The Four Noble Truths | Swami Sarvapriyananda

[Music] Oh esatto Mossad gamaya Thomas Oh mah duty gamma yah Richard ma am written gamma home shantih shantih shantih Oh lead us from the unreal to the real lead us from darkness unto light lead us from death to immortality Oh peace peace I would like to speak about the Buddha but instead of concentrating on the life story of Buddha we would like to talk about his central teachings today Raghavan Buddha there's this nice story about him after he attained enlightenment Bodhi this story is narrated by Houston Smith at the beginning of his chapter on Buddhism in his book the religions of the world he says that attaining enlightenment the Buddha decided to teach humanity and he's walking and then somebody sees him a young shepherd boy and that by calls out to him what are you and the I mean I Houston Smith remarks that many people have been asked who are you many people ask who are you but very few people in history have been asked what are you so amazing was the appearance the expression the shining countenance of the Buddha that is by little by burst out asking what are you are you a god the Buddha said know are you an angel I'm sure in the Indian context it would have meant one of the higher the dwellers of the higher worlds what are you an angel he says no are you a human being and the Buddha says no what are you he says I am the awakened Buddha meaning thereby that the rest of us are either sleeping or dreaming or sleepwalking there is something a higher life into which we awaken and that is the message of the Buddha the Buddha walked on to find his first group of disciples who were actually a group of five ascetics with whom the Buddha had practiced severe austerities and to them he gave his first teaching they what is called the hematocrit Robert Tana Sutra the teaching on the turning of the wheel of Dharma now we know the story of the Buddha that how in his youth he had been accustomed to extraordinary luxury how he gave all of that up and then for years together practiced intense austerity especially with these this group of five Hermits he went to the extent of nearly starving himself to death in search of enlightenment so the first thing that he taught them and when he first came to them these five we are not willing to learn from him because they thought he has abandoned the way of austerity look at this this fellow he he was with us now he haven't earned us and he's probably gone back to his luxury or whatever but then they saw his that a remarkable expression and the peace on his face and they were amazed and they they listened to him and the Buddha first of course told them the famous teaching of the middle path that on the spiritual path not luxury neither too much austerity neither will is helpful to spirituality the middle path and then the Buddha gave his central teaching the so-called Four Noble Truths so the Four Noble Truths which he transmitted to his first group of disciples upon which it is said hearing which they all became enlightened these Four Noble Truths are basically the sum and substance of the entire teaching of Buddhism they are they are the foundation so to say and so today in this session I start we will take a closer look at the Four Noble Truths I mean we all know the Four Noble Truths when we were at school I remember we had to we had this chapter on Buddhism in our social sciences and the Four Noble Truths you have to memorize them and we've got I think one or two marks when you write down the Four Noble Truths or something like that in your examination and so we all know that the first noble truth is that there is suffering dukkha the second noble truth is that there is a cause of suffering and that is desire Trishna and the third noble truth is that there is an end to suffering called nirvana release cessation and then the fourth noble truth is that there is a way to go beyond suffering there is a method to it that is called Marga the way the well known astanga marga the Eightfold way so these are the this is the Four Noble Truths we all know we have heard about it we have read about it but let's take a closer look today at this wonderful teaching very simple very direct very logical 2500 years ago and it appeals to our hearts even today it inspires us it is practical which is something that is a blessing to each of us in our daily lives when we hear about it think about it and try to implement a little bit of it also in our lives the first noble truth so this is all based on this very important sutra the sutra literature in buddhism is the teachings of the buddha himself they are called the sutras the Dharma chakra prophet anna sutra and they're the first noble truth is the truth that there is suffering Dook Dook wise the word in sanskrit and in pali also it means suffering we know the story how the buddha when he was the Prince Siddhartha Gautama Siddhartha he his father had kept him secluded away from all kinds of suffering because it has been prophesied that this boy is going to either become a great emperor or become a great monk and teacher and of course his father who was a king wanted his son to be a king an emperor not to be a monk and so he kept the Prince secluded away from all kinds of suffering kept him in great luxury so that his mind would not go to the sufferings of the world but who can stop the workings of faith of a fate and one day the prince was on his chariot with his charioteer going out into the city and then he saw the sight the famous the four sites that he saw first he saw and he saw an old person tottering with old age walking with the help of a stick the next he saw a sick person lying helplessly and third he saw a dead person being carried to the cremation ground so old age disease death and in each case he asked the charioteer that what has happened to this person will it happen to my father and and my wife and child and to me and the chariot er said yes this is old age it happens to everybody even to you or Prince this is disease it happens to everybody even to you Oh Prince this is death it is inevitable all will die including you or Prince and as you were thinking thus he sees the fourth sight which is a monk who is who has set out in search of enlightenment and so this put in the mind of the prince the idea that I must seek a source solution to this inevitable suffering which is for everybody it's there in life I was thinking that these four know these sights which he saw old age disease and death in our modern world how carefully we avoid these sights right now we are under the grip of this pandemic they covet 19 virus all over the world but especially so here in New York City I was speaking with a doctor here and we were discussing this you know that how the doctors and the medical care professionals in the emergency rooms in the hospital they are watching this life-and-death battle every day and many of them are traumatized by what they are saying this terrible struggle to save people most of whom are dying thousands and thousands