General Buddhism: class 3 - lesson 2 of suffering

Universal Buddhist Studies

HT. Thich Thien Hoa.VIETNAMESE TRANSLATE ENGLISH BY=THICH CHAN TANH.

---

Third Class of the Sutta Pitaka

- o0o -

Lesson 2

Dukkha (Dukkha)

A. Open Topic

Life Is A Misery Of Sweat And Tears

There are some people who think that life is a long party, not enjoying it is in vain. Therefore, they do not miss an opportunity to bring them material pleasure.

But they did not expect that such pleasures are false, deceptive, just like the fragile pleasures of the thirsty people who drink salty water, the more they drink, the more thirsty; and the throat, after a minute of drinking it, was bitter again.

Sutras have the saying: "Tears of sentient beings are more than sea water." Indeed! The world is not happy, the world is full of misery. The joys, if any, are temporary, flashy like a class outside; but the nature of life is suffering. Life is a sea full of sweat and tears, in which beings are swimming, diving, sinking, floating. That is the truth. But the truth is that no one sees clearly and speaks clearly as the Buddha said in suffering, the first part of the Four Noble Truths.

B. Right Concise

I.  Definition of Suffering  (DUKKHA)

Suffering is caused by the word Dukkha. "DU", meaning difficult; "KKHA" is hard to endure. Dukkha means bitter; broad meaning is what makes us uncomfortable, we suffer pain such as: sickness, hunger, sadness, fear etc.

"DUE" is a solid truth, true, complete, higher than all.

Suffering, is the right truth that is firmly higher than suffering in the world. This truth is clear and transparent, no one can deny.

Below, let us listen to the Buddha giving a thorough, profound, meticulous interpretation of the suffering of the world.

II. Commenting On The Suffering Of The World

He who gives all the suffering in the world, never. Song based on Buddhist scriptures, can be classified into three types of suffering (tam suffering) or eight (suffering).

1.  Three miseries : Three types of suffering are: suffering, suffering and suffering.

a) Suffering. Suffering piles up on suffering, it is already suffering, but the surrounding situation overlaps with others: that is "Suffering".

Indeed, every being, being itself a victim of so much suffering, evil; the body is a filthy fleshy bones, if for a few days, without care, washing, then rot cannot stand it. Moreover, the body itself is not stable, but on the contrary, it is very fragile: thirst for about three days, suffocating for five minutes, breaking a blood vessel, being infected with some toxic germs ... so dying.

again, on the sudden suffering and death that humans cannot control, there are many other sufferings piled up, which are inevitable: sickness, hunger, storms, fires, wars, oppression, collect heavy taxes, etc. So it is called "suffering".

b) Suffering. In the Kinh Khan records: "Every thing that looks like it has to be destroyed". In fact, everything in the universe is governed by impermanence, and cannot last forever. Hard as stone, perennial also rotten; as big as the earth, the moon, the long day sun also disintegrates. Weak, small as a human body, the shorter the life, fleeting! The cruel hammer of time breaks everything; every minute every second we live, every minute every second we are being destroyed. And no matter how much power we have, how much power we have, how rich we are, we cannot prevent or fend against time to destroy our lives. We are completely helpless before time. It is miserable, humiliating, painful!

c) suffering. In terms of materiality, we are dominated, sabotaged by time, outside; also in terms of exclamation, we also have no control, no peace, no freedom. our soul is often tormented, enticed, motivated every minute and every second. our thoughts are also always leapfrogging from one thing to another, like a horse without an outline, like a tree ape, never stopping. It is exactly as the Buddha taught: "mind, intention".

If we look more deeply, we will see that our soul is still hidden deep inside, under the consciousness, which is the subconscious mind, which is extremely powerful and wrongly used in every thought, act. action. we are angry, we love, we hate, we want this, we like that, largely due to our subconscious mistakes, orders.

In short, we are not free, we are dominated by ideas, desire, subconscious, and always subject to their orders. That is "Suffering".

2. The  eight sufferings : if we analyze them more closely, then the suffering of the world can be divided into eight categories. eight types of this achievement also outside the other three.

Eight types of suffering: birth suffering, aging suffering, sickness, death, craving separation, suffering from unreasonable suffering, resentment of suffering, warm and prosperous people. Let's talk about these eight sufferings below.

a) Suffering: The human life has two parts of suffering: suffering during birth, suffering in life.

