2. Suffering is due to attachment;

3. Attachment can be overcome;

4. There is a path for accomplishing this., the noble Eightfold Path.

These four truths are universally recognized by Buddhist schools. The causes of suffering are expressed in a formula of 12 interdependent stages (the paticca-samuppada) that form an infinitely repeating cycle of coming and becoming. The breaking of this cycle constitutes freedom from rebirth and the cessation of suffering.

1. Suffering is perhaps the most common translation for the Sanskrit word duhkha, which can also be translated as imperfect, stressful, or filled with anguish.

Although the word duhkha in common parlance means suffering, its use by Gautama was meant to include both pleasure and pain, both happiness and suffering. There are three aspects of this conception: duhkha as suffering in the ordinary sense; duhkha arising out of the impermanence of things, even of a state of pleasure; and duhkha in the sense of five aggregates meaning that the "I" constituted by any individual is nothing but a totality of five aggregates--i.e., form, feeling, conception, disposition, and consciousness. In brief, whatever is noneternal--i.e., whatever is subject to the law of causality--is characterized by duhkha; for Gautama, this is the human situation. One who recognizes the nature of duhkha also knows its causes. Duhkha arises out of craving (trsna), craving arises out of sensation (vedana), and sensation arises out of contact (sparsa), so that man is faced with a series of conditions leading back to ignorance (avidya)--a series in which the rise of each succeeding member depends upon the preceding one (pratityasamutpada).

Contributing to the anguish is anitya -- the fact that all things are impermanent, including living things like ourselves.

Furthermore, there is the concept of anatman -- literally, "no soul". Anatman means that all things are interconnected and interdependent, so that no thing -- including ourselves -- has a separate existence.

2. Attachment is a common translation for the word trishna, which literally means thirst and is also translated as desire, clinging, greed, craving, or lust. Because we and the world are imperfect, impermanent, and not separate, we are forever "clinging" to things, each other, and ourselves, in a mistaken effort at permanence.

Besides trishna, there is dvesha, which means avoidance or hatred. Hatred is its own kind of clinging.

And finally there is avidya, ignorance or the refusal to see. Not fully understanding the impermanence of things is what leads us to cling in the first place.

"Avidya" is the formal opposite of awakening. It is the state of mind when hypnotized or spellbound by maya, so that it mistakes the abstract world of things and events for the concrete world of reality. At a still deeper level it is lack of self-knowledge, lack of the realization that all grasping turns out to be the futile effort to grasp oneself, or rather, to make life catch hold of itself. For to one who has self-knowledge, there is no duality between himself and the external world.

Avidya is "ignoring" the fact that subject and object are relational, like the two sides of a coin, so that when one pursues, the other retreats. This is why the egocentric attempt to dominate the world, to bring as much of the world as possible under the control of the ego, has only to proceed for a little while before it raises the difficulty of the ego's controlling itself.

3. Perhaps the most misunderstood term in Buddhism is the one which refers to the overcoming of attachment: nirvana. It literally means "blowing out," but is often thought to refer to either a Buddhist heaven or complete nothingness. Actually, it refers to the letting go of clinging, hatred, and ignorance, and the full acceptance of imperfection, impermanence, and interconnectedness.

Two key notions, even in early Buddhism, are those of anatman (Sanskrit: "no-self"; Pali anatta) and Nirvana. The Buddha apparently wanted his famed doctrine of anatman to be a phenomenological account of how things are rather than a theory. In his discourse to the wandering monk Vacchagotta, he rejected the theories of both eternalism (sasvatavaha) and annihilationism (ucchedavada). The former, he stated, would be incompatible with his thesis that all laws (dharmas; Pali dhammas) are selfless (sabbe dhamma anatta); the latter would be significant only if one had a self that is no more in existence. Thus, by not taking sides with the metaphysicians, the Buddha described how the consciousness "I am" comes to constitute itself in the stream of consciousness out of the five aggregates of form, feeling, conception, disposition, and consciousness. The doctrine of "no-self" actually has two aspects: as applied to pudgala, or the individual person, and as applied to the dhammas, or the elements of being. In its former aspect, it asserts the fact that an individual is constituted out of five aggregates; in its latter aspect it means the utter insubstantiality of all elements. Intuitive realization of the former truth leads to the disappearance of passions and desires, realization of the latter removes all misconceptions about the nature of things in general. The former removes the "covering of the passions" (klesavarana); the latter removes "the concealment of things" ( jneyavarana). Together, they result in Nirvana.

