“One has to stop forthwith this bungling of tying up science and scientific knowledge with the spirit of Buddhist thinking. The Buddhists absolutely have no need to look for scientific proof for rebirth. The fact of the Buddha’s enlightenment should be good enough evidence. The scientific methodology of Buddhism, if one is enamoured of associating such terms with Buddhism, is in the soundness of its own methodology of analysis and argument and not in being coupled with the content of science or its terminology.”_________________________________
by Prof. Dhammavihari Thera
(February 28, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Let us begin today by meeting the Buddha and listening to him as to what he has to say about his life-time message to the world. This shall be your best form of Buddhanussati. Not merely gazing at his hands and feet. In a very specific statement to a disciple by the name of Anuradha, the Buddha says that at all times, then and now, he makes known to us the unsatisfactory nature of life in the world, i.e. dukkha and the possibility of its termination, i.e. dukkhassa ca nirodham. Listen to him yourself as the Master speaks: Sadhu sadhu Anuradha pubbe c’aham anuradha etarahi ca dukkhanc‘ eva pannapemi dukkhassa ca nirodam (SN. III. 119). In the Alagaddupama sutta [ MN.I.140], he says the same to a congregation of monks. We consider this theme to be most central to the entire teaching of Buddhism.
This, we call the Buddha’s life-time message to the world. Any of you, or may be many of you, our readers, have a right to give priority to any other portions you select out of his dhamma or even Abhidhamma as the most vital of his teachings. We give you complete freedom to do what you choose. It is only that we are old-time students of Buddhism who have learnt the dhamma in the historical way, with an awareness of early and lateness in time as the Buddha is seen expressing his ideas, or as later generations of disciples endeavor to explain his teachings from time to time.
From the very early days of his life, well before his enlightenment, at a time when he chooses to call himself only a bodhisatta, i.e. an aspirant to bodhi [pubb’eva me abhisambodha anabhisambuddhassa bodhisattass’ eva sato - SN. II.104], he was conceiving this idea that all was not well with beings in the world [kiccham vata ‘yam loko apanno jayati jiyati ca miyati ca cavati ca uppajjati ca. loc.cit.]
Along with it also came to him the idea as to when an end to this could be found [...kuda ‘ssu nama imassa dukkhassa nissaranam pannayissati jaramaranassa‘ ti. loc.cit.]. He made an honest endeavor in search of this, and in his enlightenment, he discovered it. This is precisely what he means when he makes his post-enlightenment assertion as the Buddha that what he preaches all the time is about dukkha and its termination or release there from, i.e. nirodha.
This immediately drives us to the inevitable conclusion that in talking about the four noble truths in Buddhism, one must historically see their genesis in these two basic items of dukkha and nirodha. It is in making a methodologically sound causal analysis of these two, that one arrives at the other two truths of samudaya as the cause of origin of dukkha and magga as the way leading to the contemplated cessation of it.
In talking about the Bodhisatta’s ingenuity in the use of his causal analysis, one needs to be reminded here that its application is specifically to the problem of samsaric continuity of beings and its consequent ills. Note the way the questions are worded : Kimhi nu kho sati jaramaranam hoti kim paccaya jaramaranan ‘ti. [loc. cit.]. This is logically followed down the line along namarupa and vinnana etc. It is for us Buddhists to note here that the Buddha’s analytical approach is not to know how the scientists split the atom or how the Himalayan mountains came into existence. They were never the Buddha’s concern.
One has to stop forthwith this bungling of tying up science and scientific knowledge with the spirit of Buddhist thinking. The Buddhists absolutely have no need to look for scientific proof for rebirth. The fact of the Buddha’s enlightenment should be good enough evidence. The scientific methodology of Buddhism, if one is enamoured of associating such terms with Buddhism, is in the soundness of its own methodology of analysis and argument and not in being coupled with the content of science or its terminology. That being what it is, we have now seen the emergence of the Four Noble Truths as a vital component of the doctrinal corpus of Buddhism.