Suffering during birth. The one who is born and the one who is born both suffer. When the mother became pregnant, she started to lose her appetite, insomnia, vomiting, strenuous, unexpected ... Every day the pregnancy gets bigger, the mother is tired, heavy, struggling every day, working hard. slow. By the time of birth, the pain of the mother could not be described. Oil was conceived again, the mother also suffered filth for many days, frail for months, because of the weakened blood, impaired viscera. As for the risk of pregnancy, the mother had to be dissected, much more painful. Sometimes after a birth with surgery, the mother will suffer lifelong disability.

And children, from birth to birth, also suffered many miserable things. Over the course of nine days and ten days, you are confined in a dark, cramped space, more than a prison! Mother hungry rice, thirsty, then the fetus in the fetus liquid burn like bubbles waving. If you eat well, you will be pressed like a powder that is crushed under a chopping block, making it difficult to stir. By the time of birth, my body had to squeeze through a cramped place like being crushed by four tanks, so when I just got out, I immediately cried out: "misery! Suffering a! ”. It is exactly like the two verses of Wen Nhu Hau:

“No wonder when they first buried

Bring the original crying out! ”

Suffering in life. In terms of material, or spiritual, life has many miserable things.

In material terms, people demand essential necessities such as food, drinks, clothing, housing, and medicine. To have those needs, people need hard work, sweating, boiling tears, to buy a cup of rice, a bowl of rice, a pair of pants, a shirt. Regarding housing, sometimes a lifetime of hard work, still not enough to create a small house.

But not waiting for hunger to call misery; erratic eating and deprivation are already miserable. Not waiting to fall into the scene of the sky, or eat feathers in the new hole called suffering; clothes are not warm enough, the house cannot cover the sun and rain, it is already miserable. But is it only the poor who suffer? The rich also suffer miserably as usual: to have money, they had to get up early to wake up early, sell algae, turn heads off at work, sweat, cry tears to get it, not money in Nowhere on earth falls for! That is not to mention other abnormal physical suffering that no one can avoid.

Mentally, there are many humiliations in human life, sometimes more painful than material deprivation. Not saying much, just for example here an example of suffering in learning.

To find reason, truth, morality, all have to process many years of learning both theoretically and empirically. about the theory we learn in books with teachers or with friends or self-study. In terms of experiment, we also encountered many miserable and difficult things. Like studying theory with teachers at school, sometimes when there are difficult lessons, some teachers teach too high, students do not receive anything at all, so people are angry with the anguished! And self-study at home with a smooth book, sometimes encountering a stuck text, not having enough additional documents to look up, clogged the exit, and started angry anguish, is also miserable. Regarding experiential learning in life, sometimes it pays a very expensive price. I will be deceived by this person, the other will be oppressed, the other will have hatred, the other will despise ... how many people are that much. And understanding part of life is a part that we have suffered so much humiliation and suffering.

In short, materially or spiritually, life carries many sufferings. Suffering is like that.

b) Suffering. The folk verse has a saying:

“Aging is a scene of ruin

Old trees, old trees and old people. ”

People come to old age, the body is worn out, the mind is weak, so the body and mind suffer.

Physical suffering. The older, the more worn out blood. Inside, the five organs, continental government increasingly tired, working weakly; outside the senses gradually deteriorated, such as blurred vision, deaf ears, stuffy nose, tongue twitching, trembling limbs, difficulty walking, whatever thanks to others.

Yes, every time the weather turned, it was painful to follow the climate, such as when it was sunny, it was fever, it was raining and it was cold, etc. Nothing called fun at all!

Miserable. The ancients said: "Da tho, poly humiliation". Indeed, very old, very humiliating! The older the body is, the weaker it is, the more intellectually it will fade. Therefore, born confused, forget first, remember later, act like a fool: eat dirty, drink dirty; speaking like an insane person; Eaten and told not to eat, not sure to eat already; sometimes cursing, babbling making jokes for children. It is true that "Aging".

c) Suffering. torturing the human body, making it miserable more than pain! Pain, no matter what it is, from minor pain such as toothache, headache, severe pain such as leprosy, tuberculosis etc ... makes people groan, miserable and uncomfortable. Especially when the illness kh (long hard to cure), the more tortured the body, bitter rice, water clam, pray for not being able to live, pray for death or death, injustice injustice, it is very miserable.

The body was hurt, but the money was all gone. There are many people after a painful pain, only empty hands! So the proverb has a saying: "It doesn't hurt to get rich."

In addition, the disease also makes you feel sad and worried. Every time someone in the house was sick, the whole family was busy, anxious to sit still, to forget to eat, to sleep, to speak, to laugh, to quit work. It is true that "Sorrow".

d) Death. In the four phenomena of impermanence; birth, old age, sickness, death, "death" is what makes living beings most frightened. People are afraid of death in the situation of redundancy, and they should not live any longer, but when they hear about death, they are also afraid to think about it. The ill-fated people suffer from incurable diseases like cancer, leprosy, and misery for another day, yet those blessed people still want to live.

