4/2/2024 - Fourth Noble Truth • Mindfulness Meditation and Dharma Talk with Venerable De Hong

FOURTH NOBLE
TRUTH
VEN. DE HONG
APR. 2, 2024

OUTLINE
Starting 2024: The Four Noble Truths
• Jan. 2024: The First Noble Truth (last month)
• Feb. 2024: The Second Noble Truth & Craving/Addiction
• Mar. 2024: The Third Noble Truth & Buddhist Psychology
• Apr. 2024: The Fourth Noble Truth Part I

REVIEW—LAST MONTH
THIRD NOBLE TRUTH
Buddhist Psychology: A science of mind. It’s practical, it’s experiential, and its
fundamental purpose is to lead to the best of human possibilities – to bring healing,
well-being, inner freedom – no matter what the changing circumstances of life
might be (Jack Kornfield). It is concerned with the alleviation of suffering, stress,
or dissatisfaction through contemplative practices and application of the buddha’s
teaching.
Third Noble Truth: the remainderless fading & cessation, renunciation,
relinquishment, release, & letting go of craving and clinging.

The Noble Eightfold Path
The Way to the End of Suffering
by Bhikkhu Bodhi 1999
• To follow the noble eightfold path is a matter of practice rather than intellectual
knowledge, but to apply the path correctly it has to be properly understood. In
fact, right understanding of the path is itself a part of the practice. It is a facet of
right view, the first path factor, the forerunner and guide for the rest of the path.
Thus, though initial enthusiasm might suggest that the task of intellectual
comprehension may be shelved as a bothersome distraction, mature consideration
reveals it to be quite essential to ultimate success in the practice.
• https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/bodhi/waytoend.html

The Fourth Noble Truth
or The Eightfold Path
Wisdom
Concentration
Morality
Moral
Compass
Mental
Clarity

The Eightfold Path
o Wisdom
o Skillful Understanding (Right View)
o Skillful Thinking (Right Intention)
o Morality (Moral Compass)
o Skillful Speech (Right Speech)
o Skillful Action (Right Action)
o Skillful Livelihood (Right Livelihood)
o Concentration (Mental Clarity)
o Skillful Effort (Right Effort)
o Skillful Mindfulness (Right Mindfulness)
o Skillful Concentration (Right Concentration)

Introduction
o Ask yourself: “am I happy?” And investigate what you find. Examine your body
and mind. Don't blindly believe in traditions, customs, and superstitions.
o If you read the Buddha’s teaching and put it into practice, you will discover
the long happiness that full knowledge of the truth can give you. Else
knowledge alone will not help you find happiness.
o Instead of trying to control the world to make yourself happy, work to reduce
your psychic irritants via developing right understanding, making strong,
discerning effort, and practicing continuous mindfulness.
o Our fragile happiness depends on things happening a certain way. But the
Buddha taught “a happiness not dependent on conditions.”

Introduction
Ordinary Happiness
o Happiness of sensual pleasures (happiness of favorable conditions or happiness
of clinging)-fleeting happiness derived from sense indulgence, physical
pleasure, and material wealth: possessing wealth, nice clothes, a new car, and an
expensive home; seeing beautiful things, listen to good music, eating good food,
and enjoying pleasant conversations; skilled in painting/arts, playing the piano
or other musical instruments; or having a warm family life. These worldly
happiness satisfy the five faculty senses.
o Maintaining a stable family, raising children, earning an honest living, and
helping others. These depend on the right conditions but conditions are
constantly changing causing instability and suffering.

Trap of Unhappiness
The Buddha said:
• “Because of feeling, there is craving; as a result of craving, there is pursuit;
with pursuit, there is gain; in dependence upon gain, there is decision-making;
with decision-making, there are desire and lust, which lead to attachment;
attachment creates possessiveness, which leads to stinginess; in dependence
upon stinginess, there is safeguarding; and because of safeguarding, various
evil, unwholesome phenomena [arise]-conflicts, quarrels, insulting speech, and
falsehoods.” Digha Nikaya 15.

Higher Sources of Happiness
o Happiness of renunciation comes from seeking something beyond worldly
pleasures-from dropping all worldly concerns and seeking solitude in peaceful
surrounding, including prayers and rituals.
o Generosity, sharing what we have, is a powerful form of renunciation.
o Letting go of psychic irritants-letting go of anger, desire,
attachment, jealousy, pride, confusion, and other mental
irritations.
o Making use of the steps of the eightfold path
o The bliss of attaining stages of enlightenment.

