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https://thebuddhistcentre.com/text/four-noble-truths

https://thebuddhistcentre.com/text/noble-eightfold-path

Brandon Handley 0:00
What is going on spiritual dope? How are you Brandon Handley here the voice of a generation voice of generation Heiser? You know, coming over here from the fatherhood podcast, I used to have that call to the voice of fathers to give a damn. So what are we here? What do you what is this community, this is a voice of, you know, spiritual spiritualists that give a damn anywho guys popping in here I wanted to share out something that we've just done recently over on Facebook, if you're not familiar with one of the things that we're doing over there, we're doing a kind of a weekly thing with introduction into Buddhism. And we've got one more left. But so far what we've done is we've done the Four Noble, I'm not a Buddhist, obviously. So we've done the we've done the Three Jewels. We've done, the Four Noble Truths, and one of the podcasts that we've released already is the five mindfulness trainings. So one of them, I'm gonna go over with you today, the short version of them is the Four Noble Truths. And also do a short version of the Three Jewels, but I and I'm also going to link a lengthier version of these to the website. So you can go see kind of what that Facebook conversation looked like where I had Reverend Sam, who's a Buddhist Reverend, on with me to, you know, to talk to about this. And one of the reasons that we're doing it is so that you can approach Buddhism to find out a little bit more about what it is in a safe and welcoming space. And can hear that straining, love it, want to make sure that you feel safe, right, and it's a place where I think that sometimes, for me anyways, if you go somewhere, and you're brand new to it, and there's JIRA there alone, it can be intimidating to talk to people that are there who look like super sacred or whatever. And, you know, you see a monk out there and you're like, Hey, what do you do here, and it can, some of it can be intimidating, and you hold yourself back a little bit on those conversations. And Sam and I have created, what I like to believe is a very open space and welcoming space for you to come in, explore these topics, we share out the link. And you can come there with any questions that you might have, as it might relate, like I said, we shot the link. This one was the foremost noble truths of Buddhism, and I'll share that on the page as well. And I'm gonna go over it with you quickly today, quicker than it took us are like, I think 45 minutes or so, on the foreigner will choose. So, the Four Noble Truths are perhaps the most basic formulation of the Buddhist teachings and they are expressed as follows. All existence is Duka, right? And the word Duka means suffering or anguish, pain, or unsatisfactoriness. The idea is that our lives are a struggle, and that you do not find ultimate happiness or satisfaction in anything that you experience. And this is the site this is the problem of existence. And we went back and forth quite a bit on this, Sam and I know that what he's saying here is that there's no there's no way around it. You might think that you have different ways around it. You may think that you don't suffer or have any suffering for yourself or any anguish, pain or sadness, but everybody does. All of us I have it, you have it. And so how do we how do we work through it? Once we know that this is going to show up? How do we work through it and that's part of what we what what this is about. So, the second part of it is that the cause of Duka is craving says here that the natural human tendency is to blame our difficulties on things outside of ourselves. But the Buddha says that their actual root is to be found in the mind itself. In particular, our tendency to grasp things or alternatively, push them away. Places is fundamentally at odds with the way life really is.

