The Four Noble Truths

Explaining the basics of Buddhism

“When you hear the splash Of the water drops that fall Into the stone bowl, You will feel that all the dust Of your mind is washed away.” — Sen No Rikyu

1. The Truth of Suffering

Old age, sickness, difficulty, disappointment, and death. If you’re a human, you probably experience some sort of suffering on a regular basis.

Suffering can be as small as the frustration we feel when a five-second ad pops up to interrupt a YouTube video you were trying to watch.

Or, it can be as big as constantly feeling like a worthless failure.

Buddhism recognizes this as the first “noble truth” — that some states of being feel painfully undesirable — that suffering exists. But don’t worry, it offers a way of overcoming it, too.

2. The Origin of Suffering

Just as one can’t fully kill a weed without pulling it out from the roots, you can’t fully overcome suffering without knowing its roots.

In Buddhism, the root of suffering is attachment — desire, expectation, feeling like you need to control things.

If you’re sitting a red light seething about the fact that it’s red, it’s because you believe and expect things like “I must stop at red lights,” “I must get to work on time,” and “This light should have been green for me!”

You could have been admiring the flowers on the side of the road instead.

3. The Cessation of Suffering

The third noble truth of Buddhism is that anybody can pull the weed of suffering from their life, now that they see its roots.

Anybody can begin to stop their suffering, if they begin to become unattached to things.

How, you ask?

4. The Eightfold Path To The Cessation of Suffering

Attempting complete and instant renunciation of attachments (whatever you think that might mean at present) is probably going to increase your suffering, not dispel it, because it’s still based on your expectations.

Likewise, “giving up” effort and being a hedonist is still its own kind of attachment to thoughtlessness.

The Eightfold Path (or “Middle Way”) is the Buddhist prescription to begin your journey towards becoming unattached and at peace.

If you were to imagine the path as a wheel, it would have eight spokes:

Right Understanding

Otherwise known as “right view,” this first step is a shift in mindset. To have right view or understanding is to know the teachings of the Buddha, to know that the world is emptiness and suffering comes from our attachment to it.

Right Intention

The Bible also speaks about intention:

“You have heard that it was said to those ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.” — Matthew 5:21–22

A spirit intending hate is just like a spirit intending murder.

Right intention is about cultivating the right attitudes. What are you after? Are you acting from the patient desire to enlighten yourself and others, or out of the impatient demand and expectation which can only promote more suffering?

Right Speech

If you have the right intention, make your speech match it too. Speak honestly, skillfully, and kindly.

Right Action

Refrain from killing and stealing and such — cultivate action that harmonizes with yourself, nature, and other people.

Right Livelihood

Buddhism promotes peace, and it recognizes that most people need to work for a living, so it promotes doing peaceful work. Avoid careers that involve killing and stealing and such. Seek a career that promotes peace and harmony in yourself and the world.

Right Effort

The point of all this is to cultivate positive, “wholesome,” and harmonious states of mind and action, so there is no room for negative or “unwholesome” ones to creep up.

Right Mindfulness

Mindfulness is to become and remain aware of your inner and outer environment — to notice the warmth of the sun on your face, as well as how your emotions and inner images shift when someone says something unkind to you.

“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” — Carl Jung

Right Concentration

Learn to focus on one important thing at a time. This could be considered an encouragement to meditate.

Dogmatism Vs. The Parable of The Raft

The Eightfold Path is a prescription for how you “should” think and act, yes — but the purpose of taking medicine is not to remain medicated — it is to heal.

The Buddha describes the Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path as a raft. If you were to take a raft from one side of a river to the other, you wouldn’t keep carrying the raft on your back after you had reached the opposite shore.

Likewise, these teachings are not meant to dominate your life, but to improve it. Take the raft as far you need to go, but do not become attached to it, or you’ll be stuck in the river forever.