In talking with other people, I realize that many Buddhist concepts are widely misunderstood. I believe that the Buddha was the first human to comprehensively explain the psychology of being human--what leads us to happiness, joy, generosity, etc. and what leads us to resentment, anger, bitterness, hatred, etc. I offer my understanding of the 4 Noble Truths of Buddhism from a psychological perspective and not getting into the religious aspects of Buddhism.
The First Noble Truth
This has often been mistranslated as "life is suffering." The actual translation is ''there is suffering." The word the Buddha used, dukkha, was an everyday word in his time and also now in Nepal (where I was a Peace Corps Volunteer). Dukkha is used when talking about a headache, dinner tasting badly, work going badly, getting very sick, or someone dying. So the Buddha was essentially saying that dukkha is a daily experience in everyone's life: rich, poor, lucky, unlucky, those in good health and those in poor health, young and old alike.
Alternative translations used by many teachers for dukkha include stress, discontent, and dissatisfaction which make more sense in the context of modern life.
The Second Noble Truth
The root cause of dukkha is getting caught in wanting and craving what is pleasant and disliking and hating what is unpleasant. He talked about the 3 Poisons, also known as the 3 Fires.
• greed, e.g., I want, I want, I want more
• aversion, e.g., I hate, I dislike, I want this to be gone
• delusion: e.g., someone saying they don't have a drinking problem when they do.
Mindfulness helps us to see clearly what is happening and how the current me has come to be. Although neuroscience is a very new field, the Buddha also talked about the complexity of the human mind and that our behaviors are influenced by an almost infinite number of causes and conditions. The Buddha spoke of the 4 Imponderables, "which would bring madness & vexation to anyone who conjectured about them." One of the imponderables was trying to trace the path of one's karma, for example, identifying all the factors of an unwholesome habit, like being prone to anger.
The Third Noble Truth
The good news is that there is an end to dukkha which he called Nirvana. He described Nirvana in many ways. One that connects to the 3 Fires is that we are on fire with our greed, aversion, and delusion. When we have a negative experience and we are on fire, to use a metaphor, we add fuel to the fire. For example, someone has a toothache and within minutes they see the toothache leading to a root canal and then a crown or worse yet the tooth needing to be pulled and then an implant and a crown. A recent research study asked people with high anxiety to note all the things they were anxious about happening in the near future. They found that less than 10 percent of the worries actually came true!
Once, when asked how he came to the end of dukkha, he said he no longer added fuel to the fire which was now completely and forever extinguished. One framing of Nirvana is cooling down. With respect to Nirvana, one meditation teacher said that instead of talking about attaining Nirvana, it might be more useful to talk about moments of enlightenment, and mini-Nirvanas are accessible every day.
The Fourth Noble Truth
The Buddha laid out the 8-fold path which leads to an end to suffering. These have been organized into three groups:
• Sila (morality): right action (including generosity), right livelihood, right speech
• Samadhi (focus): right effort, right concentration, right mindfulness
• Panna (wisdom): right intention/attitude; right view/understanding
Many people have struggled with the word right, and translation is always an issue. One teacher used the practice of bell making to illustrate the Buddha's intention. During the process of bell making, the bell is regularly tested to see if the sound is right or true. At some point, the maker smiles and says that the bell is now right. The Buddha did not mean right, as opposed to wrong, but right as when one's practice is true like the bell.
I appreciate that the Buddha was so specific in his instructions. For example, regarding right speech, he said that before speaking, ask yourself these four questions:
1. Is what I am about to say truthful/accurate?
2. Do I believe that it will be useful/helpful?
3. Can I say it kindly, without judgment?
4. Is this the right time and situation to say it?
If the answer to any of these questions is no, then reconsider.
He spoke of wholesome and unwholesome actions and behaviors and encouraged people to think about, examine, explore what we might do to:
• sustain wholesome behaviors we already have, for example, generosity;
• develop wholesome behaviors we do not currently have in abundance, for example, gratitude;
• let go of unwholesome behaviors we have, for example, being quick to anger;
• prevent unwholesome behaviors that we don’t have, for example, by avoiding certain places or situations
The 5 Precepts under right action are: not killing, not stealing, not lying, not abusing sex, and not using intoxicants. I love Thich Nhat Hanh's framing of the precepts which he calls The 5 Mindfulness Trainings. I offer an excerpt of his formulation of the fifth precept: "Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful consumption, I vow to cultivate good health, both physical and mental, for myself, my family, and my society by practicing mindful eating, drinking and consuming...I am determined not to use alcohol or any other intoxicant or to ingest foods or other items that contain toxins, such as certain TV programs, magazines, books, films and conversations... I will work to transform violence, fear, anger and confusion in myself and in society by practicing a diet for myself and for society. " If you are interested, you can find his framing on the web: 5 Mindfulness Trainings.
A last word is that though I have read extensively about Buddhism in the past 40 years and I meditate almost daily, I am not a scholar but simply walking the path as best I can. This is my synthesis of what I have read and heard that has been so helpful to me.
I would love to hear in the Comment section below what you found useful or helpful, in your own words. Thank you.