The Wheel of Suffering

This very body is your cycle of rebirth (saṃsāra). When the death-consciousness (cuti-citta) arises in this life and you die, that will be the final scene. Death is the Noble Truth of Suffering (dukkha sacca). After death, to continue saṃsāra, rebirth-linking (paṭisandhi) will approach. According to one’s kamma, one will take rebirth-linking in a mother’s womb. Rebirth-linking is birth (jāti), and birth is also the Noble Truth of Suffering. We die with suffering and live with suffering. Aging (jarā) is suffering. Pain, sores, aches, and afflictions are suffering. When pain becomes unbearable and death approaches, death itself is suffering. Does death mean it’s over? No, it is not. The suffering of rebirth-linking in the next life returns again. Therefore, understand this: saṃsāra is the relentless turning of the great Wheel of Suffering. People speak of human realms, deva realms, brahma realms, and lower realms (apāya), but the actual reality of how saṃsāra revolves is this: the great Wheel of Suffering keeps turning. Not even the Buddha could find its beginning. It is utterly terrifying. What are called “human happiness” or “deva happiness” are merely painted signboards; the truth is the great Wheel of Suffering turning. This great wheel must turn in one ceaseless cycle. Why must it turn? Because of the dreadful condition of not knowing the Truth (sacca). Even our exalted Buddha himself, before realizing the Truth, turned within this dreadful condition. Therefore, to prevent his disciples from turning like he did, he fed them the medicine of Truth. But if, despite being offered this Dhamma medicine in time, one refuses to drink it, the great Wheel of Suffering will simply continue turning. After realizing the Truth, the Buddha looked with his wisdom to offer the medicine of Truth to the great sage Āḷāra. But Āḷāra died too soon and missed the opportunity. Thus, the great sage had to revolve in the Wheel of Suffering for sixty thousand eons. When the Buddha intended to offer the medicine to the sage Uddaka, he too died one day too early. Missing it by just one day, he had to revolve in the great Wheel of Suffering for eighty-four thousand eons. Missing by a single day caused him to sink into suffering beyond measure. Then the Buddha considered, “To whom should I first offer the medicine of Truth?” He saw the five ascetics (pañcavaggiya). They received the medicine of Truth in time; thus, the Wheel of Suffering stopped for them, and they attained the bliss of Nibbāna. What is the Wheel of Suffering? It is nothing other than lifetimes spent dying in others’ mouths. As long as the Wheel of Suffering does not cease, one will revolve through wretched existences: lives enduring torment in hell realms (apāya), animals devoured as food in others’ mouths—one will turn through such miserable states. To escape this dreadful cycle of saṃsāra, you must resolve: “I must drink the medicine of Truth.” The “medicine of Truth” is nothing other than this: understand that any decay within the five aggregates (khandhas) is the Truth (sacca). The arising and ceasing phenomena within the body are called sacca. When a feeling (vedanā) arises, that little feeling contains both arising and ceasing. When a mind-state (citta) arises, it is the same. When its lifespan ends and it vanishes, that is the Noble Truth of Suffering. Sages Āḷāra and Uddaka also had bodies, yet they did not realize: “These are suffering! This is dukkha sacca!” Knowing the Truth is wisdom (ñāṇa). The arising and ceasing is dukkha sacca (Truth of Suffering); the knowing is magga sacca (Truth of the Path). If, with this little magga sacca, you continuously know whatever arises in the body, the preliminary insight path (vipassanā pubbaṅgama magga) is born. Keep observing the body like this. The little wisdom you directly see is the magga sacca. The reason you have wandered through saṃsāra is because this wisdom did not arise. In saṃsāra, you face perils of aging, sickness, death; perils of separation from sons, wives, relatives; wretched lives of madness or nakedness; miserable lives screaming in cauldrons; lives as four-legged animals; lives as centipedes with many legs; lives as snakes with no legs; lives ending in others’ mouths—you experience all these varieties because you did not drink the little medicine of Truth. If you do not drink it, these sufferings will keep turning like a wheel. But if you drink the pure water of Truth—the attainment of the Path that knows arising and ceasing (udayabbaya ñāṇa)—the future great Wheel of Suffering ceases entirely. This is the cool water of the Path (magga), the remedy for suffering. Drinking this cool water of the Path extinguishes all the fever of defilements (kilesa). Suffering arises solely because of the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering (samudaya sacca), which is defilement. If the samudaya sacca ceases, the great wheel of bodily suffering cannot turn. Sufferings destined for countless eons vanish with just one sip of this pure Path-water. “Drinking” means running your wisdom over your own body. As wisdom runs, you’ll see only two things in the body: arising and vanishing. (All formations are impermanent—aniccā vata saṅkhārā). Arising and vanishing is the turning of impermanence (anicca) and formations (saṅkhāra). Saṅkhāra means “what has just arisen”; that arisen phenomenon vanishes—that is anicca. Within the body: feelings arise and vanish, mind-states arise and vanish, perceptions arise and vanish. One who likes feelings observes feelings; one who likes mind observes mind; one who likes Truth observes Truth; one who likes form observes form. While observing thus, the observing wisdom is drinking the pure water of the Path. When you observe repeatedly and the insight path (vipassanā magga) reaches the “stomach,” defilements thin out. Craving (taṇhā), clinging (upādāna), and kamma thin out. The observing wisdom is the sword of the Path. When the sword of vipassanā magga slashes through the mass of defilements, that mass must thin. When defilements thin, the causes of suffering thin. If the causes of suffering thin, the effects of suffering must also thin. Therefore, to lessen suffering: - One with strong craving should observe feelings as they arise and cease. - One with strong ego-view (atta diṭṭhi) should observe the mind as it arises and ceases. - One with sharp wisdom, who learns easily, should observe the Truth (sacca). - One with exceptionally dull wisdom should observe form (rūpa). If the medicine suits the disease, know for certain: the great festering wound of the turning Wheel of Suffering will vanish without fail. Venerable Dr. Pāramī