3.2.4.2

Lesson 3.2.4.2 Saccapabbaṃpabbaṃ, Part Two: Samudayasaccaniddeso – Exposition of the Truth of the Arising of Suffering

Did The Rolling Stones intend to promote the teaching of the Buddha when they wrote their famous refrain: ‘I can't get no satisfaction!’? This seems quite doubtful, doesn’t it? Nevertheless, The Stones did accurately express the malady of humankind, who generally craves for happiness as a guiding wellspring for life. Consequently, as humans experience the vicissitudes of life, they usually avoid the ‘downs’ and yearn for the ‘ups’ seeking favourable circumstances and enjoyable encounters. When the Buddha explains the second Noble Truth, the ‘truth of the arising, or the origin, of suffering’, he describes in detail how any intrusion by any external object through any of the sense doors is generally felt as ‘enticing and pleasurable’. What seems a natural physical and unavoidable process ensues into subsequent mental appreciation with positive or negative assessment. The mind consequently takes up those sensual (or mental) objects and keeps itself busy with pondering them in various ways. This is described by the Buddha as the second Noble Truth characterised by ‘craving that occurs again and again’ which is ‘bound up with pleasure and lust’ and ‘finds delight now here, now there’.