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Four Noble Truths Talks

In Buddhism, the Four Noble Truths (Sanskrit: चत्वारिआर्यसत्यानि, romanized: catvāriāryasatyāni; Pali: cattāri ariyasaccāni; "The Four arya satya") are "the truths of the noble one (the Buddha)," a statement of how things really are (the three marks of existence) when they are seen correctly (right view).

The four truths are

dukkha (not being at ease, 'suffering', from dush-stha, standing unstable). Dukkha is an innate characteristic of transient existence; nothing is forever, this is painful; samudaya (origin, arising, combination; 'cause'): together with this transient world and its pain, there is also thirst (desire, longing, craving) for and attachment to this transient, unsatisfactory existence; nirodha (cessation, ending, confinement): the attachment to this transient world and its pain can be severed or contained by the confinement or letting go of this craving; marga (road, path, way): the Noble Eightfold Path is the path leading to the confinement of this desire and attachment, and the release from dukkha.

The four truths appear in many grammatical forms in the ancient Buddhist texts, and are traditionally identified as the first teaching given by the Buddha. While often called one of the most important teachings in Buddhism, they have both a symbolic and a propositional function. Symbolically, they represent the awakening and liberation of the Buddha, and of the potential for his followers to reach the same liberation and freedom as him. As propositions, the Four Truths are a conceptual framework that appear in the Pali canon and early Hybrid Sanskrit Buddhist scriptures, as a part of the broader "network of teachings" (the "dhamma matrix"), which have to be taken together. They provide a conceptual framework for introducing and explaining Buddhist thought, which has to be personally understood or "experienced".

As a proposition, the four truths defy an exact definition, but refer to and express the basic orientation of Buddhism: unguarded sensory contact gives rise to craving and clinging to impermanent states and things, which are dukkha, "unsatisfactory," "incapable of satisfying" and painful. This craving keeps us caught in saṃsāra, "wandering", usually interpreted as the endless cycle of repeated rebirth, and the continued dukkha that comes with it, but also referring to the endless cycle of attraction and rejection that perpetuates the ego-mind. There is a way to end this cycle, namely by attaining nirvana, cessation of craving, whereafter rebirth and the accompanying dukkha will no longer arise again. This can be accomplished by following the eightfold path, confining our automatic responses to sensory contact by restraining oneself, cultivating discipline and wholesome states, and practicing mindfulness and dhyana (meditation).

The function of the four truths, and their importance, developed over time and the Buddhist tradition slowly recognized them as the Buddha's first teaching. This tradition was established when prajna, or "liberating insight", came to be regarded as liberating in itself, instead of or in addition to the practice of dhyana. This "liberating insight" gained a prominent place in the sutras, and the four truths came to represent this liberating insight, as a part of the enlightenment story of the Buddha.

The four truths grew to be of central importance in the Theravada tradition of Buddhism by about the 5th-century CE, which holds that the insight into the four truths is liberating in itself. They are less prominent in the Mahayana tradition, which sees the higher aims of insight into sunyata, emptiness, and following the Bodhisattva path as central elements in their teachings and practice. The Mahayana tradition reinterpreted the four truths to explain how a liberated being can still be "pervasively operative in this world". Beginning with the exploration of Buddhism by western colonialists in the 19th century and the development of Buddhist modernism, they came to be often presented in the west as the central teaching of Buddhism, sometimes with novel modernistic reinterpretations very different from the historic Buddhist traditions in Asia.

From Four Noble Truths on Wikipedia

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Title Speaker

Buddhas And Sentient Beings Are Not Two

Serial: SF-01026

One-day sitting lecture: positive encouragement; nirvana; five hindrances; preliminary practices; three worlds; jhanas - benefits and ptifalls; Four Noble Truths; Mahayana...

Hindrances, Nirvana, Concentration, Samadhi, Four Noble Truths, Liberation, Freedom,...
Sep 16 2006
Green Gulch

Have Some Tea

Serial: SF-00965

Sunday Lecture: "Have you been here before? Have some tea"; judgment and conduct; Four Noble Truths; Eightfold Path; ethics and etiquette

Four Noble Truths, Right Effort, Three Treasures, Right Speech, Liberation, Renewal,...
May 07 2006
Green Gulch

Birth and Death

Serial: SF-00970

Sunday Lecture - Children's Lecture: children's story - Amos and Boris; response to Hurrican Katrina; Story of king, knowing death is coming; vowing to live for the benefit of...