Spiritual culture
Its emergence and its vital integration within the spiritual culture and growth of the Buddhist, is something remarkably laudable. That is why it came to be enunciated in the very first sermon, the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, delivered by the Buddha to the world. History narrates it to us as being delivered by the Master to his five-fold group of monks who latterly came to be called the pancavaggiya bhikkhu. They were his erstwhile companions whom the Buddha selected as the best to whom he could deliver his first message of the dhamma which he had acquired after a great deal of trouble and tribulation. It is described in his own words as kicchena me adhigatam in the Ariyapariyesana Sutta [MN. 1681].
But we are told that behind the curtain, while this remarkable performance was being enacted in the Deer Park at Isipatana in Benares, on the full moon night in the month of July, more than a two and a half millennia ago, there were the extra-terrestrial beings of the ten thousand world systems, who applauded the Master on his performance. They are said to have firmly declared that his word shall never come to be challenged [appativattiyam = irreversible] by any recluse or Brahmin or by any celestial being like a deva or Brahma or by any one any where [samanena va brahmanena va devena va marena va kena ci va lokasmin’ ti. SN. V. 423]. This means that the truth of what the Buddha declared as the Enlightened One shall for ever remain unassailable.
But I have my serious doubts whether any of you listeners have ever heard about this unique event in the recital of the Dhammacakkappavattana. What this unique appraisal by the devas meant. You know more and you speak more today about the heart-stirring [as they tell us in Sinhala ka vadinna kiyanava] recitals of this sutta by a newly emerging generation of glamorous young reciters. But on the other hand, I have yet to find a correct rendering of this word appativattiyam in the hands of Sinhala translators, monks or laymen, in Sri Lanka. They render it as "The Buddha did what nobody else could ever do."
Fat from it. What it means is no more and no less than "the truth of what the Buddha declared as the Enlightened One shall for ever remain unassailable." This being so, we pray for the day of resurrection for Sri Lankan Buddhists when they shall be awakened to some of these real and rewarding truths of Buddhism which are lost to them today.
By now we have indicated to you via the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta that the main theme of Buddhism, both in theory and in practice, lies within the Four Noble Truths. Of these also, the genesis of the primary message, we have adequately explained, rests with the ideas of dukkha and its nirodha. If one does not fully comprehend this, honestly and truly, it is our very convinced opinion that no Buddhist would ever seriously contemplate on finding his way to Nirvana. Why should one need be in such a hurry for that, the average Buddhist would challengingly ask us today. We would be silenced forthwith.
Way-side halting places
Way-side halting places like luxuriously built heavenly abodes at no cost to us worldly humans, on recommendations from here as it were, and enjoyment of affluence and abundance amidst the humans, all of which are listed and described without fail under dev-minis sepa, by well-meaning preachers of today, would attract them a great deal more. But they also hopefully keep one final tag on Maitreya, the Buddha of the future, and keep marking time for his arrival, in the belief that seeing him or hearing him preach would entitle them for entry into Nirvana. This makes a very credibly lovely parallel for the judgement day of the saviorcentered theistic religions.
Be that what it may. We would now turn our attention to the teaching of the Four Noble Truths as the central theme of Buddhism which was dauntlessly and magnanimously preached to the world by our Buddha Gotama of the Sakya clan, and that two and a half millennia ago. Today, all schools of Buddhism, of China, Japan and Tibet, at least the heads of these institutions like his Holiness the Dalai Lama, and the late President Nivano of the Rissho Ho Sei Kai of Japan do accept Buddha Gotama, whom they refer to as Sakyamuni as the historical founder of this great religion.
But today, with the highly developed skills of marketing in the world, Sri Lankan agents are seen importing fascinatingly packaged new brands of Buddhism of the much later schools and marketing them here at very competitive affordable prices. It is widely known that the propagators of these new ideas and promoters of these new imports consist of clergy and laity of both sexes. We are not a bit surprised that Sri Lankans, knowing them as we do, take to these new products which are glamorously elitist and unquestionably fashionable, with ease and joy like ducks to water.
