The Four Noble Truths - VIETNAMESE TRANSLATE ENGLISH BY=VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST NUN=THE WOMEN OF THE SAKYA CLAN CHAN TANH. Both you and I have had to trudge through this endless samsaric journey because we have not found and reached the four truths. What are those four truths? They are: The Truth of Suffering, the Truth of the Collection, the Truth of Cessation and the Truth of the Way. [Long Bound Sutra, 16] For many years I have used the Buddha's teachings on the Four Noble Truths in the Zhuan Falun as my main reference for my practice. The Four Noble Truths are teachings that were used at our monastery in Thailand. The Hinayana sect of Buddhism considers this teaching to be the basic essence of the Buddha's teaching. This teaching contains all that is essential for understanding the Buddhadharma and enlightenment. Although Zhuan Falun is considered the Buddha's first sermon after attaining enlightenment, I sometimes think he gave it when he met an ascetic monk on his way to Varanasi. After attaining enlightenment at Bodh Gaya, the Buddha thought: 'This is a sublime, profound teaching. I cannot convey in words what I have discovered. And so we cannot explain. I will just sit under the Bodhi tree for the rest of my life.' I think this is an irresistible thought - just living alone, not dealing with society's problems. However, while the Buddha was thinking in this way, Brahma Sahampati, the Creator of Hinduism, came and persuaded the Buddha to go and preach. Brahma Sahampati convinced the Buddha that sentient beings, with only a little dust in their eyes, would understand. Thus the Buddha's teachings were directed only to a few people who had a little dust in their eyes - I am certain that he did not think this teaching would become a major mass movement. After meeting with Brahma Sahampati, the Buddha immediately left Bodh Gaya (Bodh Gaya) on the way to Varanasi. On the way he met an ascetic. This person was very impressed with the radiant appearance of the Buddha. The mendicant asked 'What have you found?' and the Buddha replied: 'I am the Buddha, who is fully enlightened' I consider this to be His first teaching. This teaching was not successful because the companion after hearing it said that the Buddha, because of his hard work, overestimated himself. If someone said such things to us, I believe we would react in a similar way. What would you think if I said, 'I have fully attained enlightenment?' In fact, the Buddha's first teaching was very precise and moving. It is a complete teaching, but it is difficult for sentient beings to understand. They tend to misunderstand and think it comes from the ego because people always express things from their ego. 'I am fully enlightened' sounds like a heavy ego statement, but isn't that completely transcendent? That statement: 'I am the Buddha, who is fully enlightened', is interesting to ponder because it associates the usage of 'I am' with supreme enlightenment and enlightenment. In any case, the result of the Buddha's first teaching was that the listener would leave because he did not understand. After that, the Buddha met five old fellow initiates at the Deer Park. These five are all very devoted to the rigorous ascetic life. They were prejudiced against the Buddha before because they thought that he was no longer conforming in the way of religious practice. This happened because before his enlightenment, the Buddha began to realize that asceticism was not the way to enlightenment. So he no longer practiced religion in this way. These five friends thought that he was too easy on himself. They may have watched Him eat milk rice, what might be compared to eating ice cream today. If you are an ascetic and you see a monk eating ice cream, you will probably lose faith in that person because you think that the monk is supposed to eat thin porridge. If you like asceticism and see me eating a plate of ice cream, you won't believe in Venerable Ajahn Sumedho. That is the human way of thinking. We tend to admire the feats of self-torture and self-sacrifice. When they lost faith in him, the five disciples left the Buddha. This gave him the opportunity to sit until enlightenment under the Bodhi tree. When they met the Buddha again at the Deer Park, the five at first thought, 'We know what he's like. Don't bother with him anymore'. But as He drew near, all felt like there was something special about Him. They stood up to make room for him to sit down and there he gave a lecture on the Four Noble Truths. This time, instead of saying 'I have attained the Way', the Buddha said: 'There is suffering. There is a cause for suffering. There is an end to suffering. There is a way out of suffering.'. Presented in this way, His communication does not require acceptance or rejection. If he said 'I am the enlightened Buddha', we would be forced to agree or disagree - or just bewildered. We will not know how to judge that statement. However, by saying: 'There is suffering. There is a cause for suffering. There is an end to suffering. There is a way out of suffering.', He offered something for us to observe and ponder: 'So what does He mean then? What do you mean by pointing out suffering, its cause, cessation, and the way out?' Just like that, we begin to think and ponder over what He said. With the affirmation: 'I have completely attained the Way', we might just question it. 'Is he really enlightened?'... 