Fulfilling the Teaching of the Buddha

　　- by S. N. Goenka

　　The following is a condensed and edited version of a discourse given by Goenkaji on Day 41 of a 45-day course.

　　You have to live Dhamma very seriously, to make best use of this valuable human life. You come to courses to eradicate as much impurity as possible and also to understand Dhamma more deeply. As layers of ignorance are eradicated, the Dhamma becomes clearer and you think, “Oh, this is Dhamma!”

　　There cannot be any doubt about Dhamma. The teaching of the Buddha becomes so clear. Here is a person who is teaching Dhamma not to establish a sect of believers in a particular philosophy. Not at all. The Buddha is the Compassionate One. Out of compassion he teaches Dhamma so that people can come out of misery. He has himself come out of misery by practicing Dhamma, not merely by believing in the theory of Dhamma. Such a person would never give emphasis to mere belief. His entire emphasis will always be on the creative part of Dhamma, the practice of Dhamma.

　　The Buddha said that throughout his life he taught only two things: suffering (dukkha) and the total eradication of suffering (dukkha-nirodha). That”s all he taught. How will establishing a sect eradicate dukkha

　　 How will establishing a belief in a particular philosophy eradicate dukkha

　　 A Buddha is not interested in all those things. He is interested only in actual dukkha-nirodha. All his teaching is directed only towards the actual eradication of dukkha.

　　But these two things, dukkha and dukkha-nirodha, logically become four. To understand dukkha, you must understand dukkha samudaya, how dukkha arises. To realize dukkha-nirodha, you must understand magga—the way, process or path leading to the eradication of dukkha. Thus we have the Four Noble Truths.

　　Now what if the Buddha had been interested only in the theory of these four truths: “Oh people of the world, understand there is dukkha, understand that craving is the cause of dukkha, understand that there is total eradication of dukkha and understand that there is a way to the total eradication of dukkha.”

　　 If all his teaching had ended there, he would have been no different from any other teacher of those days or later times.

　　But that was not his interest. He had become the Buddha not by mere belief in these four truths. He knew that just accepting the Four Truths does not help. One has to do something about them—in Pali language, this is kicca, to be done or put into practice. Then one can say, as the Buddha did, “I have done what is to be done about these Four Truths. The work is done—kataṃ.”

　　However good a philosophy may be, however true it may be, it will not help people to come out of their misery unless the kicca becomes kataṃ. Each inpidual must do whatever has to be done concerning the Four Noble Truths.

　　This is why a Buddha never teaches mere philosophy, and anyone who makes the teaching a philosophy does not benefit from it. Each person must work as the Dhamma intended, as the Buddha intended. And however much they succeed in doing what must be done concerning these four truths, to that extent they have come out of their misery.

　　For the First Noble Truth of dukkha, what has to be done

　　 Explore the entire reality of it, the totality of it—pariññeya. If even a small part is left out, you have not explored it all. You can say you have explored the totality only when you have transcended the field of suffering and gone beyond it. And transcending dukkha is dukkha-nirodha, the eradication of misery.

　　At the same time, exploring dukkha involves observing the Second Noble Truth of dukkha-samudaya, the arising of misery. You observe, “Look how dukkha starts!” And by understanding that, you keep on eradicating the tendency of the …

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