Four Noble Truths (cattāri ariya-saccāni)
Four Noble Truths (cattāri ariya-saccāni)
3. “As an abbot taking care of a community, how do you handle it when a kerfluffle comes up?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Abbot] [Ajahn Pasanno] [Community] [Conflict] // [Patience] [Views] [Skillful qualities] [Four Noble Truths]
Follow-up: “What are the antidotes to the next two Noble Truths?” [Four Noble Truths]
3. Comment: In the practice, we use gladdening the mind to balance the preception of suffering. [Gladdening the mind] [Noble Truth of Suffering] [Cessation of Suffering] [Recollection]
Response by Ajahn Pasanno. [Four Noble Truths]
3. “I’ve heard that devas and brahmas aren’t able to become enlightened. Is that right?” Answered by Ajahn Yatiko and Ajahn Pasanno. [Liberation] [Deva] [Recollection/Devas] // [Delusion] [Heedlessness] [Sutta] [Great disciples] [Four Noble Truths]
Sutta: SN 56.11: Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta
Story: Ajahn Sudanto’s pūjā on Mount Hood. [Pacific Hermitage] [Pūjā] [Culture/Natural environment] [Merit] [Goodwill]
3. “How does one look at intention?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Yatiko. [Volition] [Right Intention] // [Four Noble Truths] [Discernment] [Delusion]
Quote: “Sometimes you don’t want to look at intention too closely because you’ll convince yourself of anything.” — Ajahn Pasanno
8. “How do we know when to ask for directions on the path as opposed to just continuing farther? What would we ask?” Answered by Ajahn Yatiko. [Questions] [Practicing in accordance with Dhamma] [Gradual Teaching] // [Suffering] [Discernment] [Conditionality] [Faith]
Sutta: SN 12.23: Suffering is the cause of faith.
Follow-up: “What about when things are pleasant, but we’re not headed in the right direction?” [Happiness] [Mindfulness] [Deva] [Relinquishment]
Sutta: MN 75: Simile of the leper. [Similes]
Sutta: SN 56.35: Stream entry after 100 years. [Stream entry] [Four Noble Truths]
5. “What is the role of emotion in our practice?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Emotion] [Feeling] // [Faith] [Compassion] [Generosity] [Four Noble Truths] [Relinquishment] [Discernment]
5. “What is the difference between abandoning craving and realizing the abandoning of craving?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Jotipālo. [Impermanence] [Aggregates] [Cause of Suffering] [Cessation of Suffering] // [Commentaries] [Doubt] [Relinquishment] [Concentration] [Gladdening the mind] [Desire] [Becoming] [Right View]
Sutta: SN 56.11 Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta. [Four Noble Truths]
Sutta: MN 121 Cūḷa Suññata Sutta: The Shorter Discourse on Emptiness [Emptiness]
Quote: “The characteristic of cessation is not just ending something and annihilating [it], but it’s being willing and able to stop. The nature of the mind is that it doesn’t like to stop. And it’s [through] that not stopping that we keep creating that sense of me.” — Ajahn Pasanno [Cessation] [Nature of mind] [Self-identity view]
21. “How do you not objectify this awareness?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Knowing itself] [Mindfulness] [Proliferation] // [Four Noble Truths] [Suffering] [Relinquishment] [Investigation of states]
Quote: “If you objectify awareness, you’re going to suffer.” [Nature of mind]
Quote: “These Four Noble Truths are not an endpoint, they are something that you’re internalizing and using in your meditation practice and in your daily life.” [Four Noble Truths] [Meditation] [Everyday life]
27. “Ajahn Amaro writes about transforming the energy of sense contact into compassion and metta. How does this work?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Amaro] [Contact] [Compassion] [Goodwill] // [Aversion] [Relinquishment] [Four Noble Truths] [Happiness]
29. “The Buddha teaches to end suffering, but from the ordinary person’s view, cultivating the practices of forest monks is also suffering. Who is right?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Buddha] [Suffering] [Ascetic practices] // [Four Noble Truths] [Faith] [Investigation of states] [Happiness] [Feeling]
Quote: “The teaching of the Buddha isn’t about language....The teaching of the Buddha is the language of experience.” — Ajahn Chah [Ajahn Chah] [Language] [Dhamma] [Direct experience]
3. “The Buddha didn’t answer the question, ‘Is there a self?’ But this question seems more important than other questions he didn’t answer. How should we relate to not-self?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Buddha/Biography] [Questions] [Not-self] // [Teaching Dhamma] [Feeling] [Relinquishment] [Self-identity view] [Four Noble Truths] [Views]
5. “Do we have any control over the arising of desire?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Volition] [Desire] // [Cause of Suffering] [Relinquishment] [Four Noble Truths] [Cessation of Suffering] [Cessation] [Pāli]
5. “Is jhāna only in meditation?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Meditation] [Jhāna] // [Right Concentration]
Quote: “Only farangs [Westerners] go into meditation rock climbing! Does he contemplate the Four Noble Trurths?” — Ajahn Chah [Ajahn Chah] [Culture/West] [Recreation/leisure/sport] [Four Noble Truths] [Directed thought and evaluation] [Relinquishment]
9. “I like the translations ‘conscience’ aand ‘concern’ for hiri and otappa. Having done unskillful actions in the past that create suffering, and being aware of the tendency to personalize, how can it be over and done?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Karuṇadhammo. [Treasures] [Conscience and prudence] [Unskillful qualities] [Suffering] [Kamma] [Self-identity view] // [Four Noble Truths] [Divine Abidings]
Quote: “As a human being, I have the opportunity to learn from the past and move on to skillful action in the future. I don’t have to be like a dog that barfs stuff up and goes back and eats it again.” — Ajahn Pasanno [Human] [Learning] [Skillful qualities] [Similes]
Quote: “The not-self refrain, ‘This is not me, this is not mine, this is not what or who I am,’ is not an abdication of responsibility but an understanding, ‘This is the way I can put things down and move on, move past the things that are still creating suffering.’” — Ajahn Pasanno [Not-self] [Relinquishment]
Suttas: SN 42.8 The Conch Blower; AN 3.100: A Lump of Salt.
