Today I want to offer an alternative interpretation of the second noble truth – how this truth is taught in the ancient teachings of the Buddha. The modern version is that craving is the cause of suffering. The more common interpretation in the ancient texts is that the second noble truth involves seeing the arising of suffering – seeing the appearance of it – without any explanation for why it is there.
The search for reasons and causes is little bit challenging at times, and sometimes can lead us astray. That search takes us away from the simplicity of our experience in the moment. There is certainly a time and place to look for causes, for why things happen. It is a wise life that understands conditionality and causes. But it is also one that lends itself to thinking a lot, reflecting, and analyzing.
The satipaṭṭhāna practice moves us towards abiding more and more in direct experience. In direct experience, the idea of cause becomes less important. You can still see it sometimes, in the moment. You can see, "Oh, I was grasping at something in that moment, and I saw there was suffering in that grasping."
So you can see the causality. But there is another way of seeing, and that is simply to see that suffering arises, and suffering ceases. It appears and disappears. The suttas emphasize the insight into the arising and passing of many, many things, and not just suffering. "Suffering" is like an umbrella term, perhaps, for all the things we become aware of. We see the arising and passing of the aggregates, the arising and passing of the faculties, the arising and passing of perceptions, the arising and passing of thoughts and feelings.
The suttas emphasize the arising and passing of things – their arising and ceasing. The simplicity of that experience is particularly valuable in the deep concentrated practice of satipaṭṭhāna. In ordinary states of consciousness – the world of cause and effect – thinking about things is a very common phenomenon. But as the mind gets quieter and quieter, more and more focused, clearer and clearer, it is not inclined to look at experience through the lens of analyzing and finding reasons and causes for what is happening. Instead, awareness becomes just a simple experience in the moment of the river of change flowing by.
I want to say again what I said before: that, coming as the last exercise of the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, I think we can assume that this exercise on the Four Noble Truths represents a deep and mature level of practice. It is not easy to come into this level of seeing and insight as a beginner. We get a sense of this from the refrain for each exercise, which talks about this very thing. Seeing each of the things we are looking at – phenomena of the body, phenomena of feelings, and phenomena associated with the mind – to see them arise and pass. The aggregates, the hindrances, the fetters, and the seven factors of awakening – with all these, at some point, what we are seeing is their arising and passing. This is what is emphasized in the refrain.
Sometimes you start seeing it so quickly. The text says first, "Seeing arising, seeing ceasing." Then it talks about seeing arising and ceasing, where the arising and ceasing happen very fast. In deep, settled practice, the moment-to-moment experience of direct experience comes and goes. When suffering arises in that context, it is not overwhelming. It is not so difficult because it does not persist. It comes and it goes, although it might reappear quickly.
There might be disorientation because we live in a world where we expect things to be constant. We want to hold on to certain things in order to be oriented and know ourselves and the world around us – to know we are safe by knowing certain ideas are settled. So there might be a period of disorientation for some people, as the mind gets quieter and quieter in meditation. Then, the usual ideas of self – the things we are holding on to or depending on – are no longer available, because they require some level of constancy in order to hold on to them. But when things come and go, there is a whole different way that we are asked to relate to experience.
To see the arising of suffering is to see its contingent nature – to see it is not permanent. It is not solid. We can see that it arose from a time, a place, and a situation where it did not exist before it arose. When we see it cease, we know that there will come a time when it will no longer be there. That seeing begins to loosen up the grip, the resistance, or the fear of the mind. We start appreciating the freedom of it all. And the emptiness or lack of constancy are not something to be worried or upset about – or to cling to.
The deeper seeing of things arising and ceasing – their constant inconstancy – begins to loosen up the grip of some of our deepest attachments. We had to let go of a lot of attachments to get to this level of meditation. A lot of our preoccupations fall away as we get concentrated and settled. What is left are some of the deepest attachments – attachment to self, and even attachment to life itself. Those attachments are all ways of interfering with the flow of change. We are 'becoming' the flow of change.
As things begin to loosen up, get massaged, relax, and let go – then at some point, something in the mind gives way. Maybe it is a little bit like you are standing in a river, and the river is just flowing. You are walking deeper and deeper in the river. The current is not dangerous. You know how to swim. You can feel the river flowing against your body more and more as you walk out into the river deeper and deeper. You begin to feel like you are very light and you are floating. It feels very comfortable. But it gets deeper and deeper, until you get to a place where it is deep enough that you are not touching the bottom. Suddenly, the gentle current picks you up and starts carrying you down the river.
As we let go more and more into the flow of change, there comes a time where the bottom is not there, and we can start being carried in the current – carried in the stream. This is the meaning of the Buddhist idea of stream entry.
The word for "stream" (sota in Pali) means "current". It means entering the current. This can be seen as the current of change that is always here. I like to think of it as the current of non-clinging, non-grasping – not holding on to anything, but beginning to flow in a dharma current. The dharma starts flowing through us because the dharma current that we are in is the current of non-clinging and non-grasping. This begins to carry us on a dharmic path, in a dharmic life.
The third noble truth is the truth of the ceasing of suffering. This means seeing together arising and ceasing – the constant change, coming and going. But it also represents that point when the bottom of the river is out of reach and falls away, and a more dramatic ceasing occurs. This is ceasing that changes things. For example, in the analogy of going into the river, when you are no longer touching the bottom, and nothing keeps you stationary, then the current has a chance to carry you. This marks a very important change: going into the river.
The third noble truth involves not only seeing the arising and ceasing of things – their constant coming and going. But also, it is when we really become the coming and going, relax into it, that there is a more complete ceasing. This is more than just the particulars of the moment. This ceasing feels much more holistic, more inclusive. This changes the whole flow, the whole current, our whole understanding of what satipaṭṭhāna practice is. I will talk more about that tomorrow.
The second noble truth has two meanings, and both of them are good. They have value in different contexts. Often in more ordinary states of mind, seeing seeing the cause for suffering is very helpful.
But in deep meditative states of mind, looking for a cause just keeps the mind busy. In deep meditation, we want to just rest in the current of the arising and passing of direct experience. This is only possible if we have some level of stability and concentration where we are not distracted and we do not wander off in thought – we are really here.
Then we see that we are living in arising and ceasing. The Second Noble Truth is seeing the arising, and the Third Noble Truth is really appreciating the ceasing – the passing. Initially, as the ceasing comes and goes, until finally the ceasing becomes more comprehensive. Then that opens the door to understanding the Fourth Noble Truth, the Eightfold Path – and that will be the topic for tomorrow. Thank you very much.
