- Pali:
- Chattari-ariya-saccani
- Sanskrit:
- Chatvari-arya-satyani
- Related Topics:
- Buddhism
- Eightfold Path
Four Noble Truths
Four Noble Truths, one of the fundamental doctrines of Buddhism, said to have been set forth by the Buddha, the founder of the religion, in his first sermon, which he gave after his enlightenment.
Description
- The origin (samudaya) of suffering is craving (tanha).
- The cessation (nirodha) of suffering is nirvana.
- The path (magga) to the end of suffering is the Eightfold Path.
The Four Noble Truths are accepted by all schools of Buddhism and have been the subject of extensive commentary within the tradition. The four truths identify the unsatisfactory nature of existence, identify its cause, postulate a state in which suffering and its causes are absent, and set forth a path to that state.
First noble truth
The first truth, suffering (Pali: dukkha; Sanskrit: duhkha), is characteristic of existence in the realm of rebirth, called samsara (literally “wandering”). The sense of suffering, dukkha, is broad and connotes “uneasiness” or “dissatisfactoriness” in ways that preclude happiness that arises from the changeable nature of the world, human existence, and the human mind. In his first sermon, the Buddha identifies as forms of suffering birth, aging, sickness, death, encountering the unpleasant, separation from the pleasant, not gaining what one desires, and the five “aggregates” (skandhas) that constitute the mind and body (matter, sensations, perceptions, mental formations, and awareness).
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Second noble truth
The second truth is the origin (Pali and Sanskrit: samudaya) or cause of suffering, which the Buddha associates in his first sermon with craving (Pali: tanha; Sanskrit: trishna; literally “thirst”). This craving in turn gives rise to attachment (Pali and Sanskrit: upadana), according to the doctrine of dependent origination (Pali: paticca-samuppada), helping to perpetuate the cycle of rebirth (samsara). In other Buddhist texts the causes of suffering are understood as stemming from negative ethical actions (e.g., killing, stealing, and lying) and the negative mental states that motivate negative actions (e.g., desire, hatred, and ignorance). In those texts, the mental state of ignorance refers to an active misconception of the nature of things: seeing pleasure where there is pain, beauty where there is ugliness, permanence where there is impermanence (Pali: anicca; Sanskrit: anitya), and self where there is no self (Pali: anatta; Sanskrit: anatman).
Third noble truth
The third truth is the cessation of suffering (Pali and Sanskrit: nirodha), commonly called by the Sanskrit term nirvana (Pali: nibbana). The Buddha offers few details about the nature of this central concept in the tradition, possibly because nirvana is considered unconditioned and therefore beyond linguistic description.
Fourth noble truth
The fourth and final truth is the path (Pali: magga; Sanskrit: marga) to the cessation of suffering. In his first sermon the Buddha identifies this path as the Eightfold Path: (1) right view, (2) right intention, (3) right speech, (4) right action, (5) right livelihood, (6) right effort, (7) right mindfulness, and (8) right concentration. In fact, the Buddha presents the Eightfold Path in his first sermon prior to giving the Four Noble Truths, and he then reiterates the path as the fourth and final noble truth.
The meaning of Four Noble Truths
Although the term Four Noble Truths is well known in English sources on Buddhism, it is a misleading translation of the Pali term Chattari-ariya-saccani (Sanskrit: Chatvari-arya-satyani). The term translated as noble (Pali: ariya; Sanskrit: arya) refers not to the truths themselves but to those who understand them. A more accurate rendering, therefore, might be “four truths for the [spiritually] noble”; they are four facts that are known to be true by those with insight into the nature of reality but that are not known to be true by ordinary beings. The Buddha stated in his first sermon that when he gained absolute and intuitive knowledge of the four truths, he achieved complete enlightenment and freedom from future rebirth.
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