2/6/2023 - Second Noble Truth • Mindfulness Meditation and Dharma Talk with Venerable De Hong

1. SECOND NOBLE
TRUTH
VEN. DE HONG
FEB. 6, 2024

3. HUNGRY GHOSTS
ANDY ROTMAN@2021
• Plate 6. Detail from an illustrated manuscript from
circa 1862 of the phra malai klon suat from Wat
Manee Sathit Kapittharam (alias Wat Thung
Kaeo), Uthai Thani Province, central Thailand.
Photo courtesy of Fragile Palm Leaves Foundation
/Henry Ginsburg Fund, Bangkok. See pp. 62–63.

4. OUTLINE
Starting 2024: The Four Noble Truths
• Jan. 2024: The First Noble Truth (last month)
• Feb. 2024: The Second Noble Truth & Craving/Addiction

5. REVIEW
FIRST NOBLE TRUTH
Life stresses:
• (1) Birth, (2) Aging, (3) Death, and (8) Sickness;
• (4) Sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair, (5) Association with the
unbeloved, (6) Separation from the loved, and (7) Not getting what is wanted.
• DUE to our clinging/craving/attachment

6. SECOND NOBLE TRUTH
• Now what is the noble truth of the origination of stress? The craving that makes
for further becoming — accompanied by passion & delight, relishing now here &
now there — i.e., Craving for sensuality, craving for becoming, craving for
non-becoming...
Digha Nikaya 22.

7. • What is the noble truth of the origin of suffering? It is craving which renews
being and is accompanied by relish and lust, relishing this and that: in other
words, craving for sensual desires, craving for being, craving for non-being.
But whereon does this craving arise and flourish? Wherever there is what seems
lovable and gratifying, there on it arises and flourish.
• This noble truth must be penetrated to by abandoning the origin of suffering
(Samyutta Nikaya lvi. 11).

8. Craving for Sensual Desires
Craving: strong desires that people have for pleasing their senses and for
experiencing life itself. Buddhists believe that anything that stimulates our senses
or our feelings can lead to craving. (sight, sound, taste, smell, touch, and mind.)
None of the pleasures we crave for ever give us lasting happiness or satisfaction
(impermanence). This is why people can crave to repeat these experiences again
and again, and become unhappy and dissatisfied until they can satisfy their craving.
But if one gets sick/tired of this craving, he gets unhappy and suffer again, and
look for new type of sensual pleasure.
https://www.suttas.com/cravings.html#

9. Craving for Being (Existing)
Bhava Tanha
• Rooted in the belief of a permanent soul, an ego in one’s body, which is termed
as eternalism which Buddha disagreed with.
• According to eternalistic view, as soul is imprisoned in the body, one has to be
born again and again to practice holy life, so that soul should get united forever
with the universal soul.

10. Craving for Non-being (Not-existing)
Vibhava Tanha
• An annihilationist view which the Buddha did not agree on.
• People with an annihilationist view believe that there is this life only and nothing
arises at the end of this life.
• There is no rebirth and so being are annihilated at death. Such a belief is called
“annihilationist view.” The craving that goes with this view is called “craving for
non-existence/non-being.”

11. PAUSE

12. TANHA SUTTA: CRAVING
• The blessed one said: “and which craving is the ensnarer that has flowed along,
spread out, and caught hold, with which this world is smothered & enveloped
like a tangled skein, a knotted ball of string, like matted rushes and reeds, and
does not go beyond transmigration, beyond the planes of deprivation, woe, & bad
destinations? These 18 craving-verbalizations dependent on what is internal and
18 craving-verbalizations dependent on what is external.”
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an04/an04.199.than.html

13. TANHA SUTTA: CRAVING
INTERNAL
• And which are the 18 craving-verbalizations dependent on what is internal?
There being 1. 'I am,' there comes to be 2. 'I am here,' there comes to be 3. 'I am
like this' ... 4. 'I am otherwise' ... 5. 'I am bad' ... 6. 'I am good' ... 7. 'I might be' ...
8. 'I might be here' ... 9. 'I might be like this' ... 10. 'I might be otherwise' ... 11.
'may I be' ... 12. 'may I be here' ... 13. 'may I be like this' ... 14. 'may I be
otherwise' ... 15. 'I will be' ... 16. 'I will be here' ... 17. 'I will be like this' ... 18. 'I
will be otherwise.’
• These are the 18 craving-verbalizations dependent on what is internal.