How does death afflict people and are they so scared?

About the body. There was an excuse for a dying person to be mortified before he knew death was scary. people are about to die, tired not stop, eye support, mouth distortion, tendon movement, bending, stretching his hands, breaking his legs ... Meanwhile his ears stopped listening, eyes stopped seeing, nose stopped breathing, mouth stopped talking. When I tried touching the dead, I felt cold like copper, and my body was stiff like wood. the corpse gradually swelled up, in disgusting burning; if for a long time cracked again, the fishy line is extremely uncomfortable.

Mentally. When he was about to die, his mind was in turmoil and terrified: compassion for his parents, spouses, brothers, children from here broke, worrying about being alone, stepping into a strange and mysterious world. There is nothing more painful than this eternal separation moment!

In summary, death causes the body to disintegrate, the consciousness following karma leads to birth in an unknown realm. It is "miserable".

e) Separate misery. In the love between husband and wife, children, brothers and sisters who are salty and intimate and separated, nothing is more painful. There are two types of separation: birth and death.

Born suffering. A family is living in a warm and happy conversation, suddenly forced circumstances, or because of a sudden disaster, such as wars, storms, floods ... make each helpless lost in each place: this head wait, the other person remembers waiting. It's heartbreaking! People often say: "Better to die, but who could leave?". That is the suffering of "Being glass".

Death bye. But even though the commune is separated from each other, the survivors have days to meet; But how died when he was vum? So, standing before death, is a permanent separation, no one is suffering. Therefore, falling into this farewell scene, some people were mercifully troubled to forget to eat, to sleep, some people were in pain, so desperate that they tried to die after the deceased. That is the suffering of "farewell".

g) Pray for misery (disappointment). People in life, the more they hope, the more disappointed. Regardless of what the problem is, the number of people who are satisfied is too rare, and the one who fails unsatisfactory, is unspeakable. In order to get good results, people have to use so much energy, hard work, loss of mind, loss of appetite, and sleep deprivation, just hoping for a quick success. Then, unfortunately things succeed. so, unfortunately those wishes are not successful, the suffering does not know where the shore. Here are some examples of the most common frustrations.

Frustrated by the name. In life, fame is often a good bait that most people enjoy. But that bait, where is it easy to win? Not to mention the skydivers, who want to be officials, so much or fail, just talk about the case of those who deserve fame, with their talents, talents, learning. For these happy people, also have to taste the failure, in the end it may succeed. It is true that Wen Nhu Hau Nguyen Gia Thieu said:

“Glorious fame, mud mixed with gray

The face of the sun in the sun is full of the smell of strawberries! ”

Disappointed because of wealth. The number of people disappointed by his success is high. But the number of disappointed products is also not small. Wanting to get rich quickly, many people seek this and that trick to deceive people; But then cheating fraud broke out, property was confiscated, imprisoned himself, family humiliated, really miserable!

Disappointed because of love. Love is also a thing that makes many people suffer and suffer. In the school of love, try asking how many people are satisfied? Every day in the newspaper, the love stories that lead to the suicidal cause are truly indescribable. This is the "Unconvinced Bridge".

h) Resentment suffering. People in love, no one wants to separate; As well as being in hate, no one expects to meet. But sorrowfully instead! In life when you want to meet again, you have to separate; Just like when you wish to be separated, you must live together every day! How suffering must be separated for two people who love each other like that, the same must meet for two people who hate each other like that.

People often say: "See the enemy's face, like a needle stabbing in the eye; living with the adversary, like tasting honey, lying on the thorn ”.

Not to mention the case of strangers, even in the family of relatives, between husband and wife, brothers, when for some reason, born discord with each other, is also uncomfortable enough. Want to get away from each other, but every time you go in and out, you have to meet forever! Determined not to talk to each other, but sometimes forced not to, must speak out with embarrassment. Dinh absolutely absolute, strict because they still have to eat in the same house, even trying to escape, but sometimes they have to communicate. It is miserable. It is the relatives who are intimidated, have humiliation, and mean the people, but the hatred also motivates people to love dearly, not expecting to meet each other instead! How much for the people, water, different breeds, different race, once hated each other and then must live next to each other, then there is a day of disaster. That is the meaning of "Resentment".

i) Five warm and miserable The four great human body is also called the five warm bodies (five dishes covered): warm colors, warm life, warm thoughts, warm onions and warm food. With that warm body, people suffer countless things. There are always conflicts, contradictions, dominate each other. Because of that conflict, the human body suffers from the following:

Immediately governed by impermanence, from young to old, from strong to sick, from pain to death, always makes people afraid and sad.

