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The Buddhist library "1st Noble Truth"
Shoshin1
Sentient BeingOceania Veteran
Just came across this interesting Dharma Teaching fresh on YouTube.... A great introduction for those just starting out on the path ....also a good beginner's mind refresher for those experienced practitioners....
Some info on The Buddhist Library
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Comments
Second Noble Truth
Thanks @Shoshin1 🙏
🙏🙏🙏
You inspired me to go back to this teaching by Thich Nhat Hanh, I always thought it was beautiful. The approach is different, the essence is not.
It’s interesting how different the emphasis of the teaching is from different sources. If you read Wikipedia it’s rather dry, “the truths are about suffering”, if you watch Thich Nhat Hanh its much more balanced, “ill-being and well-being are a pair; there is ill-being, but there also is well-being” and he relates the teaching back to interbeing.
Thay brings things to life as always. Dharma as actually lived rather than reduced to concepts and “six of these and four of those.” 😊
**
"He showed me the brightness of the world." That's how my teacher, Ajaan Fuang, once characterized his debt to his teacher, Ajaan Lee. His words took me by surprise. I had only recently come to study with him, still fresh from a school where I had learned that serious Buddhists took a negative, pessimistic view of the world. Yet here was a man who had given his life to the practice of the Buddha's teachings, speaking of the world's brightness. Of course, by "brightness" he wasn't referring to the joys of the arts, food, travel, sports, family life, or any of the other sections of the Sunday newspaper. He was talking about a deeper happiness that comes from within. As I came to know him, I gained a sense of how deeply happy he was. He may have been skeptical about a lot of human pretenses, but I would never describe him as negative or pessimistic. "Realistic" would be closer to the truth. Yet for a long time I couldn't shake the sense of paradox I felt over how the pessimism of the Buddhist texts could find embodiment in such a solidly happy person.**
https://accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/lifeisnt.html
Dukkha often plays a big part in our daily lives...with subtle to gross experiences, yet more often than not we can be so caught up in this sense of self , we fails to connect the Dukkha dots when s#it happens...
When studying Dukkha one is studying Dependant origination, the twelve links, especially ignorance, contact and feeling...plus the five (clinging) aggregates...
It's a fascinating journey of (non) self discovery...with Dukkha pitfalls educational tools along the way....
How often are you aware of Dukkha (self sabotage) being at work when the so-called s#iT happens....
There I was doing a 'free' course, online cult impediment intro etc.
https://arointroduction.org/
when I realised general purpose ignorance, personality cults of those under the influence, is the new age of persona ego worship.
As someone not wise enough to discern Buddha from margarine, housing and building from property management or even viral meme ss ... what to do?
Speak clearly or gibber from nowhere?
When the ignorant Buddha points at the moon flower, we are raised. When we listen to the ignorant mind as if Buddha, where is the correction?
4000 Noble Truths? At least!
I read that link on the Aro gTer @lobster ... they seem to be Vajrayāna Tibetans with a western twist, but it is interesting to see how many of the 4000 Noble Truths we actually need. At what point do additional Noble Truths only serve to obscure, and how many of the manifold interpretations actually add something.
There are many resources, study guidance, stores of library stories ...
For example here I learned. of a contemporary of Buddha ...
https://networks.h-net.org/node/6060/h-buddhism-resources
Baby Jesus was that you, doing a practice run ...
While Bhaddā was pregnant, she and her husband Mankhali, the mankha, came to the village ... of Saravaṇa, where dwelt a wealthy householder Gobahula. Mankhali left his wife and his luggage ... in Gobahula’s cowshed (gosālā) ... Since he could find no shelter elsewhere the couple continued to live in a corner of the cowshed, and it was there that Bhaddā gave birth to her child
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ājīvika