The Four Noble Truths 

This is the very first teaching the Buddha offered following his enlightenment. The three major branches of Buddhism, Theravada (Hinayana), Mahayana, and Vajrayana (Tantric), generally share very similar interpretations of The Four Noble Truths, though in some schools they are emphasized more than others.  Mahayana and Vajrayana interpretations tend to add an extra element or understanding rather than revise.  I speculate that where they are less emphasized in favor of other more intellectual concepts, such as emptiness or non-self.

Theravada

Theravada Buddha's in Colombo, Sri Lanka, by Arthur Chapman via Flickr

The Four Noble Truths are presented in the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, “Setting the Wheel of Dhamma (Dharma) in Motion” in the Pali Cannon.  Dukkha sometimes translated as “suffering” is often also called “stress” or “unsatisfactoriness.”  I’ll use the word suffering as the most common translation of the original term.

The difference between The Four Noble Truths and so many other religious doctrines is that these are not beliefs.  Rather, this is a description of the way the world exists.  Likewise, one doesn’t have to believe in gravity to be affected by it at all times.  Suffering is, it’s as simple as that.  

The Truths are traditionally rendered as:

1. The Truth of Suffering (Dhukka):  All living beings suffer.
2. The Truth of the Cause of Suffering (Samudaya): Suffering is caused by desire.
3. The Truth of the Cessation of Suffering (Nirodha):  Suffering can end.
4. The Truth of the Path to End Suffering (Magga):  Following the Noble Eightfold Path leads to the end of suffering.

Some non-believers say that by starting out with suffering, Buddhism presents a basically pessimistic view.  However, study of any of the world’s great religions will by and large reveal that they are all attempts to answer that same question: Why do we suffer?  In the Abrahamic faiths this is explained by human beings’ estrangement from God and God’s will, so naturally they start out by talking about God.  In Buddhism, we can skip that step, seeing as the very idea of a singular creator god was unknown in India during the Buddha’s lifetime (though the Buddha did address the then current conception of Brahma, which is slightly different).  So rather than being pessimistic, The Four Noble Truths address the problem directly, like a doctor who must first understand the disease in order to offer a cure.  Furthermore, the Third Noble Truth, is entirely uplifting.  It tells us suffering is optional and, moreover, that we have the power to end it ourselves.  How much more optimism do we need?

Notable Theravada teachers have this to say about The Four Noble Truths:

“Each of these truths entails a duty: stress is to be comprehended, the origination of stress abandoned, the cessation of stress realized, and the path to the cessation of stress developed. When all of these duties have been fully performed, the mind gains total release. … Thus the study of the four noble truths is aimed first at understanding these four categories, and then at applying them to experience so that one may act properly toward each of the categories and thus attain the highest, most total happiness possible.” – Thanissaro Bhikku

“Now the Four Noble Truths are: there is suffering; there is a cause or origin of suffering; there is a end of suffering; and there is path out of suffering which is the Eightfold Path. Each of these Truths has three aspects so all together there are twelve insights. In the Theravada school, an arahant, a perfected one, is one who has seen clearly the Four Noble Truths with their three aspects and twelve insights. ‘Arahant’ means a human being who understands the truth; it is applied mainly to the teaching of the Four Noble Truths. … We use these Four Noble Truths for our development. We apply them to ordinary things in our lives, to ordinary attachments and obsessions of the mind. With these truths, we can investigate our attachments in order to have the insights. Through the Third Noble Truth, we can realize cessation, the end of suffering, and practice the Eightfold Path until there is understanding. When the Eightfold Path has been fully developed, one is an arahant, one has made it. Even though this sounds complicated – four truths, three aspects, twelve insights – it is quite simple. It is a tool for us to use to help us understand suffering and non-suffering.” – Ajahn Sumedho

“Shortly after his Awakening, the Buddha delivered his first sermon, in which he laid out the essential framework upon which all his later teachings were based. This framework consists of the Four Noble Truths, four fundamental principles of nature (Dhamma) that emerged from the Buddha’s radically honest and penetrating assessment of the human condition. He taught these truths not as metaphysical theories or as articles of faith, but as categories by which we should frame our direct experience in a way that conduces to Awakening. …  Because of our ignorance (avijja) of these Noble Truths, because of our inexperience in framing the world in their terms, we remain bound to samsara, the wearisome cycle of birth, aging, illness, death, and rebirth. Craving propels this process onward, from one moment to the next and over the course of countless lifetimes, in accordance with kamma (Skt. karma), the universal law of cause and effect. … The Buddha discovered that gaining release from samsara requires assigning to each of the Noble Truths a specific task: the first Noble Truth is to be comprehended; the second, abandoned; the third, realized; the fourth, developed.” – John T. Bullit

