From the Four Noble Truths, the Three Precious Gems

Review

We’re continuing our discussion of this particular verse by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, which explains how we go from understanding the two truths to understanding the Four Noble Truths, to having confidence in the Three Precious Gems. We’ve seen that the two truths talk about how things actually exist:

  • Relative or conventional truth; what actually appears to us arises dependently on causes and conditions. If we saw how things actually function in this world, this is what we would see. But unfortunately, we normally don’t see things this way.
  • On the deepest level of truth, things don’t exist in the impossible ways that our confusion projects onto them. For instance, we think that things arise by their own power just as they seem to be when we see them, independently of any causes, conditions, parts or anything else; but this is false.

So this is the foundation.

The Four Noble Truths speak about our confusion surrounding seeing reality correctly. When we’re confused about reality, this acts as a cause for suffering: the cause being the second noble truth and the suffering itself the first. On the other hand, if we see reality correctly and can stay focused on it all the time, we’ll have the third noble truth, a true stopping of the suffering. The understanding is the true path, the fourth noble truth, which brings about a true stopping.

When we’re unclear about reality, we act on the basis of unawareness and confusion, and we perpetuate our uncontrollably recurring rebirth. If we rid ourselves of this unawareness, then we can reverse – or get out of – samsaric rebirth.

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