- The Nobility of the Truths
- Bhikkhu Bodhi
- Buddhist Publication Society Newsletter cover essay #20 (Winter 1991-92)
Copyright © 1992 Buddhist Publication Society
The most common and widely known formulation of the Buddha's teaching is that which the
Buddha himself announced in the First Sermon at Benares, the formula of the Four Noble
Truths. The Buddha declares that these truths convey in a nutshell all the essential
information that we need to set out on the path to liberation. He says that just as the
elephant's footprint, by reason of its great size, contains the footprints of all other
animals, so the Four Noble Truths, by reason of their comprehensiveness, contain within
themselves all wholesome and beneficial teachings. However, while many expositors of
Buddhism have devoted attention to explaining the actual content of the four truths, only
rarely is any consideration given to the reason why they are designated noble
truths. Yet it is just this descriptive word "noble" that reveals to us why the
Buddha chose to cast his teaching into this specific format, and it is this same term that
allows us to experience, even from afar, the unique flavor that pervades the entire
doctrine and discipline of the Enlightened One.
The word "noble," or ariya, is used by the Buddha to designate a
particular type of person, the type of person which it is the aim of his teaching to
create. In the discourses the Buddha classifies human beings into two broad categories. On
one side there are the puthujjanas, the worldlings, those belonging to the
multitude, whose eyes are still covered with the dust of defilements and delusion. On the
other side there are the ariyans, the noble ones, the spiritual elite, who obtain
this status not from birth, social station or ecclesiastical authority but from their
inward nobility of character.
These two general types are not separated from each other by an impassable chasm, each
confined to a tightly sealed compartment. A series of gradations can be discerned rising
up from the darkest level of the blind worldling trapped in the dungeon of egotism and
self-assertion, through the stage of the virtuous worldling in whom the seeds of wisdom
are beginning to sprout, and further through the intermediate stages of noble disciples to
the perfected individual at the apex of the entire scale of human development. This is the
Arahant, the liberated one, who has absorbed the purifying vision of truth so deeply that
all his defilements have been extinguished, and with them, all liability to suffering.
While the path from bondage to deliverance, from worldliness to spiritual nobility, is
a graded path involving gradual practice and gradual progress, it is not a uniform
continuum. Progress occurs in discrete steps, and at a certain point -- the point
separating the status of a worldling from that of a noble one -- a break is reached which
must be crossed, not by simply taking another step forward, but by making a leap, by
jumping across from the near side to the further shore. This decisive event in the inner
development of the practitioner, this radical leap that propels the disciple from the
domain and lineage of the worldling to the domain and lineage of the noble ones, occurs
precisely through the penetration of the Four Noble Truths. This discloses to us the
critical reason why the four truths revealed by the Buddha are called noble truths. They
are noble truths because when we have penetrated them through to the core, when we have
grasped their real import and implications, we cast off the status of the worldling and
acquire the status of a noble one, drawn out from the faceless crowd into the community of
the Blessed One's disciples united by a unique and unshakable vision.
Prior to the penetration of the truths, however well endowed we may be with spiritual
virtues, we are not yet on secure ground. We are not immune from regression, not yet
assured of deliverance, not invincible in our striving on the path. The virtues of a
worldling are tenuous virtues. They may wax or they may wane, they may flourish or
decline, and in correspondence with their degree of strength we may rise or fall in our
movement through the cycle of becoming. When our virtues are replete we may rise upwards
and dwell in bliss among the gods; when our virtues decline or our merit is exhausted we
may sink again to miserable depths.
But with the penetration of the truths we leap across the gulf that separates us from
the ranks of the noble ones. The eye of Dhamma has been opened, the vision of truth stands
revealed, and though the decisive victory has not yet been won, the path to the final goal
lies at our feet and the supreme security from bondage hovers on the horizon. One who has
comprehended the truths has changed lineage, crossed over from the domain of the
worldlings to the domain of the noble ones. Such a disciple is incapable of regression to
the ranks of the worldling, incapable of losing the vision of truth that has flashed
before his inner eye. Progress towards the final goal, the complete eradication of
ignorance and craving, may be slow or rapid; it may occur easily or result from an uphill
battle. But however long it may take, with whatever degree of facility one may advance,
one thing is certain: such a disciple who has seen with immaculate clarity the Four Noble
Truths can never slide backwards, can never lose the status of a noble one, and is bound
to reach the final fruit of Arahantship in a maximum of seven lives.
The reason why the penetration of the Four Noble Truths can confer this immutable
nobility of spirit is implied by the four tasks the noble truths impose on us. By taking
these tasks as our challenge in life -- our challenge as followers of the Enlightened One
-- from whatever station of development we find ourselves beginning at, we can gradually
advance towards the infallible penetration of the noble ones.
The first noble truth, the truth of suffering, is to be fully understood: the task it
assigns us is that of full understanding. A hallmark of the noble ones is that they do not
flow along thoughtlessly with the stream of life, but endeavor to comprehend existence
from within, as honestly and thoroughly as possible. For us, too, it is necessary to
reflect upon the nature of our life. We must attempt to fathom the deep significance of an
existence bounded on one side by birth and on the other by death, and subject in between
to all the types of suffering detailed by the Buddha in his discourses.
The second noble truth, of the origin or cause of suffering, implies the task of
abandonment. A noble one is such because he has initiated the process of eliminating the
defilements at the root of suffering, and we too, if we aspire to reach the plane of the
noble ones, must be prepared to withstand the seductive lure of the defilements. While the
eradication of craving can come only with the supramundane realizations, even in the
mundane course of our daily life we can learn to restrain the coarser manifestation of
defilements, and by keen self-observation can gradually loosen their grip upon our hearts.
The third noble truth, the cessation of suffering, implies the task of realization.
Although Nibbana, the extinction of suffering, can only be personally realized by the
noble ones, the confidence we place in the Dhamma as our guideline to life shows us what
we should select as our final aspiration, as our ultimate ground of value. Once we have
grasped the fact that all conditioned things in the world, being impermanent and
insubstantial, can never give us total satisfaction, we can then lift our aim to the
unconditioned element, Nibbana the Deathless, and make that aspiration the pole around
which we order our everyday choices and concerns.
Finally, the fourth noble truth, the Noble Eightfold Path, assigns us the task of
development. The noble ones have reached their status by developing the eightfold path,
and while only the noble ones are assured of never deviating from the path, the Buddha's
teaching gives us the meticulous instructions that we need to tread the path culminating
in the plane of the noble ones. This is the path that gives birth to vision, that gives
birth to knowledge, that leads to higher comprehension, enlightenment and Nibbana, the
crowning attainment of nobility.
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