But the Four Noble Truths of our original Buddhism cannot be reduced to the status of ladies’ costume jewelry. They were made known to the world by the Buddha in his very first sermon of the Dhammacakkappavattana. But the poor Sri Lankans today are made to be enamoured of and be carried away more by its romanticized chanting. That in Sri Lanka today is really the carrot before the horse. That is where the highly commercialized cassette market is flourishing, no matter set in motion by whom. But any body who is keen on being a practicing Buddhist, let him mark the Buddha’s own submission that he never claimed himself to be the Buddha till he in his own life, comprehended and acquired for himself the twelve-fold totality of these truths. More details of these in due course.
The very first of these truths, i.e. the dukkha sacca, is the one which pronounces the unmistakable nature of the world, i.e. of the humans and the world they live in. It is the unavoidable character of not being satisfactory which is associated with everything in the world, of persons, things, including the weather. It really means that we are not ready to adjust ourselves and be satisfied. Things of the world being conditionally brought about, keep constantly changing. We are not alert enough or quick enough to contain or accommodate this universal law of change or anicca. It is our failure to fall in line with it which brings grief or dukkha to us. The repeated life process of samsaric continuance makes dukkha tremendous and multi-dimensionally massive. Therefore it logically follows that the termination of the process of samsaric continuance brings about the termination of dukkha. This is where the wheel of life shall turn no more. Yattha vattam na vattati.
Whole truth about
The Buddha, having told us the whole truth about dukkha and the possibility of its termination in nirodha, assists us further in indicating to us the primary cause from which dukkha originates. It is no more and no less than our mishandling of our very living process. To live is to be communicating with the world through our sense faculties. We respond every moment of our lives to what we see with our eyes, hear with our ears and so on. This is a ceaseless process, while we are up and active and not fallen asleep.
One aspect of the truth about life is we believe that these responses, in our own judgement, make us happy. This process of sensory reaction make us grab at things, persons and situations which we believe give us happiness, comfort and joy. Are those of you who are regular patrons of meditation ever told about this erratic process of living which brings upon us all the disasters of samsaric continuance? There are three basic Pali words which you must necessarily learn in your meditation process which will help you out of this. The are vedana, tanha and upadana, occurring in the statement vedana paccaya tanha tanha paccaya upadanam.
Let us now learn these anew. Vedana in Budhhist thinking is basically cognitive awareness or getting to know about the world through our sense faculties like the eye and the ear. It is not pain as pleasant, unpleasant etc. That is a secondary derivative meaning. Because we are not correctly tutored in the Buddhist way, at least by well paid private tutors, about the basics of anicca dukkha and anatta, we incorrectly assess our sense data in terms of our likes and dislikes, i.e. what we see and what we hear, and in our greed or lobha, decide to own and appropriate them, or in our hatred and dislike or dosa, decide to eliminate and destroy them.
At this stage of responding to our sense stimuli which the world keeps hurling at us all the time, why are we Buddhists not correctly tutored by our learned masters to meaningfully utilize the concept of tilakkhana or anicca dukkha anatta collectively to view the world in its true reality?
This alone will eliminate or reduce the process of grabbing [i.e. upadana I through unwarranted thirsting [i.e. tanha 1. This real Buddhist process of self-culture, call it bhavana, meditation or whatever else you like, is referred to in our reliably authentic texts as tilakkhanam ropetva vaddheti which means ‘culture our minds in terms of the threefold characteristics of the world.’
Before we conclude this sermon today, let us very briefly indicate what the Buddha meant by the twelve-fold elaboration of the Four Noble Truths. These truths are unquestionably facts or realities which are believed to exist in the world. That in itself could hardly benefit anybody. Their meaning and their implications must be severally studied. Then and only then, i.e. after comprehending their identity, would one get an idea about their profitable and efficient utilization. They must become personally actualized in one’s own life.
