- The Second Noble Truth: The Arising of
Dukkha
Suffering does not arise out of chance or
without causes. The Dhammapada states:
"From craving springs grief,
from craving springs fear,
For him who is wholly free from craving, there
is no grief, whence fear?"
(V. 216)Tanha or craving is the universal cause of
suffering. It includes not only desire for sensual
pleasures, wealth and power, but also
attachment to ideas, views, opinions, concepts,
beliefs. It is the lust of the flesh, the lust of
continued existence in the worlds of sense
(etemalism) and the lust of non-existence
(nihilism). It is all forms of selfishness and to
desire things for oneself, even at the expense of
all other forms of life.
Under the delusion of self and not realizing
Anatta (non-self), a person clings to things
which are impermanent, changeable, perishable.
The failure to satisfy his desires through these
things causes disappointments and sufferings.
Craving is a fire which burns in all beings;
every activity is motivated by desire. They
range from the simple physical desire of
animals to the complex and often artificially
stimulated desires of the civilized man. To
satisfy desire, animals prey upon another and
human beings perform unwholesome deeds.
Craving, a powerful mental force present in
everyone of us, is the chief cause of most of the
ills in life. It is this craving that leads to repeated
births in Samsara (cycle of existence) and which
makes one cling to all forms of life.
4.The Third Noble Truth: The End ofDukkhaSo, how to put an end to suffering? Eliminate it
at its root, namely, craving (Tanha).Moneyfor instance, is not the root of all evil. It
is the greed for it andthe desire for more than
what we already have and the fear of losing it
which causes evil and suffering. If we eradicate
the craving for it, the money will be therefor
use without having suffering as its usualpartner.
Similarly, wealth, power, and prestige will not
be suffering in themselves if the grasping at and
clinging to them are removed.When unpleasant things occur, it is the mind
and not the body which suffers. An obvious
instance is when a man is underanestheticor in
thestate of coma. He does not feel the pain
during. an operation. His body does not 'feel'
the pain. He feels the pain only after regaining
consciousness.The Buddha said that thefive aggregates, when
involved in clinging, is suffering. The five
aggregates refer to the mind and body, which
together constitute the man. If there is grasping
at any of them as being 'I' or 'mine', those
aggregates are suffering.Why is this so? Birth, aging, sickness and death
do not give rise to suffering if there is no
grasping at my birth, my aging, my sickness and
my dying.If we do not grasp, there is no suffering. There
is only the body going through the normal
process of change. But under the delusion of
self, we see changes as 'my' and suffering
occurs. So, the five aggregates of mind and
matter, if associated with grasping and clinging,
are suffering.5