of deaths hundreds of thousands of infected infections and patients and yet most of us we do not see it because of the system that it is all taken away from ambulance comes and takes away the patient into the hospital if they survive they come back they don't they die there but we don't see the actual desperate battles everything is on TV these days even war but somehow because it's probably seen as not good form it's not polite to show the sufferings of people you don't actually see the suffering of the patients in the emergency rooms in the IC use directly and of course there are privacy laws and out everything so the result of it is that we are insulated from this suffering which is going on right now that makes for a pleasant life for the rest of us more or less present life but the downside is that just like that the prince who was insulated from suffering we are also insulated from suffering by the system we have to divide just New York it's the same system all over the world today we don't get to see old age and disease and death directly day after day I was thinking that just about 100 years ago when the hospital system was not so widespread so the disease would be in our in our houses the patient would be a member of our family whom whether you like it or not whether you enjoy it or not you have to take care of this person who is sick in your house the assisted living facilities into which we send our old people our elderly members of the family there are very good reasons that maybe the care is better and everything but the fact is that then that suffering is no longer before our eyes it is shunted out we don't have to confront suffering which is natural which is there but somehow we have hidden it from our eyes similarly poverty we don't want to look at poverty and homelessness we don't want to look at disease we don't want to look at old age the downside is this insight which the Prince got that there is pervasive suffering and we must find a way out of it this insight we don't get as a result we are shocked when the suffering spins out and we can no longer avoid it like a pandemic it is everywhere now and we have to confront it there in everybody's lives now somebody said to me a couple of months ago when it was just starting swami many people are going to ask why is this happening why is there so much suffering why are people wise the whole world in a grip of this suffering I was thinking if you are as the Buddha he would have probably said why are you surprised this is the very nature of life you have insulated yourself from it you live in a bubble and you don't see it but it's always there it has always been there individually people struggled with disease old age death and the rest of the world happily went on ignoring it but now when it spills over once in a while it will and then nobody can avoid it and then we are shocked as if something strange is happening from a Buddhist perspective suffering is universal and pervasive Swami tapasya nanda ji who was the vice president of our order I never met him but I have heard from other senior monks that he would say Buddhism is a serious religion by which he meant to begin in Buddhism the first one must grasp with all this suffering not that there is happiness and suffering no all is suffering suffering is suffering happiness is also suffering so what is this universal truth of suffering which the Buddha taught the first thing which we have to grasp never in the beginning of our spiritual life let's take a closer look at it the Buddhists speak of three see these Four Noble Truths the Buddha spoke of them in the first Sutra that much a true prophet in a Sutra he spoke of it each of them in three phases so to say the first phase of the truth of suffering he describes suffering that there is this truth of suffering the second phase is that we must understand what is suffering in our lives notice it what are the different kinds of suffering how it operates in our lives and affects us that's the second phase the third phase is that when it becomes internalized when the practitioner the spiritual seeker now whenever he or she comes in contact with samsara we automatically know we are not deceived we know the nature of samsara is suffering whether evidently so or implicitly so there is suffering everywhere so these are the three phases first you it is described the truth of suffering second we understand very kinds of suffering in our lives and third we internalize it that we know that life we are leading is pervaded by suffering so what are the kinds of suffering the Buddhists speak of three kinds of suffering there is the suffering of suffering the first kind of suffering of suffering is nothing other than the sorrow and the misery that we all face the physical pain and disease and the even animals and down to insects and plants all living beings face suffering physical pain and in the higher creatures like us there is also mental pain there is anxiety and tension and fear so physical and mental suffering this is called suffering of suffering and at this level there are mundane cures so illness is there and is a cure there is medicine we don't have a vaccine yet for kovat 19 but very soon we certainly we will have it all our resources we will certainly within next one or two years we will get this vaccine so there is a cure medicine cures your illness if you are bored there are many ways of entertainment TV is there and also on for various kinds of mundane suffering there are mundane solutions but none of them are permanent they may cure one type of suffering in one part of our lives but the others are there and they're the same suffering may come back again hunger eat it is satisfied but it comes back again later in the day so similarly mundane cures are there but nothing is permanent deeper than this is what the second type which Buddhists call the suffering of change now this is the deeper level the same suffering now what the Buddhists to say that you take a deeper look at it at three levels the first level it's just pain physical mental this deeper level it is the suffering of change what it means is we reach out into the world for pleasure for satisfaction in objects in people in relationships in activities and we expect they look very attractive to us and we expect it will give us happiness and initially does also for a short while but then something happens something happens that thing changes which was beautiful and handsome at one time does not is not no longer that that which was shiny and new latest gadget now there is a better phone on the market and my the earlier phone which had purchased which was so attractive now it seems outdated to me so there is what we found to be attractive promising pleasure and happiness very soon changes and not only do these objects of pleasure they change but our mind also changes so we expect to get happiness from these things and after some time our expectations change but we don't learn the moment certain things stop providing us with happiness we