The Tree of Enlightenment

causes – ignorance, attachment, aversion, and so on. is brings
us to the third of the Four Noble Truths, the truth of the end of
suffering.
When we begin to talk about the end of suffering, the first
obstacle we must overcome is the doubt that exists in some
minds about whether or not the end of suffering is really possible.
Can suffering really be ended? Is a cure really possible? It
is in this context that confidence, or faith, plays an important
role. When we speak of confidence or faith in Buddhism, we do
not mean blind acceptance of any particular doctrine or creed.
Rather, we speak of faith in the sense of admitting the possibility
of achieving the goal of the end of suffering.
Unless we believe that a doctor can cure us of a physical pain,
we will never seek his advice, never undergo the appropriate
therapy, and may consequently die of an illness that could have
been cured had we only had sufficient confidence to seek help.
Similarly, confidence in the possibility of being cured of mental
suffering is an indispensable prerequisite to effective practice.
Here, too, you may say, “How can I believe in the possibility
of nirvana – the complete end of suffering, supreme happiness
– if I have never experienced it?” But as I remarked earlier in
this chapter, none of us would be able to hear radio waves were
it not for the development of radio receivers, or see microscopic
life were it not for the invention of the microscope. Even now,
most of us have never observed subatomic reality, yet we accept
its existence because there are those among us with the special
training and appropriate instruments to observe it.
In this case, also, the possibility of attaining the complete
end of suffering – namely, nirvana – ought not to be rejected sim-
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