Feeling Inspired

Reflections upon the Third Noble Truth

“The whole aim of the Buddhist teaching is to develop the reflective mind in order to let go of delusions.”

(Ajahn Sumedho)

The Four Noble Truths teach us to experience, and to wonder why things are as they are.

The Third Noble Truth is also known as the cessation of suffering. The meaning here is, that if one can recognize suffering, one can choose to reflect upon it, and realize non-suffering. Of course, in order to do this, we first need to understand what suffering is.

While language might lead you to believe that suffering is experienced when one is being hurt, suffering is much more than ‘just that’. Attachment to desire, for instance, is suffering. Why? Having attachment to desire means that you could crave to own something you currently do not own. All of your actions are only to realize owning the object of your cravings, while satisfying the craving. Instead of happiness when the craving is satisfied, it leads to suffering, as you have projected a value on the object of your cravings, while it remains what it has always been: just an object, without any value attached to it. There is more to it, however. Everything we see, hear, touch, taste, think or feel is mortal, it ceases to exist with our death. We use it to distract ourselves of the one thing we all fear: death. But we tend to forget, that death is only sensory consciousness death. So instead of clinging to objects of our desire, and taking our attention off of what is, we should, even though there are certain sensory pleasures, keep the focus on where it is needed.

This is an example of the reflective mind. While enjoying sensory pleasures for what they are, we use our mind to reflect, to ponder, and keep focused on the real subject at hand: Higher consciousness.

All that is subject to arising is subject to ceasing. Contemplate on this, apply it to everything you do and experience in life. Looking for things that arise will bring you nothing but the repetition of pointless behavior without learning anything. It will bring you to the end, where cessation becomes reality, no matter how hard you have tried to push it away.

When death of sensory consciousness arrives, cessation is realized. Contemplation about cessation of suffering is best practiced while meditating. While meditations offers a method of calming the mind, meditation can be used for contemplating.
There is a difference between reflection upon cessation and realizing of cessation. However, reflection upon this, or contemplation, can lead to cessation.

Cessation is the natural ending of any condition that has arisen. Eventually, all leads to the simple truth that all is what is. Instead of liking or disliking anything that is, just accept it and contemplate on why it is. And this frees us to apply ourselves fully.

I leave you with these words.

Lucid Dreaming is the proven ability to become aware while you’re dreaming - to consciously “wake up” inside the dream world and control your dreams.

We all dream. Some people are very good at remembering their dreams. Lucid Dreaming however takes things a bit further.

Not only do some people realize they’re in a dream, some can actually invoke this dream state. It is being used for practice (practicing sports or other activities mentally), but also for healing purposes.

Medical patients have often used soothing and positive imagery to alleviate pain, and the dream world offers the most vivid form of imagery. Thus, some people have use lucid dreams in overcoming phobias, working with grief, decreasing social and sexual anxieties, achieving greater self-confidence and by directing the body image in the dream to facilitate physical healing.

But in some cases, Lucid Dreaming is taken even further. What we see, what we experience, comes from our minds. This poses an interesting question. Have you ever had a dream that felt so real, you thought it must have happened in *real* life? This is where the two worlds meet. The question is, why do we assume that the world we experience while sleeping is not the real world, while the world we experience while we are not sleeping is? In other words, who says that this waking world is real? And why?

I think that if we believe that the world in our dreams is not real, we are fooling ourselves. Therefore if you can invoke this form of dreaming, you can actually use this to “practice life”, which some people already do.

This brings us to another matter. If the waking world is as real as the sleeping world, we might have a tad more influence on it than we might think, which leads to spiritual thinking, which teaches us that life is exactly what we want it to be, and we have full control. Therefore these two worlds are actually one. Isn’t this an incredible realization?

What is the origin of suffering, dear reader?

If you understand it, things are just what they are. If you don’t understand it, things are just what they are.

As dictated by our ego, we experience cravings for things, things that will help our ego grow, things that compliment the seperateness that the ego teaches, that we are not one, and the need to show this to others in order to feed the ego.
It is all around us, everywhere we go. Our ego based society has come a long way - so many people are busy following orders from the ego by proving seperateness. Think of practicing sports (“winner mentality”), think of traffic, how many people are always looking to cut you off just to be first, and so on.

