A Cognitive Behavioural interpretation of the four noble truths

[Lunatic]

    “The Four Noble Truths are a summary of dependent origination in that they highlight some of the most important dependencies, particularly the one between Craving and Dukkha. My teacher Ayya Khema referred to the Four Noble Truths as “Dependent origination in telegram style.” Today I guess we would say “... in Twitter style.”^[1]^” (Brasington, 2024, _Dependent Origination and Emptiness_, 28)
    
    @@@

    You judge sb or sth as bad. ““Now this, monks, is the noble truth of stress1 (= dukkha): 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.2” (Setting the Wheel of Dhamma in Motion Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta  (SN 56:11), 7 March 2026, https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/SN/SN56_11.html)
    I consider dukkha as adjective and bad synonyms. (Stressful is also used, with stress as noun form. See above.) Perhaps badness can be used to refer to dukkha as noun: _Now this, monks, is the noble truth of badness: Birth is bad, aging is bad, …_.
    I have found bad to be the most generic word to express negative valence.
    “A term used to indicate the intrinsic goodness or badness of an object, event, or emotion. A positive valence is good and thus desirable, a negative valence is bad and therefore something we seek to avoid.” Jeanes, Emma. "valence." In _A Dictionary of Organizational Behaviour_. : Oxford University Press, https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191843273.001.0001/acref-9780191843273-e-308.
    Except that, “Intellectual fascism—…—is the arbitrary belief that individuals possessing certain traits (such as those who are intelligent, cultured, artistic, creative, or achieving) are intrinsically superior to …. The reason why the belief … is arbitrary is simple: there is no objective evidence to support it.” (Ellis 2004, 213; Ellis and Harper 1975, 79, in reference to the adjectives right (which paraphrases shoulds) and necessary (which paraphrases musts)). I bring this excerpt to support good not being intrinsic.
    “It places the judgment of good on those things we like and bad on those things we dislike.” (Bolte Taylor 2008, 59)
    I say that, “_I don’t like (I am angry at, or saddened, frightened, confused, etc., by) (name) because (why/reason =)…_.” (Katie and Mitchell 2021, 22)
    I add to that list, “not desirous of”, so _I don’t like (I am angry at, or saddened, frightened, confused, not desirous of, etc., by) (name) because …_.
    (“Some of the differences between the basic emotions lists of different investigators have to do with the words used rather than with the emotions implied by the words.^[41]^ … Most of the remaining disagreement is over the fringe cases, like interest, desire, and surprise.” (LeDoux 1996, 121))
    ““And this, monks, is the noble truth of the origination of stress: the craving (= taṇhā; “Craving or excessive or inappropriate desire”) that makes for further becoming—accompanied by passion & delight, relishing now here & now there—i.e., craving for sensuality, craving for becoming, craving for non-becoming.3” (SN 56:11; https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198605607.001.0001/acref-9780198605607-e-1899)
    Here I use, “I don’t like … because …,” to mean either of “I am angry at … because …,”, “I am saddened by … because …,” etc.
    “It should be borne in mind, however, that such paraphrases” are not idiomatic. Much less, “I am not desirous of (I am angry at, or saddened, frightened, confused, etc., by) (name) because ….”
    So I use “I like” to refer to enjoyment. See https://www.paulekman.com/universal-emotions/what-is-enjoyment/.
    ““I can choose to discover what I like (enjoy) and dislike (disenjoy) …” (Ellis 2004, 233)
    But, “You must get rid of all desire. You can enjoy without desire. In fact, if you really want to enjoy things, you can enjoy far more without desire.” (Levenson 1993)
    “If there's a desire there's something we don't have.” (“Lester Levenson, Hale Dwoskin -…”, 165)
    Either I have sth or I don't. If I do then I either like it or I don't. If do like it then I don't say that I want it, unless “for example, you cling to your enjoyment; you want it to last, you want more of it, or you’re afraid of losing it even as it’s happening.” (Katie and Mitchell 2017, chap. 73) But also if it is not mine. But in that case, do I have it? If I don't like it then I don't want it. If I don't have it then I either like it or I don't like it. If I do like it then I want it. (If I like broccoli but I don't want it now then I don't like it now.) If I don't like it then I don't want it. This said, I might, at the same time, like or dislike sth for different reasons.
    “Desire breaks down into attachments and aversions.” (“Lester Levenson, Hale Dwoskin - Lester Levenson (Sedona Method) Magnum Opus PDF-Lester Levenson _ Sedona Method (2024)”, 1471)
    “Things we dislike, we have aversions to. But an aversion is a desire not to have. So even an aversion is a desire.” (“Lester Levenson, Hale Dwoskin -…”, 736)
    “But eliminate desire and you're finished. Nothing else to do. I'll probably break the triangle down into more. I think I'll start with desire in the top and then come down to two. Attachments, aversion, and break that down into probably emotions and tendencies and thoughts at the bottom.” (“Lester Levenson, Hale Dwoskin -…”, 1470–1471) See “The abundance course - Crane, Lawrence;Levenson, Lester, 1909-.pdf”, https://archive.org/details/abundancecourse00cran, 10–21.
    “When I say love is not an emotion, emotion is energy in motion. It's an intense active, disturbing thing, an emotion is. The emotion of love is the most peaceful of feelings. And in that sense I mean that love is not an emotion. People need each other and think it is love.” (“Lester Levenson, Hale Dwoskin -…”, 290)
    Nirvana, “Love itself is not an emotion. It's a very, it's the quietest of all things. (“Lester Levenson, Hale Dwoskin -…”, 285)
    Love can be used to refer to liking (“like or enjoy very much”), to being approved of (loved) and to nirvana/your Self (the quietest of all things).
    See also, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taṇhā#Types, “__YOUR TICKET TO IMPERTURBABILITY__” (= Your ticket to your Self.) “Allow the <u>wanting approval</u>, <u>wanting to control</u> and <u>wanting security</u> (= “wanting to survive as a body”) to come into your awareness and immediately let it go.” (gains_workbook-sedona-method-release-technique-1992.pdf, 90) “The Three Centers of Unhappiness” (Keyes 1975, chap. 10)
    “Some religious devotees, like extreme Zen Buddhists, have to reach Nirvana and give up _all_ desire to (= in order to) achieve holiness. But obviously, if they achieved complete desirelessness, they wouldn’t want to eat and survive.” (Ellis 2004, 128)
    
