Ariya-sacca

• In Buddhism, the term Ariya is used in a spiritual sense: the Buddha is ‘the noble one’ and other ‘noble ones’ are those who are partially or fully awakened, and those well established on the path.

• The term sacca (Skt satya) is regularly used in the sense of ‘truth’, but also to mean a ‘reality’, a genuinely real existent.

• An ariya-sacca means “True realities for the spiritually ennobled” and that these realities are in fact dukkha.

• The first True Reality is the metaphorical ‘illness’ of dukkha (Vibh-a.88),

• (i) diagnose an illness, (ii) identify its cause, (iii) determine whether it is curable, and (iv) outline a course of treatment to cure it.

• The first sermon says that the first of the four is ‘to be fully understood’; the second is ‘to be abandoned’; the third is ‘to be personally experienced’; the fourth is ‘to be developed/cultivated’.

• This, bhikkhus, is the noble truth that is suffering. Birth is suffering; old age is suffering; illness is suffering; death is suffering. Association with things not liked is suffering, separation from desired things is suffering; not getting what one wants is suffering; in short, the five aggregates of grasping are suffering.

• idaṃ kho pana, bhikkhave, dukkhaṃ ariyasaccaṃ — jātipi dukkhā, jarāpi dukkhā, byādhipi dukkho, maraṇampi dukkhaṃ, appiyehi sampayogo dukkho, piyehi vippayogo dukkho, yampicchaṃ na labhati tampi dukkhaṃ — saṃkhittena pañcupādānakkhandhā dukkhā.

• The Four Noble Truths are:• 1. Dukkha• 2. Samudaya, the arising or origin of dukkha,• 3. Nirodha, the cessation of dukkha,• 4. Magga, the way leading to the cessation of

dukkha.• Why these things are called ariya Sacca (noble

truth)?

• What is dukkha?

• The word du (“bad”) is met with in the sense of vile (kucchita); for they call a vile child a du-putta (“bad child”). The word kham (“-ness”), however is met with in the sense of empty (tuccha), for they call empty space “kham.” And the first truth is vile because it is the haunt of many dangers, and it is empty because it is devoid of the lastingness, beauty, pleasure, and self conceived by rash people. So it is called dukkhaí (“badness”= suffering, pain), because of vileness and emptiness.

• “The term dukkha refers to unsatisfactory nature and the general insecurity of all conditioned phenomena, which, on account of their impermanence, are all liable to suffering: and this includes also pleasurable experience.”

• “Suffering’s meaning of oppressing, meaning of being formed, meaning of burning, meaning of changing, these are suffering’s four meanings of suffering. [Vism 494]

• The emphasis that all the conditioned processes that compose a person, and all worlds of rebirth, are impermanent, dukkha and not-Self forms an important part of the philosophical basis of ethics in Buddhism.

• Is Buddhism ‘pessimistic’ in emphasizing the unpleasant aspects of life?

• Why Clinging to the five AGGREGATE is suffering?

• Clinging to the five SKANDHA (AGGREGATE) that make up a person is suffering.

• In other words, if a person holds onto any aspect of his or her being, whether the physical body, feelings, perceptions, formations, or consciousness, in the hope that any of those things exists permanently, that person will experience suffering.

Different aspects of suffering

• Birth (jāti), decay (jarā), disease (vyādhi) and death (maraṇa).

• sorrow (soka), lamentation (parideva), physical-and-mental-pain (dukkha-domanassa) and despair (upāyāsā)

• ‘The unpleasantness of association with the disliked’ (appiyehi sampayogo), a separation from the beloved ones (piyehi vippayogo), and not getting what one desires (yam picchaṃ na labhati).

• Narada thinks that “when the Buddha addresses Devas and men, he speaks of eight kinds of dukkha. When he addresses only men, he speaks of twelve.”

• Why the term vyādhi is not included here, though beings are subject to disease (vyādhi).

