Practicing with The Four Noble Truths in the World

A lineage both traces back to our ancestors and continues forward through our descendants.
In reflecting on how the fourfold Sangha is a continuation of our dear Thầy, we see, too, how
Thầy’s teachings can be traced back to the Buddha and the foundational Four Noble Truths.
There is the recognition that there is suffering, there are causes of suffering, there is a way to
end the causes of suffering, and this way entails seeing and understanding things clearly as
they are so we may transform the causes of suffering into sources of happiness.
Thầy is known to the world as one of the founders of socially Engaged Buddhism because
he saw and taught clearly that these Noble Truths are the same in our daily interpersonal
interactions and in the systemic social inequities that lead to racism, war, and other oppressions. Inspired by Thầy’s teaching and example, ARISE Core Group member and Dharma teacher Marisela B. Gomez penned “Practicing with the Four Noble Truths in the World,” which invites
practice with the Noble Truths through the lens of the intersectional suffering that arises from
racial and social inequities. We offer this teaching as a continuation of Thầy’s efforts to assure
a Buddhism for everyone, no matter where they are located.
The Four Noble Truths was used as the framework for ARISE’s recent training entitled Race:
A Dharma Door. Thầy transitioned from his body while we were practicing with the Fourth Noble Truth, reminding us that his legacy, when practiced, is the path away from suffering. We are
grateful to our beloved teacher for teaching us how to practice with the Four Noble Truths in
the world.
With deep gratitude,
The ARISE Core Group:
Antoinette González
Kim Fleisher
Lori A. Perine
Marisela B. Gomez
Renita Wong
Victoria Mausisa
Practicing with
The Four Noble Truths
in the World
An offering from ARISE1: Dharma teacher
Marisela B. Gomez uses inspiration from
Thích Nhất Hạnh to show us how to
transform the suffering of
racial injustice.
Opposite illustration by
Julie Lai

THE F IRST N O BL E T R U T H: U ND ER S TAN D T H AT T H E SUF F E R I N G O F
If we were to practice with the suffering in the world, we would be invited to acknowledge
and understand this truth and the different ways it manifests—its history and its legacy.
We can acknowledge the history of the US, a country built through racial oppression of enslaved African Americans, Native Indigenous peoples who inhabited this land before the
colonists arrived, and other people of color who migrated from the Global South, such as
Asians, Latinx, and Pacific Islanders. The legacy of this history continues today, in different
forms since the 1600s when the first enslaved Black person was brought to the US. The
nobility of acknowledging truths that lead us to our liberation is our path. The pain of this
suffering, experienced by both BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and other people of color), and
non-POC can be acknowledged and embraced: “Hello my trauma, anger, sadness, impatience, and hurt of racism; I know you are there and I will do my best to take good care of
you; I will not shy away from you and cover you up. I will learn skillful ways to recognize
how and where you manifest, the effects on my body and mind, and how this pain affects
others, and slowly heal you.”
THE SECON D NO BL E T R U T H: A BA NDON T H E PAT H L E AD I N G TO T H E
When we take time to understand the history of racial oppression, we begin to understand why the inequity between whites and people of color exists today and can practice
abandoning this path. For example, we understand that enslaved African Americans were
exploited to cultivate the land and to labor in all sectors of society to provide great wealth
to plantation owners, who in turn participated in an economy that enriched white people
in all sectors of society. The effect of individual and collective greed fueling and leading
to aversion/hatred of people of color—mediated through a collective delusion of race and
class-based inferiority, superiority, and equality complexes—fabricated the ideology and
structures of the US and beyond. This fabricated society assured that there was no opportunity for African Americans to own land, to attend schools, to be paid for labor, to
receive appropriate medical care, to live in adequate and safe housing, etc, etc. This tremendous disadvantage for African Americans and Native Indigenous peoples (who were
displaced from their land) for the past four hundred plus years—and other people of color
in subsequent years—has resulted in the greatest wealth and health gap between whites
and African Americans—and BIPOC. For example, the life expectancy in neighborhoods of
My dear body and mind, I know that the generational trauma
of racial injustice still lives in my body and mind;
I hold you dearly, with love and tenderness, and release you
to mother earth for transformation and healing.

