to pleasant feeling it changes. It's changing, changing, changing, changing. That change of the feelings, wait a na. That change of moods, Sweepri Namadduka. Just look at simple dramatized example. A little kid, let's say two years old, he or she didn't get what he wants, the food that he wants. No, I don't want this porridge. I don't want the porridge. I want toast and peanut butter. And then didn't get it. So what happened? Just satisfy, scream, yell, cry out loud. Some kids can cry for half an hour straight out on top of their lungs. And then finally the mother couldn't take it and just splash some peanut butter on the bread and give it, and suddenly the cry stopped. And then eat it, and it was happy, smiling as if nothing has happened. That's how it changed. Unpleasant feeling can change directly into pleasant feeling. Let's say adults. In a nanoseconds, those are the dramatized presentation. But if you are mindful you will know that shift from pleasant to unpleasant mode, happy to sad mode, happy to angry mode is changing all the time. If you are mindful you'll find out. So that is wepringama dukkha. Suffering based on change. Whenever there's a change from the condition that you like to condition that you don't like, there's a dissatisfaction and so on. Condition that you like, and suddenly you lost it. There's another one. It's always that swing going on. So that is a second type of dukkha, suffering. They are all under first one is dukkha dukkha, and this is called we bright nama dukkha. And the third one is called Sankara Dukka. Suffering due to formation. Suffering due to formation. Sinkara dukkha. Sinkara dukkha is. Let's look at it this way: the whole world, animate and inanimate, physical or mental, everything, they are caused. All things in this universe are caused, caused by something. So, in other words, anything you pick up, you look at, you focus upon, that is a cause. Because of the cause, there will be an effect. But you are at this moment that object is a cause. Everything is causing something. Everything is causing something at all times. So, in other words, you can say both physical world and mental war are caused. Everything is caused. And all these things, everything, they have a beginning and the end. Beginning and the end. Arise and passed away. Beginning and the end. And all these things, everything is oppressed by coming into being. Basically, simple word is arising. Oppressed by coming into being and then disappear. Coming into being and disappear. That system is oppressing all these physicality and mentality, physical world and mental world. They come into being, they disappear. In other words, it's impermanent. All these things, everything in the world is caused, including neutral feeling, because we were talking about pleasant feeling and unpleasant feeling in the Ubri Namadukka. We didn't include neutral feeling, but in here, including neutral feeling, everything. Things that are caused by other things, including neutral feeling, are sinkaratuka, suffering due deformation. Everything in the world are caused. It has a beginning and end. It is always oppressed by coming into being and disappear and it is impermanent. And all these things are Sankara Dukha. What does it mean is that what I just explained? All of these are Sankara Dukha. In other words, they are the reality of life. They are the facts of life. Reality of life, facts of life. Always come back to us, living beings. But in general, it covers both physical universe and mental universe. And all these things are the facts of life, and that is called dukkha sisa. But this dukkha shisa, this sinkara dukkha, you cannot really comprehend by just thinking with logic and analytical word. You actually need or require, it's a requisite mindfulness inside meditation, to truly penetrate and understand what it is. To understand Sinkara Dukat, you need meditation and you must penetrate, become skillful in meditation, penetrate into these natures, and only then you will accurately understand it. Experiential understanding. But suffering due to change. But in the scripture, Buddha put all these things as dukkha, dukkha shissa. One must understand everything. So that is the first noble truth, the noble truth of suffering. The second one is the noble truth of the origin of suffering. Pali word is called samudhya sisa. Samudhya Sissa. So this samudhya is actually three words in combination. Sam or S-M-Sam. By itself is in here, it's combined with others. That's the meaning. And there's the ayah, ayah, a y-e. Aya is another word in there. It means caused. And then Uda or Udiya, arising. So three words combined is called samudhya. Aya, udya, and samudhya. What this means is craving. Let's jump into the whole meaning. Craving arising together with ignorance, grasping, karma, and is some supporting