Four Noble Truths
Suffering, its origin, its ending and the path. The Buddha’s teaching in excerpts from the early discourses.
The Buddha sets out four truths and a task for each in SN 56.11. These are excerpts from Bhikkhu Sujato’s translation.
Our present condition
-
Dukkha
Suffering and unsatisfactorinessTo understand“… old age is suffering; illness is suffering; death is suffering; being coupled with the disliked is suffering; separation from the liked is suffering; not getting what you wish for is suffering. In brief, the five grasping aggregates are suffering.”
This noble truth of suffering should be completely understood.
-
Its cause
To abandon“… craving for sensual pleasures, craving for continued existence, and craving for nonexistence.”
This noble truth of the origin of suffering should be given up.
Freedom and the path
-
Freedom
To realize“It’s the fading away and cessation of that very same craving no residue left behind; giving it away, letting it go, releasing it, and not clinging to it.”
This noble truth of the cessation of suffering should be realized.
-
The path
To cultivate“It is simply this noble eightfold path, that is: right view, right purpose, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right immersion.”
This noble truth of the practice that leads to the cessation of suffering should be developed.
The Buddha · SN 56.11 · translated by Bhikkhu Sujato
Why teach these four?
In SN 56.31, the Buddha compares what he teaches to a handful of leaves from a forest.
“I have explained: ‘This is suffering’ … ‘This is the origin of suffering’ … ‘This is the cessation of suffering’ … ‘This is the practice that leads to the cessation of suffering’.”
“Because it’s beneficial and relevant to the fundamentals of the spiritual life. It leads to disillusionment, dispassion, cessation, peace, insight, awakening, and extinguishment.”
The Buddha · SN 56.31 · translated by Bhikkhu Sujato
In a Rosewood Forest · SN 56.31The four truths of the āryas
In Buddhism: One Teacher, Many Traditions, the Dalai Lama and Thubten Chodron use “four truths of the āryas (ariyas)” for the teaching commonly called the Four Noble Truths. Ārya means a noble or spiritually realized person.
Explaining the Tibetan Buddhist path, Alexander Berzin writes: The Four Noble Truths are seen as being true by highly realized beings.
He describes āryas here as practitioners with a direct, nonconceptual realization of emptiness. They can have this realization before reaching Buddhahood.
Three kinds of duḥkha
In Approaching the Buddhist Path, the Dalai Lama and Thubten Chodron name three kinds of duḥkha. The brief explanations below are Chodron’s words:
- Pain
overt pain
- Change
whatever pleasure we get doesn’t last for a long time
- Pervasive conditioning
being under the influence of afflictions and karma
Thubten Chodron · Four noble truths: An overview
The book’s reflection describes these as rooted in ignorance of the ultimate nature of reality.
Watch Thubten Chodron’s teaching The four truths of the āryas · 84 min
Related reading & listening
Recordings
Sources & notes
Source editions
Bhikkhu Sujato’s translations for SuttaCentral (CC0). Ellipses mark omitted wording.
- SN 56.11 · Rolling Forth the Wheel of Dhamma — the four truths, their definitions and their four tasks; also the source of the short excerpts on “What is Buddhism?”.
- SN 56.31 · In a Rosewood Forest — why the Buddha teaches these four truths.
Explanations & terminology
- Dalai Lama & Thubten Chodron, Approaching the Buddhist Path, The Library of Wisdom and Compassion, vol. 1. The reflection on p. 31 informs the two group headings and names the three kinds of duḥkha; note 2, p. 279, supplies the quotation on its meaning. Note 3 discusses āsrava, translated here as “polluted,” “contaminated” or “tainted.”
- Thubten Chodron, Four noble truths: An overview, 3 May 2013. Source of the three short descriptions above.
- Thubten Chodron, A note on the translation, in Buddhism: One Teacher, Many Traditions — the term “four truths of the āryas.”
- Alexander Berzin, From the Two Truths, the Four Truths — āryas and direct realization in the Tibetan Buddhist path.
- Thubten Chodron, The Four Truths of the Āryas, 21 September 2018. A teaching on Approaching the Buddhist Path, published by Sravasti Abbey. Video: 1:23:43. Atlas recording · Teaching notes & audio.