Thus each truth seems divisible into three phases. The first is the identification and understanding of the truth as it exists, and is called the sacca - phase. The second is the functional or utilization and is called kicca - phase. Finally this utilization must be successfully accomplished in one’s own life. Then it comes to be called kata - phase. It is this multiple analytical and developmental process contained herein, which in its totality, the Buddha says, led to the perfection of his wisdom up to the required degree of becoming fully enlightened [yavakivanca me bhikkhave imesu catusu saccesu evam tiparivattam dvadasakaram nanadassanam suvisuddham ahosi].
We shall now try to illustrate this to you, at a very down-to-earth level, with a sample study of the first truth of dukkha sacca. Dukkha - Let us face it. In our dealings and encounters in the world, all manner of disasters keep driving us continuously to discontent and dissatisfaction. In the world of humans, there is nothing strange in these situations. There is obviously no one in our midst who has not met them face to face.
But being heavily anaesthetized, with the world’s worst desensitizer or stupefier called ignorance [i.e. avijja], humans know neither the origin of the sting nor its intensity. Being thus drugged or doped or whatever one calls it, the average world-ling does not feel any need for change. That is why they continue to roll on in Samsara. The origin of the sting, i.e. the cause of dukkha not being probed into, the humans thus continually run into situations of dukkha all their life in their Samsaric continuance.
But dhamma insists that to be a successful pursuant of the path, with a keenness to gather its fruit without fail, one must diligently recognize dukkha as such and comprehend it to be what it is. This is the second stage of processing dukkha sacca personally in one’s life. One must resolve with determination to comprehend it - parinneyyam as the sutta pus it. Once you have succeeded, jubilate over it with the words 1 have comprehended it - parinnatam.
Try it out in your own life, with situations like death and disease, burglary and loss, censure and loss of reputation and discover it to be a real situation in your own life, with a sharp sting in the tail. But humans are more than adequately desensitized to feel and view these ever recurrent situations only as passing ones, fooling them all the time with alternating compensatory moments of relief But the truth of Samsaric reality must necessarily disillusion you and expose you to the naked reality of dukkha. We have no doubt, that we would then be much nearer, with a gratifying sense of awareness, to the goal of Nirvana.
by Prof. Dhammavihari Thera
(February 28, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Let us begin today by meeting the Buddha and listening to him as to what he has to say about his life-time message to the world. This shall be your best form of Buddhanussati. Not merely gazing at his hands and feet. In a very specific statement to a disciple by the name of Anuradha, the Buddha says that at all times, then and now, he makes known to us the unsatisfactory nature of life in the world, i.e. dukkha and the possibility of its termination, i.e. dukkhassa ca nirodham. Listen to him yourself as the Master speaks: Sadhu sadhu Anuradha pubbe c’aham anuradha etarahi ca dukkhanc‘ eva pannapemi dukkhassa ca nirodam (SN. III. 119). In the Alagaddupama sutta [ MN.I.140], he says the same to a congregation of monks. We consider this theme to be most central to the entire teaching of Buddhism.
This, we call the Buddha’s life-time message to the world. Any of you, or may be many of you, our readers, have a right to give priority to any other portions you select out of his dhamma or even Abhidhamma as the most vital of his teachings. We give you complete freedom to do what you choose. It is only that we are old-time students of Buddhism who have learnt the dhamma in the historical way, with an awareness of early and lateness in time as the Buddha is seen expressing his ideas, or as later generations of disciples endeavor to explain his teachings from time to time.
From the very early days of his life, well before his enlightenment, at a time when he chooses to call himself only a bodhisatta, i.e. an aspirant to bodhi [pubb’eva me abhisambodha anabhisambuddhassa bodhisattass’ eva sato - SN. II.104], he was conceiving this idea that all was not well with beings in the world [kiccham vata ‘yam loko apanno jayati jiyati ca miyati ca cavati ca uppajjati ca. loc.cit.]