“…the fundamental meaning of the first noble truth, is the unsatisfactoriness and radical inadequacy of everything conditioned, owing to the fact that whatever is conditioned is impermanent and ultimately bound to perish. … Itself the product of ignorance, an unawareness of the true nature of things, craving springs up wherever there is the prospect of pleasure and enjoyment, bringing along with it the multitude of mental defilements responsible for so much human misery: greed and ambition, hatred and anger, selfishness and envy, conceit, vanity and pride. … Since suffering arises through craving, with the destruction of craving, suffering too must cease: a relationship as tight and inevitable as logical law.  The state that then supervenes, the goal of all striving for Theravada Buddhism, is nirvana, the unconditioned, the deathless, the imperishable peace beyond the round of birth and death.” – Bhikku Bodhi (An Introduction to the Buddha and His Teachings,  pages 62-64)

Mahayana

Mahayana Buddha at Kamakura by Chaojikazu via Flickr

Mahayana and Theravada teachings largely agree in their interpretation of The Four Noble Truths.  Where they differ is in their use.  While Theravada sees realization of the Truths (in all their simplicity and complication and via various methods of mental cultivation) as fully effective for achieving arhat-ship (the endgame of Theravada practice, amounts to buddha-hood or bodhisattva-hood in Mahayana), Mahayana holds that the Truths and the Path were merely “the first turning of the wheel of Dharma” (Pali: Dhamma).  In other words, the Buddha saved his “highest and best” teaching for later.  One of the most revered Mahayana texts, the Lotus Sutra (Sanskrit: Saddharma Puṇḍarīka Sūtra), states:

In early passages, the Buddha tells the assembly that his earlier teachings were provisional. People were not ready for his highest teaching, he said, and had to be brought to enlightenment by expedient means. But the Lotus represents the final, highest teaching, and supersedes all other teachings.

We suffer, the Buddha says, because the nature of existence is impermanent (when we want permanence) and permeated by self (when no such self exists).  As Bikkhu Bodhi has sad, the nature of things are “conditioned,” that is, the result of causation and therefore subject to change. Rather, all things are interconnected, interdependent, and co-arising.  This is where Mahayana makes the leap from enlightenment (arhat-ship) for oneself to enlightenment for all sentient beings, which is the goal of the bodhisattva.  Seeing as we’re all interconnected, we can’t really get enlightened unless everyone gets enlightened.  So the bodhisattva seeks, and at a certain point attains, enlightenment, but then reenters the stream of rebirth, the world of samsara, to teach other sentient beings until such time as we all achieve enlightenment, i.e. Third Noble Truth: the cessation of suffering.

Now, some Mahayana teachings may even seem to deny the Four Noble Truths, stating that they are not truths at all.  After all, how can suffering be a “truth” or “law” of existence if we have the ability to stop it?  Some Mahayana teachers characterize the four noble truths thus:

1. Suffering is not permanent, but the Buddha is.
2. The origin of suffering is not eternal, but the Buddha is.
3. The cessation of suffering is not unchanging, but the Buddha is.
4. The path to the end of suffering is not peaceful, but the Buddha is.

In these sentences, Buddha may be exchanged with buddha-nature, that is, the inherent or potential enlightenment within all sentient beings.  The Mahayana are consistently more optimistic on a person’s ability to attain buddha-hood, often in a single lifetime, than the Theravadans.  Scholars speculate that the Mahayana trend to stress buddha-hood for all contributed to its popularity. 

Here is what some notable Mahayana teachers have to say on the issue:

“After realizing complete, perfect awakening (samyak sambodhi), the Buddha had to find words to share his insight.  He already had the water, but he had to discover jars like the Four Noble Truths and the Nobel Eightfold Path to hold it. … The First Noble Truth is suffering (dukkha).  The root meaning of the Chinese character for suffering is ‘bitter.’  Happiness is sweat; suffering is bitter.  We all suffer to some extent. … The Second Noble Truth is the origin, roots, nature, creation, or arising (samudaya) of suffering. After we touch our suffering, we need to look deeply into it to see how it came to be. …  The Third Noble Truth is the cessation (nirodha) of creating suffering by refraining from doing the things that make us suffer.  This is good news!  The Buddha did not deny the existence of suffering, but he also did not deny the existence of joy and happiness. … The Fourth Noble Truth is the path (marga) that leads to refraining from doing the things that cause us to suffer.  This is the path we need the most.”  – Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of Buddha’s Teachings, p. 9-11

