From Four Noble Truths to the Four Grand Oaths

From Four Noble Truths to the Four Grand Oaths

AUG/12/ 2023—AUG / 13/ 2023

Hello everyone, welcome to our Dharma talk at Dharma Rain Meditation Center.

You will probably feel curious; why we have to talk about the logical relationship of the Four Noble Truth, Dukkha is eight sufferings, samudaya are causes, nirodha is Nirvana, marga is thirty-seven bodhipakṣa dharma, they are four independent parts, why Buddha concluded them in Four Noble Truth? Indeed, in the modern society we are so easy to ignore the Dukkha, ignore the fact that the life journey in this world is suffering; it is so difficult to read the phenomenon of life, to understand the samudaya theory; marga try to lead us to ascend into higher-level life form however it is not easy to persist. Therefore, those who are eager to cultivate and beyond the life need to understand the logic of the Four Noble Truth from the Buddha, to clarify the path of our cultivation. We have to know that the the Four Noble Truths are not only the Buddha’s first turning of Dharma wheel, at the last moment of Buddha, when he was about to enter the Nirvana, but he also said to the disciples: “O Bhikkhus, if you have any doubts regarding the Four Noble Truths; you should ask about them at once. Do not harbour such doubts without seeking to resolve them.” On that occasion, the Lord spoke thus three times; yet there were none who questioned him. And why was that? Because there were none in that assembly (of Bhikkhus ), who harboured any doubts. The Venerable Anuruddha, seeing what was in the minds of those assembled, respectfully addressed the Buddha thus: “Lord, the moon may grow hot, and the sun may become cold, but the Four Noble Truths proclaimed by the Lord cannot be otherwise. The Truth of Dukkha taught by the Lord describes real Dukkha which cannot become happy. The accumulation of desires truly is the cause of the Arising of Dukkha; there can never be a different cause. If Dukkha is destroyed , it is because the cause of Dukkha has been destroyed, for if the cause is destroyed, the result must also be destroyed. The Practice path leading to the cessation of Dukkha is the true path, nor can there be other. Lord, all these Bhikkhus are certain and have no doubts about the Four Noble Truths.” We can see the significant importance of the Four Noble Truth from Buddha’s teaching here.

“Dukkha” (suffering) is the most direct experiences of all beings, is the most unbearable, the most embarrassing issue in our life. The suffering is also the inevitable allocation of life phenomena and the significant element of provoking motivations of cultivation. Whether it is the worldly Dharma or renunciation of the world Dharma, suffering is a huge spur and driving force that made all sentient beings try very hard to cultivate and seeking the release of the suffering, especially in the early stage of cultivation. If there is no suffering but always a pleasure, who will bother to think the truth of life to cultivate? Even the Buddha started his cultivation after he saw birth, age, sickness and death suffering.

The sufferings like birth, age, sickness and death were the causes of the Buddha left the palace and went to cultivation. However, the reason that Buddha found the truth of the suffering and found out the origin of sufferings, which is the truth of life. Therefore Buddha taught us samudaya, taught us the reasons for the sufferings, the impermanence and no self-ego, based on this deep understanding of those theories, we may understand what is mid-path and Nirvana, which is niroda. In other words, people must first experience the impermanence and no self-ego, or rather than karma theory, they are easy to follow the mysterious experience mentioned by some predecessors. People could realize what is Nirvana after they realize the impermanence and attain the first fruit of no self-ego. Otherwise, it becomes a person who has never taste an apple just looks at the apple tree and ask people is it sweet or sour.

The Dukkha told us that birth, age, sickness and death, all kinds of the impermanence are sufferings. The Buddha then taught people thirty-seven bodhipakṣa dharma to endure the sufferings, which is the Miranda. Understanding the Dukkah(suffering), breaking the samudaya, attain the niroda and cultivating the marga are a series of meticulous and complete detailed cultivation plans to get rid of sufferings.

Therefore, the Buddhist cultivation must be based on sufferings and the desire to release from sufferings. We have to understand the suffering then we may seeing the right path of the cultivation. The Four Noble Truth are not four independent parts. Actually, they are four steps of the real cultivation, that is, the very important logic of Dharma cultivation.

Lots of Buddha’s teachings are carried out by the Four Noble Truth. The most familiar one for us is probably the “the Four Great Vows”: I vow to deliver all sentient beings, I vow to cut off all vexations, I vow to learn all the Buddha’s teachings and Dharma gates, I vow to attain the Buddha-hood.

Because of learning the Dukkha,we can understand that not only ourselves but the whole world and all beings are experiencing the sufferings, and we have to follow Buddha, we can not only help ourselves to escape from sufferings, so we are willing to “vow to deliver all sentient beings”.

By cultivating the samudaya, we understand the causes of sufferings and part of the practice is actually fighting against the affliction army. If we win, we can naturally see our self-nature and close to the Buddha-hood. Otherwise, we will stay in endless birth and death, not mention to help the sentient beings, so I am willing to “cut off all vexations”;

Getting into the marga, we can attain the Bodhi and have the great vow of delivering all beings. But first, we have to have to be knowledgeable and have different abilities. In ancient Indian, people were pursuing Pañcavidyā. In modern society, it requires us to understand natural science, psychology, management, information science, precepts, samadhi and wisdom, the three theories of the Dharma, sutra, vinayapiṭaka and abhidharmapiṭaka, the various schools, the various cultivation methods, so I wished that “learn all the Buddha’s teachings and Dharma gates, “;

To feel the niroda, we still a regular person; however, we already attained the self-nature, understood the significance of Nirvana, in order to attain the great Nirvana, we vow to attain the Buddha-hood.

OK, this is our Dharma talking today, after all the logic theories from Four Noble Truth and cultivation, hope everyone has a better understanding of Four Noble Truth and attain the Buddha-hood.

Thank you for the listening!