Take a moment to think about this. I am sure you can come up with behaviors that fit this description, which you encounter on a daily basis, and if you dare to be honest with yourself (the Second Virtue), you will know and recognize certain behaviors on yourself. This is good. If you recognize it, you can stop it.
Our ego shows us certain behaviors. It tells us we need to own certain things, and by all these it keeps us from our true path. The objectives of the ego are the exact opposite of the way to enlightenment, as oneness is denied and seperateness is promoted.

So let go.

“How do you let go? You let go by letting go! Have I let go yet? How do I let go?”

If there is a certain thing you wish for yourself, or for others, for that matter, there is a certain way to receive it. The ego will show you a way, often filled with certain behaviors, such as using your elbows to get ahead (notice how “ahead” is trivial here? In oneness, there is no ahead, as you are one with God and all other people), or “buying your way into a position”, and so on. These behaviors will not lead to enlightenment, as they are intended to develop a desire to the outcome of the desire. This is key. Wishing something is a good thing, however, the way to get to where you wish to be is by putting your belief into your wish, being ready (not getting ready) to receive it, however, not being attached to the outcome. God will show you the path by opening up doors for you, that unlock the path to your wish. But if you focus on the outcome, if you get attached to the results, you will push them away from you, instead of attracting them.

In your life you may have collected many things that were dictated to you by ego-centric behavior. While it is totally okay to enjoy certain things, it is wise to examine the reason for owning or obtaining them. Every time you are getting something, use the simple yet wise question, keeping the Second Virtue in mind: “Do I really need this?” Even if you are taking a decision to act or behave in a certain way, ask yourself this. A certain way of behaving could lead to hurting someone else, allowing for that simple question to be true - do I really need this? Or, do I really want to find myself in a situation that I might not like or wish for, but, I have created by my behavior, and therefore, wished for?

I leave you with this question. Take a moment to think about it. Have a wonderful day.

Namasté

In my never ending quest to more understanding, I think about the following a lot. As a young boy, and even later, as a young man, situations have emerged where something feels like something bad is happening to you, or maybe, like mental pain, injury, and so forth.

A good piece of writing about this is the following:

When a dog is kicked with a heavy boot and you are kicked with a heavy boot, that feeling of pain is the same. Pain is just pain, cold is just cold, anger is just anger. It is not mine but rather: “There is pain.” This is a skilful use of thinking that helps us to see things more clearly rather than reinforcing the peronsal view. Then as a result of recognising the state of suffering - that there is suffering - the second insight of this First Noble Truth comes: “It should be understood.” This suffering is to be investigated.

—from The Four Noble Truths, Ven. Ajahn Sumedho

The way to approach is not to act as if there is no physical (or mental) pain, but merely to step outside the situation and view it from a distance, as if you are the spectater. This allows you to leave the view of the victim behind, as you will see that there is no victim. A victim is a choice for a certain way to “see” things. In our societies, we have agreed upon the fact that someone being hit, is a victim.

When you are the spectater, you can simply observe that someone get kicked with a boot, and that there is pain.

Try to understand it when you are feeling physical pain or despair and anguish or hatred and aversion - whatever form it takes, whatever quality it has, whether it is extreme or slight. This teaching does not mean that to get enlightened you have to be utterly and totally miserable. You do not have to have everything taken away from you or be tortured on the rack; it means being able to look at suffering, even if it is just a mild feeling of discontent, and understand it.

—from The Four Noble Truths, Ven. Ajahn Sumedho

This leads us to the following matter: Do you now choose to act upon the happening of pain, or not. And, if you do choose to react, do you think you will react differently after contemplation on the subject whether you are in pain, or that there is pain, or not?

Getting back to one of my favorite questions in life, which I love to discuss with anyone interested:

When you see and hear a chicken, you know its sound. Now, if you’re not there, do you think the chicken still makes a sound?

Enjoy your day,

Servaas