    @@@
    
    CBT stands for Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.
    “C” in CBT stands for Cognitive. Cognitions include thinking, reasoning, etc.
    One of CBT's tenets is sometimes worded as, “You FEEL the way you THINK.”
    But when you dislike sb or sth, you may or may not be able to find a prior thought. (Much less define it clearly). To find a because/why/reason. 
    LeDoux says, “The fact that emotional learning can be mediated by pathways that bypass the neocortex is intriguing, for it suggests that emotional responses can occur without the involvement of the higher processing systems of the brain, systems believed to be involved in thinking, reasoning, and consciousness.”
    Refer to this picture, https://www.joseph-ledoux.com/neuroscientist.
    So I like, “You COGNISE the way you THINK.” better.
    I say _prior_ thought because, “It is an obvious neurological fact that before you can experience any event, you must process it with your mind and give it meaning.” (Burns 1999, 29)
    So a prior cognition exists.
    
    Is pain intrinsically bad? No. “All suffering is mental. It has nothing to do with the body or with a person’s circumstances. You can be in great pain without any suffering at all.” (Katie and Mitchell 2007, chap. 5; https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/SN/SN36_6.html)
    Are emotions/feelings such as sadness and anger bad? Yes. Our raft considers them bad. But not intrinsically. “In terms of the famous raft simile [§§113-114], one abandons the raft only after crossing the flood. If one were to abandon it in mid-flood, to make a show of going spontaneously with the flow of the flood’s many currents, one could drown.” (wings210213.pdf, 53; Tolle 1999, 67; Katie and Mitchell 2017, 104) “The more you quiet the mind, the more you feel the Self - and the better you feel. You feel as good as your mind is quiet.” (Lester 1993, chap. 10) They are bad by the same standard that we use to judge right and wrong on the path. E.g., “right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.” “If you need a right and wrong, doing that which helps your growth is right; doing that which hinders your growth is wrong.” (Lester 1993, chap. 33)
    
