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Web site: www.buddhanet.net

Buddha Dharma Education Association Inc.

Ven. Ajahn Sumedho

The Four

Noble Truths

The Four

Noble Truths

THE FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS

By Ajahn Sumedho

** ** **

THE FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS is composed of extracts

from various talks given by Ajahn Sumedho and is

available in book form from:

AMARAVATI PUBLICATIONS

Amaravati Buddhist Centre

Great Gaddesden

Hemel Hempstead

Hertfordshire HP1 3BZ

ENGLAND

who retains copyright. Amaravati is Ajahn Sumedho’s

monastery and welcomes visitors; retreats are held there

and several other books by Ajahn Sumedho are

available. Please send SAE for details.

** ** **

Contents

Preface 5

Introduction 6

The First Noble Truth 12

Suffering and self view 14

Denial of suffering 16

Morality and compassion 17

To investigate suffering 18

Pleasure and displeasure 20

Insight in situations 23

The Second Noble Truth 27

Three kinds of desire 28

Grasping is suffering 30

Letting go 31

Accomplishment 34

The Third Noble Truth 36

The truth of impermanence 38

Mortality and cessation 40

Allowing things to arise 41

Realisation 45

The Fourth Noble Truth 48

Right Understanding 50

Right Aspiration 56

Right Speech,

Right Action, Right Livelihood 57

Right Effort, Right Mindfulness,

Right Concentration 60

Aspects of meditation 60

Rationality and emotion 62

Things as they are 64

Harmony 66

The Eightfold Path as

A reflective teaching 69

Glossary 70

A HANDFUL OF LEAVES

The Blessed One was once living at Kosambi in a wood of simsapa

trees. He picked up a few leaves in his hand, and he asked the

bhikkhus, ‘How do you conceive this, bhikkhus, which is more, the

few leaves that I have picked up in my hand or those on the trees in

the wood?

‘The leaves that the Blessed One has picked up in his hand are few,

Lord; those in the wood are far more.’

‘So too, bhikkhus, the things that I have known by direct knowledge

are more; the things that I have told you are only a few. Why have I

not told them? Because they bring no benefit, no advancement in the

Holy Life, and because they do not lead to dispassion, to fading, to

ceasing, to stilling, to direct knowledge, to enlightenment, to

Nibbana. That is why I have not told them. And what have I told

you? This is suffering; this is the origin of suffering; this is the

cessation of suffering; this is the way leading to the cessation of

suffering. That is what I have told you. Why have I told it? Because

it brings benefit, and advancement in the Holy Life, and because it

leads to dispassion, to fading, to ceasing, to stilling, to direct

knowledge, to enlightenment, to Nibbana. So bhikkhus, let your task

be this: This is suffering; this is the origin of suffering; this is the

cessation of suffering; this is the way leading to the cessation of

suffering.’ [Samyutta Nikaya, LVI, 31]

** ** **

PREFACE

This small booklet was compiled and edited from talks given

by Venerable Ajahn Sumedho on the central teaching of the

Buddha: that the unhappiness of humanity can be overcome

through spiritual means.

The teaching is conveyed through the Buddha’s Four Noble

Truths, first expounded in 528 BC in the Deer Park at Sarnath

near Varanasi and kept alive in the Buddhist world ever since.

Venerable Ajahn Sumedho is a bhikkhu (mendicant monk) of

the Theravada tradition of Buddhism. He was ordained in

Thailand in 1966 and trained there for ten years. He is

currently the Abbot of Amaravati Buddhist Centre as well as

teacher and spiritual guide to many bhikkhus, Buddhist nuns

and lay people.

This booklet has been made available through the voluntary

efforts of many people for the welfare of others.

Note on the Text:

The first exposition of the Four Noble Truths was a discourse

(sutta) called Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta — literally, ‘the

discourse that sets the vehicle of the teaching in motion.’

Extracts from this are quoted at the beginning of each chapter

describing the Four Truths. The reference quoted is to the

section in the books of the scriptures where this discourse can

be found. However, the theme of the Four Noble Truths

recurs many times, for example in the quotation that appears

at the beginning of the Introduction.

