Some Buddhism Basics

by Josh Korda

"Just as all the water in all the oceans have only one taste, the taste of salt,
the dhamma has only one flavor, the taste of freedom."

Four Noble Truths

The First Noble Truth is the truth of dukkha: conditioned life is inherently unsatisfactory & stressful.

The Second Noble Truth is that the cause of this stress is our self-centered craving for life to be otherwise.

The Third Noble Truth is the discovery of a peaceful, attainable state beyond life's ups and downs and cravings.

The Fourth Noble Truth is the path that leads us to this state, which is the Noble Eightfold Path.

The Four Noble Truths contain the whole of the dhamma. All of it concerns the arising and cessation of suffering. The Four Noble Truths are:

1st Noble Truth

Dukkha. Alternately translated as suffering, pain, stress, unsatisfactoriness. Life is by its nature stressful, imperfect. God didn't create the world and didn't make it perfect; we haven't fallen from grace. No, life as we're conditioned to live it is, by its very nature, dukkha: difficult, unsatisfactory.

Dukkha is not only the big agonies of "death," "sickness," "lamentation," and "suffering," it's the smaller stresses of day to day cravings and disappointments. Let's look at three types of dukkha:

Dukkha Dukkha: Old age, sickness, death, having to be with people and things we don't like, not getting what we want, being separated from the ones we love. It can be great sufferings or small, daily disappointments.

Dukkha Viparinama: suffering due to impermanence: dukkha caused by change, instability, the fact we cannot control life.

Dukkha Samkara: Everything in existence depends on other formations for existence. There is no core identity to anything. Everything is empty of permanent self. There is no essential me or you. This can cause great anxiety, especially the famous "existential crisis."

2nd Noble Truth

Self-centered craving (tanha) leads to suffering. Life is unstable, uncontrollable; no matter what form life takes on; aging, sickness, death, not getting what we want will be present. So the belief that something's wrong causes unnecessary suffering.

The Buddha says we crave sensual pleasure, vainly believing the sense bases of sight, touch, taste, feel, smell and pleasant thoughts can give us sustaining happiness &mdash and thus we'll be shielded from dukkha. This struggle to control our sensations ultimately causes grief.

There's nothing wrong with desire, but getting attached to what our desires want causes dukkha. Even getting what we want causes suffering: whatever we attain grows old, falls apart, goes away.

3rd Noble Truth

The Third Noble Truth is the discovery of a peaceful, attainable state of being beyond life's ups and downs and cravings.

As we reflect we see suffering and we see the nature of craving, then we see that trying to make life different, attaching to the outcome of our desires, is suffering. These insights can only come through experience, not intellect.

When we meditate, we suffer waiting for the bell to ring (when it rings the suffering ends, because the wanting goes away). When we itch and try not to scratch, the wanting to itch causes suffering.

If we bring a new attitude, knowing that itches and bells will pass, knowing that our wanting to control the itch and bell is causing suffering, knowing that the itch is a concept and investigate the sensations that comprise it &mdash then we see The Third Noble Truth. At this point wisdom, won through experience, has freed us. When we see things as they really are, we change our attitudes and give up our attachments.

Quick Review:

So let's review the dhamma's fundamental insights that we've referred to so far:

• Life as we're conditioned to live it is unsatisfactory and stressful.
• Everything is impermanent, instable.
• Nothing is essentially me. I am a process that is interdependent upon other processes.
• There is a state free from conditioned existence, from suffering, a way to coexist with life's ups and downs.

This runs against the popular ethos: when there's suffering present it's not because we're doing anything wrong, or that accumulation of wealth and power can help us escape it, nor the religious view that there is an eternal, transcendental self that is rewarded with a permanent stay in heaven.

Note that concept-based language is a poor vehicle to "get" the dhamma; language presupposes stability and identity. The impermanent flux that makes up existence and all its formations doesn't reside well conceptually.

Concepts are prone to dualistic constructs with hard edges, not interdependence; mindful awareness has no solid point of view or boundaries between in and out.

When concepts are clung to, like all hard beliefs, they lead to suffering. Buddhist concepts only point us in the right direction. When we bypass conceptual thought we arrive at pure, non-judgmental awareness. It is perfect for seeing the impermanence of all things, arriving and passing, without clinging or fear.

Pure awareness doesn't have a story or narrative drama. It is stress free, not prone to suffering or agitation that life's dramas bring.

Meditative awareness has no central point of view or personality at core. In this way it is perfect to understand anatta or no-self, the ultimate emptiness of all phenomena.

