The Third Noble Truth

"The Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering is this: It is the complete cessation of that very craving, giving it up, relinquishing it, liberating oneself from it, and detaching oneself from it.

"This is the Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering: such was the vision, the knowledge, the wisdom, the science, the light that arose in me concerning things not heard before. This Cessation of suffering, as a noble truth, should be realized: such was the vision, the knowledge, the wisdom, the science, the light that arose in me concerning things not heard before. This Cessation of suffering, as a noble truth has been realized: such was the vision, the knowledge, the wisdom, the science, the light that arose in me concerning things not heard before."

The unexpected, week-long silence on this blog has been due in large part to an unexpected loss of words concerning the Third Noble Truth - that suffering can cease it the desires leading to suffering cease. This third truth always felt like merely a bridge between the Second and Fourth Truths, a logical necessity to get from Point A to Point B, but never subject to much scrutiny in and of itself.

Then I realized that Steven Hagen devoted an entire chapter of Buddhism, Plain and Simple to the Third Noble Truth. Hagen notes that the Third Noble Truth simlpy states that whatever is subject to arising is also subject to ceasing. And since suffering arises, it too is subject to cessation.

The end of suffering, the end of all the confusion, sorrow and loss, is nirvana. The Buddha referred to nirvana as "unborn, ungrown and unconditioned."

"The born, grown and conditioned refer to everything you can conceive of - including yourself," Hagen writes. "Look around you. There's nothing you can find - indeed, there's nothing you can even imagine - that doesn't originate, develop, or exist in relation to other things. Being born, growing, and responding to conditions is built into the very fabric of the world we live in.

"But the Buddha pointed out that there is an aspect of experience that is not born, grown or conditioned. This unconditioned aspect is directly available to perception. We can see it - we just can't conceptualize it or pin it down.

"In short, or condition is anything but helpless. There actually is something Real, Genuine, and True for us to see."

Everything that we see, hear, feel, smell, taste and think is in constant flux and change. Nothing lasts forever. We crave permanence and we find none, only this coming and going, this unending arising and cessation, and as a result we suffer, and suffer greatly.

Everything that we experience, we experience as motion, from light rays to sound waves, from the softest caress to the harshest blow. Indeed, matter itself is literally nothing but motion. And no matter how we look at it, at whatever scale, our experience is always one of motion, of change. This is true of everything in the physical world, including our bodies. Every cell, indeed, every atom of every cell, reveals nothing but ceaseless coming and going. Our bodies are remade moment by moment, and in no two moments are they the same.

This is also true of our minds. The contents of our minds are in constant motion as well. Thoughts, feelings, judgements and impulses arise, one after the other, then bloom and fade away like flowers after their season. Our minds, subject to endless changes of mood and attitude, of ever-accumulating memories and ideas, is never the same as it was the second before.

Nirvana, Hagen reminds us, us seeing, thoroughly and completely, that this is so.

The Third Noble Truth puts forth the proposal that there can be an end to suffering if we wee to put an end to our clinging to that which is impermanent, forever changing and in constant flux. The Fourth Noble Truth, then, is the perscription on how to do that.