Brandon Handley 4:59
And again, this was inside of you, right? How do you think about something that is that is happening? And and I don't know exactly where we landed on how to grasp it them or, you know, we pull it them, you know, we leap to conclusions versus just kind of experiencing what's really in front of us without giving it some how to, it's challenging. How do you do anything? Without giving it a label, the cause of Duka is craving, right? So, things on the outside of you, right? You couldn't get this job. So you got pissed at the world, right? The world's against you. Or, you know, maybe somebody ran into your, your car and popped your tire and you get pissed and the world's against you. And that's a you wish things were better. You wish you were somewhere else and you wish things weren't the way they were? And you feel like they could do better. And the thing is, you can feel a different way or have a different life experience if you if you wanted it or interpret it differently. So yeah, that's kind of like the high level idea of it, right? We I think we spent quite a bit of time on that one. The idea again, is that there, the actual root of craving can be found in the mind itself, which kind of leads into the next next piece here, the cessation of Duka. Now this is the third of four noble truths comes with a cessation, cessation of Duka, cause with the cessation of cravings, as we are the ultimate causes of our difficulties, we are also the solution. I like to say, you know, as you are the ultimate cause of your difficulty, you are also the solution. You cannot change the things that happen to you. But you can change your response. I don't know how many means I've seen with this one, how many and you know, set in, you know, different ways. But if you change the way you look at things that have changed how you look at things, they change differently, right? They, they change just by just by your your thought process and how you decide to see them. And then you can change your response to what you interpret is happening around you. So, you know, if you're seeing a craving, and you want something for some reason, you have to understand where that where that craving is coming from what is causing that craving, and address it, right. I like to use the example of how when we want to move to a different place. We don't like where we live anymore, we want to go move or live somewhere else. And then the idea is, you know, why? what's, what does that please have that we want to move to have? That's not already available here. And when you approach it that way, you know what's over there that you don't have where you are right now is the ultimate question. And what's causing you and prompting you to move. And then when you take a look at it, you realize, well, maybe nothing, maybe there's no reason. And then when you kind of when you take a look at it in that way, you you eliminate some of the pressure to make the move right to force yourself into any certain direction. So you can change your response, right. So the thing that's happening is that I am where I am. And instead of saying I wish I wasn't here, let's say I've got everything that I need. Got everything that I really want. If I take a really good hard look at it so I can change my response. Right, so I got to get out of here can't be here. Whoa. So now I got everything I need. And finally, so there's a path that leads from Duka. Although the Buddha throws responsibility back on the individual, he also taught methods to which we can change ourselves. For example, it's a Noble Eightfold Path. And I honestly don't know what that is. But I do know this I do know that next week on October 3, on Facebook, Sam and I'll be getting together to discuss the Noble Eightfold Path can also leave a link for that in on the site. But look, there are ways around it right. Just like we said here, although the Buddha throws

Brandon Handley 9:55
responsibility back on the edge visual, he also taught methods which we can And yourself, the one that I just use right back on number three is, you know, reframing it, taking stock, separating yourself from the situation. That's a really interesting exercise you can do in NLP. Where you close your eyes, there's a cognitive behavior therapy, it's one of the two, you kind of close your eyes. And you picture yourself in your mind. And then you picture yourself doing whatever it is that you're doing, whatever the situation is, feeling, whatever it is that you're feeling, and then imagining that you are watching yourself, right? And what is the experience of watching yourself, like, you know, so when you watch yourself with all those emotions, feelings, and situations, and thoughts and ways of being? What is it that you see as the watcher, right? And then take it one more step beyond here. So now you're watching yourself, watch yourself. Right? So there's watching 1123 of us in this scenario, and, yeah, how much more objective Can you kind of become in this scenario when, in the end, right, the first person, you know, if you're sitting with yourself, and you're deep inside, you're feeling the things, you're feeling the emotions and you're experiencing everything. When you are one step removed, you for some reason, you still feel some type of sensation, you still feel some type of way about all the things that are going on, because you're just one step removed, but there's less, it's a little bit more objective. Now you're watching the watcher, who's watching you. Because one objective, there's less sensation, there's less things happening. And when you kind of watch the whole thing play out. And if you put one more in there, you put a fourth image of yourself being three times removed. It really just becomes you see somebody sitting there thinking, you're watching somebody, watch somebody else, watch somebody else who just looks like all those people are looking at somebody just thinking, you're so far removed, but you can separate yourself from yourself in that scenario. And when you do that, when you're able to do that you for just that time you eliminate the suffering, the anguish, and you're just an observer, and things just are what they are. So, I hope that was helpful for you to go through these four noble truths. All existence is Duka. The cause of Duka is craving, cessation of Duka comes with the cessation of craving. And then finally, there is a path that leads from there, the one tool that is shared with you there is helpful. And then on October 3, we are 2020 on Facebook 7pm Eastern Standard Time, Sam and I are going to cover the Noble Eightfold Path. I'd love for you to join us. It's open to everybody just kind of come check it out if you've got some questions, and just feel like you know, this is this is all part of part of it. Right? The beauty is a lot of what we do here in personal development and personal growth space, is accessible with other tools has been around for a long time. And we can apply it in different ways. And they come from different sources. And one of those sources that we have available to us at all times is this ability to access Buddhism. All right, take it easy.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai