Manual of Insight: Eightfold Path (Ledi Sayadaw)

Ledi Sayadaw; Pariyatti.org; Editors, Wisdom Quarterly

Santāpa: oppression by burning
The senses are the source of so much suffering by means of the defilements, which they awaken in the hearts of people.
 

These defilements are like great fires that are continually re-fueled and burn without dying down from the beginningless past to the endless future in the round of birth and death or samsara.
 

These great fires are three in number, the fires of:

1. greed
2. aversion
3. delusion.

And when they are re-fueled through the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and/or mind, they ensure that one’s future in samsāra will be long and miserable.
 

It is right-view knowledge that gives one an understanding of the immense sea of suffering born of attachment to sense pleasures -- whether one is reborn in the sense sphere, the fine-material sphere, or the formless sphere.
 

2. Right view of the causal arising of suffering
In the round of birth and death, the continued wandering on (samsara), so long as there is attachment to the senses as “mine” or “myself,” so long continues oppressiveness and suffering. So it is craving, desire, and greed connected with the senses that is the true immediate cause for the arising of suffering.
 

It is right-view knowledge that gives one understanding of the causal arising of suffering by way of craving.
 

3. Right view of the cessation of suffering
In whatever life the craving and greed connected with the senses finally cease, the suffering and oppression finally cease as well. The senses do not arise again after the death of the person who has extinguished craving.
 
It is right-view knowledge that gives one understanding of the cessation of craving.
 

4. Right view of the path leading to the cessation of suffering
When, as a result of practicing Dharma in general and developing the mind in meditation in particular, the true nature of the senses is seen and understood, craving connected with them ceases [of its own accord] in this very life. It does not arise again, so sense oppression likewise does not arise.

It is right-view knowledge that gives one understanding of the true path leading to the cessation of craving. Among all the parts of the Noble Eightfold Path, this right view of the Four Noble Truths is most essential.

This concludes the brief exposition of right view of the Four Truths.

II. Right Thought
This is explained under three headings:

1. Thoughts of renunciation (i.e., generosity).
2. Thoughts of non-harming (i.e., loving kindness).
3. Thoughts of non-violence (i.e., compassion).... More