don't do not like it anymore maybe we want to get rid of it instead of learning that oh this thing it seemed to promise so much happiness it did not give as much as it seemed to promise not only that now it does not seem to be a source of happiness anymore whether it's a person or a place or a food or an activity or a job or a gadget or my own body or youth or health all of these things disappoint but we don't learn the lesson we immediately move on to another thing that thing will give me happiness and we start chasing that thing why does this happen this happens because change is pervasive things change this change is the source of unhappiness why do things change this is an insight in Buddhism that all things are interdependent nothing exists by itself the language they use nothing exists by from its own sight everything is other powered so to say it is dependent on other things every entity is made of components and depends on those components and if it is under the power of other things every entity is under the power of other things for its own birth for its existence and for its decay and death so continuously if you depend on something else your you are subject to change as those underlying factors change the entity also will start it by entity I mean a body it could be your mind it could be your possessions everything in this union relationships our own thoughts all of these are dependent on other things being interdependent this subject to continuous change now it is not really that change itself is the source of unhappiness not usually it is in our unenlightened state but one must see that those who are enlightened the Buddha for example or the great Buddhist masters who followed with the Buddha they also after enlightenment they lived in the same world they lived in the same body the changing world and the changing body and possibly the changing mind and yet they claimed that they have gone beyond suffering so change is not tantamount to suffering it is our unenlightened state in which we grasped by changing objects thinking that they are going to be unchanging sources of joy for us if you put it that way it sounds so illogical and crude but that's how we behave it's already an unenlightened approach to change our lack of knowledge of reality which is the cause of suffering so this is the suffering of change suffering of change and this leads to a deeper understanding of change the third level of understanding of sorrow or suffering first level suffering of suffering second deeper level suffering of change third level what is they what the Buddhists call pervasive suffering pervasive suffering is this unenlightened state in which we have this body mind and we grasp this body mind as ourselves I am this body mind by the way I'm using the terms body mind but the terms you will actually find find in the Buddhist books they're slightly different and the technical term would be the punches Kanda the five aggregates so instead of saying body mind Buddhist terminology is five aggregates in the five aggregates first is the Rupa Skanda which is the body the physical body and then the next four are all mental and there is the vadhana which is sensation all the sensations that we are having all the time and which can be pleasant unpleasant or neutral then there is Sonia the first conceptions that we label these sensations book three man nice all of these things are the son Gaskin Skanda and then comes the samskaras Kanda all the storehouse of our past karma our impressions each individualized you know what is what we call our personality our tendencies our memories our desires the samskaara each of us has this baggage and then the wig giannis condom baganz condor is the consciousness the awareness itself so the last four first one is the body and the last four is what we call the mind and awareness for the clarification of vedanta students is we are not talking about pure consciousness or brahman or after or nothing like that we're talking about this empirical mental awareness which we all have just now we are all aware that much so these are the five skandhas punches Condor this is what I am instead of saying five skandhas every time and just saying body mind it refers to the same thing our unenlightened grasping of the body mind as ourselves this is the basis of what the Buddhist call pervasive suffering as long as we are we think of ourselves as a self in this body and mind we are subject to endless suffering and the takeaway from this pervasive suffering is note that even for the Buddha body mind continued after enlightenment also there the Buddha had the body and that presumably had a mind of an enlightened mind so body mind again itself is not the source of suffering in our present condition as unenlightened beings body mind is the source of suffering and as long as we have that that is pervasive suffering in this condition whatever happens is infected by suffering but note that body mind themselves not suffering after enlightenment the same body mind will not be a problem for the enlightened being so it's actually ignorance which is the cause of suffering but in our present state what the Buddhist says that we have to admit that we are unenlightened in an in an unenlightened state this body mind itself is the source of suffering and since we are always with the body and mind everything in our life is infected by suffering this is called pervasive suffering so three levels not three kinds but three levels of understanding of the of suffering in our life the day-to-day suffering which is called suffering of suffering the fact that there is change which is at the root of why we are suffering and even deeper this ignorant clinging to body mind and everything that comes from it so this is suffering pervasive suffering another way of looking at the same thing is what is called eight types of suffering by the way by now you must have realized that the Buddhists are very big on four sides and three phases and four types of suffering and eight types of suffering so the Buddhism is very analytic it looks at the human situation and analyzes it into its factors very logical very analytic so we'll keep coming across three types of this and four types of that eight types of suffering same suffering analyzed in another way so this eight types of suffering comes from a great Tibetan master tsongkhapa he is central to Tibetan Buddhism he lived about five hundred years ago he is a good way of understanding it would be what Adi Shankaracharya is to Vedanta in Hinduism some Kaba is to Tibetan Buddhism so that's the cent importance of tsongkhapa in fact one of the four main traditions of Tibetan Buddhist monastic ism the galue part to which the dalai lama belongs that was founded by some kappa and the central commentarial texts Tibetan Buddhism many of them are written by some kappa why I am going on and on about him is because I was introduced to his work last year in a course on in do Tibetan Madame occur Buddhism at Harvard so it was a privilege to study the works