    @@@
    
    Burns says, “Anger, like all emotions, is created by your cognitions. … Your feelings result from the meaning you give to the event, _not_ from the event itself.” (Burns 1999, 154)
    “To help Bill live a happier life, he would be more effective if he focused on the _immediate, practical cause of his anger,_ which was _his own programming_ rather than Frank’s actions.” (Keyes 1992, 33)
    But I like Leigh Brasington's take better, dependent upon _cognitions_, _feelings_ arise.
    “If something is happening and you want it to stop, find a necessary condition for that something and turn off that necessary condition – the something ceases.” (Brasington, 2024, _Dependent Origination and Emptiness_, 27–29)
    Ellis, most relevantly, states that, “The cognitive solution to procrastination-linked disturbance, therefore, largely involves looking actively for the irrational decrees that you place on yourself and others, defining them as clearly as you can and vigorously and repetitively undermining them until you have much less of a tendency to use them again.” (Ellis and Knaus 1979, 89)
    The thought, e.g., “I am angry at Paul because (because/why/reason, situation/event=) he lied to me.” is brought to inquiry as “Paul lied to me,” “Paul shouldn't lie to me,” “I don't want Paul to lie to me,” etc. (“Isolating One-liners to Take to Inquiry”, https://thework.com/part-three/)
    “Before the thought, you weren’t suffering; with the thought, you’re suffering; when you recognize that the thought isn’t true, again there is no suffering. That is how The Work functions.” (Katie and Mitchell 2021, chap. 1, 9)
    So if by turning off the prior cognition there is no suffering, a prior cognition exists and is involved in that suffering (is responsible for it) and not just in the processing of an “intrinsically” bad event and you have found a necessary condition that can be turned off (= shown to be false).
    By necessary I mean necessary for that suffering to arise.
    So you no longer dislike the person or the thing, action, etc., in this case Paul, having shown that the reason is not true. So Paul is no longer bad. So I no longer experience stress, but relief (= happiness/enjoyment).
    More specifically, it is not true that “Paul shouldn't lie to me,” “I don't want Paul to lie to me,” etc. (or even, perhaps, that “Paul lied to me”), therefore that “I don't like Paul” (that “I am angry at Paul because he lied to me”, and that “I don't like Paul because he lied to me”). ““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.” (SN 56:11) Indeed, it is no longer true that “I don't want Paul to lie to me.” “There’s an easy way to realization. Just get rid of all desires.” (Levenson 1993, 113) See 1_PDFsam_Scan_0152.pdf; Scan_0145.pdf; “PDFsam_merge (2).pdf”, 1 for the relationships between wanting or not wanting sth and wanting or not wanting its logical or temporal consequences. Which ultimately are Levenson's three wants (gains_workbook-sedona-method-release-technique-1992.pdf, 90) which in turn are really wanting your Self.
    (“I have never experienced a stressful feeling that wasn’t caused by attaching to an untrue thought (= cognition; in light of what LeDoux says).” “We’re usually aware of the feeling before the thought.” (Katie and Mitchell 2021, chap. 1) 
    But what if you dislike sb or sth but you can't find a reason/why they are bad? In other words, what if you experience a stressful feeling, find the _cause_ (= bad person or thing; dependent upon Paul, anger arises), but you can't find a reason? Paul _causing_ my anger is not a valid reason so far as our inquiry is concerned, that is, “I am angry at Paul because (reason =) I am angry at Paul.” I don't know, but “When the Story Is Hard to Find” (Katie and Mitchell 2021, chap. 10) “_Finding What’s Left_” (Katie and Jensen 2000, 111) “_Temporary Band-Aids And Exercises_” (Katie 1996, 69–73) ~~“To take it a step further, can you really know that you feel hurt because Paul is angry? Is Paul’s anger actually _causing_ your hurt?” (Katie and Mitchell 2021, chap. 5)~~ Regardless, “In my experience, it can’t be your husband’s breath that’s driving you crazy; it has to be your _thoughts_ (= cognitions) about his breath that are driving you crazy. So let’s take a closer look and see if that’s true. What are your thoughts about his breath on the phone?” (Katie and Mitchell 2021, xxi; Katie and Mitchell 2021, chap. 4, 35; Katie and Mitchell 2017, chap. 12, 102))
    So rather than trying to control or change the person, thing, situation/event, etc. you control, so to speak, the thought, by disproving it.
    Which leads to your Self. (“Two Sorts of Thinking Dvedhāvitakka Sutta  (MN 19)”, 7 March 2026, https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/MN/MN19.html)
    “Once you see the truth, the thought lets go of _you_, not the other way around.” (Katie and Mitchell 2021, 152)
    When your feelings are up and out, your mind is naturally quiet. And you're self-obvious to yourself as to the fact that you are whole, complete, perfect, eternal.” (“Lester Levenson, Hale Dwoskin - Lester Levenson (Sedona Method) Magnum Opus PDF-Lester Levenson _ Sedona Method (2024)”, 394)
    The thoughts are blocking out the awareness of your Self. Nirvana, which is what you are really craving for (= cosmic joke).
    