** ** **

INTRODUCTION

That both I and you have had to travel and trudge through

this long round is owing to our not discovering, not penetrating

the four truths. What four?

They are: The Noble Truth of Suffering, The Noble Truth of the

Origin of Suffering, The Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering,

and the Noble Truth of the Way Leading to the Cessation of

Suffering. [Digha Nikaya, Sutta 16]

The Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, the Buddha’s teaching

on the Four Noble Truths, has been the main reference that I

have used for my practice over the years. It is the teaching we

used in our monastery in Thailand. The Theravada school of

Buddhism regards this sutta as the quintessence of the

teaching of the Buddha. This one sutta contains all that is

necessary for understanding Dhamma and for enlightenment.

Though the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta is considered to

be the first sermon the Buddha gave after his enlightenment, I

sometimes like to think that he gave his first sermon when he

met an ascetic on the way to Varanasi. After his

enlightenment in Bodh Gaya, the Buddha thought: “This is

such a subtle teaching. I cannot possibly convey in words

what I have discovered so I will not teach. I will just sit under

the Bodhi tree for the rest of my life.”

For me this is a very tempting idea, just to go off and live

alone and not have to deal with the problems of society.

However, while the Buddha was thinking this way, Brahma

Sahampati, the creator deity in Hinduism, came to the

Buddha and convinced him that he should go and teach.

Brahma Sahampati persuaded the Buddha that there were

beings who would understand, beings who had only a little

dust in their eyes. So the Buddha’s teaching was aimed

toward those with only a little dust in their eyes — I’m sure

he did not think it would become a mass, popular movement.

After Brahma Sahampati’s visit, the Buddha was on his way

from Bodh Gaya to Varanasi when he met an ascetic who

was impressed by his radiant appearance. The ascetic said,

“What is it that you have discovered?” and the Buddha

responded: “I am the perfectly enlightened one, the Arahant,

the Buddha.”

I like to consider this his first sermon. It was a failure because

the man listening thought the Buddha had been practising too

hard and was overestimating himself. If somebody said those

words to us, I’m sure we would react similarly. What would

you do if I said, “I am the perfectly enlightened one”?

Actually, the Buddha’s statement was a very accurate, precise

teaching. It is the perfect teaching, but people cannot

understand it. They tend to misunderstand and to think it

comes from an ego because people are always interpreting

everything from their egos. “I am the perfectly enlightened

one” may sound like an egotistical statement, but isn’t it

really purely transcendent? That statement: “I am the

Buddha, the perfectly enlightened one” is interesting to

contemplate because it connects the use of “I am” with

superlative attainments or realisations. In any case, the result

of the Buddha’s first teaching was that the listener could not

understand it and walked away.

** ** **

Later, the Buddha met his five former companions in the

Deer Park in Varanasi. All five were very sincerely dedicated

to strict asceticism. They had been disillusioned with the

Buddha earlier because they thought he had become insincere

in his practice. This was because the Buddha, before he was

enlightened, had begun to realise that strict asceticism was in

no way conducive towards an enlightened state so he was no

longer practising in that way. These five friends thought he

was taking it easy: maybe they saw him eating milk rice,

which would perhaps be comparable to eating ice cream these

days. If you are an ascetic and you see a monk eating ice

cream, you might lose your faith in him because you think

that monks should be eating nettle soup. If you really loved

asceticism and you saw me eating a dish of ice cream, you

would have no faith in Ajahn Sumedho anymore. That is the

way the human mind works; we tend to admire impressive

feats of self-torture and denial. When they lose faith in him,

these five friends or disciples left the Buddha — which gave

him the chance to sit under the Bodhi tree and be enlightened.

Then, when they met the Buddha again in the Deer Park in

Varanasi, the five thought at first, ‘We know what he’s like.

Let’s just not bother about him.’ But as he came near, they all

felt that there was something special about him. They stood

up to make a place for him to sit down and he delivered his

sermon on the Four Noble Truths.