Along with it also came to him the idea as to when an end to this could be found [...kuda ‘ssu nama imassa dukkhassa nissaranam pannayissati jaramaranassa‘ ti. loc.cit.]. He made an honest endeavor in search of this, and in his enlightenment, he discovered it. This is precisely what he means when he makes his post-enlightenment assertion as the Buddha that what he preaches all the time is about dukkha and its termination or release there from, i.e. nirodha.
This immediately drives us to the inevitable conclusion that in talking about the four noble truths in Buddhism, one must historically see their genesis in these two basic items of dukkha and nirodha. It is in making a methodologically sound causal analysis of these two, that one arrives at the other two truths of samudaya as the cause of origin of dukkha and magga as the way leading to the contemplated cessation of it.
In talking about the Bodhisatta’s ingenuity in the use of his causal analysis, one needs to be reminded here that its application is specifically to the problem of samsaric continuity of beings and its consequent ills. Note the way the questions are worded : Kimhi nu kho sati jaramaranam hoti kim paccaya jaramaranan ‘ti. [loc. cit.]. This is logically followed down the line along namarupa and vinnana etc. It is for us Buddhists to note here that the Buddha’s analytical approach is not to know how the scientists split the atom or how the Himalayan mountains came into existence. They were never the Buddha’s concern.
One has to stop forthwith this bungling of tying up science and scientific knowledge with the spirit of Buddhist thinking. The Buddhists absolutely have no need to look for scientific proof for rebirth. The fact of the Buddha’s enlightenment should be good enough evidence. The scientific methodology of Buddhism, if one is enamoured of associating such terms with Buddhism, is in the soundness of its own methodology of analysis and argument and not in being coupled with the content of science or its terminology. That being what it is, we have now seen the emergence of the Four Noble Truths as a vital component of the doctrinal corpus of Buddhism.
Spiritual culture
Its emergence and its vital integration within the spiritual culture and growth of the Buddhist, is something remarkably laudable. That is why it came to be enunciated in the very first sermon, the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, delivered by the Buddha to the world. History narrates it to us as being delivered by the Master to his five-fold group of monks who latterly came to be called the pancavaggiya bhikkhu. They were his erstwhile companions whom the Buddha selected as the best to whom he could deliver his first message of the dhamma which he had acquired after a great deal of trouble and tribulation. It is described in his own words as kicchena me adhigatam in the Ariyapariyesana Sutta [MN. 1681].
But we are told that behind the curtain, while this remarkable performance was being enacted in the Deer Park at Isipatana in Benares, on the full moon night in the month of July, more than a two and a half millennia ago, there were the extra-terrestrial beings of the ten thousand world systems, who applauded the Master on his performance. They are said to have firmly declared that his word shall never come to be challenged [appativattiyam = irreversible] by any recluse or Brahmin or by any celestial being like a deva or Brahma or by any one any where [samanena va brahmanena va devena va marena va kena ci va lokasmin’ ti. SN. V. 423]. This means that the truth of what the Buddha declared as the Enlightened One shall for ever remain unassailable.
But I have my serious doubts whether any of you listeners have ever heard about this unique event in the recital of the Dhammacakkappavattana. What this unique appraisal by the devas meant. You know more and you speak more today about the heart-stirring [as they tell us in Sinhala ka vadinna kiyanava] recitals of this sutta by a newly emerging generation of glamorous young reciters. But on the other hand, I have yet to find a correct rendering of this word appativattiyam in the hands of Sinhala translators, monks or laymen, in Sri Lanka. They render it as "The Buddha did what nobody else could ever do."
Fat from it. What it means is no more and no less than "the truth of what the Buddha declared as the Enlightened One shall for ever remain unassailable." This being so, we pray for the day of resurrection for Sri Lankan Buddhists when they shall be awakened to some of these real and rewarding truths of Buddhism which are lost to them today.
