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The Four Noble Truths

After he had gained enlightenment the Buddha faced a significant dilemma: whether to share what he had discovered with others or to keep it to himself. After some deliberation, out of compassion for the world, he decided to share his newfound knowledge. Several weeks after his enlightenment therefore the Buddha began to reveal what he had learnt which is encapsulated in the Four Noble Truths:

The Noble Truth of Suffering

The Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering

The Noble Truth of the Extinction of Suffering

The Noble Truth of the Path that leads to the Extinction of Suffering

The Noble Truth of Suffering:
The Buddhist view of life has a distinct and clear starting point. Existence as we experience it on a day to day level is a place of suffering or dukkha. But what does this term dukkha encompass? In an obvious sense it refers to physical suffering in all its various forms. Having a mild headache is a form of physical suffering; an attack of appendicitis is more acute. Suffering can also be emotional, such as feeling hurt, rejected, unloved or grieving for the loss of a loved one. Mental suffering can take the form of frustration at not getting what one wants, failing an examination, feeling disillusioned and so on. In a more wide-ranging sense, dukkha is about dissatisfaction which can permeate all aspects of our lives. More comprehensively, the whole process of being born, getting sick, growing old and dying is suffering:

'Birth is suffering; ageing is suffering; sickness is suffering; death is suffering; sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair are suffering; not to obtain what one wants is suffering.'

Someone might argue that this assessment of life is flawed. Happiness and contentment do exist. Life isn't just suffering.

The Buddhist response to this is that any happiness does not last forever. The happiest person in the world must one day experience death - and possibly old age and sickness too. In any happiness there is - latent within it - the awareness of loss as there is no guarantee that such happiness will be sustained.

The Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering:
The Buddha's approach to the problem of suffering was essentially analytical. He saw that suffering was everywhere but where did it come from? According to the Buddha's teaching, the origin of suffering is craving or tanha. This is fundamentally an inherent desire for pleasure and the avoidance of pain. We are constantly drawn to pleasant smells, sights, sounds, tastes,

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