Being lovelorn, sexually appealing, makes people immersed in the six senses, having to suffer.

Disappointed by crazy insanity, people get it wrong: they are there, there are people, they are lost, they are foolish, they are not, and they are born in anguish and suffering.

Aay is "Five warm and miserable."

III.  Buddha Clarified What Suffering To Do ?
Someone will wonder, wonder: Buddha raised the world's suffering for what? Life has such suffering, should hide it as much or so much, but why stripping it naked makes people more suffering? We try to create a good illusion of life to live peacefully in it, is it better? The child lives naturally, peacefully in happiness, because he does not know the suffering, the ugliness of life. Why don't we try to imitate them, don't learn anything about the ugliness, the misery of life, to live a happier life? The Buddha is a being often called compassionate people, why do such a cruel mind?

These questions seem to make sense, but if you consider them ultimately, they will be superficial. Buddha was not cruel when raising the basic suffering of life; it is because of compassion that he did so. Buddha wanted people to know the suffering of the world, because of the following great benefits:

1. Meet the scene is not terrible: The suffering that the Buddha said above is the basic suffering, no one can avoid it. Having lived, you must meet me. Is anyone not sick, not old, not dead? Does anyone in a lifetime not meet separation with relatives, not living with enemies? Does anyone achieve all they wish? So even if you want to create a beautiful illusion of life to live in peace, that illusion will sooner or later be torn apart by reality! And then, the overwhelming, ugly, disgusting world will suddenly appear, before the eyes of the common people living in beautiful illusions. Then those who are unprepared to lead a miserable life will be frightened, desperate, and sometimes not brave enough to live.

On the other hand, when we know that this Lady She has many sufferings, we meet with misery, we are not so terrible, we are psychotic, but on the contrary, we will calmly patiently to find solutions. exit. For example, a farmer, knowing his duty is to work hard with deep plowing, plowing, mud, new hands and feet of rice, so he could see the rain, the sun, and not waver at all. On the contrary, a powerful person, used to living in velvet, in the magnificent temple scene, risking a time of chaos, sometimes unexpected, stabbing fear and risking suicide.

2. No greed should not be dominated by circumstances: When we know that life is less sad and less sad, and the more desiring it is, the more suffering will be, when we know that, we will abstain from sex our own and will "know enough". Therefore, we are not dominated by the circumstances, not dragged by the waves of life, burying us into the vast abyss of the dark Ba ​​Vi realm. For example, the wise man is at risk of being detained, worried about the means to escape from prison, not like a foolish man, while in prison, he is only concerned about scrambling for leftovers and sediments that he is familiar with. executed, if you don't find your escape plan soon

3. Effort to practice to escape suffering: When you know the body of many people suffering and the situation of Ta Ba is less happy, people only wish to escape from their dark realms and live in a better realm. Just like the children who are playing passionately in the scene of the house burning, luckily, thanks to the good father, they know and hurry to find a way out.

C. Conclusion

Know Suffering Must Find The Cause of Suffering To Destroy

We have been shown compassionately by the Buddha to show that this Sàsāna realm, as well as the three realms, are a sea of ​​suffering. The Sutta also says: "The three realms are insecure, like a fire house". Unfortunately, sentient beings are delirious and take pleasure in joy without knowing themselves, so they must be incestuous.

Now that we know the ugly side of life, already know that it is a vast sea of ​​suffering and waves, we have to boring it, shunned it. Knowing suffering and then bored life, frustrated, surrendered to sit and cry. But how to escape it, if we do not know the top industry, the way to move, not sure because where suffering arises? Good medical doctors want to eliminate disease, have to find the root of the disease. A good general wants to eradicate the rebels, must thoroughly investigate the hideout, where their headquarters are, and then be able to encircle and capture them and surrender easily.

Also, knowing suffering is not enough to eliminate it. Want to eliminate suffering at its root must find the cause that arises.

The cause of suffering, the Buddha said in the second paragraph of the four noble truths, is the Noble Truth, which readers will read in the third lesson of this volume. END=NAM MO SHAKYAMUNI BUDDHA.( 3 TIMES ).WORLD VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST ORDER=GOLDEN AMITABHA MONASTERY=VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST NUN=THICH CHAN TANH.AUSTRALIA,SYDNEY.20.1.2020.