Both negative and positive accounts of Nirvana are to be found in the Buddha's teachings and in early Buddhist writings. Nirvana is a state of utter extinction, not of existence, but of passions and suffering; it is a state beyond the chain of causation, a state of freedom and spontaneity. It is in addition a state of bliss. Nirvana is not the result of a process; were it so, it would be but another perishing state. It is the truth--not, however, an eternal, everlasting substance like the atman of the Upanisads, but the truth of utter selflessness and insubstantiality of things, of the emptiness of the ego, and of the impermanence of all things. With the realization of this truth, ignorance is destroyed, and, consequently, all craving, suffering, and hatred is destroyed with it (see also the article Buddhism).

4. And then there is the path, called dharma. Buddha called it the middle way, which is understood as meaning the middle way between such competing philosophies as materialism and idealism, or hedonism and asceticism.

An important point of difference between Hinayana and Mahayana, as pointed out by the Saddharma-Pundarika, is that according to the former, the realisation of the Four Aryasatyas (Noble Truths) and the Pratityasamutpada (Law of Causation) is of primary importance for the attainment of Nirvana while, according to the latter, it is only of secondary importance. The main reason for this difference is that the Mahayanists consider the real Nirvana to be the realisation of Sunyata (essencelessness) and Tathata (thatness) or Samata (sameness) of all things Sarvadhharma, and not what the Hinayanists look upon as the attainment of Nirvana, viz., the realisation of the essencelessness of all constituted things (Pudgala-sunyata), that is, the absence of any existing entity (anatmata). The Mahayanists hold that the aryasatyas and the pratityasamutpada are essential to the comprehension of Pudgala-sunyata, and so far the Hinayanists are right; but they cannot enable a being to realise Dharmasunyata, the only gate to Nirvana.

What are really the Aryasatyas and the Pratiyasamutpada? The Aryasatyas, as commonly known, are,- Duhkha (misery), Samudaya (origin of misery), Nirodha (cessation of misery ), and Marga (means of cessation of misery). Of these four, the second and the third include the Pratityasamutpada, which is, as is popularly known, a series of causes leading to the origination and disappearance of duhkha (misery). The underlying teaching of these four truths is that they are to be treated as a formula for application to everything perceived. That these four truths constitute merely a formula and not a doctrine has been brought out very clearly in the Majjilima Nikaya and the Lalitavistara. In giving an exposition of what is the right view (sammuditthi) according to the Buddhists, Sariputta takes up, for instance, ahara (food), duhkha (misery), jaramarana (old age and death), tanha (desire), namarupa (name and form) and avijja (ignorance), and applies to each of them the fourfold formula examining it in this way:

1. Take up for consideration a material or an immaterial thing.

2. What is its origin?

3. How does it decay?

In pursuance of this method Sariputta defines Sammaditthi through ahara. He who knows ahara (food), aharasamudaya (how food originates), aharanirodha (how food dacays) and aharanirodhagaminipatipada (the way in which the decay of food happens) is said to possess Sammaditthi. The first truth relates to Ahara which, in the Buddhist philosophy, is of four kinds. The second truth is aharasamudaya, that is, ahara comes into existence on account of tanha. The third truth is aharanirodha, that is, the ceasing of ahara when the tanha is extinct. The fourth truth is the way in which ahara ceases. It happens by the practice of the eightfold path, like, sammaditthi, sankappa, vaca, and so on. One who knows correctly these truths gets rid of hatred and attachment, rises above the belief in a self, drives out ignorance, and attains freedom from misery.

Therefore, in these four truths there is nothing particularly Buddhistic. They are found in the Brahmanica systems of philosophy as well.

1. Right view is the true understanding of the four noble truths.

2. Right aspiration is the true desire to free oneself from attachment, ignorance, and hatefulness.

These two are referred to as prajna, or wisdom.

3. Right speech involves abstaining from lying, gossiping, or hurtful talk.

4. Right action involves abstaining from hurtful behaviors, such as killing, stealing, and careless sex.

5. Right livelihood means making your living in such a way as to avoid dishonesty and hurting others, including animals.

These three are refered to as shila, or morality.

6. Right effort is a matter of exerting oneself in regards to the content of one's mind: Bad qualities should be abandoned and prevented from arising again; Good qualities should be enacted and nurtured.

7. Right mindfulness is the focusing of one's attention on one's body, feelings, thoughts, and consciousness in such a way as to overcome craving, hatred, and ignorance.

8. Right concentration is meditating in such a way as to progressively realize a true understanding of imperfection, impermanence, and non-separateness.

The last three are known as samadhi, or meditation.