The Gradual Training
o The first stage, morality, consists of skillful speech, skillful actions, and skillful
livelihood. We must have some wisdom (skillful understanding and skillful
thinking) to discern what is ethical. These mental skills help us distinguish
between moral and immoral thoughts and actions, between wholesome and
unwholesome behaviors.
o With morality as the foundation, concentration arises, the second stage. Skillful
effort brings mental focus to every steps; skillful mindfulness helps the mind in
touch with the changing object; and skillful concentration focuses the mind on
one object without interruption.
o Out of concentration, wisdom develops. Each of the eight steps deepens and
reinforces the others.

o With each turn of the spiral, you accept more responsibility for your intentional
thoughts, words, and deeds.
o Cultivate the inclination to spend time each day in solitude and silence.
o A well-disciplined life can be a source of happiness.
o A healthy and moderate diet also supports spiritual practice.
o The cultivation of goodness-generosity, patience, faith, and other virtues- is the
beginning of spiritual awakening.

Skillful Understanding (Right View)
Understanding Cause and Effect (Karma)
• Acting in unskillful ways leads to unhappy results and acting in skillful ways
leads to happy results-principle of cause and effect or karma. Buddhist
morality is rational behavior based on cause and effect.
o Skillful actions, motivated by loving-kindness and compassion, create the
causes for happiness.
o Positive behaviors generate two types of immediate results: (i) internal-how you
feel; (ii) external-other people appreciate you and care for you.

• Ten unskillful actions causing suffering: THREE of the body (killing, stealing, &
sexual misconduct), FOUR of the speech (lying, malicious words, harsh
language, & useless talk), and THREE of the mind (covetousness, ill will, and
wrong view of the nature of reality). Ten wholesome/unwholesome deeds
o Mindfulness meditation increases awareness of the devastating consequences of
immoral behavior.
o You are the author of your future. At every moment, you have the opportunity to
change your thoughts, speech, & actions.
o Morality, defined as actions in accordance with reality, is the foundation of all
spiritual progress.

Understand the Four Noble Truths
• (1) Dissatisfaction with the suffering of life is a burden. (2) We cause our
dissatisfaction by taking up the burden. (3) We end dissatisfaction by putting the
burden down. (4) The path tells us how to unburden ourselves.
• (1) The Buddha called dissatisfaction is a sickness. (2) He diagnoses the cause of
the sickness. (3) The end of sickness is the Buddha’s cure. (4) The path is the
medicine He prescribes.

Understanding the First Noble Truth: dissatisfaction
• No matter how easy and safe our modern lives may seem, the truth of
dissatisfaction has not changed. Suffering, stress, fear, tension, anxiety, worry,
depression, disappointment, anger, jealousy, abandonment, nervousness, or pain:
all human beings, no matter where they live, are subject to these problems,
created by greed, hatred, or ignorance. They are related to conditions both in the
world-social, political, economic, educational, environmental-and in ourselves.
Every experience of life brings some degree of dissatisfaction to anyone not
fully enlightened.

o (1) Birth is stressful, (2) Aging is stressful, (3) Death is stressful; (4) Sorrow,
lamentation, pain, distress, & despair are stressful; (5) Association with the
unbeloved is stressful, (6) Separation from the loved is stressful, (7) Not getting
what is wanted is stressful, and (8) Sickness is suffering.
o Everything is due to Change and out of our control.
o Through mindfulness awareness, we see that life is a mixture of pain and
pleasure. We learn physical or mental suffering at its birth, how it arises, and
how it ceases. Mindfulness meditation acts like a shock absorber. When we look
into the face of suffering without flinching, we will be able to recognize true
happiness.

Understanding the Second Noble Truth: the cause of dissatisfaction
• The cause of dissatisfaction is desire, which is built into humans and also
animals. Desire comes from (1) impulses of the body (stay alive, food, clothing,
shelter, pleasure, etc.) And (2) social conditioning (parents, family, friends,
schools, advertising and books).
• The strongest desire is that based upon pleasurable feelings. Life provides us
with overwhelming pleasure through each of our senses. Sensual pleasures don't
last, constantly fleeting away.

o Desire arises from feelings of pleasure and pain. We cling to feelings of pleasure
and reject pain. Therefore, desire leads to mental suffering.
o Desire comes out of ignorance-ignorance that nothing lasts and ignorance that
desire creates pain. Because of desire, people distort reality and avoid taking
personal responsibility for their actions.
o We think that our pain is caused by the outside world. We direct our energy and
mental capabilities outward. We try to fix people’s problems but forget or
suppress our own problems and have no time to improve ourselves.

Understanding the Third Noble Truth: the end of dissatisfaction
• The end of dissatisfaction comes from our completely eradicating all
attachment, all desire-desire to be desireless. Happiness is wiping out all
negative states of mind-all desire, all hatred, and all ignorance. In other words,
you must transcend all negative states of mind and experience enlightenment
yourself.
• Freeing the mind from hatred, greed, and ignorance, you have the means to taste
the bliss of nibbana-indescribable, not born, not created, not conditioned.

