The following is an excerpt from the bestselling book The Complete Book of Buddha's Lists -- Explained by David N. Snyder, Ph.D. with a Foreword by the Venerable Madewela Punnaji.
The hard copy print books sold out in June of 2009 and then went online as a PDF download completely for free, no shipping and printing costs for Vipassana Foundation or purchasers as it can be read online as a free e-book. Go to this link for more information and to see the complete book online as a PDF download:
The Four Noble Truths
The Buddha taught that life is suffering. However, we create this suffering from our own mind-body actions, feelings, perceptions, and thoughts. We tend to cling and have too much attachment to things that are full of suffering and impermanence. Thus, we find no lasting happiness. This has been put into a mathematical formula (U Kyaw Min, Buddhist Abhidhamma) of desires fulfilled divided by the sum total of desires:
desires fulfilled / sum total of desires
for example: 30/50 = 60% or 30/30 = 100%
If the sum total of desires is 50 and the desires fulfilled are 30, you have 60% of desires fulfilled and suffering from the lack of satisfaction. If however, you reduce your selfish craving by reducing your desires to 30, then you have complete happiness (at least for the impermanent moment until karma formations make new desires). Thus, the traditional translation of the Four Noble Truths are that life is suffering, the cause is selfish desire, suffering ceases when selfish desire ceases, and the way is the Eightfold Middle Path.
Some wonder if seeking enlightenment is a form of desire. It is a desire as it is a goal, but it is a different, better form of desire. The vipassana teacher, Joseph Goldstein, describes how our translations do not do justice to the word desire. It is a difference of the desire of wanting something versus the desire of motivation. The desire of motivation is joined with wholesome factors. In Pali, there is a word for one type of desire called, tanha, and another word for a different desire called, chanda. Tanha is the desire for craving, for attachment. Chandha is the desire to do, which is for a wholesome goal. It is a desire to accomplish something good, such as enlightenment. (Goldstein, 1993) Desire, per se, is not the enemy, it is only unwholesome desires that cause suffering.
People sometimes confuse or misinterpret Buddhism as a pessimistic religion speaking of the suffering in life. The first noble truth is that life is suffering, but it does not have to be that way. It is only the un-enlightened life that is suffering; the enlightened person does not have suffering. Shinzen Young (dharma teacher, author of several Buddhist books and tapes, Young, 1994) puts the Truths into another mathematical formula of:
S = P x R
The above formula is Suffering = Pain times Resistance. The enlightened person does not deny the existence of pain. The goal is to not put any resistance to it. When we put resistance to the pain, that is the suffering.
To use some figures in the above formula, let's say that on a scale of 0 to 100 for pain you are experiencing a pain of 75.On a scale of 0 to 100 for resistance with 0 representing no resistance and 100 representing maximum resistance, let's say you are resisting at a level of 50. The product is 75 (pain amount) times 50 (the resistance amount) which is 3,750 which is the amount of your suffering (from a scale of 0 to 10,000). This sounds like a lot of suffering. But if you have the same pain level of 75 and place no resistance to it, then the result is no suffering. This is because:
75 x 0 = 0
As we know from multiplication anything multiplied by a factor of zero is zero. So therefore, there is no denying the existence of pain, we must just learn to accept it, observe it, and watch it vanish, as we apply no resistance to it. The end result is no suffering. Another way to put this is:
Pain exists, suffering is optional.
Expectations
Some people ask, if desire is bad, then what about desire for food and other basic necessities? This is why when we see the Four Noble Truths translated to English we often see the translation corrected to something like selfish desire. But even basic necessities could be interpreted by some as a selfish desire since it is for yourself only. After reading over one hundred dharma books, much of the 20,000 pages of Buddhist scriptures, and over twenty years of meditation practice, I have come to the realization that the desire term is another one of those words which does not adequately or correctly translate the original Pali or intention of the Buddha. This is why in so many dharma books you find the original Pali and Sanskrit words instead of a translated English word. The reason is that no English word can give justice to the meaning of the original Pali or Sanskrit.
A new and improved better translation to English I have found is the term expectations. We all have expectations in life, for life in general or of other people, etc. When these expectations are not met we get angry or upset or mad, all of which are suffering. Sometimes we expect too much of people, either expecting them to be a certain way, think a certain way, act a certain way, or to do something for us or someone else. When they do not live up to our expectation we are upset and suffer.
Some people near the end of their life look back and regret. They feel they should have done this or that or that they did not do enough of this or that or they wish that they chose a different career. The possibilities are endless. Such people drift awayin their misery. The problem is we expect too much. People place too high of expectations on themselves and others.
The solution is not complete indifference, such as saying I don't care anymore what happens. The answer lies in realistic expectations. Another term could be reasonable expectations. Give yourself and others reasonable expectations or goals for yourself and others. For example, a reasonable lifetime goal or expectation might be something like any one or more of the following:
1. Raising a family
2. Being debt-free and having enough money to be able to give to charity or to help out in other ways.
3. To visit historical sites around the world.
4. To attend some spiritual retreats and / or to assist with some of the duties at the retreat facility
The Buddha specifically mentioned the importance of not having regrets in life. To not have regrets, you must have only reasonable expectations which you can and do meet. The Buddha said:
Why do what you will regret? Why bring tears upon yourself? Do only what you do not regret, and fill yourself with joy. (Dhammapada, ch. 5)
Live your life so that your epitaph (or imaginary epitaph, if you will be cremated) says, No Regrets. You will pass from this life with no regrets and secure a good future for the next existence. How often do we hear the words, count your blessings. As we know there are always people in the world with a much worse situation, no matter how bad we may feel our current situation is doing. The Buddha had a whole sutra devoted to counting your blessings, called the 38 Blessings. It includes such things as just being around the dharma and being able to talk about the dharma. This is truly a blessing. How lucky we are that we came into contact with the Buddha's teaching and now have a chance to have everlasting happiness in this life and beyond.