In the Kalama Sutta, we find the Kalamas, a people of apparently skeptical natures, asking Buddha for guidance in distinguishing good teachers from bad ones, and proper teachings from evil ones. The people of Kalama asked the Buddha who to believe out of all the ascetics, sages, venerables, and holy ones who, like himself, passed through their town. They complained that they were confused by the many contradictions they discovered in what they heard. The Kalama Sutta is the Buddha's reply.



¡V Do not believe anything on mere hearsay.

¡V Do not believe in traditions merely because they are old and have been handed down for many generations and in many places.

¡V Do not believe anything on account of rumors or because people talk a a great deal about it.

¡V Do not believe anything because you are shown the written testimony of some ancient sage.

¡V Do not believe in what you have fancied, thinking that, because it is extraordinary, it must have been inspired by a god or other wonderful being.

¡V Do not believe anything merely because presumption is in its favor, or because the custom of many years inclines you to take it as true.

¡V Do not believe anything merely on the authority of your teachers and priests.

¡V But, whatever, after thorough investigation and reflection, you find to agree with reason and experience, as conducive to the good and benefit of one and all and of the world at large, accept only that as true, and shape your life in accordance with it.

The Buddha answers in three parts, which are treasures of wisdom. First, he outlines the criteria we should use to distinguish good from bad teachers and teachings:

"It is proper for you, Kalamas, to doubt, to be uncertain.... Do not go upon what has been acquired by repeated hearing; nor upon tradition; nor upon rumor; nor upon what is in a scripture; nor upon surmise; nor upon an axiom; nor upon specious reasoning; nor upon a bias towards a notion that has been pondered over; nor upon another's seeming ability; nor upon the consideration, 'The monk is our teacher....'

"What do you think, Kalamas? Does greed appear in a man for his benefit or harm? Does hate appear in a man for his benefit or harm? Does delusion appear in a man for his benefit or harm?" -- "For his harm, venerable sir." -- "Kalamas, being given to greed, hate, and delusion, and being overwhelmed and vanquished mentally by greed, hate, and delusion, this man takes life, steals, commits adultery, and tells lies; he prompts another too, to do likewise. Will that be long for his harm and ill?" -- "Yes, venerable sir...."

"Kalamas, when you yourselves know: 'These things are bad; these things are blamable; these things are censured by the wise; undertaken and observed, these things lead to harm and ill,' abandon them. "

Next, Buddha presents The Four Exalted Dwellings or Brahma Vihara:

"The disciple of the Noble Ones, Kalamas, who in this way is devoid of coveting, devoid of ill will, undeluded, clearly comprehending and mindful, dwells, having pervaded, with the thought of amity, all corners of the universe; he dwells, having pervaded because of the existence in it of all living beings, everywhere, the entire world, with the great, exalted, boundless thought of amity that is free of hate or malice.

"He lives, having pervaded, with the thought of compassion, all corners of the universe; he dwells, having pervaded because of the existence in it of all living beings, everywhere, the entire world, with the great, exalted, boundless thought of compassion that is free of hate

"He lives, having pervaded, with the thought of gladness, all corners of the universe; he dwells, having pervaded because of the existence in it of all living beings, everywhere, the entire world, with the great, exalted, boundless thought of gladness that is free of hate or malice.

"He lives, having pervaded, with the thought of equanimity, all corners of the universe; he dwells, having pervaded because of the existence in it of all living beings, everywhere, the entire world, with the great, exalted, boundless thought of equanimity that is free of hate or malice.

And finally, Buddha reveals how, no matter what our philosophical orientation, following this path will lead to happiness, The Four Solaces:

"The disciple of the Noble Ones, Kalamas, who has such a hate-free mind, such a malice-free mind, such an undefiled mind, and such a purified mind, is one by whom four solaces are found here and now.

"'Suppose there is a hereafter and there is a fruit, result, of deeds done well or ill. Then it is possible that at the dissolution of the body after death, I shall arise in the heavenly world, which is possessed of the state of bliss.' This is the first solace found by him.

"'Suppose there is no hereafter and there is no fruit, no result, of deeds done well or ill. Yet in this world, here and now, free from hatred, free from malice, safe and sound, and happy, I keep myself.' This is the second solace found by him.

"'Suppose evil (results) befall an evil-doer. I, however, think of doing evil to no one. Then, how can ill (results) affect me who do no evil deed?' This is the third solace found by him.

"'Suppose evil (results) do not befall an evil-doer. Then I see myself purified in any case.' This is the fourth solace found by him.

"The disciple of the Noble Ones, Kalamas, who has such a hate-free mind, such a malice-free mind, such an undefiled mind, and such a purified mind, is one by whom, here and now, these four solaces are found."