The Four Noble Truths

The Four Noble Truths

1. The Truth of Suffering (Dukkha)

   • Three obvious kinds of suffering corresponding to the first three sights the Buddha saw on his first journey outside his palace: old age, sickness and death.
   • Human beings are subject to desire and cravings but even when we are able to satisfy these desires, the satisfaction is only temporary.
   • According to the Buddha, the problem of suffering goes much deeper. Life is not ideal: it frequently fails to live up to our expectations.
   • Pleasure does not last; or if it does, it becomes monotonous.
   • Even when we are not suffering from outward causes like illness or bereavement we are unfulfilled, unsatisfied. This is the truth of suffering.
   • Some people who encounter this teaching may find it pessimistic. Buddhists find it neither optimistic or pessimistic, but realistic.
   • Fortunately, the Buddha’s teaching does not end with suffering; rather, they go on to tell us what we can do about it and how to end it.
   • Quotes about the First Noble Truth
     • Now this, monks, is the noble truth of suffering: birth is suffering, ageing is suffering, illness is suffering, death is suffering; union with what is displeasing is suffering; separation from what is pleasing is suffering; not to get what one wants is suffering; in brief, the five aggregates subject to clinging are suffering. Samyutta Nikaya Vol. 5, P421
     • "The ignorant person says, 'I'm suffering. I don't want to suffer. I meditate and I go on retreats to get out of suffering, but I'm still suffering and I don't want to suffer... How can I get out of suffering? What can I do to get rid of it?' But that is not the First Noble Truth; it is not: 'I am suffering and I want to end it.' The insight is, 'There is suffering'... The insight is simply the acknowledgement that there is this suffering without making it personal." Ajahn Sumedho (American Buddhist monk)

2. The Truth of the Path to the Cessation of Suffering (Magga)

   • The Buddha taught the way to extinguish desire, which causes suffering, is to liberate oneself from attachment.
   • This is the third Noble Truths- the possibility of liberation. The Buddha was a living example that it is possible in a human lifetime.
   • "Bhikkhus, when a noble follower who has heard (the truth) sees thus, he finds estrangement in the eye, finds estrangement in forms, finds estrangement in eye-consciousness, finds estrangement in eye-contact, and whatever is felt as pleasant or painful or neither-painful-nor-pleasant that arises with eye-contact for its indispensable condition, in that too he finds estrangement.
     • Estrangement here means disenchantment: a Buddhist aims to know sense conditions clearly as they are without becoming enchanted or misled by them.
   • Nirvana
     • Someone who reaches nirvana does not immediately disappear to a heavenly realm. Nirvana is better understood as a state of mind that humans can reach. It is a state of profound spiritual joy, without negative emotions and fears.
     • Nirvana means extinguishing. Attaining nirvana- reaching enlightenment- means extinguishing the three fires of greed, delusion and hatred.
     • "When he finds estrangement, passion fades out. With the fading of passion, he is liberated. When liberated, there is the knowledge that he is liberated. He understands: 'Birth is exhausted, the holy life has been lived out, what can be done is done, of this, there is no more beyond.'"
     • After death, an enlightened person is liberated from the cycles of rebirth but Buddhism gives no definite answers as to what happens next.
     • The Buddha discouraged his followers from asking too many questions about nirvana. He wanted them to concentrate on the task at hand, which was freeing themselves from the cycle of suffering. Asking questions is like quibbling with the doctor who is trying to save your life.

3. The Truth of the Cessation of Suffering (Nirodha)

   • The final Noble Truth is the Buddha's prescription for the end of suffering. This is a set of principles called the Eightfold Path.
   • Eightfold Path
     • The Eightfold Path is also called the Middle Way: it avoids both indulgence and severe asceticism, neither of which the Buddha had found helpful in his search for enlightenment.
     • Right Understanding - Sammā ditthi Accepting Buddhist teachings. (The Buddha never intended his followers to believe his teachings blindly, but to practise them and judge for themselves whether they were true.)
     • Right Intention - Sammā san̄kappa A commitment to cultivate the right attitudes
     • Right Speech - Sammā vācā Speaking truthfully, avoiding slander, gossip and abusive speech.
     • Right Action - Sammā kammanta Behaving peacefully and harmoniously; refraining from stealing, killing and overindulgence in sensual pleasure.
     • Right Livelihood - Sammā ājīva Avoiding making a living in ways that cause harm, such as exploiting people or killing animals, or trading in intoxicants or weapons.
     • Right Effort - Sammā vāyāma Cultivating positive states of mind; freeing oneself from evil and unwholesome states and preventing them arising in future.
     • Right Mindfulness - Sammā sati Developing awareness of the body, sensations, feelings and states of mind
     • Right Concentration - Sammā samādhi Developing the mental focus necessary for this aware

4. The Truth of the Origins of Suffering(Samudāya)

   • The Buddha claimed to have found the cause of all suffering and it is much more deeply rooted than our immediate worries.
   • The Buddha taught that the root of all suffering is desire,tanhā.
   • The Three Poison
     • The Three Poisons of hate, greed and ignorance are shown is a circle, each reinforcing the others.
     • The Three Poisons of hate, greed and ignorance are shown is a circle, each reinforcing the others.
     • Image of the Poisons
     • The Three Roots of Evil are the three ultimate causes of suffering: Greed and desire are represented in art by an rooster Ignorance and delusion are represented by a pig Hatred and destruction urges are represented by a snake
   • The Fire Sermon
     • The Buddha taught more about suffering in the Fire Sermon, delivered to a thousand bhikkhus.
     • The Buddha went on to say the same of the four senses and the mind, showing that attachment to positive, negative and neutral sensations and thoughts is the cause of suffering.
     • "Bhikkhus, all is burning. And what is the all that is burning? "The eye is burning, forms are burning, eye-consciousness is burning, eye-contact is burning, also whatever is felt as pleasant or painful or neither-painful-nor-pleasant that arises with eye-contact for its indispensable condition, that too is burning. Burning with what? Burning with the fire of lust, with the fire of hate, with the fire of delusion. I say it is burning with birth, ageing and death, with sorrows, with lamentations, with pains, with griefs, with despairs.

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