of some couple this it is amazing the original teachings of the Buddha 2500 years ago and then about 500 years later the commentaries the carry cos written by Nagarjuna a few hundred years after that the great philosopher Chandra kiti commenting on the the texts of Nagarjuna and then nearly eight hundred years nine hundred years after that comes tsongkhapa in tibet and about five six hundred years after that we are studying it in 21st century you know they are at Harvard University so it's an amazing journey of 2500 years the same teachings so what does tsongkhapa say eight types of suffering no need to feel bewildered it's the same thing but in a different way of way of looking at it so he says the first one is the suffering of birth second one is suffering of old age third one is suffering of disease fourth one is suffering of death fifth one is the suffering of coming into contact with what is unpleasant sixth is the suffering of the severance of contact losing contact with what is pleasant the seventh is the suffering of my desires not being fulfilled and the eighth is the suffering of the ignorant of being attached to body mind so eight types but it's very interesting it's very sophisticated way of looking at suffering look at the first four these are the sights that the Buddha saw including old age disease and death and he includes birth so birth is suffering and it's traumatic we forget luckily we forget but being born is a very traumatic psychologists say that the babies have this trauma while being born and it has an effect on our life thank God we don't consciously remember that then there is the suffering of old age Bill Conrad who's here he is 95 years old and he was telling me a few days back was quoting Betty Davis and he said Betty Davis said that suffering is not for old age is not for sissies old age is not for sissies old age is suffering disease is suffering as we know all today all over the world we're all scared of the pandemic and then death is suffering it's interesting that the bhagavad-gita Shri Krishna he says to Arjuna in the thirteenth chapter of the bhagavad-gita Jen mama to Gerardi do Kadosh insertional 1/3 an emetic doctor he says this is knowledge to inquire into the sufferings of birth death old age disease gentleman Rick to Garibaldi Duke dosha under shanem participated suffering old age is suffering disease is suffering and when you understand that these are suffering this is the basis the foundations for guiana for enlightenment exactly the same teaching which you find there so these are the first four but these first four can be actually telescoped into two contact with what is unpleasant and loss of contact with what is pleasant pain and disease and and the feebleness of old age and slowing down of mental faculties this is contact with what is unpleasant and loss of contact with what is pleasant my youth my energy my enthusiasm my possessions and money and job all of that so if you lose contact that is suffering so the all the sufferings of the world are now telescoped into lapsed into two and these two also can be further all kinds of suffering these two also can be further compressed into one which is the my desires not being satisfied there's the seventh type which means la tsongkhapa speaks of everywhere we have suffering one thing you must know for sure something in my mind some expectations not fulfilled or some hope is dashed my desire is not fulfilled it may be justified I may be right to expect it but it is not fulfilled I had something in mind it is not fulfilled hence I am unhappy simple fact but very profound fact you see you remember the second noble truth which is going to come is desire is the cause of suffering so here he says it is a desire which is not fulfilled which leads to suffering all suffering at the back of the mind is something which was some kind of expectation desire which was not met frustrated frustration of my desire is suffering and then the eighth one is basically there at the root of every kind of suffering even this seventh one they are all based on the last eighth one the eighth one is clinging to body mind itself this ignorance based clinging to he will say five five aggregates but remember five aggregates are body mind so this is some cappas analysis of suffering eight types of suffering there is one more point to be made about suffering so Buddhist as you can see somebody said they're really experts at raining on our parade the big on suffering there is one more point each of the Four Noble Truths has four characteristics I'll speak only about the four characteristics of the first noble truth that is the truth of suffering four characteristics are uneaten impermanence do come suffering itself soon iam emptiness an Atma selflessness what does it mean very briefly an idiom as we saw things change on the surface of it it seems that things change yes we know that things are born they exist for some time then they die that's the first level but when you look deeply at it it is not only that things burn and they exist even then they seem to exist in a stable way moment to moment everything is changing not only an idiom Shani come an idiom means impermanent Shaniqua means momentary moment-to-moment things are changing that moment to moment these things are changing this is also not so difficult modern physics will tell us that yes moment to moment things are changing if you look even further more deeply that the Buddhists will say that that not only moment to moment it is changing from the very beginning and throughout the causes of destruction of everything are already there what it means is normally we think of a thing being born and then it lives and it grows and develops and then there it declines and dies but the Buddhist way of looking at it is being born is the start of the process of dying but itself is the beginning of dying creation itself is the beginning of destruction the processes which lead to the death of the body processes which lead to the disintegration of any entity they are already at work when the thing is born or produced and it is true so this is the deep understanding of Initium everything is fundamentally impermanent irredeemably so it cannot be remedied and this leads to the next one which is to come but being impermanent and clinging to these impermanent things as if their we want to live in this body and be young forever and have these objects which will give us happiness expect people to behave nicely with us forever all the time no this is not this is not justified and yet we do that and this is to come the second factor of first noble truth this leads to the third factor soon iam emptiness as many aspects but the one aspect of emptiness is that we expect that there is a self I am NOT the body and mind I am a separate self in charge of the body and mind this is my body and my mind the Buddhist says there is no such self this is directly up in opposition to the dualistic Hindu schools the knee or the white shaker which said apart from body and mind