Four Noble Truths for Community
This piece was originally offered in two dharma talks.
The Buddha's Teaching on the Four Truths Realized by the Noble Ones
The truth of suffering: Birth is painful, aging is painful, illness is painful, death is painful, union with what is displeasing is painful, separation from what is pleasing is painful, not to get what one wants is painful; in brief, the five aggregates subject to clinging are painful. (The five aggregates are form, sensation, perception, formations, and consciousness.)
The truth of the origin of suffering: It is this craving that leads to renewed existence, accompanied by delight and lust, seeking delight here and there — that is craving for sensual pleasures, craving for existence, craving for extermination.
The truth of the cessation of suffering: It is the remainderless fading away and cessation of that same craving, the giving up and relinquishing of it, freedom from it, nonattachment.
The truth of the way leading to the cessation of suffering: That is right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.
Four tasks:
The noble truth of suffering is to be fully understood.
The noble truth of the origin of suffering is to be abandoned.
The noble truth of the cessation of suffering is to be realized.
The noble truth of the practice leading to the cessation of suffering is to be developed.
So let's take a look at the Buddha's teachings from the perspective of community. Those core teachings are usually interpreted and understood from an individual view — the precepts as personal ethical code, for example. But the genius of the Buddha's teachings is that it is also possible to scale them up, to the level of small sitting groups, families, workplaces, nations, and the world.
1. The Truth of Dukkha
The first noble truth is the truth of dukkha — an adjective that means "painful" or "stressful." For spiritual communities the same definition provided by the Buddha applies: birth is dukkha, sickness is dukkha, death is dukkha, not getting what the community wants is dukkha, not being with what is loved is dukkha, having to be with what is unloved is dukkha. This applies equally to communities as to individuals.
The Buddha was not saying that dukkha is all that life is. Rather, in the course of our life — and in the life of the community — we will encounter many painful and stressful situations. Awakening means to fully realize this truth. There is no Camelot, no perfect kingdom of eternal bliss, no permanent utopian commune of like-minded people. Our refuge is in our acceptance of the normality and reality of dukkha in the life of our community.
2. The Truth of Samudaya
The painfulness of situations arises, both in individuals and in community, from longing and clinging. A beloved teacher moves away, a place we were meeting is no longer available, a sangha member dies, leaving a hole in the community. Part of the function of ceremonies in community is to come together to process samudaya — in memorial services, for example. It helps to name and acknowledge the painful qualities of situations, to recognize the longing and clinging that arise together with them. In this way the sangha can honestly attend to the suffering and distress felt throughout the community.
3. The Truth of Nirodha
Dukkha arises, therefore dukkha can cease. This is non-trivial: the Buddha spoke of cessation not as a gradual easing but like a candle that is extinguished, or a fire that has entirely consumed its fuel. The cessation of dukkha in community is immediate when its members clearly see and fully accept the situation as it is, address it with wisdom and compassion, let go, and move on.
In fostering nirodha — the extinction of suffering — wise leadership is essential. Wise and compassionate leaders clearly articulate the situation without amplifying the distress, model how to meet the situation with equanimity, offer a vision for addressing it skillfully, and invite the community to let go and move on.
4. The Truth of Marga
The Buddha taught that there is indeed a path — the noble eightfold path — to the cessation of suffering. This eightfold path applies as much to communities as to individuals. Marga is a Sanskrit word that originally referred to the middle of a river, where the water flows freely, not impeded by rocks and branches, and not diverted into side-streams and eddies. A life aligned with the eightfold path flows freely, for individuals and for sanghas alike.
What might this eightfold path look like for communities? The eight steps that follow are not sequential — they are more like fractal dimensions that reflect each other at every level of scale, from the individual to the planet.
1. Right View
A community can support right view through welcoming all views, and using shared discernment, wisdom, and compassion to fully understand the situation — life as it is. That includes not only the situation within the community, but the situation of the community in the larger world. An ecological perspective foregrounds relationships, processes, and flows that include but are not centered on individuals or objects. In considering community we are observing its health and well-being through flows of information, energy, power, and resources.
2. Right Intention
What is the aspiration of a community that goes beyond the individual aspirations of its members? An ecosystem is categorically different from an assembly of individual parts. Without active investigation of our intention and aspiration as a community, we could drift into unhealthy or dangerous waters. By continuing to examine our collective intention in alignment with the Buddha's teachings and our Bodhisattva vow, we can evolve and develop our spiritual community toward deeper purpose and meaning, intimacy and trust.
3. Right Speech
In every community there are norms around speaking: who speaks, when to speak, what to speak about, who gets to speak to whom. The norms may be shaped by tradition, by intention, or by accident. Implicit biases — around gender, race, or socioeconomic class — are pervasive even though invisible to participants. Right speech in community is foundational, and so we train and cultivate skills for nonviolent communication, mindful speech, anti-racism, helpful feedback, and so on, in the service of the sangha.
4. Right Action
Right action is the concrete, embodied expression of right view and right intention. While a community may share a clear view of the situation, may hold the highest aspirations, and may even espouse them in their speech, without realizing them in action they remain only a dream. Right action fulfills our vow and makes it manifest in the community and in the world. Right action prevents our intentions from remaining vague ideals and fantasies. Further, right action cures disabling hesitation, doubt, anxiety, fear, and despair.
In a certain sense, spiritual community can only be established through shared activity. We meditate together, engage in services and ceremonies, and deepen our connections through intensives and shared practices such as sewing, book study, and special interest groups. Trustworthy, wise, compassionate, and ethical action serves to build community in many ways — it engages community members so that they come to know and trust each other more deeply.
5. Right Livelihood
Every spiritual community must find a way to support itself. In doing so it must find a middle way between two ditches. The first ditch is idealizing poverty and lack as "spiritual." The Buddha did not endorse poverty as a spiritual ideal, and advised wealthy followers not to give up their resources but to make wise use of them. The second ditch is excess. A mature sangha based on the generosity model is supported by the freely offered generosity of its participants and well-wishers — which is, in turn, one of the most life-affirming, heart-expanding teachings of the Buddha. The sangha is not a marketplace, and the Buddha's teachings need to be freely offered.
6. Right Effort
Right effort from the ecological perspective means that a sangha is collectively working, both internally and externally, to counter the forces of greed, hostility, and delusion, relieve suffering, and liberate beings. Right effort is wholehearted, without strain and striving, or attachment to outcomes. In meetings, we begin with a brief period of silence — a time to transition mindfully from other activities to the meeting and our shared purpose. Right effort skillfully weaves the social fabric of a community that is resilient, alive, ethical, purposeful, and trustworthy.
7. Right Mindfulness
The Pali word usually translated as "mindfulness" is sati. A more accurate translation would be something like "lucid awakeness." It is not something you do, but a quality of mind or being. At Appamada we teach a relational practice of Zen — we understand that we awaken in and through our encounters and engagement with others. Sati for community means never settling into comfortable complacency. To imagine you are alone in the cosmos is the greatest delusion. You are never apart from anything.
8. Right Concentration
Right concentration is a wholeness that is effortlessly aligned with what is, carrying our shared aspiration without distraction or fragmentation. In community, right concentration means ongoing dynamic attunement and coherence with our true purpose and aspiration — the liberation and relief of suffering for all beings, inside the community and without. We must collect our various energies, skills, and resources into a concentrated whole in order to serve the larger good with the luminous power of the Dharma.
The Eightfold Path illuminates the way for healthy communities and harmonious societies. It can be a framework for shared inquiry and a way to monitor healthy development. We can go even deeper together as we consider the Buddha's teachings on the precepts from the perspective of community.
