The Four Noble Truths, My View
The Four Noble Truths, My View
As I start writing this page, I feel it important to qualify something: I do not find myself an expert on the 4 Noble Truths. The notion that my perspective has any validity in actually teaching you this is laughable.
So why create this page at all?
Reminder: this is my journal. You simply have access to it. So please approach this with this in mind: I am a student in learning, placing my thoughts on the page to work them out, explicitly, and mold them and track my illusions. This is not some manifesto or claim of certainty and authority. Rather, an introspective exploration for the author, and nothing more.
If you want something authoritative, go to His Holiness the Dalai Lama himself here.
The following is an explanation as to how I, personally, view the 4 noble truths and what inferences I reach when I practice. Buddhism takes into account the flexibility and instability of language. Thus, my inferences, conclusions, or perspective is not intended to divert away from the ideas of the 4 Noble Truths. Rather, they are intended to frame them in a personal way that allows for the cognitive inferences in my own neural pathways to fire; this is how my brain processes and connects these ideas. The ideas, at the core, are the same (I believe). However, the signifiers I am using (the words to express these ideas) are closer to my own expression of language.
Life contains the inseparability of life and suffering. When suffering occurs, this is not a flaw or a mistake on the part of the experiencer of that suffering. Instead, it is a natural and inseparable part of life.
So what is the significance of this? What inferences are to be made? What conclusions are to be drawn? Associations to be bound synaptically?
If life and suffering are inseparable, then the suffering one experiences in life are not flaws to be avoided but rather experiences that demand reflection and awareness. To live one's life in a desperate attempt to avoid all suffering is foolish, for suffering will find a way to rise within one's experience regardless. Equally, to live one's life in search of suffering would be equally misguided, for suffering will come to pass regardless of effort or direction.
On the surface, this Noble Truth acts as an antidote to hedonism. The persistent drinking of alcohol or drugs will not eleviate the suffering, and the narrative of escape that video games and other forms of escape that thrive off of dopamine dependency is a false narrative cherry picking the experiences of memory. Then comes status and the commodification of the self through social validation. Wealth, power, or admiration are illusions of happiness that will only spark additional suffering. Just like the narrative of escape is a narrative of cherry-picked dopamine dependence (analogue with addiction), so too is the narrative of social status and completeness or actualization through the admiration or approval of others. As will be elaborated further in the latter Truths, wisdom (prajna) must always begin from the understand of the self first, before it can be applied externally; not the other way around.
Life contains suffering, so the First Noble Truth asserts. But we are not our suffering. Nor are we our joy. These are experiences, not states of identity.
At this point, I am tempted, as a teacher, to provide categorizations and examples of sufferings. To keep it brief, I will mention: cancer, anger, death, isolation, ego, sexual desire, and more. But I will leave the categorization for someone else, for all lists are reductive.
Rather, I would like to provide a connection. The first noble truth acts as an anchor on these experiences of life to remind practitioners of one of the most essential principles of Buddhist practice: impermanence. All things are impermanent, and all of life's moments of contentment, joy, elation, and positive experiences in life are impermanent and suffering is natural to rise. Yet, suffering itself is also impermanent, and cancer, isolation, ego, and even death all pass in their time, too. All elements of life are impermanent, and our own efforts are not needed to make them pass. In fact, they can pass of their own accord.
It should be noted that one might be tempted to make an inference that if all things are impermanent, and all of life's sufferings and joys are inseparable for life, then steps or effort should not be taken to avoid those sufferings. Or even, steps should be taken to pursue suffering in order to attain enlightenment with more rapidity.
This would be folly. The Four Noble Truths weave together like a braid, and do not exist as steps. Thus, conditions of the other Noble Truths would rapidly correct or deny this approach. Moreover, I would like to return to the key word that appears in my own practice when I meditate on this Noble Truth: forgiveness.
The greatest epiphany I have received thus far in my meditation in regards to the First Noble Truth is forgiveness. When suffering occurs, when I feel wronged, or when I make mistakes in my own reflection, behavior, and practice, this Noble Truth reminds me that suffering and mistakes are not hinderances to my path as a Buddhist practitioner, but rather they are the path if I maintain awareness and act accordingly to those sufferings. It is through forgiveness and awareness that we allow ourselves to drop the defenses that prevent us from acknowledging failures in our practice. It is through this forgiveness and awareness that we can get past the shame and degradation we feel when we recognize our own suffering. For if we recognize our own suffering as a failure, as a 'flaw' of our existence, then shame, defensiveness, and (most importantly) ego build barriers of illusion and misunderstanding of our suffering.
Finally, this aspect of self-awareness is tied equally to the awareness of others. We cannot be aware of others if we are unaware of ourselves; defensiveness associated with self reflection is the foundation stone of psychological projection. Rather, when we are able to forgive ourselves for our own transgressions and perceived failures, we are then able to forgive others for theirs, too. After all, life and suffering are inseparable so the anger that another person feels is natural; it is not a flaw. Rather, it is an opporunity for awareness, and a compassionate bridge should the experiencers foster its construction.
Thus, we return from those digression back to Duḥkha: life and suffering are inseparable. And two inferences: everything is impermanent. Forgiveness of the self leads to a greater capacity of compassion.
When first meditating on the Four Noble Truths, I often conflated this truth with the third. Upon deeper reflection, I learned that I was asking the wrong questions. Initially, I considered, "What is the cause of suffering?" The Third Noble Truth answers this in depth. Thus, what is the function of the Second Noble Truth? Does it truely assert the same claim?
My reflections have reached this conclusion: cause, causality, and dependent origination are the focus of this Noble Truth. Rather than emphasizing the cause of suffering, my meditations have lead me to focus on cause itself.
Let me explain.
In his Introduction of Buddhism (Link), the Dalai Lama explains the significance of dependent origination. This concept it not entirely dissimilar to the laws of thermodynamics: all actions have an equal and opposite reaction; something cannot be created from nothing; and so on. The key principal of dependent origination within the context of Buddhism is interdependence, as everything exists in a web of coexistence.
Thus, the conclusions and inferences are as follows: (1) everything is interconnected, (2) everything is dependent or contingent to the parts around it, and (3) to affect others is to affect ourselves. The inverse conclusions are also true: (1i) nothing exists in isolation, (2i) nothing is independent from the environment that surrounds it, and (3i) it is impossible to affect others without affecting ourselves.
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