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| Introduction |
Return to
Index of This Sutra
The
Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta
"The Turning of
the Wheel of Dharma" Sutra
The Buddha's First Sermon
Lesson
2: The First Noble Truth: Suffering
Before
you read:
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The
Text |
The
Text
Setting Rolling the Wheel of Truth
translated by
Ñanamoli Thera
. |
Setting the Wheel of Dhamma in Motion
translated by
Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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Setting in Motion the Wheel of Truth
translated by
Piyadassi Thera
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| "Suffering, as a noble truth, is this: Birth
is suffering, aging is suffering, sickness is suffering, death is
suffering, sorrow and lamentation, pain, grief and despair are
suffering; association with the loathed is suffering, dissociation from the loved
is suffering, not to get what one wants is suffering -- in short, suffering is the five
categories of clinging objects. |
"Now this, monks, is the noble truth of stress:1
Birth is stressful, aging is stressful, death is stressful; sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair are
stressful; association with the unbeloved is stressful, separation from the loved is
stressful, not getting what is wanted is stressful. In short, the five
clinging-aggregates are stressful.
.
1 Ven.
Thanissaro Bhikkhu's note on "Noble Truth":
The Pali phrases for the four noble truths are grammatical anomalies. From these
anomalies, some scholars have argued that the expression "noble truth" is a later
addition to the texts. Others have argued even further that the content of the four
truths is also a later addition. Both of these arguments are based on the unproven
assumption that the language the Buddha spoke was grammatically regular, and that any
irregularities were later corruptions of the language. This assumption forgets that the
languages of the Buddha's time were oral dialects, and that the nature of such dialects
is to contain many grammatical irregularities. Languages tend to become regular only
when being used to govern a large nation state or to produce a large body of literature:
events that happened in India only after the Buddha's time. (A European example: Italian
was a group of irregular oral dialects until Dante fashioned it into a regular language
for the sake of his poetry.) Thus the irregularity of the Pali here is no proof either
for the earliness or lateness of this particular teaching.
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"The Noble Truth of Suffering
(dukkha), monks, is this: Birth is suffering, aging is
suffering, sickness is suffering, death is suffering, association with the unpleasant
is suffering, dissociation from the pleasant is suffering, not to receive what one desires
is suffering -- in brief the five aggregates subject to grasping are suffering. |
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The
Questions |
The
Questions
To
answer the Questions, please use the Comments
page. Please send your comments on this lesson by Wednesday, July 12, 2006. (Comments are welcome any time; this
"deadline" is just for those keeping pace with the
study.)
Question #1: The
"First Noble Truth" is often summarized: "All life
is suffering." Do you agree with this statement?
(see responses)
Question #2: The
Pali term for "suffering" is dukkha. What do you know of this
term that can add to our understanding of it?
(see responses)
Question #3: The
Buddha gives a list of the causes of suffering: "Birth...aging... sickness... death... association with the unpleasant... dissociation from the pleasant... not to receive what one desires..."
Are all of these indeed "suffering"? Which seems to be
the greatest suffering? Which the least?
(see responses)
Question #4: Finally,
the Buddha says that "the five
categories of clinging objects" (also translated "the five
clinging-aggregates" and "the five aggregates subject to grasping")
are suffering. What do you know of
these aggregates that can add to our understanding of the term?
(see responses)
Question #5: Thanissaro Bhikkhu
has translated the word "suffering" as
"stress." What do you make of the comparison of
"suffering" with "stress"?
(see responses)
Application
#1: What are the major sources of suffering (stress) in your
life? What do you think lies behind this?
(see responses)
Application
#2: What do you think causes most of the suffering in the
world? What can be done about this?
(see responses)
Application
#3: How can we minimize suffering (stress) in our lives?
(see responses)
Comments and questions regarding other aspects of this passage are also welcome.
Make
your Comments
here!
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The
Comments |
The
Comments
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Question #1 |
Question
#1: The
"First Noble Truth" is often summarized: "All life
is suffering." Do you agree with this statement?
