The Tree of Enlightenment

the formula of the Four Noble Truths: it indicates the importance
of the relationship between cause and effect. e concept
of cause and effect lies at the heart of the teaching of the
Buddha, and it also lies at the heart of the formula of the Four
Noble Truths. In what way? e formula of the Four Noble
Truths begins with a problem, namely, the first of the four noble
truths, the truth of suffering. e problem of suffering arises
from causes, causes expressed in the second noble truth, the
truth of the cause of suffering. Similarly, there exists an end of
suffering expressed in the third noble truth, the truth of cessation,
and a cause of the end of suffering, that is to say the path,
which is the last of the four truths. In the fourth noble truth the
cause is absence: in other words, when the causes of suffering
are removed, the absence of such causes is the cause of the cessation
of suffering.
If you look more closely at the Four Noble Truths, you will
see that they divide quite naturally into two groups. e first
two truths, those of suffering and its cause, belong to the realm
of birth and death. Symbolically, they can be pictured in the
form of a circle, because they operate in a circular manner. e
causes of suffering produce suffering, and suffering in turn produces
the causes of suffering, which in their turn again produce
suffering. is is the cycle of birth and death, or samsara.
e latter two truths, the truth of the cessation of suffering
and the truth of the path, do not belong to the realm of birth and
death. ey can be represented figuratively through the image
of a spiral, in which the movement is no longer merely circular
but is now directed upward, so to speak, toward another plane
of experience.
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