factors caused to calm. Arising with ignorance. Grasping, karma, and some other supporting factors is the cause of dukkha. Craving and Pali is danna. Ignorant is awidja. Grasping is upadana. And kama is kama. English language has adopted that word kama. Or let's call it action or life, life actions. So this craving tanna arises together with awija the ignorance, ubadana the grasping, khama, the karma, and some other. Mental factors. They all combine. That's what cham means. Combine, cause, dukkha. But the Buddha singularly pointed out to the word craving, danna. So you don't have to say the whole thing, what I just explained. Danna is the cause of dukkha. You see, in the first noble truth, we don't mention about the cause. The cause is this craving. Because that cause itself is a noble truth. Second noble truth. Dukkha suffering is the effect. Dana craving is the cause. Dukkha suffering is the effect. Cause and effect. Noble truth number one and number two. Noble truth number two is the cause. Noble truth number one is the effect. And what is the characteristics of this craving? Its characteristics originating. It's the beginning. It starts. Whatever it is, it always starts from that craving. When you crave something, there's a follow-up, follow-up, follow-up, one lead to the other, one lead to the other, cause effect, cause effect, cause effect, nothing stop. But if you don't crave for that particular thing that is moving on, it just stops. It just cannot do anything. But if you have craving is the origin, originating. That's the characteristics. Function. The function of craving is to prevent interruption. It wants to keep on keep you on going and going and going uninterrupted. Its function is to prevent interruption or cause continuous originating or continuously keep on rolling through the change of cause and effect, cause and effect, cause and effect. That is the function. Manifestation, how does it manifest it? The proper word translate is called impediment. Impediment. Basically, it is the if you have craving, it becomes an obstacle to grow and to progress. It becomes difficult to grow and to progress. That's impediment. Manifestation, it manifests as a impediment. It is difficult to grow, difficult to progress, to become better and better and better. It manifests as that. So in here, craving. Number one is craving for sense pleasure. We all know what sense pleasure is. The pleasures that you get through your eyes, through your ears, nose, tongue, touch, and thoughts. Imagination, a lot of imagination, fantasy land. These are craving for sense pleasure. And there's another craving. It stood by itself. And a normal life. What it is. We want better and better and better. We want better existence. In this very own life, we want better existing. Better starters. Better existing. Not only that, you have this life. Very comfortable. Next life you want to be richer. Next life you want to be a millionaire, billionaire, trillioner. Better existent. What is the million, billion, trillion? Better existent. Or next life you want to be a deva. Because you heard in the scripture, devas. They don't have much suffering. They have constant pleasure. The better existent. That is another type of craving. Craving for better or eternal existence. Some people don't want to even die. Eternal existence. Better or eternal existence. That's good. Forever. That's second type. The third one is better for non-existence. No craving for non-existence. It's coded as annihilation. Annihilation view. There are some people who believe this is the only life. I came from nowhere. I exist. Once I die, that's the end of it. That kind of view. You hold on, you craved, you grasped onto that view. That is the third kind of craving. Three kind of cravings. So regardless, whichever craving it is for sense pleasure or for a better existence or eternal existence or non-existent. Regardless, whatever it is, any type of craving will give rise to a new rebirth. A new rebirth. Whether you want a new existence or you don't want a new existence doesn't matter. As long as you have craving, you will have a new rebirth. That new rebirth will always bound up with pleasure and lust and pain. That is the noble truth of suffering. And the third one is the noble truth of the cessation of suffering. Dukkha niroda sisa. We all know dukkha means what? Suffering. Niroda. More precisely ni means no or not negation. Not absence. Rhoda is a prison. In other words, no prison. Sisa is the truth. So basically, there is a no prison of dukkha. Third noble truth is there's no in that truth, there's no prison of dukkha. Or in other words, you escape from the prison of dukkha. You were in the prison of dukkha before. Now, once you got to this third truth, you escaped from it. Or you put it in a different way, you escape from the realms