My relationship with the Four Noble Truths has been a bit of a roller coaster. When I first saw them posted on the temple wall of Mt. Adams Buddhist Temple, I thought to myself that it’s pretty obvious. My acceptance of it as obvious was borderline dismissive. As I learned more, I was fairly certain that I didn’t suffer. Suffering is the mother in Africa who has to choose between buying food for one emaciated child and medicine for a sick child. I had first-world problems, but they didn’t rise to the level of suffering. I slowly came to learn a more nuanced understanding of suffering, or rather, Dukkha, which perhaps is better translated as dissatisfactoriness. I came to understand that I do indeed suffer. A lot. But I still didn’t really connect with the Four Noble Truths. That was some years ago. Between then and now, I’ve spent much time contemplating and sharing the idea of letting go. This seemed foundational for the alleviation of suffering. I worked the idea of letting go into homework assignments for students. I got letting go. Fast forward to just recently when I re-read the Four Noble Truths and saw that the second noble truth spoke of the cause of suffering being attachment. It just recently hit me that attachment is the flip side of letting go. And this realization brought home the profundity and the importance of The Four Noble Truths. My second realization is that I’ve been a student of Buddhism for nearly eight years now, so I’m definitely a member of the slow learner’s club.
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