Meditative awareness itself is not prone to the ups and downs of life, or dukkha; therefore it is the perfect host for nibbana. These core insights are understood through the direct, non-judgmental awareness of the base sensations of the changing world. We see the reality beneath transient forms.

To follow the path, we let go of our clinging to soothing views and distractions and cultivate true wisdom of the dukkha of self, sensual pleasures, and unquestioned beliefs.

This is achieved by refraining from causing harm, cultivating what is good, and purifing the mind.

4th Noble Truth

This is the path that leads to the cessation of suffering and the attainment of peace. It is called The Noble Eightfold Path, and consists of: Right View, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration.

The Noble Eightfold path is divided into three basic groups.

The first part of the path is called panna, or wisdom. This includes Right View and Right Intention. Wisdom is revealed the more we make the mind clear, undistracted, able to penetrate appearances.

Right View

Right View is to understand that conditioned existence is unsatisfactory. To understand that cause of that stress is craving. To understand that there is a state beyond stress, unsatisfactory. To understand that there is a path.

To understand the teaching on kamma: our volitional actions matter. How we think affects how we feel which affects what we say and what we do.

To understand co-dependent arising: Nothing in this world arises in and of itself. Everything is codependent. When one thing changes, everything else its dependent upon changes.

To understand The Three Characteristics of Existence:

1. Life is ultimately unsatisfactory and stressful.
2. Everything is impermanent, instable.
3. Nothing is essentially me. I am a process that is interdependent upon other processes.

Right Intention

Right Intention is not to cause harm, to be cruel or to be greedy. To be loving and compassionate, to practice renunciation, by giving up attachments that are instable and distracting.

We will grow old, sick. Right View is to see this, and Right Intention is renounce the efforts that obscure this truth and to accumulate false protections against this fact.

The second part of The Eightfold Path is sila, or morality.

Right Speech

Right Speech is communications that matter and don't cause harm.

Right Action

Right Action is to refrain from harming, from taking what isn't given and sexual misconduct.

Right Livelihood

Right Livelihood is refraining from harming others extended through our livehihoods. Our livelihood should not cause harm or exploit others. No dealing in poisons, drugs, weapons, etc. Our work should be harmless.

The mind will never be able to become calm & quiet enough to investigate and understand the truth of life if we live in violation of these basic moral tenets. We must understand our interconnectedness to truly understand.

The last part of The Eightfold Path is samadhi, concentrated meditation: the cultivation of the mind. This part of the path addresses the unruly mind directly through meditation.

Right Effort

Meditation isn't easy. It takes effort and practice and perseverance. It takes a lot of effort to stick with meditation and go against the grain of our habitual ways of seeing ourselves and the world. Right Effort means to do one's best not to allow an unwholesome thought to arise or stay in the mind, and to make wholesome thoughts arise and stay in the mind. What is wholesome is thought speech and action that doesn't harm ourselves now or in the future. Unwholesome speech harms now or in the future.

Right Mindfulness

Without realizing the unsatisfactory state of conditioned existence, we stay attached to it and, therefore, freedom is impossible. To develop this insight, mindfulness is emphasized as the main feature, and concentration is merely the to vehicle to it.

We cultivate the ability to observe thoughts without jumping in and becoming part of the thought, an actor in the imaginary play.

We are witnesses, not actors. We must be aware of what's happening in the present moment, one thing at a time, staying detached so we can eventually choose which thoughts to focus on.

Concentration keeps us staring at the movie screen, watching light and sound, etc, not looking away from it. Mindfulness observes what's happening on the television screen, realizing that it's a movie, that it's not real.

Right Concentration

The mind constantly moves away and we lose the meditation object. We develop strength of mind that allows us to stay focused on that to which we are paying attention. We have the strength to put thoughts down. We develop the clarity of mind to see clearly. From within the mind a feeling of peace, or jhanas, arises.

Peace is there already, it is uncovered, allowed to surface. What keeps the peace & concentration submerged are The Five Hinderances:

1. Sensual Desire: craving for what is pleasant to the five senses.
2. Ill-will: feelings of irritation, anger and malice towards others.
3. Sloth and Torpor: practice is sluggish or half-hearted, a failure to arouse necessary energy to concentrate the mind.
4. Restlessness and Worry: inability to calm the mind, to think unduly of the past and/or future rather than staying with the present moment.
5. Skeptical Doubt: a suspicion that the practice doesn't work.

Remember: The goal of the dhamma is to see clearly this continuing process of arising and passing suffering, and in doing so to develop a state of mind that does not suffer from the uncontrolling swings of life's ups and downs.

Life as we understand it ceases when we become enlightened.