The Second Noble Truth

Yesterday I explained how “All of life is suffering.” I think we decided that this was a pretty depressing outlook on life, but remember I asked you to bear with me. The Buddha wanted to “cure” this condition, and he did. But just like any doctor, before he could cure the suffering, he had to diagnose the cause of the suffering.

The Second Noble Truth is the idea that “There is a single cause to suffering: Attachment.”

As I said yesterday, all things are impermanent. No matter how much you love your car, or your dog, or your family, someday you will lose them. Or you will die yourself, and thereby lose everything you have accumulated in life. Nothing is permanent. Nothing. I don’t like it, and you probably don’t like it either, but that’s tough. Attachment to things and the resultant loss of those things causes suffering. If you’ve ever lost a loved one, you know exactly what I mean. But you don’t actually have to lose someone to suffer, because you know deep down that someday you are going to lose them. That thought is always in the back of your mind; death is part of living, and we have accepted the idea.

This is a very logical idea, and if you think it through, I think you will agree. All suffering comes from attachment, or put in another way, desire. I desire a new Ferrari, but I can’t afford it. I suffer because I cannot have what I want. I’m hungry; all I have to do is go the kitchen and make a sandwich, but right now, I desire food, and that little bit of hunger is a mild form of suffering. Poor people around the world are hungry too, but they don’t have sandwiches handy; they suffer too, albeit more seriously than I do. I want to date a supermodel, but they won’t give the time of day. Maybe my sights aren’t so high and I have a crush on the girl next door (but she hates me!); there’s more suffering. Greed, Lust, Anger, Ignorance, and even emotions we think of as positive, such as Love are all forms of attachment or clinging. There’s no way around it; even Buddha himself got hungry and had physical needs.

What about physical pain? That’s attachment as well. You are attached to your own body, believing that this life is somehow real. Your body is not you, it’s just another temporary vessel. We’ll discuss this further another time, but your attachment to yourself is just as bad as aching with lust for a supermodel.

Think about it for yourself, don’t take my word for it. You will find that everything about essential Buddhism is completely logical when you dwell on it and analyze it a bit. Think about various forms of suffering, and see how they can be traced back to desire, attachment, or clinging of one form or another.

Yeah, it’s still depressing. But tomorrow we’ll discuss the cure for what ails us.

The Third Noble Truth

Now we know that all the world is suffering, and the cause of all is desire and attachment. These are important ideas to really understand and think through. You’ll have some extra time today to reflect on the First and Second Noble Truths, because the Third Noble Truth is really simple.

The Third Noble Truth is the idea that Suffering can be beaten.

We know from the first two Truths that everyone, everywhere is suffering in one way or another and that all this suffering is related to attachment and desire. “Doctor Buddha” first identified the problem (suffering), then he found the cause of the sickness (Desire), so the next step was to prescribe a cure.

Yes, there is a way to beat this depressing cycle of misery that we’ve been talking about. Most people haven’t attained this, and most won’t in this lifetime. Let’ s see if we can work it out on our own; as I said, it’s pretty easy. Since suffering is the problem we are trying to beat, and suffering is caused by attachment and desire, then it seems that the way to beat suffering is to control desire and limit attachments. Attachment and desire come from within; they are caused by our own minds. If we have control of our own minds, we should be able to just shut off the suffering. In fact, Buddhists go so far as to claim that reality is what you make of it. Simple, eh? Well, no, of course it isn’t, but this is idea that everything is in your mind and that you need to learn to control your mind is the heart of Buddhism.

But there is a way to do it, and Buddha went on to explain it in the Fourth Noble Truth, which we’ll cover tomorrow.

The Other Precepts

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A Reader recently wrote:
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As someone is relatively new to Buddhism, I have read about the sixth precept of not eating untimely meals. What does this mean to a western Buddhist?

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And my response:
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We only talked about FIVE precepts, but depending on your group, there may be more. In some cases, there are as many as several hundred (for new monks).

The sixth precept goes something like this:

In observing the sixth precept, the lay Buddhist eats one or two simple meals between dawn and noon and avoids taking food beyond that. This cuts down the time spent on meals and allows him more time to spend on mediation.

The sixth precept also follows the practice of bhikkhus and aims at cutting down the sloth which is experienced after a day’s work and a substantial evening meal, while it ensures that the body is light and fit for meditative practice. In the precept, the words “outside the time” mean after twelve noon until dawn the following day. During this time no food is eaten. However, some flexibility will be needed here with people going out to work. For them it would mean no food after their midday lunch until breakfast the next day. If one is troubled by tiredness after work on a day when these precepts are undertaken then tea or coffee are allowable as refreshing drinks. If hunger is the trouble then cocoa (or even plain chocolate) should cure it. None of these refreshments should contain milk, which is considered a food, though sugar, honey and butter are allowed (to bhikkhus, and therefore to lay people keeping the Eight Precepts), presumably because one can take only a little of these things. Fruit juices which have been strained (without fruit pulp) are other possible drinks.