By now we have indicated to you via the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta that the main theme of Buddhism, both in theory and in practice, lies within the Four Noble Truths. Of these also, the genesis of the primary message, we have adequately explained, rests with the ideas of dukkha and its nirodha. If one does not fully comprehend this, honestly and truly, it is our very convinced opinion that no Buddhist would ever seriously contemplate on finding his way to Nirvana. Why should one need be in such a hurry for that, the average Buddhist would challengingly ask us today. We would be silenced forthwith.
Way-side halting places
Way-side halting places like luxuriously built heavenly abodes at no cost to us worldly humans, on recommendations from here as it were, and enjoyment of affluence and abundance amidst the humans, all of which are listed and described without fail under dev-minis sepa, by well-meaning preachers of today, would attract them a great deal more. But they also hopefully keep one final tag on Maitreya, the Buddha of the future, and keep marking time for his arrival, in the belief that seeing him or hearing him preach would entitle them for entry into Nirvana. This makes a very credibly lovely parallel for the judgement day of the saviorcentered theistic religions.
Be that what it may. We would now turn our attention to the teaching of the Four Noble Truths as the central theme of Buddhism which was dauntlessly and magnanimously preached to the world by our Buddha Gotama of the Sakya clan, and that two and a half millennia ago. Today, all schools of Buddhism, of China, Japan and Tibet, at least the heads of these institutions like his Holiness the Dalai Lama, and the late President Nivano of the Rissho Ho Sei Kai of Japan do accept Buddha Gotama, whom they refer to as Sakyamuni as the historical founder of this great religion.
But today, with the highly developed skills of marketing in the world, Sri Lankan agents are seen importing fascinatingly packaged new brands of Buddhism of the much later schools and marketing them here at very competitive affordable prices. It is widely known that the propagators of these new ideas and promoters of these new imports consist of clergy and laity of both sexes. We are not a bit surprised that Sri Lankans, knowing them as we do, take to these new products which are glamorously elitist and unquestionably fashionable, with ease and joy like ducks to water.
But the Four Noble Truths of our original Buddhism cannot be reduced to the status of ladies’ costume jewelry. They were made known to the world by the Buddha in his very first sermon of the Dhammacakkappavattana. But the poor Sri Lankans today are made to be enamoured of and be carried away more by its romanticized chanting. That in Sri Lanka today is really the carrot before the horse. That is where the highly commercialized cassette market is flourishing, no matter set in motion by whom. But any body who is keen on being a practicing Buddhist, let him mark the Buddha’s own submission that he never claimed himself to be the Buddha till he in his own life, comprehended and acquired for himself the twelve-fold totality of these truths. More details of these in due course.
The very first of these truths, i.e. the dukkha sacca, is the one which pronounces the unmistakable nature of the world, i.e. of the humans and the world they live in. It is the unavoidable character of not being satisfactory which is associated with everything in the world, of persons, things, including the weather. It really means that we are not ready to adjust ourselves and be satisfied. Things of the world being conditionally brought about, keep constantly changing. We are not alert enough or quick enough to contain or accommodate this universal law of change or anicca. It is our failure to fall in line with it which brings grief or dukkha to us. The repeated life process of samsaric continuance makes dukkha tremendous and multi-dimensionally massive. Therefore it logically follows that the termination of the process of samsaric continuance brings about the termination of dukkha. This is where the wheel of life shall turn no more. Yattha vattam na vattati.
Whole truth about
The Buddha, having told us the whole truth about dukkha and the possibility of its termination in nirodha, assists us further in indicating to us the primary cause from which dukkha originates. It is no more and no less than our mishandling of our very living process. To live is to be communicating with the world through our sense faculties. We respond every moment of our lives to what we see with our eyes, hear with our ears and so on. This is a ceaseless process, while we are up and active and not fallen asleep.
One aspect of the truth about life is we believe that these responses, in our own judgement, make us happy. This process of sensory reaction make us grab at things, persons and situations which we believe give us happiness, comfort and joy. Are those of you who are regular patrons of meditation ever told about this erratic process of living which brings upon us all the disasters of samsaric continuance? There are three basic Pali words which you must necessarily learn in your meditation process which will help you out of this. The are vedana, tanha and upadana, occurring in the statement vedana paccaya tanha tanha paccaya upadanam.