This time, instead of saying ‘I am the enlightened one’, he

said: ‘There is suffering. There is the origin of suffering.

There is the cessation of suffering. There is the path out of

suffering.’ Presented in this way, his teaching requires no

acceptance or denial. If he had said ‘I am the all-enlightened

one’, we would be forced to either agree or disagree — or

just be bewildered. We wouldn’t quite know how to look at

that statement. However, by saying: ‘There is suffering, there

is a cause, there is an end to suffering, and there is a way out

of suffering’, he offered something for reflection: ‘What do

you mean by this? What do you mean by suffering, its origin,

cessation and the path?’

So we start contemplating it, thinking about it. With the

statement: ‘I am the all-enlightened one’, we might just argue

about it. ‘Is he really enlightened?’....’I don’t think so.’ We

would just argue; we are not ready for a teaching that is so

direct. Obviously, the Buddha’s first sermon was to

somebody who still had a lot of dust in his eyes and it failed.

So on the second occasion, he gave the teaching of the Four

Noble Truths.

** ** **

Now the Four Noble Truths are: there is suffering; there is a

cause or origin of suffering; there is a end of suffering; and

there is path out of suffering which is the Eightfold Path.

Each of these Truths has three aspects so all together there

are twelve insights. In the Theravada school, an arahant, a

perfected one, is one who has seen clearly the Four Noble

Truths with their three aspects and twelve insights. ‘Arahant’

means a human being who understands the truth; it is applied

mainly to the teaching of the Four Noble Truths.

For the First Noble Truth, ‘There is suffering’ is the first

insight. What is that insight? We don’t need to make it into

anything grand; it is just the recognition: ‘There is suffering’.

That is a basic insight. The ignorant person says, ‘I’m

suffering. I don’t want to suffer. I meditate and I go on

retreats to get out of suffering, but I’m still suffering and I

don’t want to suffer.... How can I get out of suffering? What

can I do to get rid of it?’ But that is not the First Noble Truth;

it is not: ‘I am suffering and I want to end it.’ The insight is,

‘There is suffering’.

Now you are looking at the pain or the anguish you feel —

not from the perspective of ‘It’s mine’ but as a reflection:

‘There is this suffering, this dukkha’. It is coming from the

reflective position of ‘Buddha seeing the Dhamma.’ The

insight is simply the acknowledgement that there is this

suffering without making it personal. That acknowledgement

is an important insight; just looking at mental anguish or

physical pain and seeing it as dukkha rather than as personal

misery — just seeing it as dukkha and not reacting to it in a

habitual way.

The second insight of the First Noble Truth is: ‘Suffering

should be understood.’ The second insight or aspect of each

of the Noble Truths has the word ‘should’ in it: ‘It should be

understood.’ The second insight then, is that dukkha is

something to understand. One should understand dukkha, not

just try to get rid of it.

We can look at the word ‘understanding’ as ‘standing under’.

It is a common enough word but, in Pali, ‘understanding’

means to really accept the suffering, stand under or embrace

it rather than just react to it. With any form of suffering —

physical or mental — we usually just react, but with

understanding we can really look at suffering; really accept it,

really hold it and embrace it. So that is the second aspect,

‘We should understand suffering’.

The third aspect of the First Noble Truth is: ‘Suffering has

been understood.’ When you have actually practised with

suffering — looking at it, accepting it, knowing it and letting

it be the way it is — then there is the third aspect, ‘Suffering

has been understood’, or ‘Dukkha has been understood.’ So

these are the three aspects of the First Noble Truth: ‘There is

dukkha’; ‘It is to be understood’; and, ‘It has been

understood.’

** ** **

This is the pattern for the three aspects of each Noble Truth.

There is the statement, then the prescription and then the

result of having practised. One can also see it in terms of the

Pali words pariyatti, patipatti and pativedha. Pariyatti is the

theory or the statement, ‘There is suffering.’ Patipatti is the

practice — actually practising with it; and pativedha is the

result of the practice. This is what we call a reflective pattern;

you are actually developing your mind in a very reflective

way. A Buddha mind is a reflective mind that knows things

as they are.

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