4 Noble Truths

A structural background for the Four Noble Truths that might be interesting to understand is that, from the point of view of the Buddha, all conditioned things arise and pass away. They are impermanent. All of our mental formations and all of our mental activity arise and pass away. At some point, it has arisen, and sooner or later, it will pass... See more

Everybody knows it, but almost everybody is deluded into thinking there’s something more to learn, something hidden and esoteric that is revealed only to a special few. Only after years of searching do we find that there’s nothing more to find. Will we be relieved or disappointed? What is there to gain from practice, after all? We realize that our

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And then, one day, you realize: oh, there’s no secret technique. There’s no secret anything. The question itself is what’s stopping me from fully embracing reality. I’m not seeing what’s already there, precisely because I’m searching for it. The last distortion I’m placing between myself and the Spirit is the urge to see it. The search is the final... See more

Lots of times you can’t remember to do the other practices, you may not remember, “oh, these are my values, or this is what I want to be paying attention to, or this is how I want to act,” because you get caught up in your emotional reactivity. But in my experience, almost everybody can develop a ground of awareness through awareness of the body in... See more

People talk about thirsting for power or thirsting for money. There is a grasping or clinging or attachment inherent in that kind of activity. So the cause of suffering is the thirsting of the mind, the driven nature or compulsivity of the mind. The second instruction is therefore to begin to abandon or let go of that compulsivity. And it’s very... See more