“It is important to understand that an intellectual grasp of the four noble truths is not considered sufficient; following the Buddhist path requires great effort on the part of the individual, leading to a realization of the truths for oneself.  This realization requires the practice of meditation and is associated with Buddhist monastic practice rather than lay Buddhism.  Although Mahayana Buddhism accepts the four noble truths as the basic teachings of the Buddha, they are not generally a primary topic of Mahayana teaching, nor are they typically the focus of Mahayana meditative practices.  While lay followers of Theravada Buddhism are familiar with the four noble truths, most Mahayana Buddhists are not.” – Helen Josephine Baroni, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Zen Buddhism, p. 98

Vajrayana

Vajrayana Buddha in Lhasa, Tibet, by Jowo Sakyamuni via Flickr

Vajrayana recognizes The Four Noble Truths as the first teaching of the Buddha.  The Vajrayana characterizes itself as a “swift path” (the word “Vajrayana” is sometimes translated as “lightning vehicle”).  “This swiftness of the Vajrayana path does not derive from a profound philosophical outlook, but because of the practice of most profound and sophisticated meditative methods,” according to the Institute of Tibetan Classics. Vajrayana, sometimes called Tantra, Tantric Buddhism, or Esoteric Buddhism, holds the same Bodhisattva ideal as the Mahayana, however, it takes skillful means (upaya) to an unprecedented level through complex ritual,  various esoteric forms of yoga and meditation, and the recognition of both relative and ultimate truth.  Even The Four Noble Truths are subject to understanding via the Two Truths (relative and ultimate).

Suffering is a relative truth.  Nirvana (the cessation of suffering and state of enlightenment) is the ultimate truth.  Ignorance is a relative truth.  Buddha-nature is the ultimate truth.  The Vajrayana therefore is a path by which one must cultivate one’s apprehension of the ultimate truth.  One becomes a buddha by being a buddha.  For this, Vajrayana employs a multitude of techniques including (but by no means limited to) Dzogchen, ngondro, deity meditation, mandalas, and Mahamudra.

Prominent Vajrayana teachers have this to say on the subject:

“When the great universal teacher Shakyamuni Buddha first spoke about the Dharma in the noble land of India, he taught the four noble truths: the truths of suffering, the cause of suffering, the cessation of suffering and the path to the cessation of suffering. … We experience many different types of suffering. All are included in three categories: the suffering of suffering, the suffering of change and all-pervasive suffering. … Now, desiring liberation from the first two categories of suffering is not the principal motivation for seeking liberation; the Buddha taught that the root of the three sufferings is the third: all-pervasive suffering. … This third, all-pervasive, suffering is under the control of karma and the disturbing mind … of previous lives: anger and attachment arise simply because we have these present aggregates. The aggregate of compounding phenomena is like an enabler for us to generate karma and these disturbing minds… Even if you take your own life, this life, you will have to take another body that will again be the basis of suffering. If you really want to get rid of all your suffering, all the difficulties you experience in your life, you have to get rid of the fundamental cause that gives rise to the aggregates that are the basis of all suffering. Killing yourself isn’t going to solve your problems.” – The Dalai Lama

“If the Buddha had taught his disciples principally by demonstrating his miraculous abilities and various powers, it would not have been the best way to establish them on the path of liberation. The best way to bring them to that wisdom and liberation was to point out the very truth of things; to point out the way things really are. So this is what he did: He showed the truth through the four noble truths and the two truths (relative and absolute truth). By seeing the way things really are, the students learned how to eliminate their mistakes and their delusions. Eliminating one’s mistakes and delusions automatically destroys the causes of one’s suffering and hardships. This allows one to progressively reach the state of liberation and great wisdom. That is why the four noble truths and the two truths are the essence of the first teachings of the Buddha.” – Thrangu Rinpoche

The Solitary Buddhist Summary

So what does all of this BOIL (I'm from South Louisiana, we BOIL everything) down to?

1. Life sucks.
2. Life sucks because we want stuff, more stuff, it's never the right stuff.
3. Life doesn’t have to suck.
4. There’s a Path to free us from the suckiness of life.