Understanding the Fourth Noble Truth: the Path
• See slide 8
• To end dissatisfaction, you must put into practice every aspect of the eightfold
path. Simply reading for knowledge does not make your life happy. Neither does
it end your suffering.

Skillful Thinking (Right Intention)
o Skillful thinking involves abandoning negative thoughts and replacing them
with wholesome thoughts-letting go, loving-kindness, and compassion.
Letting go (abandoning) of our habit of clinging to the people and the material
things in our lives and to our ideas, beliefs, and opinions.
o Practicing generosity by giving away material things. The best giving occurs
when we have no expectation of any return, not even a thank-you. Such giving
is motived by a sense of fullness, not loss. Giving anonymously lessens our
desire and reduces our attachment to the things we have. The highest form of
material giving happens when we respond to others’ needs at the risk of our own
lives. The willingness to give of ourselves excels all other gifts.

Clinging to people, experiences and beliefs
1. We cling to other people in our lives. A jealous or obsessive possessiveness that
seeks to own another person. Practicing generosity in human relationships
means trusting another person and allowing him or her to enjoy space and
freedom and dignity.
2. A subtle clinging is our attachment to our physical form and belief that we are in
control of it. Developing an attitude of not clinging requires that we create space
for us to meditate, reflect, and free the mind from noise and attachment. This
leads to a state of mind called, renunciation. We can renounce our attachment to
our beliefs, opinions, and ideas.

o Mindfulness of skillful thinking (Right Intention) helps us create a stable
psychological state so that we are not bothered by the changing conditions of
our physical environment or by other people.
o Letting go of unwholesome thoughts, words, and deeds creates the space for us
to cultivate wholesome thoughts-loving-kindness, appreciative joy,
nonviolence, and equanimity. Letting go requires us to go beyond good and
evil, even the buddha’s teachings must be cast aside.

Loving-kindness or Metta
• Metta, a natural capacity, is a warm wash of fellow-feeling, a sense of
interconnectedness, and joy for ourselves and all beings. Typically, our minds are
full of views, opinions, beliefs, and ideas. To nurture the seeds of loving-
kindness, we must learn to relax, recognize our biases, and let go of negativity.
Then the thought of loving-kindness begins to shine, showing its true strength
and beauty. True loving-kindness has no ulterior motive. It motivates us to
behave kindly to all beings at all times and to speak gently in their presence and
in their absence. It has no limitations, no boundaries.
• Loving-kindness includes not only all beings as they are at this moment but also
your wish that all of them without discrimination or favoritism, will be happy in
the limitless future.

• Dealing with anger: anger is the main obstacle to loving-kindness. It makes us
feel miserable and disrupts our relationships. (1) we must restrain ourselves from
acting on angry impulses. (2) we must reflect on its results.
• The best antidote to feelings of anger is patience. It means buying time with
mindfulness so that you can act properly. You will be skillful in redirecting your
energy of anger and dealing with the person(s) rightly. Practicing loving-
kindness is one way to overcome anger.

• A melting of the heart at the thought of another’s suffering. It is a spontaneous,
wholesome reaction, coupled with a wish to alleviate another’s pain. To cultivate
compassion, you must reflect on the suffering you have personally experienced,
notice the suffering of others, and make the intuitive connection between your
own painful experiences and theirs.
• Compassion and loving-kindness are mutually supportive. When you are full of
loving-kindness, your heart is open and your mind is clear enough to see the
suffering of others.
• Mindfulness practice helps us to relax and to soften into whatever life presents.
When we allow our minds to become gentle and our hearts to open, the
wellspring of our compassion can flow freely. Practicing compassion for other
people is critical to our happiness, now and in the future.

Loving-kindness practice
o Mental ability to wish yourself well, healthy and happy. Thoughts of goodwill
(Thanissaro Bhikkhu)
o The antidote to anger and hatred. Mental training of the mind.
o May I be healthy. May I know how to take care of my physical health.
o May I be happy. May I find joy and happiness from within.
o May I let go of anger, ill will, resentment, and hatred.
o May I be kind and loving to myself.

MEDITATION PRACTICES
• Breathing Meditation (July 2023) Body Scan (Aug. 2023)
• Sense Door Practice (Sept. 2023) Window of Tolerance (Oct. 2023)
• Concentration meditation (Nov. 2023) Mindfulness of Feelings (Dec. 2023)
• Gratitude (Mar. 2024)  Loving-kindness (Apr. 2024)

TRANSFER OF
MERITS
May the merits of this
class and everyone’s
practice benefit all
sentient beings
everywhere!

4/2/2024 - Fourth Noble Truth • Mindfulness Meditation and Dharma Talk with Venerable De Hong

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