Oakville Zen Meditation
The Second Noble Truth Part 1
In the First Noble Truth, the Buddha explained about Dukkha. Whether we call it suffering, disatisfactoriness, or uneasiness, the fact is that Dukkha is pervasive, life comes with painful challenges and difficulties for everyone. What causes Dukkha?
In the Second Noble Truth, the Buddha explains that tanha is the cause of dukkha. The word tanha is usually translated as craving, but it means thirst. The Buddha also identified three poisons that cause most of our problems and problems in the world, these poisons are greed, aversion, and delusion. Deep-down suffering is closely related to attachment: attachment to material things, people, ideas, attitudes, fears, etc. We will examine each of these individually. Today we will concentrate on greed and aversion, and next time we will look at delusion.
Greed:
Greed can be synonymous with craving. When we examine our tendencies, it is easy to see how insatiable our cravings are. We are always consciously or unconsciously looking for the next fix, for something that will make us feel good. We crave countless sensory experiences, more things, more time, more control, etc. The problem is that nothing lasts, so we are normally not satisfied with the status quo as if we’re stuck in a hamster wheel that never stops.
Aversion:
In addition to our cravings for pleasurable experiences, we experience a strong aversion to any discomfort or anything we don’t want or don’t like. It’s like craving for the end of whatever is causing us uneasiness. We fear we will get something we don’t want and live our lives usually contracted, almost always fearing something bad may happen at any moment!
Greed and aversion seem to be part of our makeup. Once we start bringing awareness to these tendencies, it doesn’t take much to see how they show themselves in our thoughts, emotions, and actions. Delusion or ignorance, the third poison, will be the topic of the next talk.
Thank you☺
