Monster Media 1994 #2/Monster Media No. 2 (Monster Media)(1994).ISO/text/bbessays.zip/ESSAY_20.TXT

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         BPS Newsletter Cover Essay #20 (Winter 1991-92)


                   THE NOBILITY OF THE TRUTHS

                        by Bhikkhu Bodhi



   The most common and widely known formulation of the Buddha's teaching
   is that which the Buddha himself announced in the First Sermon at
   Benares, the formula of the Four Noble Truths. The Buddha declares
   that these truths convey in a nutshell all the essential information
   that we need to set out on the path to liberation. He says that just
   as the elephant's footprint, by reason of its great size, contains
   the footprints of all other animals, so the Four Noble Truths, by
   reason of their comprehensiveness, contain within themselves all
   wholesome and beneficial teachings. However, while many expositors of
   Buddhism have devoted attention to explaining the actual content of
   the four truths, only rarely is any consideration given to the reason
   why they are designated //noble// truths. Yet it is just this
   descriptive word "noble" that reveals to us why the Buddha chose to
   cast his teaching into this specific format, and it is this same term
   that allows us to experience, even from afar, the unique flavor that
   pervades the entire doctrine and discipline of the Enlightened One.

   The word "noble," or //ariya//, is used by the Buddha to designate a
   particular type of person, the type of person which it is the aim of
   his teaching to create. In the discourses the Buddha classifies human
   beings into two broad categories. On one side there are the
   //puthujjanas//, the worldlings, those belonging to the multitude,
   whose eyes are still covered with the dust of defilements and
   delusion. On the other side there are the //ariyans//, the noble
   ones, the spiritual elite, who obtain this status not from birth,
   social station or ecclesiastical authority but from their inward
   nobility of character.

   These two general types are not separated from each other by an
   impassable chasm, each confined to a tightly sealed compartment. A
   series of gradations can be discerned rising up from the darkest
   level of the blind worldling trapped in the dungeon of egotism and
   self-assertion, through the stage of the virtuous worldling in whom
   the seeds of wisdom are beginning to sprout, and further through the
   intermediate stages of noble disciples to the perfected individual at
   the apex of the entire scale of human development. This is the
   Arahant, the liberated one, who has absorbed the purifying vision of
   truth so deeply that all his defilements have been extinguished, and
   with them, all liability to suffering.

   While the path from bondage to deliverance, from worldliness to
   spiritual nobility, is a graded path involving gradual practice and
   gradual progress, it is not a uniform continuum. Progress occurs in
   discrete steps, and at a certain point -- the point separating the
   status of a worldling from that of a noble one -- a break is reached
   which must be crossed, not by simply taking another step forward, but
   by making a leap, by jumping across from the near side to the further
   shore. This decisive event in the inner development of the
   practitioner, this radical leap that propels the disciple from the
   domain and lineage of the worldling to the domain and lineage of the
   noble ones, occurs precisely through the penetration of the Four
   Noble Truths. This discloses to us the critical reason why the four
   truths revealed by the Buddha are called noble truths. They are noble
   truths because when we have penetrated them through to the core, when
   we have grasped their real import and implications, we cast off the
   status of the worldling and acquire the status of a noble one, drawn
   out from the faceless crowd into the community of the Blessed One's
   disciples united by a unique and unshakable vision.

   Prior to the penetration of the truths, however well endowed we may
   be with spiritual virtues, we are not yet on secure ground. We are
   not immune from regression, not yet assured of deliverance, not
   invincible in our striving on the path. The virtues of a worldling
   are tenuous virtues. They may wax or they may wane, they may flourish
   or decline, and in correspondence with their degree of strength we
   may rise or fall in our movement through the cycle of becoming. When
   our virtues are replete we may rise upwards and dwell in bliss among
   the gods; when our virtues decline or our merit is exhausted we may
   sink again to miserable depths.

   But with the penetration of the truths we leap across the gulf that
   separates us from the ranks of the noble ones. The eye of Dhamma has
   been opened, the vision of truth stands revealed, and though the
   decisive victory has not yet been won, the path to the final goal
   lies at our feet and the supreme security from bondage hovers on the
   horizon. One who has comprehended the truths has changed lineage,
   crossed over from the domain of the worldlings to the domain of the
   noble ones. Such a disciple is incapable of regression to the ranks
   of the worldling, incapable of losing the vision of truth that has
   flashed before his inner eye. Progress towards the final goal, the
   complete eradication of ignorance and craving, may be slow or rapid;
   it may occur easily or result from an uphill battle. But however long
   it may take, with whatever degree of facility one may advance, one
   thing is certain: such a disciple who has seen with immaculate
   clarity the Four Noble Truths can never slide backwards, can never
   lose the status of a noble one, and is bound to reach the final fruit
   of Arahantship in a maximum of seven lives.

   The reason why the penetration of the Four Noble Truths can confer
   this immutable nobility of spirit is implied by the four tasks the
   noble truths impose on us. By taking these tasks as our challenge in
   life -- our challenge as followers of the Enlightened One -- from
   whatever station of development we find ourselves beginning at, we
   can gradually advance towards the infallible penetration of the noble
   ones.

   The first noble truth, the truth of suffering, is to be fully
   understood: the task it assigns us is that of full understanding. A
   hallmark of the noble ones is that they do not flow along
   thoughtlessly with the stream of life, but endeavor to comprehend
   existence from within, as honestly and thoroughly as possible. For
   us, too, it is necessary to reflect upon the nature of our life. We
   must attempt to fathom the deep significance of an existence bounded
   on one side by birth and on the other by death, and subject in
   between to all the types of suffering detailed by the Buddha in his
   discourses.

   The second noble truth, of the origin or cause of suffering, implies
   the task of abandonment. A noble one is such because he has initiated
   the process of eliminating the defilements at the root of suffering,
   and we too, if we aspire to reach the plane of the noble ones, must
   be prepared to withstand the seductive lure of the defilements. While
   the eradication of craving can come only with the supramundane
   realizations, even in the mundane course of our daily life we can
   learn to restrain the coarser manifestation of defilements, and by
   keen self-observation can gradually loosen their grip upon our
   hearts.

   The third noble truth, the cessation of suffering, implies the task
   of realization. Although Nibbana, the extinction of suffering, can
   only be personally realized by the noble ones, the confidence we
   place in the Dhamma as our guideline to life shows us what we should
   select as our final aspiration, as our ultimate ground of value. Once
   we have grasped the fact that all conditioned things in the world,
   being impermanent and insubstantial, can never give us total
   satisfaction, we can then lift our aim to the unconditioned element,
   Nibbana the Deathless, and make that aspiration the pole around which
   we order our everyday choices and concerns.

   Finally, the fourth noble truth, the Noble Eightfold Path, assigns us
   the task of development. The noble ones have reached their status by
   developing the eightfold path, and while only the noble ones are
   assured of never deviating from the path, the Buddha's teaching gives
   us the meticulous instructions that we need to tread the path
   culminating in the plane of the noble ones. This is the path that
   gives birth to vision, that gives birth to knowledge, that leads to
   higher comprehension, enlightenment and Nibbana, the crowning
   attainment of nobility.

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