SECOND TRUTH

THE NOBLE TRUTH OF THE ORIGIN OF SUFFERING

WHAT, now, is the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering? It is that
craving which gives rise to fresh rebirth, and, bound up with pleasure
and lust, now here, now there, finds ever fresh delight.
[In the absolute sense, it is no real being, no self-determined,
unchangeable, Ego-entity that is reborn. Moreover, there is nothing
that remains the same even for two consecutive moments; for the Five
Khandhas, or Groups of Existence, are in a state of perpetual
change, of continual dissolution and renewal. They die every moment,
and every moment new ones are born. Hence it follows that there is
no such thing as a real existence, or "being" (Latin esse), but only
as it were an endless process, a continuous change, a "becoming,"
consisting in a "producing," and in a "being produced"; in a
"process of action," and in a "process of reaction," or "rebirth."
This process of perpetual "producing" and "being produced" may
best be compared with an ocean wave. In the case of a wave, there is
not the slightest quantity of water traveling over the surface of
the sea. But the wave structure, that hastens over the surface of
the water, creating the appearance of one and the same mass of
water, is, in reality, nothing but the continuous rising and falling
of continuous, but quite different, masses of water, produced by the
transmission of force generated by the wind. Even so, the Buddha did
not teach that Ego-entities hasten through the ocean of rebirth, but
merely life-waves, which, according to their nature and activities
(good, or evil), manifest themselves here as men, there as animals,
and elsewhere as invisible beings.]