It was said that Siddhartha attained enlightenment after 49 days of meditation and by so doing, everything in life appeared apparent to him. The nature and cause of everything was simplified into the "Four Noble Truths" upon which all human beings were subjected in life.
The first noble truth speaks about the reality of pain, suffering, disease, old age and in the long end, death (Dukkha). Everyone of us knew this, in a lesser or greater degree. As human beings we get wounded, sick, hungry, thirsty, emotionally deprived and when we contracted a disease, we suffer until we get the medication. In history we have heard about countless searchs for the fountain of youth, this was actually an attempt by early Kings and Emperors to get the most of themselves because they were unwilling to submit to reality and wish their power could afford them exemption from the first noble truth. We may be financially capable to escape hunger and disease and have a lot of friends to keep us company but in the long end, old age gets in our way and we die in due time.
The second noble truth speaks about the cause of pain, suffering, disease, fear about old age and death (Samudaya). Attachment, desire, yearning, craving in all its similar forms is the cause. This scenario is easily explainable if we should look straight ahead in accepting this reality. If you should love the taste of food and pursue the best tasting menu to satiate your palate you soon end up obese and find it difficult to move. Then comes ailments brought about by too much eating; hypertension, heart ailments,etc. If you love your partner the feeling may become obsessive until you are hurt even just in seeing him/her talk to another person, why is it hard not to be jealous? A lady would end up marrying a rich husband and in time she would suffer for the ample time that he couldn't go home due to business appointments seminars, night outs; or in worse case the husband maybe alcoholic and gets home ending up in a heated argument. He beats her and she couldn't do a thing about it. She loves him. The logic about the second noble truth is clearly evident. Take an electrical wire, attachment to things and persons as object of desire and affection results in a strengthened hold. If electricity is passed on to the electrical wire, it is forwarded to things attached to it, considering we are, we get electrocuted. Figure out the extreme pain of a husband who lost his wife in childbirth, a son who lost his mother, a brother who lost a sister,etc. At times of the present crisis we heard of billionaires who committed suicides for losing control of the company, and the loss of wealth and property.
The third noble truth speaks about the reality that pain, suffering, disease and fear about old age and dying could be ended (Nirodha). In actual parlance, eating and drinking too much could be ended but we are not prepared from the ordeals of dealing with the difficulty (as in drug dependence, the withdrawal syndrome) when our memory keeps reminding us of the feeling. If you love gambling, you readily knew you must end your pain by not gambling but the empty time allocated when you stay out from the habit could be more devastating and you decide to get back to the habit. Now think about relationships and sexual activity and how deprived you are if you stop from the habit. All these in life we cling to, become a part of things and people who give us pleasure. Think about eating and drinking and how large our stomach could hold until we stop. If our stomach acids become too potent to melt what's inside in a short period, we rarely had about 5 hours rest before we could feel the drive and get back to the habit. All these activities to match, sexual activities, fame, business pleasures, etc. has about the same vicious cycle that eat us up before we knew it. All in all, the objects of our desire become our version of life's meaning which without them we become useless.
The fourth noble truth speaks about the way to end pain, suffering, disease and fear about old age and dying (Marga). This could be ended by attaining nirvana (not the singing band) or enlightenment. Imagine a restless motor spinning inside us making us tick. With enlightenment or nirvana that restless motor conks out and we hear the voice of the universe. Our view of reality isn't twisted by the chemical reactions found in the food we eat or the emotions we have with people, we see reality as it is. Being one with the universe is what it is often referred to. The Buddha describes nirvana as the perfect peace of the state of mind that is free from craving, anger, and other afflictive states. One is at peace with the world, has compassion for all and gives up obsessions and fixations(wikipedia). Transcendental meditation or yoga is the way to attain nirvana or enlightenment. It is a complicated subject to the average mind but could be simplified in comparison. Like a computer that often hangs due to corrupted software, we have lived our lives in conflict with ourselves and our environment. After being reformatted, the computer gets reconnected to the mainframe and gains back its functionality. In the same way too, by meditation we could get back our optimized selves and get reconnected to God, the Source/ Universe. Consider our average minds like a USB memory stick with a gigabyte capacity and imagine what lies behind if we get reconnected to the mainframe (God/universe) with its infinite capacity. As always, the choice is ours. A caterpillar gets to eat all the leaves in its life and nothing happens until it finally breaks up the routine and wound up a cocoon upon itself and ultimately emerges as a butterfly.