The Four Seals - Everything Defiled is Suffering

This is part of four related posts about “The Four Seals” of Buddhism. Please see the links at the bottom to view the other posts.

So what does defiled mean in this context? What is the defiled? What is the stain? Defiled means defiled by disturbing emotions. When something is defiled by disturbing emotions then with that there is suffering. The three main defilements, the root of all other disturbing emotions are called ‘The three Poisons’ in Buddhism: Anger or aversion, clinging attachment, and ignorance. The root of these three is ignorance - ignorance is the most important. If we remove ignorance than anger and clinging can not remain. Ignorance does not just mean that we don’t know something, it means that that we are actively misapprehending our situation and so we make mistakes - no matter what the actions we engage in while influenced by ignorance will bring some amount of suffering - for instance, even if we have a happy outcome from an action, we are reinforcing the ignorant view. If we act out of ignorance then we are reinforcing that state.

His Holiness said,

It may not be experienced as suffering, but suffering is there.

So when the Buddha taught the first noble truth, he said, ‘Life is suffering’. ZaChoeje Rinpoche says that is a bad translation, that we should say, ‘life has suffering’, or ‘life has the potential of suffering’, but the point here is that life under the influence of the disturbing emotions is suffering. So the first noble truth is born out of this axiom: “Everything defiled is suffering”. The first Noble Truth describes a result - one of suffering. The cause is illustrated in the second noble truth. There is a cause of suffering. The cause of suffering is disturbing emotions and karmic actions. The cause of disturbing emotions is ignorance. The result of these is suffering.

We first said that, “All composite things are impermanent”, and I think I mentioned that our bodies are composite. The composites that make up the body are called the “Skandhas” - form, feeling, perception, impulses, and consciousness. So if you we have these skandhas and we have the disturbing emotions caused by ignorance, then we are suffering. This mix of ignorance and Skandhas is called ‘the suffering of the composite’

None of us want to suffer. That is true. Even if we are hurting ourselves we will say, ‘i just want to feel alive’ or something like that. We want to feel alive instead of dead - instead of suffering. So if we can see this suffering due to ignorance and disturbances, then we will want to turn away from the suffering of the composite - this is called renunciation. That is what we mean by renunciation. The mind of someone who realizes the source of suffering will turn away from that source.

Now what is it that we are ignorant of? What are we missing that is causing us to misapprehend our reality and give rise to disturbing emotions? That question will be answered in the next installment of this series which will deal with the third axiom: “All phenomena are empty and without inherent entity”.

The Four Immeasurable Thoughts
May all beings have happiness and it’s causes.
May all beings be free from suffering and it’s causes.
May all beings never be separated from the happiness which is free from suffering.
May all beings abide in equanimity, free from both attachment and detachment.

Related:
The First Seal - All Composite Things are Impermanent
The Second Seal - Everything Defiled Is Suffering
The Third Seal - All phenomena are empty and without inherent entity
The Fourth Seal - Nirvana is peace