The Second Noble Truth
The truth of universal origination is an English translation of the name Buddha himself gave to this noble truth. It means "that which is the cause or origin of absolutely everything." The truth of universal origination indicates that the root cause of suffering is karma and the kleshas. Karma is a Sanskrit word which means "activity" and klesha in Sanskrit means "mental defilement" or "mental poison." If one does not understand the Buddha's teachings, one would most likely attribute all happiness and suffering to some external cause. One might think that happiness and suffering come from the environment, or from the gods, and that everything that happens originates in some source outside of ones control. If one believes this, then it is extremely hard, if not impossible, to eliminate suffering and its causes. On the other hand, when one realizes that the experience of suffering is a product of what one has done, that is, a result of ones karma, eliminating suffering becomes possible. Once one is aware of how suffering takes place, then one can begin to remove the causes of suffering. First one must realize that what one experiences is not dependent on external forces, but on what one has done previously. This is the understanding of karma. Karma produces suffering and is driven by the defilements. The term "defilement" refers mainly to ones negative motivation and negative thoughts, which produce negative actions.
[LINK TO ORIGINAL]
The 9th Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche
No comments:
Post a Comment