Let us now learn these anew. Vedana in Budhhist thinking is basically cognitive awareness or getting to know about the world through our sense faculties like the eye and the ear. It is not pain as pleasant, unpleasant etc. That is a secondary derivative meaning. Because we are not correctly tutored in the Buddhist way, at least by well paid private tutors, about the basics of anicca dukkha and anatta, we incorrectly assess our sense data in terms of our likes and dislikes, i.e. what we see and what we hear, and in our greed or lobha, decide to own and appropriate them, or in our hatred and dislike or dosa, decide to eliminate and destroy them.
At this stage of responding to our sense stimuli which the world keeps hurling at us all the time, why are we Buddhists not correctly tutored by our learned masters to meaningfully utilize the concept of tilakkhana or anicca dukkha anatta collectively to view the world in its true reality?
This alone will eliminate or reduce the process of grabbing [i.e. upadana I through unwarranted thirsting [i.e. tanha 1. This real Buddhist process of self-culture, call it bhavana, meditation or whatever else you like, is referred to in our reliably authentic texts as tilakkhanam ropetva vaddheti which means ‘culture our minds in terms of the threefold characteristics of the world.’
Before we conclude this sermon today, let us very briefly indicate what the Buddha meant by the twelve-fold elaboration of the Four Noble Truths. These truths are unquestionably facts or realities which are believed to exist in the world. That in itself could hardly benefit anybody. Their meaning and their implications must be severally studied. Then and only then, i.e. after comprehending their identity, would one get an idea about their profitable and efficient utilization. They must become personally actualized in one’s own life.
Thus each truth seems divisible into three phases. The first is the identification and understanding of the truth as it exists, and is called the sacca - phase. The second is the functional or utilization and is called kicca - phase. Finally this utilization must be successfully accomplished in one’s own life. Then it comes to be called kata - phase. It is this multiple analytical and developmental process contained herein, which in its totality, the Buddha says, led to the perfection of his wisdom up to the required degree of becoming fully enlightened [yavakivanca me bhikkhave imesu catusu saccesu evam tiparivattam dvadasakaram nanadassanam suvisuddham ahosi].
We shall now try to illustrate this to you, at a very down-to-earth level, with a sample study of the first truth of dukkha sacca. Dukkha - Let us face it. In our dealings and encounters in the world, all manner of disasters keep driving us continuously to discontent and dissatisfaction. In the world of humans, there is nothing strange in these situations. There is obviously no one in our midst who has not met them face to face.
But being heavily anaesthetized, with the world’s worst desensitizer or stupefier called ignorance [i.e. avijja], humans know neither the origin of the sting nor its intensity. Being thus drugged or doped or whatever one calls it, the average world-ling does not feel any need for change. That is why they continue to roll on in Samsara. The origin of the sting, i.e. the cause of dukkha not being probed into, the humans thus continually run into situations of dukkha all their life in their Samsaric continuance.
But dhamma insists that to be a successful pursuant of the path, with a keenness to gather its fruit without fail, one must diligently recognize dukkha as such and comprehend it to be what it is. This is the second stage of processing dukkha sacca personally in one’s life. One must resolve with determination to comprehend it - parinneyyam as the sutta pus it. Once you have succeeded, jubilate over it with the words 1 have comprehended it - parinnatam.
Try it out in your own life, with situations like death and disease, burglary and loss, censure and loss of reputation and discover it to be a real situation in your own life, with a sharp sting in the tail. But humans are more than adequately desensitized to feel and view these ever recurrent situations only as passing ones, fooling them all the time with alternating compensatory moments of relief But the truth of Samsaric reality must necessarily disillusion you and expose you to the naked reality of dukkha. We have no doubt, that we would then be much nearer, with a gratifying sense of awareness, to the goal of Nirvana.
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