there is one Atma the Buddhist is apart from body and mind but that athma what is there empty soon iam there's no such thing because we think that that leads to suffering and then the fourth one selflessness the first one is an idiom impermanence second one is to come suffering third one is soon iam emptiness the fourth one is selflessness or anata mo the Shunyata talks about that apart from the five aggregates or body and mind there is no self and the uh not my selflessness talks about that this in these five aggregates in the body mind there also there is no self if you look at the body mind the physical body the organs the mind thoughts feelings ego which one of them is the self these two might seem to be a difference might be seem to be subtle one is the emptiness of self and the other one is selflessness there is no self apart from the body and mind and there is no self in the body and mind also so these are two subtle aspects one thing those were trained in Advaita Vedanta will immediately notice the advaithic concept of Atman is neither of them when you say the Atman sat-chit-ananda is it an entity apart from body and mind exactly remember the example of gold and the ornaments is gold an entity apart from the golden necklace is there something called gold and something called a necklace you immediately say no no no no right there and in the necklace and the name necklace or the farm necklace is any one of them gold no no gold is the reality of the necklace you might say similarly when when the Buddhist says apart from the body mind there is no separate entity called itself that the waiting says yes we are not saying that the Atma is something separate from the body and mind in the body and mind none of those constituents are the self during the Buddhist says am Atma the Vedanta not waiting can agree yes we are not saying that the body or the mind of the ego is the Atma rather it is the reality the existence consciousness in which the body and mind appeared that one is upper so anyway that's a site what I want to say is when the Buddhist denies a separate self and a self in the constituents of body and mind it seems to deny the Hindu idea of a small together it does deny the dualistic conception of Atma but not the adroitly conception of Atma all right this is the first noble truth Duke but Buddha did not stop there but if you had stopped there it would be pessimistic there is a philosopher zimmer he wrote a book on the philosophies of India he says apparently the philosophies of India seem to be pessimistic but actually they are optimistic they say there is suffering and if you stop Derek specimen stick but they all say that there is a actually there is a solution to suffering there is a freedom from suffering the Buddha also does that a great Indian philosopher about 500 years ago mother watch Arya who wrote a book servitor Shanna sangra collection of all the philosophies so he describes the Buddhistic approach as seek its economy were like doctors so it's particularly apt in today's environment today where we are facing great medical crisis just like doctors they identified they they identify the disease the symptoms what is the suffering step one Duke second they identify does it have a cause what is it just there or is there a cause behind it but the says there is a cause desire and if the cause is there if you remove the cause then the disease will go away if you if you can kill the virus or develop immunity for the virus then the suffering caused by the virus will go away so that is a cure is there a cure so yes there is a cure but this is there is a cure to suffering not only virus suffering but all kinds of suffering and he calls it nit wanna third noble truth and is there a treatment a method right now for the virus we don't have a method we don't have a treatment but the Buddha has it as a treatment for all kinds of suffering calls it mark the way which the fourth noble truth so tickets economy was just like a doctor and the philosopher saint approaches the problem of life just like a doctor disease cause remedy treatment so second noble truth is the because the cause according to the Buddha is desire like the word they use is Trishna or tun ha the Bali is DISA the Sanskrit is Krishna it means thirst this thirst for pleasures of the world and more deeply for existing in this limited form i want to exist like this so at this level causality is discussed the Buddhists are big on causality before we go into the details which might seem complicated the basic idea is very simple the basic idea of causality is this arising that arises this not arising that does not arise so if there is a cause there'll be an effect if you remove the cause effect also will be removed if there is an effect suffering there must be a cause and the cause Buddha says desire and we see how that is a cause if you remove that then the suffering will be removed how does this work one thing is that there's a great similarity between the analysis of the Buddhists and Shankar Acharya as we saw desire itself which is Varna is born of ignorance so avid dia leads to calm with the eye signals and karma is desire and because we have desire we act on the basis of the desire to fulfill that desire and that is called Karma so all action based on desire which is based on ignorance that action gives rise to results and these results lead to future lives and the cycle of birth and death continues to repeat ignorant leads to desire desire leads to action and action perpetuates samsara the results of action you have to get so life after life keeps coming Aveda karma karma ignorance desire and action this is a phrase that Shankar Acharya uses number of times and very nicely encapsulate the Buddhist thinking about it only there are differences there is a major difference according to Shankar Acharya according to advaita vedanta Olevia ignorance you should ask what ignorant about what in Vedanta it's very clear ignorance about a real nature that we are ever fulfilled and infinite existence consciousness and once you know that there will be no more desire because you are ever fulfilled what could you desire and so there will be no more action based on desire and so the problem of samsara will be solved in buddhism ignorant is about Ovidius about the emptiness the emptiness nature of the self that there is no permanent entity called the self either apart from the body on mind or in the body and mind an emptiness of the world every entity in the world is said to be empty there is no independently existing entity in the world they are all interdependent realities so this thing we don't realize and therefore there is desire and therefore there is karma based on desire so the Buddhists have an elaborate scheme of causality where how desire leads to life after life and suffering they call it pratityasamutpada it's taught by Buddha himself the central idea of Buddhism I will quickly summarize the thing it's called the twelve linked chain the twelve links a chain and this chain binds us in samsara