The First and Second Noble Truths of Buddhism

Today, I feel like talking over the First and Second Noble Truths of Buddhism. I have someone in my life that, after having a conversation with them today about suffering, left me feeling inspired, so I will lead with this discussion. First of all, though, you might want to brief yourself on what a noble truth is, and the basics, if you so desire. Personally, I find this website relatively helpful for this purpose. 

Before we begin, it is important that I assert that the Four Noble Truth’s are the most basic part of Buddhism and should be understood as directions rather than beliefs. The direction of the first truth is to understand suffering, while the direction of the second is to cast off the origin of your suffering. 
The First Noble Truth of Buddhism has to do with, and this should come as no shock, the truth of suffering, also known as “Dukkha”. It is merely an observation of suffering and asserts that life essentially, is suffering. In this the Buddha states that there are four unavoidable physical sufferings; illness, death, old age, and even birth. With the inclusion of the idea of birth being a form of unavoidable suffering, this concept honestly reminds me a bit of the Christian idea about being born in sin, whereas the difference being Christianity takes on a viewpoint of “You are suffering and Jesus/God can help you if you come to church/pray/whatever” however the Buddhist view of suffering is more along the lines of “You are suffering right now, how can you move to accept this fact, and then later to change it?” However the word “Dukkha” itself is in reference to things that are temporary, weather pleasurable or not. So the word itself suggests that neither pain nor pleasure is permanent.  Some sources suggest the use of the word “stress” conveys Buddha’s original meaning of the word “Dukkha” rather than the word “suffering.”

“Note that “suffering” is an inadequate translation of the word “Dukkha”, but it is the one most commonly found, lacking a better word in English. “Dukkha” means “intolerable”, “unsustainable”, “difficult to endure”, and can also mean “imperfect”, “unsatisfying”, or “incapable of providing perfect happiness”. Interestingly enough, some people actually translate it as “stress”. “
-View on Buddhism.org  

I would say that I agree with this. Partially because when you tell someone that “life is suffering” they typically tend to tune out because it sounds really pessimistic (which I will discuss a bit later) and intense, and partially because I think suffering is all relative to the reality of the person doing the suffering. Someone who simply desires something but feels no distress over the matter, does not know they are living while suffering. 

In this truth, it is asserted that regardless of what type of life one leads, there will always be suffering of one aspect or another, at several different points in our lives and it encompasses all types of suffering, from chronic illness to feeling disappointed or depressed. 

I think this truth is important because it shows that suffering is unavoidable, which is somewhat comforting when we live in a society like ours where we often times put a veil over those who are suffering because it is uncomfortable to address and sometimes makes us feel guilty which adds to our own suffering. In a society where the messages are usually, in essence ‘you can avoid suffering by looking beautiful, here! Buy our makeup! Buy our weight loss product! Here, avoid suffering by having nice things! Come to our car dealership!’ etc it almost can make one feel guilty for being in a state of suffering, even if we know it to be temporary, and the sense of guilt only prolongs the suffering and can blind us to the true cure. It binds us together and gives us, as humans, something huge in common and that is that we all face personal hardships and we all suffer. Accepting this Noble Truth can be so beneficial because it can make your own personal suffering feel less personal and in turn, easier to handle! Everyone suffers in one way or another and it is a bond we all have and something every single human being is capable of understanding. Instead of, when you’re experiencing a period of suffering, it being a big deal, you can just accept it for what it is and know that everyone else suffers too. If you can accept suffering for what it is, this can potentially give your suffering less power over your life and your moments of happiness, as well. 

One fault that people have, is that they learn of this truth and then they expect the acceptance of their suffering to end their suffering, however this is not the case. Seeking relief from suffering is a form of desire, which, according to the noble truths, IS in itself, a form of suffering. Searching for relief from suffering, especially from external sources (the man that drinks to help with his depression, the woman that engages in numerous sexual acts to feel beautiful, etc) will be futile. 

Basically, the idea here is that suffering is universal and to accept it for what it is. Take suffering at face value. However this is NOT to say to accept it and then make no move for a cure. One must remember that the first noble truth is more like an assessment of a problem. Or at least, that’s what I’m gathering from the First truth. 

A rather popular criticism of the first truth is that it is highly pessimistic or that it is a “dismal metaphysical statement saying everything is suffering.” I think an error people make upon asserting these critiques is that they fail to take into consideration that, while the first two noble truths do start out with pain, stress, or suffering, they are more like strategies for therapy to offer solutions to suffering rather than just accepting suffering and then making no move to alleviate it. Not only that, but in beginning to analyze your own suffering, it can lead you deeper into your own mind’s subconscious and help people realize hidden processes that might be mal-adaptive to their spiritual progression. 

“Pain is like a watering hole where all the animals in the forest — all the mind’s subconscious tendencies — will eventually come to drink. Just as a naturalist who wants to make a survey of the wildlife in a particular area can simply station himself near a watering hole, in the same way, a meditator who wants to understand the mind can simply keep watch right at pain in order to see what subconscious reactions will appear.”-The Four Noble Truths, a study guide by Thanissaro Bhikkhu 

I find it quite the opposite of pessimistic, actually, and in fact feel that it offers more hope than most religion, because while most religions promise “true” alleviation from suffering comes after death, this teaching asserts that such happiness is possible as soon as one masters the causes of his own suffering. 

