Episode 1, 1 December 2014, Gautama Buddha’s First Truth. [06:17]
Intro: Welcome to Buddhism Guide’s Audio blog.
- A contemporary look at Gautama Buddha’s Teachings, from Karma Yeshe Rabgye.
- Find out more, at https://buddhismguide.org
- A transcript of this episode can be found at https://buddhismguide.org/audio-blog-archive/audio-blog-transcripts/episode-1-transcript-gautama-buddhas-first-truth
This Episode: Gautama Buddha’s First teaching. [00:17]
- Gautama Buddha’s First teaching, the first of the Four Noble Truths, is that there is suffering.
- Suffering is inescapable and manifests in three forms: the suffering of pain, the suffering of happiness and, the all pervasive suffering.
- Through fully understanding this first teaching, and appreciating the true nature of our relationship with the world, we see how suffering is unavoidable and necessarily manifests in our lives.
- Only then are we are able to seek a solution; firstly, through identification of its causes, the teaching of the Second Noble Truth.
The First Noble Truth: There is suffering. [00:47]
- The definition of suffering;
- A dissatisfaction, discontentment, an uneasy feeling running through our lives.
- Gautama Buddha stated that there are three types of suffering:
- The Suffering of Pain - our daily, physical and mental suffering;
- The Suffering of Happiness - the lurking, just around the corner suffering of the the sadness that comes from loss - the change of happiness;
- The All-Pervasive Suffering - a condition that exists because of how we perceive ourselves in relation to the world.
- You could say that our entire worldly experience is a definition of suffering that we can’t even see.
How do we see ourselves in the world? [03:50]
- Separate: I’m here, and the world is outside of me. In other words as subject and object. We see ourselves as the solid, independent self.
- This is not true, we are actually the coming together of 5 things.
The Five Aggregates. [04:20]
- So the way we look at things: subject and object, me and everything else, is in some way, the cause of our suffering and that will come back to us in the future.
- Like eating a wonderful meal but not knowing it has been poisoned.
So why did Buddha want us to know that we have suffering in our lives? [04:56]
- To help us understand we have a problem. If we don’t know we have a problem we will not look for a solution;
- If we know we are suffering we will look for the causes of the suffering and a cure;
- If we fully understand this First Truth we can move onto the the next Noble Truth - The Causes of Suffering.
Outro. [08:04]
- You can find more information about this subject in Karma Yeshe Rabgye’s books at https://buddhismguide.org/books/
- The best way to catch a snake – A Practical Guide to the Buddha’s Teachings;
- Life’s meandering path – A Secular Approach to Gautama Buddha’s Guide to Living;
- Ripples in the stream – A Pragmatic Journey Through Gautama Buddha’s Teachings.
- They’re available now, from Amazon and Kindle.
- Thank you for listening, and I hope you enjoyed this blog post.
