Meaning of Shiku:
Birth
Old Age
Sickness
Death
Meaning of Hakku: (in addition to the four above)
Not getting what you want.
Encountering something you don’t like.
Being separated from someone you like.
Being around people you don’t like.
Shiku hakku
The world in which we live is full of various kinds of suffering. Illness and old age bring about physical suffering. There are people who suffer psychological and spiritual anguish. Human relationships at home or in the work place can be stressful. And some may be fearful of the moment of death that we all will experience at the conclusion of our lives. Most of these forms of suffering cannot be resolved solely by advances in civilization or human effort.
In Buddhism, realities such as these, which our power alone cannot control and which no one can avoid, are referred to as the four and eight kinds of suffering (shiku hakku). Even those who currently feel that they have no particular hardships in their lives eventually will experience these four sufferings and eight sufferings. In fact, it is often the case that these forms of suffering appear together with the effects of the negative causes that we ourselves have amassed from our past lifetimes. As a result, sufferings can intensify and cause us to fall to rock bottom.
In the “Letter From Sado” (“Sado-gosho”), Nichiren Daishonin states:
Indeed, I must eradicate in this lifetime the grave karmic sins from the past, so that I can eliminate the three evil paths in my future existences. (Gosho, p. 580)
Regardless of how heavy the karmic sins from our past lifetimes may be, the benefit of upholding faith in the teachings of the mystic Law (Myoho) revealed by Nichiren Daishonin is tremendously powerful. He teaches us that the effects of slander from past lifetimes will be entirely eliminated, and we can liberate ourselves from a life of suffering.
The four sufferings (shiku) are birth, aging, sickness, and death. The eight sufferings (hakku) are these four sufferings and the four additional sufferings of having to part from those whom we love; having to meet that those we hate; being unable to obtain what we desire; and the suffering arising from the five components, which constitute our body and mind.
Of the four sufferings, birth represents the agony of being born. It denotes the suffering of being born to into the cycle of transmigrating the six paths of hell, hunger, animality, anger, humanity, and rapture.
Aging refers to the suffering of being born human and having to gradually grow old. In modern society, we encounter various problems concerning the elderly. Each one of us will experience the suffering of growing old.
Sickness indicates the suffering caused by illnesses. When we are sick, we are affected both physically and mentally. There are some people who manifest extreme behavior when they are sick. The suffering of illnesses will assail all of us.
Death refers to the suffering of facing our demise. As long as we are born into this world, we eventually must encounter death. In general, we all possess the fear of dying.
Next, the suffering of having to part from those whom we love describes the anguish of having to separate from the people we love, such as our spouses, parents, siblings, and friends.
The suffering of having to meet those we hate is to be forced to encounter those we resent or dislike. Regardless of the reason, being forced to meet with someone we hate is stressful.
The suffering of being unable to obtain what we desire refers to the inability to gain satisfaction by getting what we want in our life. We all strive to obtain various things. However, we are tormented when we are unable to fulfill our wishes.
The final form of suffering is that arising from the five components, which constitute our bodies and minds. The five components consist of form, perception, conception, volition, and consciousness. This type of suffering represents intense physical and mental anguish.
Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta: Setting the Wheel of Dhamma in Motion
translated from the Pali by
Thanissaro Bhikkhu
I have heard that on one occasion the Blessed One was staying at Varanasi in the Game Refuge at Isipatana. There he addressed the group of five monks:
"There are these two extremes that are not to be indulged in by one who has gone forth. Which two? That which is devoted to sensual pleasure with reference to sensual objects: base, vulgar, common, ignoble, unprofitable; and that which is devoted to self-affliction: painful, ignoble, unprofitable. Avoiding both of these extremes, the middle way realized by the Tathagata — producing vision, producing knowledge — leads to calm, to direct knowledge, to self-awakening, to Unbinding."And what is the middle way realized by the Tathagata that — producing vision, producing knowledge — leads to calm, to direct knowledge, to self-awakening, to Unbinding? Precisely this Noble Eightfold Path: right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. This is the middle way realized by the Tathagata that — producing vision, producing knowledge — leads to calm, to direct knowledge, to self-awakening, to Unbinding.
"Now this, monks, is the noble truth of stress:[1] Birth is stressful, aging is stressful, death is stressful; sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair are stressful; association with the unbeloved is stressful, separation from the loved is stressful, not getting what is wanted is stressful. In short, the five clinging-aggregates are stressful.
"And this, monks, is the noble truth of the origination of stress: the craving that makes for further becoming — accompanied by passion & delight, relishing now here & now there — i.e., craving for sensual pleasure, craving for becoming, craving for non-becoming.
"And this, monks, is the noble truth of the cessation of stress: the remainderless fading & cessation, renunciation, relinquishment, release, & letting go of that very craving.
"And this, monks, is the noble truth of the way of practice leading to the cessation of stress: precisely this Noble Eightfold Path — right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.