Which, speaking of the causes of suffering, leads us to the Second Noble Truth, which deals with the causes behind human suffering. Otherwise known as the Noble Truth of the Cause of Dukkha, which Buddha says that identifying the causes of suffering is the first “step” so to speak, of curing ourselves of suffering. The Second Truth states that suffering (otherwise known as tanha) is the cause of suffering. This includes desire for things as simple as pleasant experiences, good health, material possessions, knowledge, beauty, sensual pleasures, etc. The list is pretty endless. Anything that can be desired, is essentially, a cause of suffering. Buddha also states that craving things is linked directly to ignorance, causing people to cling to things that aren’t permanent and that when people fail to satisfy their desires, or when the satisfaction wares off, they are now suffering. 

Ignorance, however, at least in this sense, is not related to being rude or being uneducated, but rather to being unable to see things for what they truly are, or being ‘spiritually blinded’ if you will. My mistake upon first learning of the Second Truth was to convolute the meaning behind the word ‘ignorance’ which will not lend itself to an accurate understanding of the truth, much in the same way that ignorance itself limits your understanding. We can’t see many rays of light except the visible light spectrum, and were ignorant of the others such as gamma or radio waves, until devices were invented to perceive them. This is comparable to the fact that devices and training are needed to see things within your consciousness that are there, but not yet perceived by you. 

Craving is defined as the “deep seated desire all living beings have for the pleasures of the senses and for life itself” by The Zen Guide. Included under the umbrella of desire is attachment, which is another root cause for suffering and is also linked to ignorance. A wonderful example of this follows:

“One takes a coconut and makes a hole in it, just large enough that a monkey can squeeze its hand in. Next, tie the coconut down, and put a sweet inside. What happens next is pure attachment. The monkey smells the sweet, puts his hand into the coconut, grabs the sweet and … the hole is too small to let a fist out of the coconut. The last thing a monkey would consider is to let go of the sweet, so it is literally tied down by its own attachment. Often they only let go when they fall asleep or become unconscious because of exhaustion.”-Viewonbuddhism.org

The way I view craving, attachment, and ignorance actually comes from the way someone close to me explained the way they viewed your life decisions, and that is to think of it as a tree. With craving being the trunk of the tree, it has many branches that can include greed, which comes from craving more and more of something you desire and have achieved, another branch being paranoia. People that finally achieve their desire being too worried about their happiness from that achievement to actually enjoy it. An example here being someone who has saved up their entire life to make a purchase, but when it is finally made, they are too worried about the safety of their purchase to enjoy it. Jealousy, when someone else gets what you have desired, or feelings of entitlement because one has worked toward something what they feel is, a sufficient amount. But what do trees need to grow? Water, or sunlight. Both, really, but for the sake of analogy lets say water. Ignorance is the water which makes the tree of desire grow. And the tree has branches, which causes a shade which is suffering. The way to end the suffering is to stop watering the tree. 

We create our own suffering by craving things and we thirst for things because of the water of ignorance. 

However I do have an argument personally against this truth and that is that I believe there are ways to alleviate certain sufferings that are not at all spiritual but rather, purely logical. I hesitate to say this because I don’t want it to come across as a slam on The Noble Truths because there is much to be learned from them, however since this is my blog, I do feel the need to address the criticism I have and that is that there are other ways, at times. If someone is sick and desires to become well, eliminating the desire to become well will not alleviate the suffering because the physical suffering is still there, however taking medicine will eliminate the sickness and in turn, the suffering. Taking vaccines or vitamins to prevent getting sick is a way to prevent potential suffering. There are ways to eliminate certain sufferings and stress that are not within ourselves but rather lay in the outside realm around us. 

Furthermore, people that take this truth too literally may begin developing an attitude of victim blaming, in the sense that believing all suffering is your own fault. Someone living in poverty near starvation is suffering because it’s their fault, and this is a very dangerous mindset to have because it erases compassion and promotes closed mindedness. However one must not suspend critical thinking when learning about these truths, which ties back to the concept of balance I talked about in my introduction post. Furthermore, I feel like many people’s initial reaction is to take this entirely, what is in my opinion, too far and to renounce all objects. To say that this means to never marry, or never have possessions, and I think that it is forgoing something very important and that is; balance. 

Moving on from my critique, however, I do think that this truth makes sense. Much like drinking a salty or sugary beverage when you’re dehydrated makes you more thirsty, craving that becomes satisfied only will lead to more eventual craving and the elimination of craving is the only way to not be dissatisfied. 

This is something I struggle with on a daily basis and this is as far as I personally have gotten in the Four Noble Truths because selfish craving can be found everywhere. In things as big as relationships (Loving someone for the sake of loving them vs. loving someone and craving their love and recognition in return, is a love meant to please yourself rather than another, just like helping someone in hopes that they will help you at some point or, I write a lot of poetry and often times I find myself asking why I write; is it for my own pleasure or is it because I want people to read my work and think it is good? Or why even, did I make this blog? Did I make it because I want people to commend me or to follow me so I can gain popularity or because it is merely something I wanted to do?) to things as small as desiring to eat good food or to be beautiful. But I feel as if I am definitely on the right track by being able to recognize these things. 

And the recognition of the causes of suffering is where the Second Truth ends and the Third begins, which is a discussion for another day. 

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DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 

1. How do you feel about the First and Second Noble Truths? Do you find truth in them, or find them to be more untrue? Why? 
2. Have you or anyone you are close with recently experienced suffering? Was it physical or mental? Do you understand this suffering? Do you, or the person experiencing, accept it for what it is? If not, what measures can you take to reach this acceptance?
3. What are some things that you currently desire and how do you think this is affecting you?
4. Have you recently experienced ignorance?
5. How do you think anger brings suffering?