it's very interesting actually the twelve links I'll go through it but remember the core idea is this arising that arises this not arising that does not arise these twelve links will show us what is samsara how we are bound and how to be free so what are these twelve links it goes like this very quickly in past lives because of ignorance avidya we have done karma so of Indian karma there from past lives as we go from one life to another there is something they called big Jana the Gianna here is not the big Anna of Vedanta or of Sri Ramakrishna here it means a kind of basic consciousness which pushes us from one life to the next body dies a collection of mental skander's they move from one life to another more like a transmission of a wave not like a transmission of a particular entity now this is began this is the third link now it leads to the development of the body in the mother's womb in case of human beings for example so that is called the the fourth link which is nama Rupa a Vidya karma then began a nama Rupa nama Rupa develop body develops as body develops the sense organs become active that's the fifth link called shadow at another six sense basis six sense basis seeing hearing smelling tasting touching and the mental faculties thinking feeling willing understanding all of these things so the sixth sense basis the Sharia thana they become active as they become active they come into contact with their respective objects I see form ears here sound tongue tastes sweet and bitter and sour so that that is called the sixth link is sparsa touch contact touch does not mean physical touch only any sense organ touching even thinking so that is contact and contact leads to experience in Sanskrit vadhana whether now the experience can be or sensation it can be pleasant unpleasant or neutral and based on this sensations some they like some we do not like it's very natural based on our past experiences and the condition of the body certain kinds of experience is a pleasant summer unpleasant due to the pleasant and unpleasant nature of these experiences we inevitably have the next link which is called the trishna our thirst develops it's composed of two things ragged ratio likes and dislikes it's a very simple movement because of pleasant and unpleasant experiences we have likes for the present thing we want to repeat or we want similar experiences and dislike for the unpleasant sensations draw our graduation and this ragged raesha leads to craving this trend ends in two different kinds of craving thus craving is grasping it's called opa Donna I want those things those sensations Hoopa Donna grasping as the body ages the body is unable to satisfy those grasping those cravings so then we develop whatever what is called bava bava is the desire to exist in this kind of a body the desire to satisfy my my passions my craving with the body and this is what pushes us at the time of death into the next life in power there is also another word used here v baba that means there's an equal distaste for the old and dying body so we want to give up we are so attached to this body but attachment is not because of the body attachment is because I want to satisfy my desires my cravings through that body when that body does not satisfy the cravings it's become a burden we actually develop a dispassionate the Buddhists say and we want to get rid of it and move on so bhava and be Brava so power means pushes us into the next life I remember when I was a kid I saw this Hollywood movie in which a man had died and become a ghost and he had a great craving for cigarettes so in those days cigarette smoking was much more common luckily that's not so the case nowadays so here a great craving for cigarettes and in the movie that shown he has a far but ghostly farm and he their cigarettes are there but he cannot touch because he's a ghost he cannot touch anything physical she was trying to grasp the cigarette but his hand is passing through it all the time I remember even as a kid I still remember the scene it impressed me so much and at that time I did not know all this abhava but I felt at that time instinctively this is why people are reborn there is a strong tendency desire in them and this is what propels a great craving to exist again to exist again in a body so that pushes into the next life that power it pushes and we we are now in the third life the first life was a past life then this present life now we are in the next life it pushes into the 11th link which is jati iottie means birthed a new birth comes and when birth is their old age and death will be their Jarama or not the 12th link jaramana old age and death so these are the twelve links of samsara and spread across three lives my earlier life this life and what will happen in the next life these twelve links are in a cycle now remember the thing to remember here is this arising that arises this not arising that does not arise these twelve links they show us how samsara arises one leading to the other as you move from one link to other but it also shows us how to get out of samsara if we do not want old age and death that was the whole project of the Buddha remember how to overcome this of of old age and death we do not want old age and death then we have to prevent this continuously being reborn the cycle of rebirth so jati has to be prevented but to prevent rebirth we must prevent that desire to go into the next life the power to prevent the braava we must prevent the the cravings the piranhas which are there but to prevent Aparna we must prevent the preceding one which is the thirst the Trishna but the thirst will be there if it if we do not prevent the one which precedes them the pleasant and unpleasant spots a contact but the contact is inevitable unless we as long as we have the previous link which is the way the nadi the sensations and the way then is dependent on the previous link which is partial actually so special is dependent on sense organs if there are sense organs we will have contact the sense organs ashada eternal and sense organs are inevitable if we have a body Dena Maru / the deep the Roop the physical body which has the five senses and the mind the sixth and the body will be there if there is the previous life's began at the the basal consciousness which pushes us from life to life and that was there only because of past karma and past karma is there because of the first link in the chain of India ignorance so if you remove ignorance the entire chain the other eleven links they all fall down one after another so the whole point is to overcome this ignorant about reality and that is done in the third link which says that if you ignore if you if you overcome ignorance what will happen in the third third noble truth which is noble truth of cessation to connect the cessation of sorrow the term used is nirvana the pali term is Nibbana nirvana literally means cessation there are two ways of looking at it there is a Theravada your different schools of Buddhism the Theravada idea is nirvana is extinguishing