The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism Explained
By: Eshan Samaranayake
Tags: Philosophy, Happiness, Mindfulness, Life, Religion

The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism Explained

Termination of craving for the cessation of suffering.

Photo by Jed Adan on Unsplash

1. The truth of suffering

The Buddha started his teaching with the reality of suffering. This refers to the existence of suffering that eventually every being will face suffering and it is a fact of life — just like the sun and the moon. The Buddha himself experienced Dukkha in Kapilavastu at the early stages of his life.

Despite being a prince from a wealthy family he could not find true happiness when he witnessed disease, aging, and death. In the literal sense, dukkha refers to pain and anguish. But in Buddhism, dukkha can be interpreted in three types: suffering as pain, as change, and as conditions.

Self-evident suffering is when one undergoes mental or physical pain, this is suffering as pain. Suffering as change is when everything seems fine and suddenly something comes up and takes the happiness away from us. Everything in the world is subjected to change — slowly and surely. Anitya (Impermanence) is one of the three characteristics of Buddhism which describes how everything in the world is impermanent.

Suffering as a condition arises due to the fact that the world is a place of uncertainty and unpredictability which gives oneself a sense of uneasiness. Pain, pleasure, happiness, and suffering are interrelated. It is the reality of this state of affairs that the teachings of the Buddha suggest we each must understand if we are ever to be free of suffering.

The Buddha was not interested in looking for answers to metaphysical questions such as “is the world infinite or not?” or “is the world eternal or not?”. In the Cula-Miilunkya Sutta, the Buddha explains that the answers to these types of questions will not take oneself close to the goal — the goal is the path leading to the cessation of suffering. Whether one believes that the world is infinite or otherwise, there is still suffering — and that is a fact.

2. The origin of suffering: attachment, aversion, and delusion

Since there are no gods in Buddhism, the existence of suffering cannot be blamed on god or another superior being. For a Buddhist, suffering is a fact of existence, and oneself is responsible for their suffering. The condition for the origination of suffering is the craving (Tanha) for repeated existence associated with attachments for objects of sense desire.

All feelings, desires, and beliefs that one gets oneself attached to are resulted by Tanha. Due to the unpredictability and the ever-changing nature of the world, any kind of craving will never be satisfied. This is the origin of suffering. Desire grows into a craving. Craving grows into attachments (Upadana). Attachments cause us to take possession of certain things. Some attachments can be more harmful (and therefore cause more suffering) than others.

An attachment to one of the five Buddhist precepts is not to be

considered as of the same order as an attachment to committing an unwholesome act. By being attached to one of the five precepts, say for example the first precept (avoid harming living creatures) prevents us from killing, it is a good act; however, as long as it remains an attachment, it is also a contributor to dukkha.

The relationship between craving and aversion is such that unfulfilled craving and frustrated attachments lead to aversion which in itself is unpleasant (dukkha as pain) and in turn brings further suffering. By having cravings and attachments, we fail to see the world as it is. And by failing to see the world as it is we crave. Put differently, craving and attachments go side by side with ignorance and misinterpretations of the nature of the world.

According to Buddhism, greed (lobha), aversion (dosa), and delusion (moha) are the factors that combine and cooperate to result in dukkha. ‘Dependent Arising’ refers to how one’s action results in either the arising of dukkha or towards the cessation of dukkha.

3. The cessation of suffering: nirvana

If the craving is the root of suffering, then cutting off craving will result in cessation of suffering. Termination of craving is the ultimate goal for a Buddhist as this results in the cessation of suffering. This is called Nirvana (Nibbana).

Once someone attains nirvana, there is no aversion, hatred, delusion or greed in one’s mind because the root for all these emotions has been arrested. When someone who attains nirvana passes away, he/she will not be reborn — not as any new form of life, let alone human. The five aggregates — sensations, perceptions, mental activity or formations, and consciousness — that make up a being fails to exist.

4. The way leading to the cessation of suffering

Nirvana is the cessation of all suffering, so even the craving for nirvana is a type of craving that should be terminated. The unwholesome qualities of the mind — greed, delusion, aversion, and hatred — has their opposites. These wholesome qualities include non-attachment, loving-kindness, and wisdom.

If it was not for these wholesome qualities, one would find it impossible to break free from the unwholesome qualities and therefore will not be able to cease from dukkha.

The noble eightfold path defines the path to the cessation of suffering

These eight are right view, right intention, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. The eightfold path proposes that there is an intimate relationship between one’s understanding, action, and underlying emotions.

“Right” in the eightfold path refers to the aspects that bring one closer to the cessation of suffering. If one does these aspects in the “wrong” way, they will find themselves moving further away from reaching the goal of cessation of suffering. Besides the eightfold path, the way leading to the cessation of suffering involve a progressive practice of generosity (dana), moral conduct (sila), and meditation (bhavana).

The initial stages of the practice of the path are more focused on establishing good conduct based on the ethical precepts; these provide the platform for the development of concentration, which essentially prepares one for the perfection of understanding and wisdom.

The path is not linear; in essence that one does not first practices good conduct and then move on to meditative concentration and finally wisdom. Rather the three aspects of the practice of the path are mutually dependent. Put another way, without suffering and what brings about its termination one would not and could not even begin the practice of the path.

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