'I don't think so'. We only question it because we are not ready to receive a teaching that is so direct. Of course, the Buddha's first sermon to people who had too much dust in their eyes would still be fruitless. That's why in the second case, he decided to preach on the Four Noble Truths. Now the Four Noble Truths are: there is suffering; have the cause or origin of suffering; there is the cessation of suffering; and there is a way out of suffering, also known as the Noble Eightfold Path. Each truth has three points and thus aggregates into twelve self-realisations. In the Hinayana sect, an Arahant is a person who has attained the Four Noble Truths with these three points and twelve self-realizations. An Arahant is a person who has realized the truth. That is often used to explain the Four Noble Truths. In the First Noble Truth (The Truth of Suffering), 'There is suffering' is the first self-realisation. What is this self-evidence? We don't need to express it sublimely; just a recognition that: 'There is suffering'. That is a basic self-evidence. The ignorant says, 'I suffer. I don't want to suffer. I meditate and find a retreat to get out of suffering, but I am still suffering and I don't want to suffer... How can I come out of suffering? What do I do to destroy it?' But these are not the first Noble Truth. It's not: 'I'm suffering and I want to stop it.'. Self-realization here is, 'There is suffering' Now you are looking at your own feelings of frustration and suffering - not from a 'It's me' perspective but from a reflection: 'There is suffering, due to the word dukkha'. This recognition and self-realization was reflected from the place 'Buddha saw the Dharma'. Self-realization is simply the recognition that there is suffering and that this suffering is not exclusive to one person. This admission is an extremely important testimony; just see mental anguish and physical pain to understand it's dukkha instead of treating it as personal suffering - just see it as dukkha and don't react against it by habit. The second self-realization of the Truth of Suffering is: 'Must understand suffering'. This second self-realization or thesis of each truth has to do with the word 'must': 'It must be understood'. So the second self-realization is: dukkha needs to be understood. We have to understand dukkha, not just try to get rid of it. We can look at the word 'understand'. A very common word but, in Pali, 'understanding' also means actually accepting suffering, standing under or embracing it rather than simply reacting to it. In any form of suffering - physical or mental - we often just react, without understanding that we can actually see suffering; really accept it, really hold it and embrace it. That is the second argument, 'We must understand suffering' The third argument of the Noble Truth of Suffering is: 'suffering is understood'. When you have really gotten used to suffering - seeing it, accepting it, knowing it and letting it go - that's when the third argument comes into play, 'suffering is understood', or, ' Dukkha has been understood'. Thus what has been stated above are the three points of the Truth of Suffering: 'There is dukkha', 'Dukkha must be understood', and, 'Dukkha has been understood'. This is the pattern of the arguments in each of the Four Noble Truths. First the recognition, then the solution practice, and finally the result of the practice. One would also recognize it from the Pali words pariyatti, patipatti, and pativedha. Pariyatti is the theory or the admission, 'There is suffering'. Patipatti is practice - really practice with it; and pativedha is the result of practice. We call this the observed and experienced pattern; and you're really developing your mind with that spirit. The Buddha mind is the mind that confronts and perceives everything as it is. We use the Four Noble Truths for our own training. We apply it to the trivial things in life, to the trivial attachments and obsessions of the mind. With these truths, we can examine the constraints for self-realization. Through the third Noble Truth (the Noble Truth of Cessation), we can realize the cessation, the cessation of suffering, and practice the Eightfold Path until it is attained. Once the Eightfold Path has been fully developed, the practitioner will realize the path and enter the fruition of Arahantship. Four truths, three arguments (three passages), twelve self-realizations (twelve perceptions) - these may sound complicated but they are actually very simple. It is a tool that helps us to understand suffering and to leave suffering. In the Buddhist world, many Buddhists do not know the Four Noble Truths well, even in Thailand. Many people say, 'oh, the Four Noble Truths - the heartbreaking thing'. Then they sometimes use all kinds of vipassana and become obsessed with the sixteen stages before they come to these truths. I was startled by the fear that in the Buddhist world a very sublime teaching had been dismissed as a rudimentary treatise: 'That thing is only for children, beginners. The advanced teaching must be...'. They go on chasing after theories and complicated ideas - forgetting about the most profound and mysterious method. The Four Noble Truths are a lifelong witness. It's not just a matter of understanding the Four Noble Truths, the three turnings, and the twelve conceptions of becoming an Arahant, staying in one place - and then ascending to a higher realm. The Four Noble Truths are not so easy. The Four Noble Truths require an attitude of constant vigilance because it provides the framework for a lifetime's testing.END=NAM MO SHAKYAMUNI BUDDHA.( 3 TIMES ).BUDDHIST DHARMA WHEEL GOLDEN MONASTERY= VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST NUN=THE WOMEN OF THE SAKYA CLAN CHAN TANH.AUSTRALIA,SYDNEY.22/10/2021.