Question on the Four Noble Truths

barcher

I am investigating Buddhism, and I like almost everything I read and see. I do have a question about the Four Noble Truths, though.

As I understand it, the truths mean that we should forsake desire, and that desire causes the suffering in life. My experience has been that desire is what drives us to accomplish things, and can be a positive thing. It is what makes strong families, what encourages us to contribute to society, and so forth. Am I understanding this correctly?

DhammaDhatu

there are two kinds of desire

(1) craving (tanha), the cause of suffering, subject of the 2nd Noble Truth

(2) right intention (samma sankhappa), the 2nd factor of the Noble Eightfold Path, the subject of the 4th Noble Truth

so it is only craving that needs to be foresaken

Buddhism is a gradual path

you may read this link: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/snp/snp.2.04.piya.html

regards

thickpaper

Desire is just one aspect of what is called Tanha, or "thirst". It manifests in so many ways, from the obvious to the subtle, the worldly to the existential. But you cant really see why Tanha causes dukka until you have an understanding of Dukka that is deeper than mere "suffering"

maybe try seeing Dukka as translating to "inevitably and intrinsically negative".

I hope that helps:)

MindGate

I've been seeing this a lot lately. "Desire" is not really a correct translation. Rather "attachment" "attachment to desire" "clinging" or "craving" are better translations. There are many other translations that are even better, but just flat out "desire" doesn't really get to the core of the teaching.

barcher

Thank you so much for your quick, informative responses. That answered my question satisfactorily. DhammaDhatu, your link was very interesting.