The Second Noble Truth

In the second Noble Truth, we find suffering's origin is in tanha, or craving. There are three types of craving: a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for existence, and a craving for non-existence. The problem with craving is that it is never-ending; once one fulfills their current desire, another surfaces. This is exemplified by the famous quote by John D. Rockefeller, after becoming the world's first billionaire, when asked "How much money is enough money?" He replied, "Just a little bit more."

The craving for physical pleasure goes deeper than what it may appear on the surface. It's not just pleasures of the body, such as food, drink or sex, but also our desire to control the world around us. Everyone wants their little piece of the world to be exactly how they like it, but in order to stem our craving for control, we must realize that control is futile. Think of Newton's first law - for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. All of our attempts to control the world around us are resisted by an equal, opposite force, and we exhaust ourselves trying to change the world to suit our needs, instead of accepting things for how they are.

Another, non-physical way that we try to control the world around us is through the use of labels. They allow us to figuratively pin a word or two upon something, putting it in its place, and move on. Labels create a barrier between ourselves and the object we're labeling. Once you label someone as ignorant, for example, you tend to disregard anything that person says from then on, even if what they have to say is important. Labeling yourself can be just as detrimental - when you label yourself as say, a liberal, you tend to view others as either "liberal" or "non-liberal" and treat them accordingly. Stereotyping is easy to do, however, and often we'll find ourselves doing so to save time and effort. We must make this extra time and effort in order to better see the world for what it is - not what labels we, or others, create that tell us what to see.

We often try to control our existence because we are afraid to die. We want to hold on to our things, our loved ones, our lives, when we need to accept the fact that death is as natural a part of life as birth. We need to live a healthy life, as an unhealthy body can distract us from obtaining Enlightenment, but I feel that we need to let go of the idea of perpetual youth.

Sometimes the opposite occurs, and we want death as an end to suffering, or because we are unable to control what we desire. This is self-destructive and brings about even more suffering. Being able to accept the release of control of the world around you is a big step toward getting away from the desire of death, or at least it was in my case.

The funny thing about control is that you can't control it. The more you attempt to control your desires, the stronger they become. It's the same as suffering - the way to defeating it is to find its origin, and seek understanding in why you desire and how the desire can be bad for you.

In my next post, I'll talk about the third Noble Truth, the cessation of suffering.

Thank you for reading,
Jeff L.