14. TANHA SUTTA: CRAVING
EXTERNAL
• And which are the 18 craving-verbalizations dependent on what is external?
There being 1'I am because of this (or: by means of this),' there comes to be 2 'I
am here because of this,' there comes to be 3 'I am like this because of this' ... 4 'I
am otherwise because of this' ... 5 'I am bad because of this' ... 6 'I am good
because of this' ... 7 'I might be because of this' ... 8 'I might be here because of
this' ... 9 'I might be like this because of this' ... 10 'I might be otherwise because
of this' ... 11 'may I be because of this' ... 12 'may I be here because of this' ... 13
'may I be like this because of this' ... 14 'may I be otherwise because of this' ... 15
'I will be because of this' ... 16 'I will be here because of this' ... 17 'I will be like
this because of this' ... 18 'I will be otherwise because of this.’
• These are the 18 craving-verbalizations dependent on what is external.

15. ABUSED/TRAUMATIZED INDIVIDUALS
MY OBSERVATION
• Craved to be someone else or somewhere else.
• Craved not to exist—hated themselves, especially incarcerated individuals-
>difficult to forgive themselves because of what happened to them or what they
did.

16. PAUSE

18. In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts
Gabor Maté, MD
• The inhabitants of the hungry ghost realm are depicted as creatures with scrawny
necks, small mouths, emaciated limbs, and large, bloated, empty bellies. This is
the domain of addiction, where we constantly seek something outside ourselves
to curb an insatiable yearning for relief or fulfillment.
• The aching emptiness is perpetual because the substances, objects, or pursuits we
hope will soothe it are not what we really need.
• We don’t know what we need, and so long as we stay in the hungry ghost mode,
we’ll never know. We haunt our lives without being fully present.

20. General Definitions
• In the words of a consensus statement by addiction experts in 2001, addiction is a
“chronic neurobiological disease … characterized by behaviors that include one
or more of the following: impaired control over drug use, compulsive use,
continued use despite harm, and craving.
• An addict continues to use a drug when evidence strongly demonstrates the drug
is doing significant harm.… If users show the pattern of preoccupation and
compulsive use repeatedly over time with relapse, addiction can be identified.

21. By Gabor Maté, MD
Addiction is any repeated behavior, substance-related or not, in which a person
feels compelled to persist, regardless of its negative impact on his life and the lives
of others. Addiction involves:
compulsive engagement with the behavior, a preoccupation with it;
impaired control over the behavior;
persistence or relapse despite evidence of harm; and
dissatisfaction, irritability, or intense craving when the object—be it a drug,
activity, or other goal—is not immediately available.

22. • Drugs: so many types
• Alcohol
• Gambling
• Shopping
• Food
• Sex
• Phone/Internet?
• Even coffee is considered addictive (by my grad students in MFT program)

23. PAUSE

24. BUDDHIST BASED AA
• Refuge Recovery (book) by Noah Levine
• Kevin Griffin’s ”One Breath at a Time”
• Recovery Dharma

26. MEDITATION PRACTICES
• Breathing Meditation (July 2023)
• Body Scan (Aug. 2023)
• Sense Door Practice (Sept. 2023)
• Window of Tolerance (Oct. 2023)
• Concentration meditation (Nov. 2023)
• Mindfulness of Feelings (Dec. 2023)

27. TRANSFER OF
MERITS
May the merits of this
class and everyone’s
practice benefit all
sentient beings
everywhere!