Response
by James:
Of
course, the word "suffering" is an
overstatement. Thanissaro Bhikku uses
"stress"; one of my teachers from Sri Lanka called
it "unsatisfactoriness." And certainly that is
closer to the mark. Even in joy we sometimes sense the
seeds of that joy's end: "I wish it could last
forever!"
See
the response to Question #2 for more.
(Posted
July 14, 2006)
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Question #2 |
Question
#2: The
Pali term for "suffering" is dukkha. What do you know of this
term that can add to our understanding of it?
Response
by James:
Venerable
Nyanatiloka's Pali
Dictionary says dukkha:
...is
not limited to painful experience... but refers to the unsatisfactory nature and the general insecurity of all conditioned phenomena which, on account of their impermanence, are all liable to suffering, and this includes also pleasurable experience. Hence
'unsatisfactoriness' or 'liability to suffering' would be more adequate renderings, if not for stylistic reasons. Hence the first truth does not deny the existence of pleasurable experience, as is sometimes wrongly assumed.
In
discussing dukkhata, the abstract noun derived freom dukkha
(which means something like "the state of
suffering"), he says that dukkha has three causes:
pain, the suffering associated with having been formed (like
the existentialists?), and change.
To
illustrate this "suffering" we can use a simple
idea: Imagine a kid on Christmas morning. What could be
more joyous than that? He has spent the night in
anticipation, imagining all the great things Santa will
bring. The big day arrives, he opens all his toys, and
when finished, he says "Thank you" like a good boy,
but he's feeling sad that it's over. He may go so far as
to feel, even when opening presents, "Is that all it
is?" speeding from one to the next, hoping for something
better. The let-down is enormous. This is dukkha.
(Posted
July 14, 2006)
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Question #3 |
Question
#3: The
Buddha gives a list of the causes of suffering: "Birth...aging... sickness... death... association with the unpleasant... dissociation from the pleasant... not to receive what one desires..."
Are all of these indeed "suffering"? Which seems to be
the greatest suffering? Which the least?
Response
by James:
Well,
from a strictly logical point of view, birth would
be the worst, because if we hadn't been born, we wouldn't suffer!
But
psychologically, I think death is high on the list. Or, more
than death, the fear of death. All of the others can be
bypassed, ameliorated, or accepted. But death is the
toughest of all to face.
(Posted
July 14, 2006)
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Question #4 |
Question
#4: Finally,
the Buddha says that "the five
categories of clinging objects" (also translated "the five
clinging-aggregates" and "the five aggregates subject to grasping")
are suffering. What do you know of
these aggregates that can add to our understanding of the term?
Response
by James:
The
Sanskrit word is skandha, Pali khandha. These are
the five aggregates, or components making up an individual.
As found at Answers.com,
they are:
-
"form"
(Sanskrit, Pali rūpa):
the body and the six sense organs and their objects - 18
Dhatus. rūpa is created by four components (sa., pi. mahābhūta): earth, wind, fire and water.
-
"sensation" or feeling, NOT emotion
(Sanskrit,
Pali vedanā):
sensing only, without differentiating pleasant, unpleasant or neutral.
-
"perception" or "cognition"
(Sanskrit samjñā, Pali saññā):
registers whether sense data is recognized or not (ie sound of a bell or shape of a tree). - (from samyutta-ñana, conditioned knowledge) perception, recognition. It is ordinarily conditioned by one's past sankhara, and therefore conveys a coloured image of reality. In the practice of Vipassana, sañña is changed into pañña, the understanding of reality as it is. It becomes anicca-sañña,
dukkha-sañña, anatta-sañña, asubha-sañña--that is, the perception of impermanence, suffering, egolessness, and of the illusory nature of physical beauty.
-
"mental formations", "volition"
(Sanskrit
samskāra, Pali sankhāra - see Sankhara) :
all types of mental habits, thoughts, ideas, opinions, compulsions, and decisions that
arise after having samjñā. Samskāras are the source of karma.
