Via Dhamma Wheel | Right View: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering

 

RIGHT VIEW
Understanding the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering

What is the origin of suffering? It is craving, which brings renewal of being, is accompanied by delight and lust, and delights in this and that; that is, craving for sensual pleasures, craving for being, and craving for nonbeing. (MN 9) When one does not know and see material form as it actually is, then one is attached to material form. When one is attached, one becomes infatuated, and one’s craving increases. One’s bodily and mental troubles increase, and one experiences bodily and mental suffering. (MN 149)

Reflection

As we proceed with a systematic investigation of the second noble truth—how craving gives rise to suffering—we begin looking at each of the five aggregates in turn: material form, feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness. Material form includes everything constituted of matter, including the sense organs of the body and the substances in the environment giving rise to incoming data of sense experience.

Daily Practice

Pay attention to the point at which the subjective experience of the body meets resistance. Notice the physical sensations of your feet on the floor, your butt on the chair, your skin against your clothing. This is how we encounter material form in lived experience. Experience each of the four great elements: feel earth as resistance, air as movement, water as wetness, fire as heat. Notice how craving arises from each.

Tomorrow: Cultivating Compassion
One week from today: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering

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Via Daily Dharma: The Art of Living

 The art of living involves overcoming our head-trapped numbness, in becoming acutely sensitive to the cryptic messages of our feelings, no matter how painful. The more closely we listen, the more deeply we understand. Not just great but entirely unimagined treasures may then pour into our life and world.

David Edwards, “Burning Among Stars in the Night”

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