Birth-and-Death, Vow, Four Noble Truths, First Principle, Lotus Sutra, Mill Valley,...
Sep 04 2005
Green Gulch

Non-Thinking and the Twelve-Fold Chain of Causation

Serial: SF-00968

Sunday Lecture

Lotus Sutra, Instruction, Four Noble Truths, Posture, Peace, Letting Go, Separation,...
Jul 18 2004
Green Gulch

Which Is The Real Seijo?

Serial: SF-00967

One-day sitting lecture: when our "soul is split", what is true? Just sitting in the midst of samsara.

Letting Go, Four Noble Truths, Suzuki Roshi, Big Mind, Subject-and-Object, Buddha...
Jun 19 2004
Green Gulch

January Class

Mindfulness, Posture, Instruction, Duality, Four Noble Truths, Four Foundations,...
Jan 13 2004
Green Gulch

One-day Sitting Lecture

Serial: SF-01018

Lotus Sutra (Heart Sutra), seals our mind with Buddha's mind, basics of the middle way are covered (in the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings), power of joy and compassion, devotion...

Lotus Sutra, First Principle, Complete Perfect Enlightenment, Nirvana, Four Noble...
May 11 2002
Green Gulch

Sunday Lecture

Two Truths, Four Noble Truths, Humility, Buddha Ancestors, New Year, Liberation,...
Dec 30 2001
Green Gulch

Sunday Lecture

Four Noble Truths, Right Effort, Greed, Attachment, Bodhidharma, Karma, Three...
Sep 17 2000
Green Gulch

Surangama Sutra Class

confusion, Four Noble Truths, Don't Know Mind, Delusion, Discrimination, Heart...
Sep 11 2000
Unknown

Women Ancestors Class

Nirvana, Peace, Four Noble Truths, Ordination, Funeral, Demons, Lay, Happiness,...
Aug 08 2000
Unknown

Wednesday Lecture

Precepts, Bodhisattva Precepts, Ordination, Suzuki Roshi, Patience, Liberation, Zazen...
May 03 2000
Green Gulch

January Practice Period Class

Heart Sutra, Duality, Non-duality, Four Noble Truths, Six Realms, Liberation, Two...
Jan 19 2000
Green Gulch

Faith as a Journey in Zen

Serial: SF-00033

Sunday dharma talk.

Dragons, Faith, New Year, Doubt, Mahayana, Karma, Four Noble Truths, Precepts, Three...
Jan 02 2000

One-day Sitting Lecture

Liberation, Vow, Four Noble Truths, Dragons, causation, realization, Birth-and-Death...
Jun 26 1999
Green Gulch

Sunday Lecture

Lotus Sutra, Samsara, Precepts, training, Four Noble Truths, Hate, Vow, Right Effort...
Jan 31 1999
Green Gulch

Sunday Lecture

Four Noble Truths, Anger, Ordination, Right Effort, Right Speech, Letting Go, Peace,...
Jul 12 1998
Green Gulch

Wednesday Lecture

Suzuki Roshi, Four Noble Truths, Chanting, Funeral, Conversation, Precepts, Anger,...
Jul 01 1998
Green Gulch

Majjhima Nikaya Class

Serial: SF-03195

Middle-length Discourses

Attachment, Addiction, Mindfulness, confusion, Four Noble Truths, Emptiness, Zazen,...
Oct 14 1997
Green Gulch

Genjo Koan workshop

Serial: SF-03175

Presentation and discussion of the first four lines of Genjo Koan

Delusion, Letting Go, Birth-and-Death, realization, Attachment, Discrimination, Hate...
Jun 14 1997
Green Gulch

Mothers' Day

Serial: SF-03101

Sunday Lecture: being born from a mother guarantees two ingredients, a bit of love and suffering, both necessary for enlightenment. The essential point of zen is questioning;...

