The Buddha offered us Four Noble Truths. For a long time, I wondered what made them noble, until I heard a dharma teacher's explanation: think of them as ennobling truths which, if you reflect on them, will enoble you.

The First Noble Truth is often misinterpreted as "Life is suffering." Among teachers in my Insight Meditation tradition, it's usually translated from the original Pali text as "There is suffering." Of course, we know that life isn't only suffering--for most of us, it's full of all kinds of happiness as well, ranging from quiet contentment to experiences of great joyfulness. What the Buddha was pointing to, for one thing, is the fact that nobody's life is without suffering, despite all the joy it might also contain. The Buddha also was pointing to the ubiquity of unsatisfactoriness. For example, say, you've been really looking forward to a special occasion, but then when the occasion arises, things just don't quite live up to your expectations and you end up feeling at least a bit let down. And he also was pointing out that happiness is always transient, like everything else--for example, you eat a wonderful piece of cake, and then it's eaten, or you go on a vacation, and then it's over.

The Second Noble Truth is that desire and aversion are the causes of suffering. If you can train yourself to feel neither desire nor aversion, your suffering will cease. This point was beautifully explained long ago by the Third Chinese Patriarch:

"The Great Way is not difficult for those who are unattached to preferences. When love and hate are both absent, everything becomes clear and undisguised. Make the smallest distinction, however, and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart. If you wish to see the truth, then hold no opinions for or against anything. To set up what you like against what you dislike is the disease of the mind..."

The Third Noble Truth is that there is a way out of suffering, and the Fourth Noble Truth presents the Eightfold Path, a way of living that can lead you out of suffering.

I think a lot about the Second Noble Truth because I so often observe desire and aversion arising in my own mind. For example, I've noticed that at any given time, there's a sort of mental shopping list in my head. It contains the things that I'd like to get next, once I have saved enough money. No sooner have I purchased one thing on the list than another takes its place. This list is all about desire. My list has become smaller in the last few years as my practices of yoga and meditation have developed, but it's never quite zeroed out.

The one time my mental shopping list was shortest was when I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in West Africa in the 80s. I lived in a remote rural village at the edge of the Sahara in northern Senegal. There was very little to buy in that region, other than the small essentials of rural African life, and no advertising. I wore essentially the same small collection of clothes during the 2 years I spent there. Once in a while I traveled to a larger city, where I had a restaurant meal or two, and perhaps an ice cream cone, and bought a few sundries and small gifts to bring back to the village. There was so very little on my mental list at that time!

A few weeks ago I remembered that experience when I watched David Brancaccio interview Dr. Muhammed Yunus on the PBS show, Now. When David made a side comment to the effect that Bangladesh was a disadvantaged country, Dr. Yunus replied that Bangladesh is near the top of the gross national happiness list, while the U.S. is near the bottom. He pointed out that Bangladeshis don't feel themselves to be disadvantaged, and that he'd seen more unhappiness among Americans. (I'm not sure which list he was referring to, but he might have meant the Happy Planet Index.)

I can imagine that Bangladeshis may be happier than Americans because material wealth is less prevalent and valued in their culture, and because they aren't so targeted by advertising campaigns designed to make them desire more material things. So much of the U.S. economy is about generating desire!

The idea that great material wealth is not a cause of happiness--and may even make it more difficult to be happy--resonates with me when I think back to the mental ease and freedom I felt during those 2 years at the edge of the Sahara, when I had little and my material desires were fewest. Nowdays, it seems to me that I can be happier and more relaxed whenever I am able to counter my own material desires. I do that by trying to observe and reflect on those desires when they arise, by challenging myself to be generous, and by minimizing my exposure to advertising (giving away my television, for example, and subscribing to no commercial magazines).

Of course, life is not so simple that living without a TV will bring you to enlightenment, but it may be a good way to make a step on the Great Way.