The Four Noble Truths The Foundation of Buddhist Thought, Volume 1

by Tashi Tsering, Geshe

• ISBN13: 9780861712700
• ISBN10: 0861712706
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-04-15
• Publisher: Wisdom Publications

Summary

The first step toward a solid foundation in Buddhist thought! The Foundationf Buddhist Thought series is the curriculum of a popular course developed byhe teacher Geshe Tashi Tsering especially for his Western students. Thisolume, the first of four, presents the Buddha's well-known Four Noble Truths,hich summarize the fundamentals of the Buddhist worldview. Indeed, theyrovide an essential framework within which to understand all of the othereachings within Buddhism.

Author Biography

Geshe Tashi Tsering was born in Tibet in 1958 and received his Geshe Lharampa degree (similar to a doctorate in divinity) from Sera Monastery in India in 1987. Since 1994, he has been the guiding teacher of the Jamyang Buddhist Centre in London, while also teaching at other Buddhist centers worldwide.

Gordon McDougall was director of Cham Tse Ling, the FPMT's Hong Kong center, for two years in the 1980s and worked for Jamyang Buddhist Centre in London from 2000 to 2007. He helped develop the Foundation of Buddhist Thought study program and administered it for seven years. Since 2008 he has been editing Lama Zopa Rinpoche's lamrim teachings for Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive's FPMT Lineage series.

Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche is the Spiritual Director of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a worldwide network of Buddhist centers, monasteries, and affiliated projects, including Wisdom Publications. Rinpoche was born in 1946 in the village of Thami in the Solo Khumbu region of Nepal near Mount Everest. His books include Transforming Problems into Happiness, How to Be Happy, and Ultimate Healing. He lives in Aptos, California.

Table of Contents

Foreword	xi
Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Preface	xiii
Editor's Preface	xvii
The Four Noble Truths Sutra	1	(150)
Setting the Wheel of Dharma in Motion	7	(22)
The Four Truths	7	(8)
The Structure of the Sutra	11	(2)
The Order of the Four Noble Truths	13	(1)
The Etymology of the Term Four Noble Truths	14	(1)
The Benefits of Studying the Four Noble Truths	15	(2)
The Two Sets of Cause and Effect	17	(5)
How the Two Sets Work	19	(3)
Being Our Own Refuge	22	(7)
Responsibility to Ourselves and Others	25	(4)
The Truth of Suffering	29	(28)
Why the Buddha Began with the Teaching on Suffering	29	(1)
The Three Phases	30	(3)
Types of Suffering	33	(9)
The Three Types of Suffering	33	(6)
The Eight Types of Suffering	39	(1)
The Five Aggregates	40	(2)
The Four Characteristics of the Truth of Suffering	42	(6)
Impermanence	42	(2)
Suffering	44	(1)
Emptiness	45	(1)
Selflessness	46	(2)
Understanding the Truth of Suffering in Our Everyday Lives	48	(9)
There Is Suffering	48	(3)
Letting Go of Clinging to Problems	51	(2)
Meditating on the First Noble Truth	53	(4)
The Truth of Origin	57	(44)
Delusions	57	(12)
The Three Phases	57	(2)
Ignorance	59	(5)
Afflictive Emotions	64	(1)
The Three Kinds of Craving	65	(4)
Karmic Action	69	(15)
How Cause and Effect Works	69	(1)
Substantial and Contributory Causes	70	(2)
Karma	72	(5)
Karmic Imprints	77	(5)
The Origin of Suffering Is Within Suffering Itself	82	(2)
Dealing with Afflictive Emotions	84	(9)
Acquired and Innate Afflictive Emotions	85	(2)
The Ten Nonvirtuous Actions	87	(3)
Dealing with the Coarsest First	90	(3)
The Twelve Links of Dependent Origination	93	(7)
How the Twelve Links Operate over Three Lifetimes	94	(3)
The Twelve Links in Forward Order	97	(3)
The Four Characteristics of the Truth of Origin	100	(1)
The Truth of Cessation	101	(20)
Cessation, Liberation, and Enlightenment	101	(10)
The Three Phases	101	(1)
What Is the Cessation of Suffering?	102	(2)
Symbolic, Residual, and Nonresidual Cessation	104	(5)
Liberation and Enlightenment	109	(2)
Cessation and Enlightenment	111	(9)
Cessation According to Theravada	111	(2)
The Two Obscurations	113	(1)
The Two Cessations	114	(2)
A Buddha's Two Bodies	116	(2)
The Connection Between Liberation and Emptiness	118	(2)
The Four Characteristics of True Cessation	120	(1)
The Truth of the Path	121	(30)
The Noble Eightfold Path and the Three Trainings	121	(18)
The Three Phases	121	(1)
The Path to Enlightenment	122	(2)
The Many Paths in Buddhism	124	(1)
The Three Trainings	125	(14)
Being on the Path	139	(7)
The Five Paths	139	(4)
The Individual Liberation Practitioner and the Bodhisattvayana Practitioner	143	(2)
When Are We Actually on the Path?	145	(1)
The Four Characteristics of the Truth of the Path	146	(5)
The Sixteen Characteristics of the Four Noble Truths	148	(3)
Notes	151	(2)
Glossary	153	(6)
Bibliography	159	(2)
Index	161	(8)
About the Authors	169	(1)
The Foundation of Buddhist Thought	170