    @@@
    
    _Miscellaneous._
    So both the thought/cognition about the event (or the person, thing, etc.) and the event are necessary conditions.
    But while you may not be able to turn off the event from consciousness, you can metaphorically turn off the thought by showing that it is not true.
    Brasington uses the light switch metaphor.
    “Changing my tapes is easier (and more likely to happen) than trying to change someone to fit my demanding programming (= stressful thought/belief system).” (Keyes 1992, 176)
    The latter leads away from your Self.
    And, “It’s trying to get what you want, rather than wanting what you have, which is the only way you can ever be happy.” (Katie and Mitchell 2017, chap. 27)
    “Reality is a race, consciousness is a race towards who can love (= “like or enjoy very much”) who more.” (…, “Outrageous Experiments In Consciousness - 30 Awakenings In 30 Days”, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnn0IU0-atg, 1 hr., 1 min., 55 sec.)
    So you don't have to change things, you just have not to dislike them. “Would you let go of the thought that you dislike the person, thing or situation if you could?”
    “The Buddha compares his teaching to a raft that takes people from the shore of suffering to the shore of freedom.” “The Work too is like a raft. The four questions and the turnarounds help you move from confusion to clarity.” (Katie and Mitchell 2017, chap. 6) ““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.4” (SN 56:11)
    The Work, Byron Katies's CBT is part of my raft along with the Albert Ellis' REBT, David Burn's Feeling Great, etc.

    You dislike (= _I am angry at, …_) sb or sth because you believe that it is bad (= “substandard”, “dreadful”, “harmful”, “wicked”, …, “inauspicious”, etc. (Oxford Thesaurus of English (3 ed.), 61)), for certain reasons.
    E.g., “Paul shouldn’t lie to me” can be paraphrased as “It is bad (= wicked) of Paul to lie to me.”
    “Thomas should quit smoking,” “It is bad (= inauspicious) for Thomas to smoke.”
    “It’s not attached to pleasure, because it doesn’t need more than it has already. Usually pleasure is a subtle form of discomfort, because even as you’re enjoying sex or food, for example, you cling to your enjoyment; you want it to last, you want more of it, or you’re afraid of losing it even as it’s happening. The difference between pleasure and joy? Ohhh…the distance is from here to the moon—from here to another galaxy! Pleasure is an attempt to fill yourself. Joy is what you are.” (Katie and Mitchell 2017, chap. 73)
    “Good things, bad things; good people, bad people. These opposites are valid only by contrast. … In reality—as it is in itself—every thing, every person, lies far beyond your capacity to judge (= reason).” (Katie and Mitchell 2007, 8)
    “You can't have good without bad. All words are necessarily relative. One relates to the other. If everything was all good all the time, there'd be no such thing as goodness. You couldn't understand it.” (“Lester Levenson, Hale Dwoskin -…”, 977)
    Citations refer to my previous post.
    