And just to head it off before anyone asks, the next two precepts are:

7. I undertake the rule of training to refrain from dancing, singing, music, going to see entertainments, wearing garlands, smartening with perfumes and beautifying with cosmetics.

8. I undertake the rule of training to refrain from a high or large sleeping-place.

Yes, #8 tells us to sleep on a floormat, not on a raised bed. This has some historical meaning as not to try to rise above your station in life. Several times last week we discussed the way Buddhism changes over time concerning science. By the same logic, changing social rules have some impact on Buddhism as well: Do you really get arrogant by sleeping on a raised bed? Remember also, precept #6 was written long before electricity and the ability to stay up long past dark; in many cases, our days are far longer than they were in those days.

If you look back at Thich Nhat Hanh’s version of the 5 precepts, he pretty much covers most of the stuff contained in #7 in his discussion of intoxicants (bad TV, etc). His version also makes more sense. I think there’s a reason TNH went with only the first five precepts.

The question being how do these new precepts affect Westerners? I’d really like to say that they are primarily intended for monks, but they are specifically for laypeople. Instead, I’m going to go way out on a limb and say I don’t follow them, and I feel no guilt whatsoever about ignoring these.

Am I wrong?

Creation and Evolution

Creation occurs repeatedly throughout time in cycles. In the beginning of each cycle, land forms, in darkness, on the surface of the water. Beings who populated the universe in the previous cycle are reborn; some of them become the “new” humans in the new universe. Suffering and misery reigns. That is where we stand today. Eventually, the universe breaks down; all living creatures return to the soul life, and the cycle repeats. This is essentially the same as the Big Bang/Big Crunch theory, only integrating the ideas of reincarnation and karma. This is once again a remnant of Buddhism’s basis in Hinduism. Although there are minor differences in details, most Buddhists believe these essential ideas or something close.

There is no Creator god. There is no “Creation” in the usual Christian-like way of looking at it. Some older Buddhist stories do indeed involve some kind of god or gods making the creation happen. Today, these are generally accepted as symbolic stories and allegories for the more scientific “Big Bang” theory mentioned above.

For the same reasons, most Buddhists also accept the theory of Evolution. Simple life forms evolved and changed until the creatures we know today existed.

As I mentioned in the review of the Dalai Lama’s book a few days ago, he, as well as most Buddhists, accepts scientific thought over Buddhist myths whenever there are conflicting ideas or theories. This is why Buddhism is usually considered the most logical and rational of belief systems.

Bodhisattvas

We all know Buddha achieved his enlightenment and reached Nirvana. But many others have done it as well. Then what? Well, no one knows and we can only speculate on what really happens when a being reaches Nirvana and leaves the cycle of rebirth. However, what happens if a person achieves Enlightenment and chooses NOT to exit the rebirth cycle? This is what the Bodhisattvas have done.

Simply put, a Bodhisattva is a person who has achieved perfect enlightenment, but rather than leave the cycle of rebirth, has chosen to remain behind and help others reach that goal; in a way it’s the ultimate form of self-sacrifice. They have given up their great reward to help others.

Some groups also expand the definition of Bodhisattva to include people who are still seeking enlightenment, but make great efforts to help others. Obviously, this second expanded definition includes many more people. People who choose to can take the Bodhisattva vows. These vows are different for each sect of Buddhism, but the vows for the Zen sect go like this:

I vow to liberate all beings, without number.
I vow to uproot endless blind passions.
I vow to penetrate dharma gates beyond measure.
I vow to attain the way of the Buddha.

“Without number”, “endless”, “beyond measure” … These sound like hyperbole, but they mean it. Remember, by giving up on leaving the cycle of rebirth, they have unlimited lifetimes to accomplish their goal. The goal? To help every living thing in the world achieve enlightenment and to eliminate suffering.

Yama & Naraka: Death and Hell

Yama is the personification of death, or, in the more religious versions of Buddhism, as a the god of the dead. He’s usually depicted with green or red skin, and reigns over Naraka, the Buddhist version of Hell.

Naraka is “hell” for Buddhists. People go to Naraka due to bad karma as a result of their actions. Although they can stay there a long time, their time in “hell” is not permanent. In a way, Naraka may be more comparable to ideas of purgatory than hell, but there are elements of both ideas here. There are also both hot and cold hells involved, so if you are reading about Naraka, you may see references to either hot or cold places.