-
"consciousness"
(Sanskrit
vijñāna, Pali viññāna- see Vijnana):
conscious base that support all experience. (ie not asleep, knocked out or unconscious).
The world--and
thus suffering, clinging, and karma--are all experienced through the Five Skandhas, and nothing is experienced apart from them.
(Posted
July 14, 2006)
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Question #5 |
Question
#5: Thanissaro Bhikkhu
has translated the word "suffering" as
"stress." What do you make of the comparison of
"suffering" with "stress"?
Response
by James:
Partially
covered in my response to Question #1. As I said there,
I think "suffering" is to strong. But I'm not
sure if "stress" isn't too weak, or even a different
thing all together. Subject a plant to under-watering or
excessive sun and it can experience "stress," a
merely physical response. I think "unsatisfactoriness"
is right on the mark, but as Venerable
Nyanatiloka says, it doesn't really work "for stylistic reasons."
Ultimately, none of these words is adequate without
explanation, either a teacher or a text to elucidate the
meanings.
(Posted
July 14, 2006)
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Application
#1 |
Application
#1: What are the major sources of suffering (stress) in
your life? What do you think lies behind this?
For
the most part, my stress comes from one place: My mind. Whatever
else is happening outside, it seems that my "inner critic" hits
me the hardest. "You should've..." or "You'd better..." speaks
louder than any of the actual circumstances that I get myself
into. Hamlet said, "There is nothing either good or bad, but
thinking makes it so." Agreed.
There is also the famous Chinese story of the horse.
A
man's horse runs away. "That's too bad," says his neighbor.
"What is good? What is bad?" asks the man.
The horse returns, bringing with it several wild horses. "That's
good," says his neighbor. "What is good? What is bad?" asks the
man.
The man's son tries to ride one of the wild horses, and breaks
his leg. "That's too bad," says his neighbor. "What is good?
What is bad?" asks the man.
The army comes through, conscripting soldiers, and can't take
the son with the broken leg. "That's good," says his neighbor.
"What is good? What is bad?" asks the man.
"Stress" is more a matter of how we take things "in here," than
of what actually happens "out there."
(Posted
July 14, 2006)
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Application
#2 |
Application
#2: What do you think causes most of the suffering in the
world? What can be done about this?
One
of the traditional Buddhist responses would be to point to "The
Three Poisons": Hatred (or anger), Greed (or desire), and
Ignorance.
Anger certainly gives rise to trouble, from war at the
international level to lack of love at the personal level. Just
ask someone who is recently divorced.
Desire is the cause of all suffering, as cited in The Second
Noble Truth (next lesson). But we can intuit this even without
the Buddha's guidance. Learning to "accept things as they are,"
rather than desiring that they be different, is a great source
of peace.
Ignorance--absence of wisdom--lies at the root of every
misconceived notion. If we understood the Truth, if we were to
Wake Up as the Buddha did, and see things as they really are, we
would know that the things that cause us stress are like this
world in the words of the Diamond Sutra:
This world is
empty, and all things change,
Impermanent as a shooting star, or the Morning Star at Dawn;
Like a bubble in a stream, or a fleeting night's dream,
Like a candle-flame that sputters and is gone.
(Posted
July 14, 2006)
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Application
#3 |
Application
#3: How can we minimize suffering (stress) in our
lives?
Again, the "orthodox" answer lies in the Fourth Noble Truth,
which is the Noble Eightfold Path. Read on. But if you look back
through the responses to Application 1 and 2 above, you will see
that the basic answer is: learn to see things as they are. Put
another way: Develop your wisdom. In addition, learn to
cultivate compassion, so that you can help ease the suffering of
others. It just stands to reason that a net reduction in the
suffering of the world will also lead to a reduction in my
suffering!
(Posted
July 14, 2006)
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..Contents
other than translations (C) 2006 James Baquet
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