10. “What is a good balance between listening to Dhamma and practicing more deeply? How long should one keep one’s practices, and when to expand or shink them?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Hearing the true Dhamma] [Practicing in accordance with Dhamma] [Determination] // [Four Noble Truths] [Direct experience] [Ajahn Chah] [Dhamma books] [Mindfulness of mind] [Learning]
14. “Could you comment on the tendency to use one aspect of the teaching to bypass another?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Spiritual bypass] // [Four Noble Truths] [Recollection/Dhamma] [Relinquishment]
Quote: “With some things, letting go means you’re willing to commit to hard work, and other times you’re willing to put down what is burdensome.” [Ardency]
4. Comment: Our group talked about our suffering, the kind of thoughts that we’re laboring under, the nature of obsessive and addictive thoughts, and how these teachings might help us choose freedom. [Suffering] [Addiction] [Liberation] [Directed thought and evaluation]
Response by Ajahn Pasanno. [Mindfulness of body] [Four Noble Truths]
9. “When the suttas describe a practitioner as “having gone beyond doubt,” (e.g. DN 3) what do they mean?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Doubt] [Sutta] // [Four Noble Truths] [Teaching Dhamma] [Ajahn Chah]
Story: An Ajahn Chah monk accused of a heavy offense. [Vinaya]
1. “How can those just entering monastic life lay a good foundation?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Monastic life] // [Vinaya] [Right View] [Ajahn Chah] [Virtue] [Stream entry] [Four Noble Truths] [Kamma] [Generosity] [Greed] [Communal harmony] [Happiness] [Gratitude]
Sutta: SN 55.1: Sīla of a stream enterer
Sutta: MN 117: The Great Forty
4. “Is the fourth foundation of mindfulness as simple as, for example, with the third foundation I identify aversion, and then in the fourth foundation I identify aversion as a hindrance?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Mindfulness of dhammas] [Mindfulness of mind] // [Āgama] [Sutta] [Hindrances] [Four Noble Truths] [Mindfulness of breathing] [Progress of insight]
Suttas: MN 10: Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta; MN 118: Ānāpānasati Sutta [Right Mindfulness]
Reference: Satipaṭṭhāna Perspectives by Bhante Analayo (commercial)
5. “Could you please address judgement and discernment?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Judgementalism] [Discernment] // [Self-identity view] [Skillful qualities] [Four Noble Truths] [Culture/West] [Impermanence] [Conditionality]
2. “I have a family and family responsibilities. How do I know I’m on the path and making right effort?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Ñāṇiko. [Family] [Right Effort] [Doubt] // [Four Noble Truths] [Culture/West] [Mindfulness of feeling] [Direct experience]
3. “How do I know what is the Middle Path?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno, Ajahn Amaro and Ajahn Ñāṇiko. [Middle Path] // [Four Noble Truths] [Direct experience]
Quote: “It’s not a concept. It’s like are you on your bike or are you on the ground?” — Ajahn Amaro
9. “It’s understandable that we crave happiness through the senses. Attaching to a certain type of happiness through the senses is not helpful for cultivation. But there’s also the emphasis on joy in the Buddha’s teachings. So there should be a balance, and where to find that?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Sense bases] [Sensual desire] [Happiness] [Gladdening the mind] // [Four Noble Truths]
Quote: “All the elements of the path are a source of happiness and well-being.” [Eightfold Path]
Follow-up: “What about the joy that comes from enjoying sensual things like music, painting, scents, and water?” [Artistic expression] [Beauty] [Clinging] [Spaciousness]