    

[Lunatic]

    “I add to that list, “not desirous of”, so _I don’t like (I am angry at, or saddened, frightened, confused, not desirous of, etc., by) (name) because …_.”
    Probably I should not add desire to that list.
    Indeed …
    _I am afraid of Paul because …._
    (“Fear is a desire not to have something happen (= event/situation).” (“Lester Levenson, Hale Dwoskin -…”, 60))
    I am not desirous of (= undesirous of; aversive _to_) Paul because (event/situation =) ….
    (““It should be borne in mind, however, that such paraphrases” are not idiomatic. Much less, “I am not desirous of (I am angry at, or saddened, frightened, confused, etc., by) (name) because ….””)
    Anger is, “The desire to strike out to hurt and stop the other one, but with hesitation. We might or might not strike out.” (The abundance course - Crane, Lawrence;Levenson, Lester, 1909-.pdf”, https://archive.org/details/abundancecourse00cran, 21)
    Sadness is …
    …
    
    Statement number 1 on the Judge-Your-Neighbor Worksheet. A list of alternatives.
    - __I don't like … because ….__ (Katie and Mitchell 2021, 22)
    - __I complain about … because ….__ (“Byron Katie's The Work One-Two-Three”, 15 March 2026, https://thework.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Work-of-Byron-Katie-Worksheet-Packet-v20251103.pdf)
    “Complain” sounds disapproving to me for the person who uses it and it does not express a feeling unlike, say, “upset or unhappy.” (“[_disapproval_]” (, complainer (adj.), 15 March 2026, https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/complainer))
    - __I am upset or unhappy with (sb/sth =) … because ….__ (“In the Living Love System, an addiction is any desire that makes you upset or unhappy if it is not satisfied.” (Keyes 1975, 12) “… although increasingly people use the word happiness to refer to their overall sense of well-being or evaluation of their lives rather than a particular enjoyment emotion.” (…, 15 March 2026, https://www.paulekman.com/universal-emotions/what-is-enjoyment/) On the other hand, “unhappy” is used to refer to sad or dissatisfied. (_Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary_))
    “unhappy or disappointed because of something unpleasant that has happened” (…, upset (adj.), sense 1, 15 March 2026, https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/upset_1)
    - __I hate__ (= “to dislike somebody/something very much” (_Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary_)) __… because ….__ (“And by hate I mean anything that's not love. Love (?), fear, envy, jealousy, apathy, all those attitudes are different degrees of hate. At least the way I use it, they are.” (“Lester Levenson, Hale Dwoskin -…”, 629) “And that all feelings relative to love are negative and cut off our capacity to love.” (~, 38))
    - __I feel bad about/for … because ….__
    - __I am not desirous of__ (= undesirous of; aversive _to_) __Paul because ….__
    
    I feel bad (= “__guilty__, conscience-stricken, remorseful, guilt-ridden, ashamed,” etc. ) _about/for_ … because ….
    “PREP. __about__”
    https://www.freecollocation.com/search?word=bad; _Oxford Collocations Dictionary for students of English (2 ed.)_, bad (adj.), sense 3, “guilty/sorry”, p. 53.
    15 March 2026, https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=feel+bad+*_ADP&year_start=1800&year_end=2022&corpus=en&smoothing=3.
    “__feel bad__ to feel guilty or sorry about something”
    …, bad (adj.), sense 12, “guilty/sorry”, 15 March 2026, https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/bad_1.
    “regretful, guilty, or ashamed about something”
    _Oxford Dictionary of English (3 ed.)_, bad (adj.), sense 6, 15 March 2026, https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199571123.001.0001/m_en_gb0055370.
    _colloquial_ (originally U.S.). Troubled, unhappy; in low spirits; contrite, remorseful. Esp. in __to feel bad__: to be embarrassed or unhappy (_about_ a situation, etc.). Cf. _to feel good_ at __good__ _adj._ A.I.6a.iv.
    _Oxford English Dictionary_, “bad (adj.), sense III.11,” December 2025, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/9210610335.
    “__guilty__, conscience-stricken, remorseful, guilt-ridden, ashamed, chastened, contrite, sorry, full of regret, regretful, repentant, penitent, shamefaced, self-reproachful, apologetic.”
    _Oxford Thesaurus of English (3 ed.)_, bad (adj.), sense 11, “__guilty__”, “__ANTONYMS__ unrepentant”, p. 61)
    https://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/feel-bad