Basically, pain is a factor of living.  You stub your toe, you slam your hand in a car door, you get old, sick, and you die.  We all do it.  The suffering bit, that’s optional.  You curse at the coffee table you stubbed your toe on.  You yell at the spouse who closed the car door too quickly.  You hate fate or God or life when you get old and sick.  We all fear death.  We don’t have to curse, get angry, hate, or fear.  All we have to do is stop wanting the coffee table to have magically been elsewhere, our spouse to have been a little more attentive, stop not wanting to age or get sick, and not to die.

First of all, what’s done is done.  We can still work for a better future, but there’s no use getting pissed about the past or stressing about the future.  Ask your spouse to be more careful when closing the car door, but don’t spread the suffering around in such a way that they get mad at you for being mad at them for what was clearly an accident.  And there’s no use getting upset about things we can’t change.  We’re all gonna die. Sure, we can work to be healthy, do everything right, and try to live a good long life (or get hit by a bus tomorrow).  But we can't avoid the fact we all go through some form of suffering and eventually die.

So you don’t want to suffer? Who does? The path for that (The Eightfold Path) is one of right view and thinking, right speech, action, and livelihood, and right diligence/effort, mindfulness, and concentration.  Basically, do good not only for your own sake, but for others as well, because we’re all in this together.  Doing good will make you feel good and helping others will make you feel your own problems less.  It works.  I’ve tried it.

Now, there’s one last conundrum. How do you stop suffering if wanting leads to suffering but you want to stop suffering and if you didn’t want to stop suffering you wouldn’t be trying to stop wanting?  Well, the Buddhists have a saying: You only need a boat to cross an ocean.  After you get to the other side, you leave the boat behind.  So that one kind of desire, the desire to end suffering, can be useful.  

May all beings have happiness and the cause of happiness.

May they be free of suffering and the cause of suffering. 

The Four Stages of Enlightenment

Are you curious how Buddhism may be relevant to your daily life? Buddhist philosophy has become much more popular all around the world in the past few decades.

But you don’t need to be a Buddhist to benefit from the framework of thinking it offers. You simply have to have an open mind and the desire to learn.

Without any of the fluff and obscurity, this article shares with you the four stages of enlightenment according to Buddhist scripture.

Want to know the best part?

If you’re reading this and already are engaging in some simple mindfulness practices, you are probably already on your way to achieving enlightenment.

The Four Stages of Enlightenment

The Buddha recognized four distinct levels of realization, each one characterized by a deep experience of selflessness, followed by certain changes in outlook.

The experience usually involved intensive meditation and follows study of the four basic truths of Buddhism.

If you’re regularly meditating and practicing mindfulness, you’re probably already undertaking many of the practices that is advocated by Buddhism.

Here are the four stages of enlightenment.

Stream-enterer (Sotapanna)

When you become a Stream-enterer, you let go of the belief that you’re really a separate self living inside your head and looking through your eyes. This illusion is eliminated, and when you look within you can’t find a self anywhere.

Stream-enterers have also let go of attachment to rites and rituals and doubts about the teachings.

Once-returner (Sakadagami)

Once-returners have entered a stage where their “no-self” is completely integrated, and they experience a significant reduction in attachment and aversion and the suffering that accompanies these states of mind.

They are much more detached. For example, occasional irritation and preference replace hatred and greed, which no longer have any hold over the once-returner.

Non-returner (Anāgāmi)

The Non-returners are free from feelings of sensual desire and ill will towards others. They are seen to be partially enlightened and on the way to complete enlightenment.

They experience significant levels of compassion as they have lost the sense of separation between themselves and others.

Arahant

The fourth stage is free from having any craving for prosperity in the material world, doesn’t crave existence in the ideal world (which is heaven), doesn’t experience conceit, never feels restlessness and isn’t subject to ignorance.

At this stage, the person is experiencing ultimate nirvana. The feeling has been compared to falling into the depths of a cloud and disappearing. The circumstances of life no longer stir even the slightest craving or dissatisfaction.

Here are some articles I wanted to share with you that may help advance you on your path to enlightenment.

Stages in the bodhisattvas journey

Mindfulness practices for beginners

Buddhist teachings where to start

A Summary of Buddha's Teaching

“...when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and the benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.”
- Attributed to BUDDHA

A Summary of Buddha's Teaching

The vastness of the Buddha's Teachings can be a bit overwhelming, especially for the Solitary Practitioner. I have outlined what I think are the basics of what I have discovered on my path to learn the Dharma. When things begin to be a bit overwhelming, I return to the basics. I hope this benefits you in some way.

