Four Facts ~ Or ~ The Four Noble Truths of the Enlightened
Regarding this Note:
Please begin by reading the “Preface to Erik’s Notes on Buddhism:” found on the main page of Buddhism ~ Thanks
Four Facts ~ Or ~ The Four Noble Truths of the Enlightened
- The First Fact = All of my suffering is the result of my Negative Thinking and the power of my Negative Thinking. This is The First noble truth of the Enlightened regarding my suffering.
- The Second Fact = My Negative Thinking and the power of my Negative Thinking is the cause of 100% of all my suffering and it is the condition for all beings suffering. This is The Second noble truth of the Enlightened regarding the cause of my suffering.
- The Third Fact = All of my happiness is the result of my Positive Thinking and the power of my Positive Thinking. This is The Third noble truth of the Enlightened regarding my happiness.
- The Fourth Fact = My Positive Thinking and the power of my Positive Thinking is the cause of 100% of all my happiness and it is the condition for all beings happiness. This is The Fourth noble truth of the Enlightened regarding the cause of my happiness.
1. Regarding the First Fact:
You may have heard or read statements like: “The truth of suffering,” or “True suffering,” or “Life is suffering,” or “According to Buddhism, everything is suffering.” Fortunately, these statements are a bit off. At best they are not delivering the full meaning of the teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha, and in the worst case scenario they have nothing at all to do with the truth about what is going on here.
If “The truth of suffering,” or “True suffering,” means that there is actually true suffering, then that suffering would be ‘real’ – an actual fact. If suffering were an actual fact, then there would be no way to end that suffering; and this would negate all of Buddhism. Buddhism is the science of True Happiness, and there is no True Happiness if suffering is an actual, unchangeable fact.
On the other hand, if you understand “The truth of suffering” to mean the “The truth regarding suffering,” then you are getting closer to the four noble truths of the Enlightened regarding suffering and happiness which state that suffering cannot actually or literally exist in any absolute way. This is not to say that we do not experience suffering. Obviously we all do experience suffering. It is just a statement of truth that this experience of suffering that we are having is not rooted in any fact.
For instance, when you have a very vivid dream like falling off a cliff, and all of your senses tell you that you are really falling, you think that this is a real experience. “I am falling! Oh poop, I am going to die!!!” However, upon awakening from the dream, you no longer think that the cliff is real and that you are about to hit bottom. According to the first noble truth of the Enlightened regarding suffering, all suffering has this same structure. Yes, there is the experience of suffering and this experience is not what it appears to be, much the way our dreams are not what they seem to be. This seeming contradiction will persist for as long as you continue to experience ego-clinging. In other words, built into the orientation of experiencing a me and an everything else that is not me, is an all pervasive quality of experiencing some degree of suffering.
So, while the experience of suffering will take on many forms, all of these experiences of suffering have to do with our thinking. What the first noble truth of the Enlightened regarding suffering tells us is: “all of my suffering is the result of my Negative Thinking and the power of my Negative Thinking.” Or put another way, my suffering is the result of my Negative Thinking and the power that my Negative Thinking has on me and what I perceive. If I am experiencing something that I do not like (and that is suffering), then I can know for a fact that this experience is the result of my own Negative Thinking. This is the first noble truth of the Enlightened regarding suffering.
If “Life is suffering,” or “According to Buddhism, everything is suffering” were accurate, then all of Buddhism would cease to exits. Life itself is not the problem. Living is not the problem. In fact, life is enormously precious. Because we are alive in these precious human bodies, experiencing this amazing world, we can practice Positive Thinking in a most profound way. Therefore, it is silly to make blanket and all encompassing statements that life and everything in it is suffering. The only problem that we have is our Negative Thinking – the cause of all of our suffering.
When you go back to the actual meaning of the teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha you will never find a “true suffering.”
2. Regarding the Second Fact:
Not only is your Negative Thinking the only cause of all of your experience of suffering, but it is also a condition for all beings’ suffering. Nothing good ever comes as a result of increasing your Negative Thinking; and if we want world peace, then we have to start by decreasing our own Negative Thinking.
Everyone has already had a direct experience of this fact. You walk down the street and someone up ahead of you is shouting in anger. Not once has anyone ever come across this scene and felt happier for it. While some may laugh nervously or even laugh bitterly, this has nothing to do with their being happier. My anger does not make you happy. Your jealousy does not make me feel better. However, your anger, even when it is directed at me, is not the cause of my suffering. While it may be a strong condition for my experiencing suffering, only my Negative Thinking can really cause me to experience suffering.