of rebirth. Or you escape from the condition. Escape from the realms of rebirth and it is the condition, it's a condition for the cessation of suffering. It's a condition where suffering ceased. And that one is popularly known in one word. Nipbana in Pali, Nirvana in Sanskrit. That's the third noble truth. And the characteristics of this nippana. The third noble truth is peacefulness. Peacefulness. Why peacefulness? Because you are free from Kilisa. Kilesa is the one that is giving you all these problems. Without Kilesa, you are totally in peace. That's the characteristics. And the function, the function is neither to die or fade away. Bluntly put, it's a nibbana exists. It is permanent. It has no beginning, no end. There's another Dhamma talk if you remember. We talk just one hour Dhamma talk only on nibbana. We won't go into detail here. And manifestation. It manifests as signless. Signless. Nibbana has no attributes. Sign that's no attribute, nothing. Cessation. Totally, mind and matter ceased to exist. So basically, to put it in a different way, what is nipanna? Nipanna is the total extinction of craving, that Tanna. Or you can say removing of tatna, total removal of tanna. Or forsaking that tatna craving, discarding the craving tatna. Freedom from craving. That's nipana. There's no attachment towards that craving. That's nipana. So and here we stress the word craving. When there's craving, there's suffering. When the craving stopped, ceased, disappear, suffering disappear, and that is nibbana. The third noble truth. And the fourth one is the path leading to the cessation of suffering. The Buddha taught us there's a suffering. He taught us what's the cause. And he taught us there's the way to there's the end to the suffering. That also condition exists. And now he taught us how to attain or achieve or realize that cessation. That is the fourth noble truth, the path leading to the cessation of suffering. But we all commonly known as the noble eightfold path. Or some people call it the middle way. Basically, it is what we are practicing. Siddhi Pathana Vipassana, Noble Eightfold Path. We are practicing mindfulness insight to achieve perfection of this noble eightfold path. The middle way. Of course you are practicing, we are practicing meditators, yogis. It manifests to the yogis as release from the realms of rebirth. If you have this, attain the path, medga, rahatta medga, you will never be reborn, which means release from the realms of rebirth. Or in other words, if you know the word vibaka wutta, we have talked about it before. Rounds of resultant. It manifests as total abandonment of rounds of resultant. No more vibaka wutta. That's how it manifests. So that is the the fourth noble truth or eightfold noble part. So we said we always use the word enlightened, enlightened. What's enlightenment? Enlightenment is one realized or understand the full noble truth. One realized, the key word is realize and understand the full noble truth as it is, according to the reality, okay, not what you think, what you imagine, as it is, according to the reality, gained through the practice of the eightfold noble path. If you understand the full noble truth, through the practice of this eight noble, full noble part, and if you have penetrated into their reality, that is enlightenment. So this much, a little bit of practical approach and a lot of theory or scriptural explanation of the full noble truth. So in practice, what do we do? Practical. What dukkha sisa? Tukasissa is what? Basically everything and anything and everything. Anything and everything that is dukkha. We have to go through. So everything and anything in a person who is practicing, it is basically nama and rupa, which means your body and your mind. That is everything to a practitioner, to a yogi. So anything and everything that is arising within your body and within your mind. That is arising in you, arising in self. Okay, that is unsatisfactory. That's what dukkha is. For a practitioner, from the practical approach, you must look at it this way. What is dukkha sissa? What is the first noble truth? The noble truth of suffering. That is anything and everything that is arising in my body and in my mind at all times is that first noble truth. That's the way one needs to understand. That's a practically, that would be very sufficient to understand it. So whatever it arises, you observe, you observe. There might be a pain you observe. There might be a happiness you observe. There might be anger you observe. You know, observe me, you know. Pain, you know, sorrow you know, happiness you know, anger you know. But noting, there's a little slight difference. Even though you know the pain and this and that and everything mentally and physically, everything that is arising, you must note them as this is dukkash, noble truth of