• Within the Bhāṇakā there were some differences of opinion.

• Walshe maintains that “the omission [of vyādhi] is probably accidental, perhaps reflecting a lapse in the tradition of the Dīgha reciters (bhāṇakas).

•Three aspects:•( i ) dukkha as ordinary suffering (dukkha-dukkha), •(2) dukkha as produced by change (viparinama-dukkha) and •(3) dukkha as conditioned states (samkhara-dukkha)

• All kinds of suffering in life like birth, old age, sickness, death, association with unpleasant persons and conditions, separation from beloved ones and pleasant conditions, not getting what one desires, grief, lamentation, distress—all such forms of physical and mental suffering, which are universally accepted as suffering or pain, are included in dukkha as ordinary suffering (dukkhadukkha).

• A happy feeling, a happy condition in life, is not permanent, not everlasting. It changes sooner or later. When it changes, it produces pain, suffering, unhappiness. This vicissitude is included in dukkha as suffering produced by change (viparinama-dukkha).

• The five Aggregates together, which we popularly call a 'being', are dukkha itself (samkhara-dukkha).

Second Truth

• This, bhikkhus, is the noble truth that is the arising of suffering. This is craving that leads to rebirth, is connected with pleasure and passion and finds pleasure in this or that; that is, craving for desire, existence, and the fading away of existence.

• Idam kho pana bhikkhave dukkhasamudayam ariyasaccaṃ. Yāyaṃ taṇhā ponobbhavikā nandī rāgasahagatā tatra tatrābhinandinī, seyyathidaṃ kāmataṇhā, bhavataṇhā, vibhavataṇhā. S V 421

• uno loko atitto taṇhā dāso (people in the world are not satisfied; slave to craving)

• ponobbhavikā (causing rebirth)

• nandī rāgasahagatā (associated with attachment)

• tatra tatrābhinandinī: (taking delight here and there)

• “The world is led around by craving; by craving it is dragged here and there; craving is the one thing that has; all under its control.”

• Taṇhāya nīyati loko taṇhāya parikassati; Taṇhāya ekadhammassa sabbeva vasamanvagūti, S I 39

• Three types of craving (taṇhā): craving for sense-desire (kāma-taṇhā), craving for existence (bhava-taṇhā), and craving for non-existence (vibhava-taṇhā).

• Taṇhā literally means ‘thirst’, and clearly refers to demanding desires or drives which are ever on the lookout for gratification

• “Craving is what produces a person; his mind is what runs (roams) around; a being enters upon saṃsāra; he is not freed from suffering.” [SN]

• Taṇhā janeti purisaṃ, cittam assa vidhāvati, satto saṃsāram āpādi, dukkhā na parimuccatī ti, S I 37

Third truth

• This, bhikkhus, is the noble truth that is the ending of suffering. This is the complete fading away and ending of that very craving, giving it up, renouncing it, releasing it, and letting go.

•  idaṃ kho pana, bhikkhave, dukkhanirodhaṃ ariyasaccaṃ — yo tassāyeva taṇhāya asesavirāganirodho cāgo paṭinissaggo mutti anālayo.

• This first type of taṇhā is craving for sense-desire (kāma-taṇhā).

• Where does it arises and establishes itself?• It arises and establishes itself in respect to the

five cords of sense-desire (pañca-kāmaguṇa).

Fourth truth

• This, bhikkhus, is the noble truth that is the way leading to the ending of suffering. This is the eightfold path of the noble ones: right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. (S V 420).

• idaṃ kho pana, bhikkhave, dukkhanirodhagāminī paṭipadā ariyasaccaṃ — ayameva ariyo aṭṭhaṅgiko maggo, seyyathidaṃ — sammādiṭṭhi … pe … sammāsamādhi.

• The eightfold path is the middle way that the Buddha described during his first sermon, the way between the two extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification.

• Each of these components of the path is “right” in the sense that it is an ideal that should be undertaken and practiced seriously.