Manjushri, Commitment, Karma, Four Noble Truths, Letting Go, Religion, zen meditation...
May 11 1997
Green Gulch

Song of Jewel Mirror Samadhi

Serial: SF-00072

5:00 class

Buddha Ancestors, Four Noble Truths, Absolute-and-Relative, Emptiness, Samadhi,...
Feb 04 1997

On Breath and Breathing

Serial: SF-03114

Sunday Lecture - if you pick up one piece of dust, the whole universe comes with it

Emotions, Mindfulness, zen meditation, Four Noble Truths, confusion, Hindrances,...
Jan 12 1997
Green Gulch

Mindfulness Sutra

Serial: SF-00069

January PP Class; introduction of Mindfulness Sutra; quotes from Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman; Walden and Leaves of Grass.

Mindfulness, Four Foundations, Four Noble Truths, Forgiveness, Concentration, Letting...
Jan 08 1997
Green Gulch Farm

Willingness To Be With Our Difficulties

Hate, Four Noble Truths, Suzuki Roshi, Right Speech, Conversation, resistance,...
Dec 28 1996
Unknown

Jewel Mirror Samadhi Class

confusion, Four Noble Truths, Soto Zen, Rinzai, Absolute-and-Relative, Five Ranks,...
Sep 10 1996
Green Gulch

Lotus Sutra Class

Lotus Sutra, Nirvana, Emptiness, Offering, Four Noble Truths, Birth-and-Death,...
May 21 1996
Green Gulch

Old Age, Sickness and Death

Serial: SF-03633

One-day sitting - Katagiri in Returning To Silence - Three kinds of thirsting desire

Two Truths, Four Noble Truths, Emptiness, Funeral, Zazen, Continuous Practice,...
Apr 20 1996
Green Gulch

Hungry Ghosts - Seijiki Ceremony

Serial: SF-03093

Sunday Lecture

Four Noble Truths, Ceremony, Letting Go, Peace, Vow, Commitment, resistance, Precepts...
Oct 29 1995
Green Gulch

Sunday Lecture

Ceremony, Practice Period, Four Noble Truths, Funeral, Fox, Bell, Six Realms, Demons...
Oct 30 1994
Green Gulch

Sunday Lecture

Serial: SF-03675

Includes Q&A and discussion

Big Mind, Emptiness, Bell, Heart Sutra, Four Noble Truths, Instruction, Zazen,...
Mar 13 1994
Green Gulch

Fire Sermon

Passions, Four Noble Truths, Dependent Origination, Delusion, Greed, realization,...
May 19 1993
City Center

Buddhism and American Culture

Emptiness, Forgiveness, Letting Go, Samadhi, training, Emotions, Freedom, Four Noble...
May 03 1993
City Center

Dzogchen Teachings

Transmission, Four Noble Truths, Doubt, Peace, Don't Know Mind, Daily Life,...
Oct 08 1989
1
San Jose

Dzogchen Teachings

Happiness, Delusion, Four Noble Truths, Transmission, Dependent Origination, Karma,...
Oct 08 1989
2
San Jose

The Four Truths

Happiness, Four Noble Truths, Religion, New Year, Don't Know Mind, Gratitude,...
Oct 21 1979

Lotus Sutra, Lecture No. II-7

Serial: SF-06043

Fall 1968
Zen Mountain Center

Lotus Sutra, Four Noble Truths, Emptiness, Mahayana, Precepts, Nirvana, Enemies,...
Oct 1968
Series 2, Talk 7
Tassajara

Esalen Institute: First of two lectures

Serial: SF-05870

This is the first of two talks given at Esalen.

Dogen, Time, Four Noble Truths, Lotus Sutra, New Year, Continuous Practice, Emptiness...
Jun 28 1968
Esalen

Questions

Serial: SF-05126E

Tape 3 Summer Sesshin July 1965 - Wednesday July 28 1965 Tape 3 side 2 Wed July 28th 6pm lecture - transcribed; copied June 30 1973; SR001

Sesshin, Question-and-Answer, Four Noble Truths, Emotions, Faith, Passions, Delusion...
Jul 28 1965
D
Sokoji

Class

Karma, Concentration, Nirvana, Demons, Four Noble Truths, Faith, Conversation,...
Unknown