suffering. In other words, the labeling is different because it's a conceptual word, dukkha sh is. What we are doing is we are trying to connect the conceptual word, the way we understand through scripture, through lectures, and your experience, pain. Oh, this is suffering. Happiness, this is suffering. Concentration, this is suffering. Here's the one funny thing. Mindfulness, this is suffering. Everything. So one must note with a sense of reflection, a self, a little bit of reflection, because as soon as you use the conceptual word which covers the whole process, there's a certain degree of reflection involved. Everything that's arising in your mind and body, you look as dukkha, duka, dukkha, dukkha, dukkha. That's it. That's uh how to observe dukkasa. Samutia sisa, second noble truth. How would you do deal with in practice on a practical stance? Anything that is arising, anything that is arising in you, which is associated with wanting, wishing, clinging, grasping, attachment, anything that associated with those things, repeat again, wanting, wishing, creep, clinging, grasping, attachment. These are all the cause of suffering. In other words, samudhya sisa. So whenever these mental state arises, wanting, wishing, grasping, and so on, you note it as a samudhiasa. This is the cause of suffering. The cause of suffering. Or you can say simply d now. Craving, craving, craving, craving. Wanting is a craving, wishing is a craving, grasping, also a craving because it everything starts from craving. It grows bigger and becomes becomes grasping and clinging. But craving. So you can just say craving, craving, craving, craving, everything. That is the second noble truth. With a sense of reflection, samudtiya sasa. So in here we talk about two noble truth. Now need to understand a little bit more here. We will call it Lokya Dhamma. Lokya Dhamma is the mundane, mundane dharma, mundane dhamma. Anything that is mundane, anything that is physicality and mentality, physical process and mental process, they are called mundane dhamma or lokhya dhamma. And all these Lokya Dhammas are observable. In other words, you can observe as an object of your meditation. Or also you can reflect on these observable objects, reflectible objects, all these mundane dhammas are. In other words, mind and matter. So the first two noble truth, dukkha sissa and samudhya sissa, they are observable objects. You can observe in your meditation the first two noble truths. And these are presented not on a specific basis, they are presented as in a process or a phenomenon or a behavior or a manner. You have to move on a collective basis, you have to see it on a collective basis, as a process, as a phenomenon. That's why we said you need to be skillful, and this part is for the more experienced as one yogi. And you must note that at the moment of arising, in other words, always at the present moment. That's Lokyattama. And Lokutaratama, Lokutaratama is Lokutarama is ultra mundane or beyond the mundane. Beyond the mundane, Lokutaratama. So Lokutaratama is the third and the fourth noble truth is called Lokutaratama. Nirota Sisa and Megasissa. So in other words, Pat Megat Fruition Palat Nevana cessation of suffering. Those three are Lokudra Ultra Mundane Dhamma. And this ultra mundane dhamma doesn't fall under the domain of Sankara Dhamma. Sankara. They are not under Sankara Dhamma. And in the scripture, this path, creation, and nippana are not indicated as observable object or reflective object. They don't fall under the observable object or reflective object. So the third noble truth and fourth noble truth are not observable object. And in here, one need to understand we are practicing the eightfold noble part and we can't observe it. What does it mean? It's contradicting. No. We can practice each and every constituent, eight constitution of the eightfold noble part. We are on a training ground, we are training. We don't have it yet. And only when you have the perfect perfection of the eight, only then it is called the noble eightfold part. Till you got to the perfection, you don't have it, you cannot call it the part leading of the noble eightfold part or the middle way. And it is perfection that is Lakudra Dhamma. When you are practicing, you are trying to attain, to achieve that perfection. One needs to do as such. So that gives you a very good fundamental understanding of theoretical understanding of the eightfold noble, the full noble truth, and also in practice how to observe it or reflect it. In this the Man Vipassana reflection come to a certain degree of the part of the process. May all of you be able to practice Satipattana Vipassana meditation and may you be able to realize the full noble.

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:05

Sa tu Sa tu sad.

SPEAKER_01: 1:00:14

Thank you very much.