..續本文上一頁ee things as they really are, what we mean is that so long as one has not developed one”s ability to concentrate one”s mind and insight so one is ignorant of the true nature of things. We are familiar with the fear that we experience when we see a shape in the darkness by the side of the road while walking home alone late at night. That shape by the side of the road may be a tree stump. Yet it is our ignorance that causes us to quicken our steps, perhaps our palms may begin to perspire, we may reach home in a panic. If there were a light there would be no fear and no suffering because there would be no ignorance. We would have seen the tree stump for what it is.
Specifically in Buddhism, we are speaking about ignorance regarding the self, taking the self as real. This is the fundamental cause of suffering. We take our body or ideas or feelings as a self, as a real independent ego just as we take the tree stump for a potential assailant. Once we have this idea of self we have an idea of something that is apart from or different from ourselves. Once we have this idea of something that is apart or different from ourselves, then it is either helpful or hostile. It is either pleasant or unpleasant to ourselves. From this notion of self we have craving and ill-will. Once we believe in the real existence of ourselves, that "we" exist in reality, independently, apart from all others, apart from all the physical objects that surround us, we crave and desire and want those things which benefit us and we are averse towards those things which do not benefit us, which damage us or which are unhelpful to us. Because of this failure to see that in this body and mind there is no independent, permanent self, desire and ill-will inevitably thrive. Out of the root and the trunk of ignorance grow the branches of craving - desire, greed, ill-will, anger, hatred, envy, jealousy, pride and the whole lot. All these branches grow out of the root and trunk of ignorance and these branches bear the fruits of suffering. So here, ignorance is the underlying cause, and craving, ill-will, greed and anger are the secondary or subsequent causes.
After having identified the causes of suffering one is in a position to put an end to suffering. Just as when one might identify the cause of that pain in one”s lower abdomen on the left side as appendicitis, one would then be in a position to remove the cause of the pain. One can put an end to suffering by eliminating the cause of suffering, by eliminating craving, ill-will and ignorance. Here we come to the Third Noble Truth, the truth of the end of suffering.
In dealing with the truth of the end of suffering, the first obstacle that we have to overcome is the doubt that exists in some minds of whether an end of suffering is really possible. Whether one can really end suffering, or whether one can really be cured. It is in this context that confidence or faith plays an important role in Buddhism. When we speak of confidence or faith we do not speak of faith in the sense of blind acceptance. We speak of faith in the sense of recognizing or admitting the possibility of achieving the goal of the end of suffering. If you do not believe that a doctor can cure you of that pain in your abdomen you will never go to a doctor, you will never take the medicine or have the operation and as a result you may die of that illness which could be cured. So confidence, belief in the possibility of being cured is an indispensable pre-requisite. Here too, as in other cases, people may say, "How can I believe in the possibility of Nirvana
How can I believe that the end of suffering is really possible when I have never experienced it
" Well, as I said a moment ago, none of us would have experienced radio waves were it not for the developme…
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