low-income Black people can be ten to fifteen years less than higher income white neighborhoods. This continues to occur across the US in every city. These structural inequities
were enforced against populations of people based on their race and class. This violence
caused pain and suffering, traumatizing African Americans, Native Indigenous peoples,
and other BIPOC. Racial oppression causes trauma in our body and mind. Hatred is an
energy that diminishes the energy of love. No one benefits from hatred, and everyone requires healing. We can take care of this suffering: “My dear body and mind, I know that the
generational trauma of racial injustice still lives in my body and mind; I hold you dearly,
with love and tenderness, and release you to Mother Earth for transformation and healing. I know that the effects of such violence still live in my body as a descendant of the
oppressed and of the oppressor and I acknowledge this pain in me and will take good
care of you. Because we are interconnected, the searing of the whip against a Black body
is my scar today; I hold it with tenderness and release. There is no separation: as my heart
heals and the scars diminish in this oppressed/oppressor body, a heart heals and a scar
diminishes in the oppressor/oppressed body. I make the determination to continuously
practice abandoning the ways I have internalized and continue to externalize this legacy
of violence in my thoughts, speech, and actions.”
THE THI R D NO BL E T R U T H: R EA L I Z E T H E E N D TO T H I S SUF F E R I N G O F
As we turn toward this suffering of racial injustice and heal the wounds in our body and
mind, we begin to heal this trauma. The release and realization of this suffering in our
body and mind heals the fear and anxiety of continued racial trauma. Even while we might
continue to experience racial injustice or intentionally or unintentionally perpetuate racial
injustice, we meet these new experiences with a heart and mind that is better able to respond. Our response and suffering will not be motivated by an old trauma/second arrow2
but instead can address and take good care of the first arrow: the acute suffering of a new
form of racial injustice. We will be able to practice right action and take good care of new
forms of racial oppression, thereby preventing new traumas and scars from forming. “I
make the determination to realize racial healing and equity in my thoughts, words, and
actions; I will not be afraid to acknowledge this pain when it arises, take good care of it,
and realize freedom from this pain in each moment. I recognize that I must stop and find
stillness in order to realize the end of this suffering in each moment and prevent new suffering from developing.”
I make the determination to realize racial healing and equity
in my thoughts, words, and actions; I will not be afraid to
acknowledge this pain when it arises, take good care of it,
and realize freedom from this pain in each moment.

THE FO U RTH NO BL E T R U T H: DEVELO P A PAT H L E AD I N G TO T H E E N D O F
This path is our path of understanding and healing. We practice the Noble Eightfold Path
by resolving to not continue to perpetuate racial injustice, neither by accepting it nor producing it. Our right view of racial injustice moves us toward right actions of ending existing
racial injustice as we fearlessly identify it occurring in us and around us—in our personal
interactions and in the structures that actively and silently perpetuate these actions. We
practice, motivated by right effort, to prevent new forms of racial injustice and do not participate in livelihoods that lead to racial injustice. Our right mindfulness and concentration
allow us to notice when we are participating in thought, speech, and action that perpetuate racial injustice, inside us and around us. This path leads to the cessation of racial
injustice. “I am determined to stop and find stillness so I can be aware of and address new
forms of racial injustice as they appear, prevent new forms from appearing, and cultivate
a heart that heals and understands so I am not affected by the inferiority, superiority, or
equality complexes that easily support the enactment and suffering of racial injustice.”
The Four Noble Truths guide us on our path of spiritual practice. Directly applying these
truths to the suffering of racial injustice is our path of liberation from this injustice. For
example, when the president of the US disparages fellow government leaders based
on the color of their skin, how could we use The Four Noble Truths to take care of this
suffering? As a person of color, I first would acknowledge that this is painful, for me and
for others like me. I can acknowledge the fear I feel in my body that there are people like
him, in the twenty-first century in the US, who still are emboldened to publicly violate
and traumatize me and others like me. This is a truth and it hurts me and I hold fear in
me for this—this is a fear that is alive: that if I walk down the street in the midst of a group
of white people who have internalized racial superiority, I can be physically, verbally, or
emotionally attacked. After acknowledging my fear I would practice to abandon any new
triggering of feeling worthless and inferior that this violence might have initiated in me
and take good care of old feelings of worthlessness and inferiority that may have been
watered by this president and his supporters. Unhealed or unattended old wounds of
racial trauma become the second arrow that could easily and quietly take me down old
roads of pain. I must remain heedful and practice to let go of these feelings again and again
and, through right effort, action, mindfulness, and concentration, to bring myself to clarity
that this new arrow by this white male is not my truth to take on. Practicing with the Five
I am determined to stop and find stillness so I can be aware
of and address new forms of racial injustice as they appear,
prevent new forms from appearing, and cultivate a heart that
heals and understands....

Precepts, I maintain a solid base of mindfulness that provides compassion for myself and
others during times of difficulty. I can understand the making of a president (the causes—
structures and behaviors—and conditions—ideology, beliefs, experiences, personality—
that led to this US-born, English speaking, Christian, able-bodied, wealthy, heterosexual,
white male’s understanding and behavior) who is moved to act in violence and model
racial oppression that causes suffering for himself and others. I can also act outwardly to
organize with others to end violent racial policies against immigrants of color from the
Global South through petitions, protests, and building a powerful base of people ready
to respond skillfully to this violence. I can support others who are organizing voters and
send energy to other campaigns that are addressing the broader policies and procedures
that allow the rich to buy political power, evade equitable distribution to the tax base that
assures all of our human rights, and assure continued wealth and health inequality. The
Four Noble Truths, practiced in daily life, wake us up to racial, intersectional, and social
equity.
Initially published on ARISEsangha.org, September 24, 2021.
1ARISE Sangha (Awakening through Race, Intersectionality, and Social Equity) is a community of Plum
Village mindfulness practitioners and monastics who come together to heal the wounds of racial
injustice and social inequity, beginning by looking deeply within ourselves and using the energy of
compassion, understanding, and love in action. See more at ARISEsangha.org.
2 In Buddhism the ‘second arrow’ refers to the suffering caused by the mind’s reaction to a current
pain or suffering, the ‘first arrow.’ This second arrow may or may not be connected to the current
harm being caused.
Marisela Gomez, True Manifestation of
Reverence, is a member of the Baltimore
and Beyond Mindfulness Community for
activists and people of color. She is involved
in equitable and sustainable community
rebuilding and enjoys writing and noticing
the movement of natural bodies of water.