Buddha set forth his teaching in the following doctrine;

 The Four Noble Truths:

1.  All things and experiences are marked by suffering/ disharmony/ frustration (dukkha).

2.  The arising of suffering/ disharmony/ frustration comes from desire/ craving/ clinging.

3.  To achieve the cessation or end of suffering/ disharmony/ frustration, let go of desire/ craving/ clinging.

4.  The way to achieve the end of suffering/ disharmony/ frustration, is walking the Eightfold Path.

The Eightfold Path to the end of suffering:

1.  Right Understanding of the following facts:

•  the truth about suffering ... (The Four Truths);

•  everything is impermanent and changes;

•  there is no separate individual self- this is an illusion. (We are one!)

2.  Right Determination to:
•  give up what is wrong and evil;

•  undertake what is good;

•  abandon thoughts that have to do with bringing suffering to any conscious being; cultivate thoughts of loving kindness, that are based on caring about others' suffering, and sympathetic joy in others' happiness.

3.  Right Speech:
•  Abstain from telling lies.

•  Abstain from talk that brings harm or discredit to others (such as backbiting or slander) or talk that creates hatred or disharmony between individuals and groups.

•  Abstain from harsh, rude, impolite, malicious, or abusive language.

•  Abstain from idle, useless, and foolish babble and gossip. Abstain from recrimination and negative statements.

•  Abstain from harsh speech—practice kindly speech.

•  Abstain from frivolous speech—practice meaningful speech.

•  Abstain from slanderous speech—practice harmonious speech.

•  Speak the truth if it is useful and timely. Practice only necessary speech. Let your speech be filled with loving kindness. Speak that which alleviates suffering.

4.  Right Action:

•  Peaceful, honorable conduct; abstain from dishonest dealings; take concrete steps necessary to foster what is good.

•  Do things that are moral, honest, and alleviate suffering. Do not do things that will bring suffering to others or yourself.

5.  Right Livelihood:

•  Abstain from making your living from an occupation that brings harm and suffering to humans or animals, or diminish their well being. This includes: activities that directly harm conscious beings, and activities that indirectly harm sentient beings, e.g., making weapons or poisons.

6.  Right Effort:

•  Foster good and prevent evil;

•  Work on yourself—be engaged in appropriate self-improvement. The essence of right effort is that everything must be done with a sense of proper balance that fits the situation. Effort should be balanced between trying too hard and not trying hard enough. For example, strike the balance between excessive fasting and over-indulgence in food. Trying hard to progress too rapidly gets poor results, as does not trying hard enough.

7.  Right Mindfulness or wakefulness:

•  Foster right attention.

•  Avoid whatever clouds our mental awareness (e.g., drugs).

•  Systematically and intentionally develop awareness.

8.  Right Concentration:

•  Developed by practicing meditation and/or mental focusing. Proper meditation must be done continuously while awake, and should include work on awareness of body, emotions, thought, and mind objects.

Five basic precepts:

1.  Abstain from killing living beings (from destroying/taking life)—or practice love.

2.  Abstain from taking the not-given (from stealing)—or practice generosity, practice giving.

3.  Abstain from sexual misconduct—or practice contentment.

4.  Abstain from false speech (from lying)—or practice truthfulness.

5.  Abstain from taking intoxicating drinks—or practice awareness and mental clarity.

Buddha said:

Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. Do not believe anything because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything because it is written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and the benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.


The following prose, attributed to Buddha, expresses the way he perceived the world.

Buddha said:
•  I consider the positions of kings and rulers as that of dust motes.

•  I observe treasures of gold and gems as so many bricks and pebbles.

•  I look upon the finest silken robes as tattered rags.

•  I see myriad worlds of the universe as small seeds of fruit, and the greatest lake in India as a drop of oil upon my foot.

•  I perceive the teachings of the world as the illusions of magicians.

•  I discern the highest conception of emancipation as a golden brocade in a dream, and view the holy path of the illuminated ones as flowers appearing in one's eyes.

•  I see meditation as a pillar of a mountain, nirvana as a nightmare of daytime.

•  I look upon the judgments of right and wrong as the serpentine dance of a dragon, and the rise and fall of belief as traces left by the four seasons.

A really good book that covers the basics and more

A Beginner's Guide to Tibetan Buddhism: Notes from a Practitioner's Journey by Lama Bruce Newman. The author takes the beginner by the hand to walk through the intricacies of the path, making complex ideas and terminology plain and simple. A solid, down-to-earth book.