The First Noble Truth

Before laying into the Noble Truths, a little explanation and background is needed.

Siddhartha Gautama was the first Buddha, or Enlightened One. He was an Indian prince who left his heritage behind, denying himself worldly pleasures, in order to find the Truth. He sat under a Bodhi tree and vowed never to leave his meditation until he found the Truth. 45 days later it is said that he finally achieved Enlightenment, an awakening of the mind. Here he discovered the four Noble Truths.

The four Noble Truths center around dukkha, or suffering. The path to Enlightenment is the cessation of dukkha. In Enlightenment, we cease suffering by understanding its origin, and by removing ourselves from suffering's origins, we remove ourselves from suffering.

The first Noble Truth is entitled "The Nature of Suffering".

"This is the noble truth of suffering: birth is suffering, aging is suffering, illness is suffering, death is suffering; sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief and despair are suffering; union with what is displeasing is suffering; separation from what is pleasing is suffering; not to get what one wants is suffering; in brief, the five aggregates subject to clinging are suffering."

While this may seem depressing, it is the truth, is it not? We always are in some sort of discomfort and we are always trying to end it. The problem is we can't end it, no matter how hard we try. It doesn't matter what pills we take, food we eat, what science has to offer us, at some point, we will feel pain, discomfort, suffering. The idea is not to relish in suffering, however, it is to open our minds to the idea that suffering is a part of life, like all else, and attempting to evade it or eradicate it indefinitely is pointless, and in fact, causes more suffering.

The five aggregates subject to clinging that the first Noble Truth refers to are called Skandhas, and they are ways in which we attach ourselves to the world around us. By relinquishing these attachments, we are able to achieve Enlightenment.

The first aggregate is rupa, or physical matter, whether inside or outside the body.

The second aggregate is vedana, which is sensing whether a certain object is pleasant, unpleasant or neutral.

The third is sanna, and is the perception that our mind gives an object, such as the sound of a bell ringing.

The fourth is sankhara, is represents the ideas, opinions or prejudices that are triggered by an object.

The final aggregate is vinnana, or consciousness.

This is all well and good, but how can we apply all of this to everyday life? Most people out there, including myself, are not able to meditate until we achieve enlightenment, or it is not our desire to do so. We can still use these teachings to improve ourselves, to achieve a heightened awareness of ourselves and our surroundings.

The five aggregates are a good start. For the first, we need to detach ourselves from physical objects and from our physical selves. This doesn't mean to throw everything we own away; it simply means we need to detach ourselves from our dependency on material goods. It's a difficult thing to do, especially in our American culture where self value seems to be attached to how much stuff a person owns. We can still enjoy personal property but we must also look at it with the perspective that the object will not end our suffering. We must also consider the same perspective for our physical bodies - indulging ourselves with rich food and drink, drugs or physical pleasure will not end suffering.

I believe the second and fourth aggregates work together, in a way. Take any object around you, and it will evoke a sense of pleasantness, unpleasantness or neutrality, and your past experiences and knowledge about the object will come to mind. These cloud your mind, and keep you from seeing what something truly is, and is why we must detach ourselves from these two aggregates. One of the most unfortunate and common examples is our observation of people from a different race, religion or background. We can let our aggregates negatively effect our ability to see the person for who they truly are, and this in turn can evoke feelings of hatred, fear, and/or distrust.

In my next post I will discuss the Second Noble Truth, Suffering's Origin.

Thank you for reading,
Jeff L.