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#376 Noble Truths

Buddha’s Four Noble Truths form the core of Buddhism. They are:

1. Life is full of suffering.

2. The cause of suffering is selfish desire.

3. Suffering can be relieved.

4. The relief of suffering can be achieved by following the eightfold path.

"Life is suffering"? What does that mean?

Buddha established the fact that life will always involve a certain amount of suffering. We will all get old, get sick and die. Our possessions will break and so will some of our relationships. According to Buddha, that’s just how it is.

The fact that these things happen do not account for why we are unhappy, however. We are unhappy because we fight against it.

Our minds get stuck. (See Big Idea on Dukkha!) We cling to our sense of how things should be, or how we want them to be. It’s this attachment to expectations that presents the problem.

Only by dealing with the fact that life is unpredictable and will often bring pain and undesirable events, can we become "non-attached" and avoid the suffering that plagues most people.