The Four Noble Truths as expressed by Thich Nhat Hanh

 

Youtube Link in the public domain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy-RI3FrdGA&list=PLV7Diz4DTv4nv-RTpS-0QuDNHUh0b1OLP&index=22

[jkk] I’ve come across many different ways to express the core Buddhist teaching of the Four Noble Truths but this iteration by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh (TNH), hands down, is by far my favourite. It makes the four noble truths really easy to understand and directly leads to practice. Here is a transcription of TNH’s online teaching for those who would like to follow it more closely as a text. Special thanks to Aimee Paradis for this transcription!

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… because if there is no suffering, there is no happiness. If there is no left, there is no right. If there is no above, there will be no below. That is the teaching of Interbeing in Buddhism. This is because that is. The teaching of the Four Noble Truths should be understood in that light.

The First Noble Truth: Suffering (1:27)

Suffering, ill-being, is a noble truth. You will ask the question, "What is so noble about suffering?" (Laughter). But suffering, ill-being, is also as noble as the path. The First Noble Truth is ill-being, Dukkha. [苦]. It is the mud; it is the garbage; it is the suffering. You know that if suffering is there, something is there also at the same time. Like the left and the right. If you confirm the existence of the left, you have to confirm the existence of the right because the left can never be without the right. If politically you are on the left, don't wish for the right to disappear entirely. (Laughter). Because if the right disappears entirely, you will disappear also. That is the teaching of Interbeing (sahabhū 俱生).

(3:16) Cùng (Vietnamese) means “being.” You are together. "Being together" means you cannot be by yourself alone. You have to inter-be with all of us. If the right is not there, the left cannot be there either. So, when God said, "Let the light be," the light said, "My Lord, I shall have to wait." And God said, "What do you have to wait for?" "I wait for the darkness, so that we can manifest together." And God said, "But the darkness is already there." And the light said, "In that case, I'm already there." (Laughter). Because the right and the left, they can only inter-are. They cannot be by themselves alone. The above and the below is the same. The subject and the object. The creator and the creature, the created. All pairs of opposites are like that.

The Third Noble Truth (4:35)

That is why, when the Buddha confirms the existence of ill-being, he confirms at the same time the existence of well-being. If well-being is not there, ill-being cannot be there either. Well-being is the Third Noble Truth. That is the cessation of ill-being. Well-being means the cessation of ill-being. The same thing. It is like light. Light is the absence of darkness. If darkness is not there, light should be there. That is why when we confirm the truth of ill-being, we confirm naturally the existence of well-being. The left and the right. Suffering cannot be by herself alone. Suffering has to inter-be with happiness. They are a pair of opposites among many pairs of opposites. Like birth and death, beginning and ending, being, non-being.

(6:25) Later on, in this retreat, we will learn how to transcend pairs of opposites in order to touch the ultimate, Nirvana (our nature of no-birth and no-death) and transcend all kinds of fears and discrimination. So, confirming ill-being, you confirm, at the same time, well-being as something that is possible. Then if there is ill-being, there must be a way of life that leads to ill-being. A path leading to ill-being. Your way of life. You have lived in such a way that has made ill-being possible. So looking into the First Noble Truth, you can see the Second Noble Truth, which is the making of ill-being, Samudaya (2. the making of ill-being "集). You don't have to look for the Second Noble Truth elsewhere. Just look into the First Noble Truth and you find the second.

(8:05) Suppose you have a depression. Your depression represents ill-being. If you look deeply into your depression, you will find out where it has come from. You have lived in such a way in the last six months that it has made your depression possible. So looking in the First Noble Truth, we can see the Second Noble Truth. You have consumed in such a way that makes ill-being possible. In Buddhism, we speak of the making of ill-being also as a path. The path leading to ill-being. The Fourth Noble Truth is also a path, but a path leading to well-being. The path of well-being.

The Second Noble Truth: The Path of Ill-Being (9:10)

The Second Noble Truth is a kind of path also. The path of ill-being. The path leading to ill-being. If the Noble Path leading to well-being begins with Right View, then the path leading to ill-being must begin with the opposite, wrong views. It is so simple. (Laughter). It's easy enough. And this path of well-being, the path that leads to well-being, is called “the Noble Path.” Because every step taken on that path generates well-being. The other path cannot be described as a Noble Path. It is a Noble Truth, but it is not a Noble Path. We can call it an ignoble path. (Laughter). Because each step made on that path generates ill-being. While each step made on this path generates well-being. Well-being can be found in every step, in every breath. And ill-being also can be found in every step or every breath. Hell and paradise are both available in each step.

The Second Nobel Truth as a Nutriment (11:45)

But in the teaching of Buddhism, the Second Noble Truth can be described as not only a path but also a nutriment. Food. You have consumed in such a way that made ill-being possible. The Buddha taught us about the four kinds of nutriments. If we get the right kind of nutrients, we have well-being. If we get the wrong nutrients, we get ill-being. The Buddha said that nothing can survive without food. Your depression is always there. If your depression is always there, it is because you keep feeding it. If you know how to deprive your depression of food, she will have to die in a few weeks. That is why the practice is to look deeply into the nature of your depression and find out what kind of food you have been using to feed it. In terms of sensory impressions, in terms of edible food, in terms of volition, in terms of consciousness. The four kinds of nutriments. Hopefully, we will have the time to learn about these four nutriments. Because the way of mindful consumption is the way out of this difficult situation of mankind.

(12:50) So, the Buddha said, "Nothing can survive without food." Your love, even if it is the most beautiful kind of love, if you don't know how to feed your love, it will die in a few months or in a few years. In the beginning, your love can be very precious, very beautiful. You cannot survive without it. But if you don't know how to feed your love, in six months, one year, your love will die and turn into something else -- hate, anger. A flower turned into a piece of garbage. So, your love needs food to survive, your suffering also, your depression also. If you keep suffering, it is because you continue to feed your suffering by your way of consumption.

(15:00) So, the Second Noble Truth and the Fourth Noble Truth can be described as a path. But they can be described at the same time as nutrients. The fifth of the Five Mindfulness Trainings is about mindful consumption. If we practice the fifth Mindfulness Training every day, then we transform every day our suffering and we cultivate every day our well-being. I think later today there will be a presentation of the Five Mindfulness Trainings. And the fifth mindfulness training is about consumption. Mindful consumption will heal us and heal the world. Mindful consumption is the Noble Path leading us out of this difficult situation of ours.

The Four Noble Truths Inter-exist in Each Other

(16:30) Looking into the Four Noble Truths, we see that one truth contains the other three. Looking into the truth of ill-being, you see the second truth, the making of ill-being. The path leading to ill-being, the way of consumption that leads to ill-being. If you see that path, you see at the same time the other path. Because if this path begins with Wrong View, the other path begins with Right View. Because the Noble Path has eight elements, beginning with Right View. So the wrong path also has eight elements. After Wrong View, there is Wrong Thinking instead of Right Thinking. This is not philosophy, this is the art of living our daily life. So, not only looking into ill-being do you see the Second Noble Truth, the making of ill-being, but you can see the path leading to well-being. You can see also the cessation of ill-being, which means the existence, the presence of well-being. So, one of the truths contains all the other truths. That is the nature of Interbeing of the Four Noble Truths. We have to understand the teachings in that light of Interbeing.

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