"Vision arose, insight arose, discernment arose, knowledge arose, illumination arose within me with regard to things never heard before: 'This is the noble truth of stress.' Vision arose, insight arose, discernment arose, knowledge arose, illumination arose within me with regard to things never heard before: 'This noble truth of stress is to be comprehended.' Vision arose, insight arose, discernment arose, knowledge arose, illumination arose within me with regard to things never heard before:' This noble truth of stress has been comprehended.'
"Vision arose, insight arose, discernment arose, knowledge arose, illumination arose within me with regard to things never heard before: 'This is the noble truth of the origination of stress'... 'This noble truth of the origination of stress is to be abandoned' [2] ... 'This noble truth of the origination of stress has been abandoned.'
"Vision arose, insight arose, discernment arose, knowledge arose, illumination arose within me with regard to things never heard before: 'This is the noble truth of the cessation of stress'... 'This noble truth of the cessation of stress is to be directly experienced'... 'This noble truth of the cessation of stress has been directly experienced.'
"Vision arose, insight arose, discernment arose, knowledge arose, illumination arose within me with regard to things never heard before: 'This is the noble truth of the way of practice leading to the cessation of stress'... 'This noble truth of the way of practice leading to the cessation of stress is to be developed'... 'This noble truth of the way of practice leading to the cessation of stress has been developed.' [3]
"And, monks, as long as this — my three-round, twelve-permutation knowledge & vision concerning these four noble truths as they have come to be — was not pure, I did not claim to have directly awakened to the right self-awakening unexcelled in the cosmos with its deities, Maras, & Brahmas, with its contemplatives & brahmans, its royalty & commonfolk. But as soon as this — my three-round, twelve-permutation knowledge & vision concerning these four noble truths as they have come to be — was truly pure, then I did claim to have directly awakened to the right self-awakening unexcelled in the cosmos with its deities, Maras & Brahmas, with its contemplatives & brahmans, its royalty & commonfolk. Knowledge & vision arose in me: 'Unprovoked is my release. This is the last birth. There is now no further becoming.'"
That is what the Blessed One said. Gratified, the group of five monks delighted at his words. And while this explanation was being given, there arose to Ven. Kondañña the dustless, stainless Dhamma eye: Whatever is subject to origination is all subject to cessation.
And when the Blessed One had set the Wheel of Dhamma in motion, the earth devas cried out: "At Varanasi, in the Game Refuge at Isipatana, the Blessed One has set in motion the unexcelled Wheel of Dhamma that cannot be stopped by brahman or contemplative, deva, Mara or God or anyone in the cosmos." On hearing the earth devas' cry, the devas of the Four Kings' Heaven took up the cry... the devas of the Thirty-three... the Yama devas... the Tusita devas... the Nimmanarati devas... the Paranimmita-vasavatti devas... the devas of Brahma's retinue took up the cry: "At Varanasi, in the Game Refuge at Isipatana, the Blessed One has set in motion the unexcelled Wheel of Dhamma that cannot be stopped by brahman or contemplative, deva, Mara, or God or anyone at all in the cosmos."
So in that moment, that instant, the cry shot right up to the Brahma worlds. And this ten-thousand fold cosmos shivered & quivered & quaked, while a great, measureless radiance appeared in the cosmos, surpassing the effulgence of the devas.
Then the Blessed One exclaimed: "So you really know, Kondañña? So you really know?" And that is how Ven. Kondañña acquired the name Añña-Kondañña — Kondañña who knows.
Notes
1.
The Pali phrases for the four noble truths are grammatical anomalies. From these anomalies, some scholars have argued that the expression "noble truth" is a later addition to the texts. Others have argued even further that the content of the four truths is also a later addition. Both of these arguments are based on the unproven assumption that the language the Buddha spoke was grammatically regular, and that any irregularities were later corruptions of the language. This assumption forgets that the languages of the Buddha's time were oral dialects, and that the nature of such dialects is to contain many grammatical irregularities. Languages tend to become regular only when being used to govern a large nation state or to produce a large body of literature: events that happened in India only after the Buddha's time. (A European example: Italian was a group of irregular oral dialects until Dante fashioned it into a regular language for the sake of his poetry.) Thus the irregularity of the Pali here is no proof either for the earliness or lateness of this particular teaching.
2.
Another argument for the lateness of the expression "noble truth" is that a truth — meaning an accurate statement about a body of facts — is not something that should be abandoned. In this case, only the craving is to be abandoned, not the truth about craving. However, in Vedic Sanskrit — as in modern English — a "truth" can mean both a fact and an accurate statement about a fact. Thus in this case, the "truth" is the fact, not the statement about the fact, and the argument for the lateness of the expression does not hold.
3.
The discussion in the four paragraphs beginning with the phrase, "Vision arose...," takes two sets of variables — the four noble truths and the three levels of knowledge appropriate to each — and lists their twelve permutations. In ancient Indian philosophical and legal traditions, this sort of discussion is called a wheel. Thus, this passage is the Wheel of Dhamma from which the discourse takes its name.
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