somebody asked what happens to the Buddha after the death of the Buddha where does the Buddha go and the Buddha replied that if there is a flame and it's blown out will you say that the flame has gone to the north No south west east no up or down no and that's it so after the Buddha's passing away Buddha does not go anywhere it's like a flame being extinguished Nirvana means extinction but extinction of what is it nothingness that Dussehra valence deny it's not that it becomes zero or nothingness but they refuse to give any positive description the idea is the whole project was to overcome suffering suffering is extinguished what more do you need then what is the state after that Nirvana is the final ultimate there is no question of what is after Nirvana it is a permanent state that is the Theravada idea the Mahayana idea like the Tibetan Buddhists they are maha honest the Mahayana idea is that not that it is extinguished the mind ignorant is extinguished cravings are extinguished and suffering is extinguished but the enlightened mind continues in Tibetan Buddhism for example there's a description of it is possible that the enlightened mind will continue for thousands of years in a state of meditation why I like the description was was immediately reminded me of Sri Ramakrishna's vision of Swami Vivekananda the scepter she that he says in a vision he saw a place of luminosity non duality in that non duality there were seven Rishi's I don't know how in not two there will be seven but there are seven Rishi's who are immersed in the truth of non duality in my deep meditation and a child of light comes in child of light is Sri Ram Krishna himself goes to one of those Rishi's arouses him from meditation and says that I'm going to the earth which is sunk in darkness in sorrow and will you will you not come with me and that Rishi is who is born as Narendra not as Vivekananda but the point here is for thousands of years this is enlightened beings who are immersed in meditation on the reality this is what for example Tibetan Buddhism or even generally Mahayana Buddhism claims after enlightenment it's the ignorant which is extinguished it is the craving which is extinguished sorrow is extinguished not that the enlightened being is extinguished enlightened one is still there anyhow this is the difference between the two kinds of ideals in Tarawih the Buddhism the ideal is our hut-hut means enlightened being through your own efforts you will get enlightenment removal of craving which will lead to removal of sorrow the twelve linked chain will cease and you are free Nirvana finished that's the goal of Buddhism according to Theravada according to mahayana or tibetan buddhism also the goal is not just our authorities part of the goal but the goal is to be a body scepter from the very beginning the goal is not just your own Nirvana your own enlightenment your own freedom from sorrow but for everybody remember the original Buddha's goal was how to overcome sorrow for everybody not just himself so that is called Bodhisattva and from the beginning the seeker takes this vow and as the seeker proceeds in a spiritual path at one point the seeker seeker he or she becomes an arhat enlightened but that's not the end the Bodhisattva goes on in the journey now the whole purpose is to enlighten other beings and to bring them out of sorrow so the goal in Mahayana is actually not just to become a rat it's to become a Buddha so there are many possible Buddha's and the ultimate goal will be to become the Bodhisattva becomes a Buddha ultimately and here because of these two the whole idea of what happens in the advanced in these two broad streams of Buddhism just a little note here before we move on to the final truth truth of the way they talk about nirvana cessation at three levels one is they call it temporary nirvana temporary cessation temporary cessation is in deep meditation for a while it is possible to overcome suffering there is deep peace contentment light so in various kinds of yogic samajis it's actually possible to overcome suffering but temporarily once you come out of it again come in contact with the world and the mind starts working sorrow is inevitable that's why it's called temporary cessation and why I'm mentioning this is it is said that the Buddha before becoming a Buddha the Prince Siddhartha when he was seeking he went to two teachers who taught him from what it from his own accounts what seems to be elements of Sankhya and yoga so he learned his yogic somalis which incorporated later in different ways into Buddhism in Buddhist meditation but he was not satisfied with it because he realized that this is not enough this will again suffering will come back when you come out of this meditation then there is the second kind of Nirvana which is called Nirvana with residue with remainder what is that after reaching enlightenment the body and mind are still there because of past Karma and so the effects of karma are still felt you continue as an enlightened being as an arhat so this is very similar to the jeevan mukta concept in vedanta that even after realizing your brahman you still are at least you appear to others as a body mind and you interact with others so this is called Nirvana with residue there is a remainder of carbon and then the next one is again like the video Mukti of Vedanta that is bodyless liberation that it's called Nirvana without residue once the body of the Buddha falls off or the advance of enters into permanent nirvana and the again what happens after that is different according to mahayana tera vaada the Mahayana is the Bodhisattva may be reborn again but as a free being not in bondage but only to help others in Theravada there is no such concept the arhat is free finally often near one after the fall of this particular body then how does one accomplish all this the truth of the Eightfold way the fourth noble truth Marga Dukan every d'marco the way to the cessation of suffering this is called Ashtanga Marga the Eightfold way very quickly the Eightfold way what are they the there is a Sameach Drishti the right view what is the right view to put it briefly the Four Noble Truths they themselves are the right view so basically you see in in spiritual life a map is necessary an intellectual framework is necessary need not be Buddhism it could be something else but some kind of clarity at what are we doing what are we pursuing this necessary so I me very kindly said intellect itself cannot inspire your lead you to enlightenment but it can obstruct you if the intellect says that this is meaningless this is foolish this is superstition you cannot proceed so right view is necessary and in Buddhism it means the Four Noble Truths it is not enough the next one is right resolve some muck sankalpa I have understood the truth of suffering and there is a cause of that and I can be free of it but I must do it I must make up the result that I am going to be free of suffering in this life Sri Ramakrishna is to say this my real resolve will not do in there's a