Of course, there are always things we may have said or done that we may regret. We need to let go of this regret. It is in the past and regretting about it does nothing and solves nothing. Instead of beating ourselves up we need to look back and say that with the information we had at the time, we could not have made the correct choice. It is always easy to look back with 20/20 hindsight and see our mistakes, but when we consider the information that we had at the time we truly had no choice. Many times something we think that is bad that is happening ends up becoming a good thing. For example, we may get fired from a job or career and then end up working for a better company with higher wages. If we had not been fired, we may never have looked for the better opportunity. There are innumerable examples of how some mistakes we make in life end up doing some good. It is all a matter of our attitude and not letting things get under our skin. Most importantly do not look back and regret, you probably had no choice with the information you had at the time.
I am sometimes amazed at how some people look back to their childhood and dwell on insignificant things, like not getting enough presents from their parents. What matters is what is going on in the present time. If you are an adult and relatively successful, then who cares how many toys you received or not as a child. Would you still be playing with them now? Letting go of our attachments does not just refer to our cravings for material things, but also to some unreasonable ideas. Every generation seems to do more for their children than the previous one. If we saw how our parents and grandparents were raised, we would probably say they were very deprived. This is normal as each generation tends to have more funds and more material things to purchase and use than the previous one. If your parents had the resources, but you still feel you did not get much, then again, does it really matter in the present time? What matters is the present moment and how we deal with what life throws at us in the here and now. Do not dwell on the past and blame others for any misfortune you may have experienced. You will be happier and free of hate, contempt, and jealousy.
While you are in this life you can be happy by using this formula similar to the desires-fulfilled formula mentioned above by having a limited number of reasonable expectations which you can meet. Therefore, this revised better translation / interpretation of the four noble truths is:
The Four Noble Truths
1. Life is suffering
2. Suffering is caused by unreasonable expectations
3. Suffering ceases with the ceasing of unreasonable expectations
4. The way to reasonable expectations is the Eightfold Middle Path
In the Foreword of this book, Bhante Punnaji describes the Four Noble Truths as the understanding of the origin and cessation of anguish. This anguish term is also excellent as it describes the feeling when our expectations are not met. When we have unrealized expectations we have anguish, stress, frustration, and suffering. Fortunately, there is a way out of anguish and suffering and this is in the fourth Noble Truth, which is the Path.
You might think that using the term reasonable expectations is an easy way out of some of the traditional translations of desire or selfish desire. Let us consider a couple of scenarios.
Let us suppose that you are this person who has been receiving a particular salary from the same company for many years. All of a sudden the salary is cut by 25% with an explanation that the cuts had to be made or there would have been many people laid off. As a worker you had grown accustomed to receiving this salary for the hard work you put in over a long time. Now that it is cut, you are likely to become very angry. This is because the expectation was not met. You had a desire to receive the regular income, but it was not necessarily a selfish desire. The income funds would have been used to help support your family and this is certainly not a selfish desire. But there is still anger and when there is anger there is suffering. The suffering resulted from the missed expectation.
Such suffering is hard to avoid since there is little you can do to prepare yourself and because the cut in pay was not the result of any disciplinary action. The only way to have avoided the suffering would have been to have known or expected the cut. That way, when it happens you are not surprised. Perhaps you may have even made other plans, such as cuts in your budget or looking for other work.
Or in another scenario let us say that you want to help some people in a third world nation by sending some money or products to them through someone who is traveling to that country. You find someone who is traveling to that country and you give them the money or products to be delivered. Later you find out that the money and products were never delivered. The person returns with the items still in his suitcase or he states that it was lost at the hotel. You get very angry, as you were only trying to do good and now the items have been returned or perhaps even lost. You may even start yelling at this person, calling him all kinds of names or even accuse him of being a thief. This anger and bad speech produces all kinds of suffering inside you. But you did not have selfish desire since you were actually trying to do some good by giving some charity to people in need.
Your expectation was not met. This is why you suffered, even though your intentions were good. If you had a more balanced mind, you would say to yourself that you will always deliver the items yourself and if you are unable to make the trip personally, then you will send them through regular postage. Upon further reflection you realize that you made an unreasonable expectation on someone else. You are basically asking someone to give some items to someone in need, but that the credit would go to you, even though you are not there to personally give the items. You are making a friend into a delivery person and you realize that this was an unreasonable request.
By not placing such unreasonable expectations on others we avoid suffering. By not placing unreasonable expectations on ourselves we avoid suffering.
The final part of the Four Noble Truths, written as a mathematical expression, shows that the absolute value of fulfilled expectations is greater than or equal to the sum total of all expectations. You might wonder, how can the fulfilled expectations be greater than the sum of all expectations? Just imagine some time in your life when something happened that exceeded your expectations. Maybe you were only expecting to get a 5% raise and then your boss tells you that you are getting a 15% raise in salary. There are numerous possibilities in life, but we have all had occasions where our expectations were exceeded. That is what is represented in the fourth part of the Noble Truths with the greater than or equal to sign. The net result is that you are elated, very happy. On the other hand, your expectations do not always have to be exceeded. If the expectations are simply met: = you will also have happiness.
The above was an excerpt from the bestselling book The Complete Book of Buddha's Lists -- Explained by David N. Snyder, Ph.D. with a Foreword by the Venerable Madewela Punnaji.
The hard copy print books sold out in June of 2009 and then went online as a PDF download completely for free, no shipping and printing costs for Vipassana Foundation or purchasers as it can be read online as a free e-book. Go to this link for more information and to see the complete book online as a PDF download: