1.The Four Noble Truths
By Ben Chang and George Soko, Malawi
The Four Noble Truths are the fundamental teachings of our Lord Buddha. It is not the Buddha who created them, but they exist eternally. The Buddha just realized them through his intuitive wisdom. These are the first teachings of the Buddha that he expounded at the Deer Park. These fundamental illuminative discourses were perfectly explained in the Dhammachakkappavattana Sutra. This sutra also contains the Noble Eightfold Path. It’s only the Buddha who completely comprehended these Four Noble Truths. He realized them through his own effort and expounds them to all sentient beings. These Four Noble Truths exist in this world forever, but due to ignorance, many sentient beings fail to realize and apprehend them.
The Buddha, through his limitless, immeasurable, boundless compassion and loving kindness, revealed them to us for our own benefit. The Buddha wishes that all sentient beings should perfectly understand these teachings, but due to ignorance, sentient beings fail to realize them, and as a result, they keep on doing unwholesome deeds that give rise to rebirth now and again. Failure to understand the Four Noble Truths is failure to attain supreme happiness (enlightenment). It needs self-diligence to attain this type of happiness and not rely on someone else; as the Buddha said, ‘rely on oneself, not others.’
Truth is an English word that means sacca in Pali. No one has the ability to change this sacca. This is so because sacca is limitless and ultimate. The Four Noble Truths pertain to all sentient beings in this deluded world, and they are eternal. These truths are called the Four Noble Truths because they are four in number, they ennoble the defiled ones, and they are the reality or supreme truths of the so-called being. In Pali, they are called Ariyasaccani. These truths include:
i. Dukkha (suffering).
ii. Cause of dukkha.
iii. Cessation of dukkha.
iv. The way leading to the end of dukkha.