If another’s anger were the cause of your suffering, then there would be no way for you to respond to their anger with compassion. In fact, compassion (wanting another to be free from suffering and the causes of suffering) is the proof that another’s anger is not the cause of your suffering. Because you can choose compassion in the face of another’s rage, clearly their anger is not causing you to suffer. By responding to their anger with compassion, you are working with their anger to create the cause of your own happiness and the condition for all beings happiness. But more about that when we get to the Fourth noble truth of the Enlightened regarding the cause of happiness. For now, knowing that your Negative Thinking and the power of your Negative Thinking is the cause of 100% of all your suffering and that your Negative Thinking and it’s power are the condition for all beings suffering is knowing the second noble truth of the Enlightened regarding the cause of suffering.
3. Regarding the Third Fact:
Just as the first fact states that my experience of suffering is in my own hands, so is my experience of happiness. The fact that “all of my happiness is the result of my Positive Thinking and the power of my Positive Thinking” means that we can increase our experience of happiness, and not just fleeting happiness or mundane excitement, but real happiness.
Because happiness is not something that you get (like a new car, or a finer sweetie, or any other thing that can be gotten) but is the absence of your own Negative Thinking, and because your Negative Thinking is not based on anything real (it does not inherently exist), it is possible to have zero Negative Thinking. This is an amazing fact. The more you decrease your Negative Thinking, the more you will experience peace; and peace is real happiness.
When you arrive at the state where there is no more Negative Thinking and there is no more power of your past Negative Thinking, you have achieved True Happiness. This state of zero Negative Thinking and zero power of past Negative Thinking is True Happiness – it is Vast Awakening. We have a name for you when you no longer have any Negative Thinking and the power of your past Negative Thinking is completely gone. We call this state Buddha. This is the meaning of “cessation” when you hear or read “the truth of cessation.” It is the cessation of all your Negative Thinking.
The act of reducing your Negative Thinking is called ‘renunciation.’ Therefore, more Positive Thinking (which includes renunciation) = less Negative Thinking. Positive and Negative Thinking are always in inverse proportion to one another. When you increase one, you always decrease the other by exactly the same amount.
Happiness is the cessation of Negative Thinking. Nothing else can ‘make’ you happy. Certainly we can all be conditions for each other’s happiness, but we are never in control of another’s happiness. Good thing too, really. If you could actually make me happy, then you could also take my happiness away from me.
So the third noble truth of the Enlightened regarding happiness states that all of my happiness is the result of my Positive Thinking and the power of my Positive Thinking. All I need to do now is increase my renunciation, compassion, faith, love and wisdom. And how do I do that? Well, that’s what the Fourth noble truth of the Enlightened regarding the cause of happiness is all about.
4. Regarding the Fourth Fact:
My Positive Thinking and the power of my Positive Thinking is the cause of 100% of all my happiness and it is the condition for all beings happiness. This is what is meant by “the paths.” The only path that leads to your True Happiness (zero Negative Thinking and zero power of past Negative Thinking) is your Positive Thinking. While your renunciation, compassion, faith, love and wisdom may take many forms, for instance there are many ways to express compassion or love, it is only through the simple act increasing your Positive Thinking that you will help yourself and others.
If you like, repeat the following stanzas ~ that is, really meditate on them:
- “May I realize that all my suffering is the result of my Negative Thinking and negative Karma. This is The First noble truth of the Enlightened regarding my suffering. Now I know why I suffer and how to decrease my suffering.”
- “May I realize that my Negative Thinking and negative Karma are the cause of all my suffering and the condition all sentient beings’ suffering. This is The Second noble truth of the Enlightened regarding the causes of my suffering. Therefore, I will decrease my Negative Thinking and negative Karma.”
- “May I realize that all my happiness is the result of my Positive Thinking and positive Karma. This is The Third noble truth of the Enlightened regarding my happiness. Now I know why I am happy and how to increase my happiness.”
- “May I realize that my Positive Thinking and positive Karma are the cause of all my happiness and the condition of all beings’ happiness. This is The Fourth noble truth of the Enlightened regarding the cause of my happiness. Therefore, I will increase my Positive Thinking and positive Karma.”
Repeating these four stanzas many times will bring great benefit to you and to all beings.
So, practice Positive Thinking as much as possible; it is easier than practicing Negative Thinking and it is the only path to happiness. While there are many forms that Dharma practice may take, all forms of Dharma practice come down to this – increasing your Positive Thinking. Increasing Positive Thinking is practicing Dharma. This is the meaning of the Fourth noble truth of the Enlightened regarding the cause of happiness. This is the path to True Happiness. This is The Buddha Path!
