The Four Noble Truths
Then, there are certain types of experiences and events in the world that appear evident at a particular point but cease to exist after contact with opposing forces, such as phenomena can be understood to be adventitious or circumstantial. It is on the basis of these two categories of phenomena that the teachings of the Four Noble Truths such as the truths of suffering and its origin become relevant.
When we further examine this dynamic, complex and diverse world that we experience, we find that phenomena can also be categories in three ways:
1. The World of Matter
2. The World of Consciousness or Subjective Experience
3. The World of Abstract Entities
First, there is the world of physical reality which we can experience through our sense, that is tangible objects that have been material properties.
Secondly, there is a category of phenomena that are purely of the nature of subjective experience such as our perception of the world. As we had mentioned earlier, we are often confronted by a gap between the way we perceive things and the way they really are. Sometimes, we know that there is a correspondence, sometimes we know there is a disparity. This points towards a subjective quality that all sentient beings possess. This is the world of experience such as the feeling dimension of pain and pleasure.
Third, there are phenomena that are abstract in nature such as our concept of time, which includes the past, present and the future, and even our concepts of years, months and days. These and other abstract ideas can be understood only in relation to some concrete reality, such as physical entities. Although they do not enjoy the reality of their own, we still experience and participate in them. In the Buddhist texts, then, the taxonomy of reality is often presented under these three broad categories.
Out of this complex world of reality that we experience and participate in, how do the Four Noble Truths directly relate to our experiences of pain and pleasure? The basic premise of the Four Noble Truths is recognition of the very fundamental nature we all share - the natural and instinctual desire to attain happiness and overcome suffering. When we refer to suffering here, we do not mean only immediate experiences such as painful sensations. From the Buddhist point of view, even the very physical and mental bases from which these painful experiences arise - the five aggregates [Sanskrit" Skandha] of form, feeling, discriminative awareness, conditioning factors and consciousness are suffering in nature. At a fundamental level, the underlying conditioning that we all share is also recognized as Dukkha or suffering.
What give rise to these sufferings? What are he causes and conditions that create them? Of the Four Noble Truths, the first two truths - suffering and its origin, relate to the causal process of the suffering that we all naturally wish to avoid. It is only by ensuring that the causes and conditions of suffering are not created or if the cause has been created, that the conditions do not become complete, that we can prevent the consequences from ripening. One of the fundamental aspects of the law of causality is that if all the causes and conditions are fully gathered, there is no force in the universe that can prevent their fruition. This is how we can understand the dynamic between suffering and its origin.
The last two truths - cessation of suffering and the path to its cessation - relate to the experience of happiness to which we all naturally aspire. Cessation - the total pacification of suffering and its causes - refers to the highest form of happiness, which is neither a feeling nor an experience; the path, the methods and processes by which cessation is attained, is its cause. Therefore, the last two truths relate to the causal process of happiness.
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