The Noble Truths
Hokai D. Sobol (c) 2003
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Om A Hum
Intro
The four Noble Truths (Skt. chatur-aryasatyani) represent perhaps the fundamental teaching, common to all schools of Buddhism. This teaching was expounded by Shakyamuni the Buddha during his first preaching at the Deer Park in Benares. Widely mistakenly understood as a gloomy exaggeration of the difficult side of life, this teaching is potentially confusing in other respects as well, for the simple fact that fundamental teachings are generally understood in a fundamentalist way. The four facts of spiritual life are being expounded here in very basic terms, but not as absolute truths or laws or facts. Simply, absolute facts do not exist in an ultimate sense. As such, even "absolute truths" are merely counterpoints to relative truths, and nondual truths are unspeakable (or at least paradoxal) in dualistic linguistic terms, even when perfectly obvious. Thus, in concordance with the style of exoteric Buddhist expositions, the Buddha's sermon on four Noble Truths remains silent in relation to the nondual. However, the four Noble Truths fearlessly expound that which can and must be spoken.
Suffering and bondage and conditioning and powerlessness exist only in relation to bliss and freedom and all-will and all-power, and hence are relative notions (and the experiences to which these notions refer are entirely relative, of course). Experiences are, as a matter of fact, always relative and always transient and always selfless. Otherwise, they would not be experiences. They're relative because they're always comparable – if not, they're indescribable, so to a dual consciousness also imperceptible. They're transient because they arise and vanish – if not, they're eternal and fixed and ungraspable, because out of timespace. They're selfless because they always arise as an object or environment or act or feature or awareness, and these never become «self» -- if not, we'd never call them experiences and would never loose them. Simply put, the four Noble Truths do not describe ultimate reality. This is why the «Heart of perfection of wisdom» says, «There is no suffering, no origin, no cessation, no path» (Skt. na duhkha samudaya nirodha marga). If you're not familiar with the exposition of four Noble Truths in the Pali canon see here, and for the Heart of Prajnaparamita translated from Sanskrt by Edward Conze see here.
Furthermore, the four Truths are mutually complementary, they add to each other. So the first Truth is witnessing the suffering, while the third Truth is witnessing its cessation. The second Truth is witnessing the origination of suffering, while the fourth Truth witnesses the path leading to its cessation. If these were «hard» and absolute truths, each would controvert the other. Thus, precisely in their relativity, they form a harmonious interdependent whole.
Mahayana teachings start from four real marks of samsara, and four real marks of nirvana. Samsara is reality marked by suffering, impurity, impermanence and selflessness. Nirvana is reality marked by bliss, purity, permanence and self. Now, nirvana is reality in relation to samsara, which is an illusion [of reality]. But the marks of samsara and nirvana are «real» only inasmuch anything can be «real», and still these two sets of marks controvert each other. Naturally, since «real» cannot be an absolute notion, as it always exists only in relation to «unreal». Reality in a superior and translogical sense is no «reality», since it transcends the chasm between reality and unreality. In nondual and all-encompassing perspective, samsara and nirvana are one – one taste, one nature of suchness.
After this brief introduction, we may enter the territory expounded by the map-like four Truths with more balance and perspective. It is the territory of spiritual transformation: in an anxiety-ridden and confusing existential trap the individual must open to that which momentarily sobers the mind – fundamental suffering, bitter and raw. Then, one must dive into the suffering and find the causes of its dynamics – in body, mind, others, and environment. Then, one must discover how all suffering ends and vanishes in exactly the same way it starts and arises – dependent on causes and conditions. Finally, one must acknowledge that the path leading to that goal is gradual, available and possible, and that it's a path to be lived. Moreover, this path is life itself!
Exposition
Let us review briefly the four Truths in a contemplative style, as a sequence of meditation subjects inviting us to a direct, unmediated cognition of Truths, not their intellectual postulation, much less mere «belief» in them. Belief in Truths is meaningless just as belief in one's own thought. When we think something, simply and transparently we cognize this thought, directly and unquestionably as far as it goes. The same happens with the Truths, as long as we guide the contemplation in correct manner. Various Buddhist traditions have developed specific meditative methods based on this subject, and some of these require significant preparation and memorization (and therefore a considerable degree of knowledge acquired by learning). The following method is simple and direct, but still potentially profound and penetrative, and it's entirely based on an attitude and awareness of complete internal honesty, acceptance and gentleness.