Buddha’s Noble Truths
Buddha’s teachings are often summarised as four noble truths. Buddha found; 1. despite wealth, culture, art, yoga, religion and war, there was no peace. Even the seemingly well off were dissatisfied (also called dukkha or suffering). 2. By repeatedly and incorrectly trying to alleviate this suffering through material pleasures, we end up as addicts craving for more of the same. This craving is responsible for the suffering. 3. This cycle of craving and dissatisfaction can be broken through a state called nirvana, which means extinguished desires and cravings. 4. And he laid out a path, an eightfold path to achieve such a state. The first two noble truths can be verified by using our intellectual capacity and carefully looking at our lives. It doesn’t take much to realise that our life is indeed full of dissatisfaction caused by clamoring or craving. The process starts early when a child seeks and finds satisfaction through material pleasures. As identification