untranslatable Bengali phrase he uses DNA death Allah there is a table playing so one kind of table playing is is a very slow beat he says that slow beat will not do you must be up and doing in this very life so right resolve is necessary the third one the next few are third four and fifth when you take charge of your life here we have decided we are going to be spiritual seekers now what do you do you take charge of your life make changes first at the level of speech some milk walk right speed which is truth hold on to the truth irrespective of fear or temptation and also nonviolent in speech that is do not hurt others and do not speak harsh words even true words if they're harsh should not be spoken and be disciplined in speech do not speak too much then there is some muck car mantra right living so in that there are different concepts the ethical living I him sir do not hurt do not kill do not hurt other living beings non-violence then there is brahmacarya chastity for monks it is of course one set of rules strict and for householders another set of rules but for all brahmacarya then there is the non stilling as there do not take what is not yours then there is the in fact a bhoot buddhism prohibits consumption of intoxicants drinking drugs Houston Smith quotes a funny story one of the old SARS of Russia he was given an option what should be the religion of his people so the options where it could be have Christianity he could have Islam and or Buddhism but Islam and Buddhism prohibit drinking and thus are being Russian was fond of his vodka so he chose Christianity I don't know how true the story is but Houston Smith quotes that story then there is the fifth step of the Eightfold way and that is some milk our Jeeva rightful livelihood not just your day-to-day life should be disciplined but what we do for a living that must be a moral thing not one cannot be a cook or a criminal in in our life and earn money on and on money you live and try to be spiritual will not work we see in the gospel of sri ramakrishna how careful he was not to accept gifts from people he considered worldly or dishonest or selfish so our livelihood should be honest livelihood and then there are some lists of acceptable jobs non acceptable and I found it is amusing to see that the Buddha like Jesus it seems to be against tax collectors so I think IRS people all throughout history people don't like them anyway then so that is some yuck our Jeeva Right Livelihood then the next three are connected to meditation concentration some McVie i'am a right effort buddhism above all is a path of self effort there's no God to appeal to at the most a Buddha can inspire you but you have to make the effort to yourself the Buddha speaks about the Buffalo if you remember if you can visualize the Buffalo in South Asian countries muddy waterlogged rice fields and the Buffalo is walking to the mud slow hard work he says just like that through the mud and the filth of desire and ignorant one must cross it with one pointed be one on the on the Eightfold way holding on to that cross the filth and mud of passion and desire there is got some milk vir right effort it's a part of Bill power it sounds too difficult not really we have plenty of willpower when it comes to what we want people are up and doing building business empires conquering countries getting phd's so much hard work goes into it even raising a family so much hard work over so many years goes into it so we have the willpower I think Swami Rama Krishnan and as he told a young man who had come to become a monk the amount of effort that you put into through to get through one of your university examinations that much effort if you give it's enough for God realization so you can do it it's hard but you can do it some maybe I am right effort then some York City mindfulness this I need not speak much about this is so popular today in America it's a multi-billion dollar industry and it comes from the seventh step of the Eightfold way Sameach smoothly mindfulness pramada Weymouth to inadvertence is death be being mindful so the most common method is keeping the mind anchored to the breath being aware when you're breathing in being aware that you're breathing it when you're breathing out being aware that you're breathing out so using that as an anchor now you become aware of what's going on in the world the sensations in the body in each whatever you are experiencing are you you are aware you're breathing in now and breathing out now unhappiness comes in the mind breathing in there is unhappiness in the mind I notice just notice focus is on breathing in and breathing out so our sensations in the body our thoughts in the mind ideas the momentum the attention is lost again do you realize why all my attention has drifted away from the breath don't get upset bring it back to the breathing in breathing out mindfulness and this is the is a very important part of Buddhist meditation and this is further developed into a deepens into the eighth step which is Samadhi Samadhi is deep meditation and the Buddhists path is one of actually one of meditation Buddha himself attained enlightenment through meditation the focused clear mind purified and focused mind can reveal the secrets of the universe and about oneself so that leads to both he enlightenment and that body after that enlightenment all craving fades away when the craving goes away the sorrows also go of a so notice Eightfold way is the cause the Marga is the cause and the effect is the third noble truth Nevada and the third noble truth cessation leads to the removal of the the second noble truth that is the desire I mean the desire is gone the first noble truth suffering that is gone so you see the causality which works the two sets of cause and effect here first set is sorrow is the effect and desire is the cause first noble truth second noble truth the second set of cause and effect is Nirvana is the effect and Eightfold Path is the cause so eight fold path leading to Nirvana leading to the cessation of sorrow is a cessation of desire to do the cessation of sorrow very logical approach Swami Vivekananda said the Buddha was the same man who ever lived no cobwebs in that brain so I mean the wakened had a great great admiration for the four bhagavad-gita so on this day we pray to the Buddha and all Bodhisattvas by their blessing maybe attain to enlightenment in this life itself and cross over the ocean of sorrow stay well everybody take care and stay safe home Shanti Shanti Shanti hurry Hume that said Sri Ramakrishna I must [Music]

Channel: Vedanta New York

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Keywords: vedantany, vedanta society of new york, sarvapriyananda, swami sarvapriyananda, sarvapriyananda lectures, swami vivekananda, vivekananda, vivekananda teachings, vedanta ny, vedanta, vedanta lectures, belur math, jnana yoga, hinduism, spirituality, enlightenment, higher consciousness

Id: QnGp0WON93I

Length: 70min 48sec (4248 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 04 2020