SkipCaptcha
326
edits
Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Line 4:
Line 4: − + − + + + +
beginning expansion of an article that deserves a much fuller treatment
The Buddha first expounded the Four Noble Truths several weeks after his Enlightenment to a group of former companions in the Deer Park at Isipatana. This discourse is recounted in the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta ("Setting in Motion the Wheel of Truth") (Samyutta Nikaya 56.11).
The Buddha first expounded the Four Noble Truths several weeks after his Enlightenment to a group of former companions in the Deer Park at Isipatana. This discourse is recounted in the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta ("Setting in Motion the Wheel of Truth") (Samyutta Nikaya 56.11).
The Four Noble Truths are:
The following is brief and cursory description of the Four Noble Truths. Further explanation follows.
#''dukkha'' ("suffering") – Life means suffering.
#''dukkha'' ("suffering") – Life means suffering.
#''samudaya'' ("origin") – Suffering is caused by desire for and attachment to sensual pleasure and existence itself, and by ignorance of the true nature of the self and reality.
#''samudaya'' ("origin") – Suffering is caused by desire for and attachment to sensual pleasure and existence itself, and by ignorance of the true nature of the self and reality.
#''nirodha'' ("cessation") – Suffering can be ended by letting go of these desires and attachments and by overcoming this ignorance.
#''nirodha'' ("cessation") – Suffering can be ended by letting go of these desires and attachments and by overcoming this ignorance.
#''magga'' ("the path") – The [[Noble Eightfold Path]] is the means by which to accomplish this.
#''magga'' ("the path") – The [[Noble Eightfold Path]] is the means by which to accomplish this.
==1. ''dukkha''==
"Suffering" is the most common English translation of ''dukkha'', but it is inadequate and misleading. A better rendering would be "unsatisfactoriness": the fact that human life never provides complete and lasting satisfaction of physical, mental and emotional needs and desires. Thus, even pleasant things, experiences that are certainly not suffering, are ''dukkha'' because they are temporary. ''Dukkha'' does not just characterize the human condition; it ''is'' the human condition.