Four Noble Truths

The foundations of the Buddhist spiritual path are succinctly summarized in a four-line verse written by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and explored in an in-depth explanation.

The Mahayana tradition of the four close placements of mindfulness correlates each of the four in terms of one of the four noble truths for countering one of the four discordant ways of paying attention to our five aggregates.

Shakyamuni Buddha first taught the four noble truths: true sufferings, true origins or causes of sufferings, true stoppings or cessations of suffering and its causes, and the true pathway mind that will lead to these stoppings.

An explanation on how the four noble truths are understood at initial, intermediate and advanced levels.

With a true cessation of the true causes of true sufferings, none of the true sufferings can ever recur again.

The true causes of our true sufferings are our belief in a false reality and unawareness that it is mere fantasy, plus the disturbing emotions and compulsive behavior that they generate.

The true suffering in life that we all face is that, with the types of limited bodies and minds that we have, we perpetuate our problems.

His Holiness’s advice on teaching the lam-rim is to start with the four noble truths.

An introduction to the Four Noble Truths, Buddha’s unique approach to the problem of suffering, and how it can be solved.

A brief introduction to Buddhism.