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Four Noble Truths/Eightfold Path
By Hrukti Maat
Introduction
• The Four Noble Truth are: Life is suffering
(dukkha), Origin of Suffering, The Cessation of
Suffering, and the Path Leading to Cessation of
Suffering
• The gist of Four Noble Truth is the understanding
and the way to evade Suffering along the
Eightfold Path
• This is the foundational teaching--the advance
teaching of Buddhism takes a different turn on
the perspective of suffering
Four Noble Truth
• The First Truth—Life is suffering
• Buddha’s initial motivation to seek
enlightenment is due to suffering
• The eight inevitable sufferings of life are:
– Birth
– Sickness
– Unfulfilled desires
– Separation of beloved
--Aging
--Death
--Overwhelming senses
--Gathering of hateful
Four Noble Truth
• The First Truth—Life is Suffering
• The Buddhist perspective is that life is a
suffering sea and that sufferings are inevitable
part of life
• Therefore the evasion of the sufferings of life
is the primary goal of Buddhist practitioner
and that the subsequent works are gearing
toward this goal
Four Noble Truth
• The Second Truth—The Origin of Suffering
• There are many types of desires, all of which
can lead to suffering
– Types of desires:
• Sensual desires--cravings (i.e. food, sleep, sex)
• Emotional desires—desire for love, power, dominance
• Spiritual desires—need to exist (physical attachment)
– Desire arise out of “ignorance”
– Ignorance arise out of ego
Four Noble Truth
• The Second Truth—The Origin of Suffering
• By understand the origin of suffering, the
practitioner gains a perspective on suffering
and realize their pursue of desires are the root
cause of their sufferings
• With the new found perspective, the
practitioners can begin to reverse the cycle of
suffering and transcend out of suffering
The Four Noble Truth
• The Third Truth—The Cessation of Suffering
• The eradication of all desires is the way
toward the cessation of suffering
• When a person achieved the state of without
desires, then the Nirvana experience will
occur, by which the person will no longer get
caught in the cycle of suffering
• The way to achieve the state without desire is
the Fourth Truth
The Four Noble Truth
• The Fourth Truth—the Path toward the
Cessation of Suffering
• The Eightfold path is the Fourth truth and the
path toward the cessation of suffering
• The Eightfold path are:
– Right perspective
– Right speech
– Right livelihood
– Right mindfulness
--Right thought
--Right action
--Right endeavor
--Right meditation
Overview
• The gist of the Eightfold path is the concept of
“righteousness” and the applications of this
concept
• Righteousness is the most powerful spiritual
element and the application of righteousness
to various aspects of spiritual practice will
ensure evasion of suffering and spiritual
accomplishment
Right View
• Right View means right perspective or correct
way of seeing events and things
• Right view means do not see the world as
your enemy, do not think money is everything
and do not think you’re the king and everyone
is your slave, etc.
• Right view enables a person to see through
the falsehood of the world and be able to
release hatred, greed and attachment
Right Thought
• Right thought is the promotion of good
thought and positive thinking
• Right thought means do not think of negative
thought of death or destruction, do not think
of harm to anyone, etc.
• Right thought is very important because every
evil Karma is initiated in the mind and so
safeguarding the mind is very critical to the
success of spiritual endeavor
Right Speech
• Right speech pertains to everything that a
person says
• Right speech means no profanity, no
deception, no mockery, no rumor, etc.
(nothing that may harm a person’s feelings or
reputation)
• Know that your words are mantra with
magical power, so use them wisely
Right Action
• Right action means doing things to benefit
others instead of harming others
• Right action means no killing, no stealing, no
fornication, no violence, etc.. (nothing that
would harm another person’s body or
property)
• Right action also means to do things that
benefits other people such as giving and
serving (again do what is right)
Right Livelihood
• Right livelihood means having jobs or career
that are positive and beneficial
• Right livelihood means don’t be a professional
criminal (i.e. Mafia hit man), don’t be a
butcher or hunter, don’t be a prostitute, etc.
• Some less desirable professions are: cook,
bartender, casino dealer, lawyer for criminal
defense
Right Effort
• Right effort means the right endeavor or right
personal pursue
• Right effort means do not pursue hobbies
such as hunting or fishing, weapon creation,
writing that promotes negativity, etc.
• Right effort means endeavor to do things that
are beneficial to other and promote peace and
harmony in the society
Right Mindfulness
• Right Mindfulness also means right intention
or right motivation
• Right mindfulness means do not wish others
ill, do not curse, do not pray for disaster, do
not wish for stock market crash, etc.
• Know that your thoughts and intention are
loudly broadcasted in the spirit world and
your mindfulness attracts the similar type of
spirits into your life
Right Concentration
• Right concentration also means right
meditation or mental focus
• Right concentration means practicing the
meditation that will be most beneficial to a
person’s enlightenment (i.e. Three Treasures)
• Without right concentration, a person can
waste his or her whole life and achieve only
minor or trivial success
The Four Noble Truth
• The Advance Perspective
– The Hinayana tradition (the small vehicle) is totally
focused on the Four Noble Truth so their entire
focus of practice is on the evasion of sufferings
– The Mahayana tradition (the great vehicle
tradition) is less focus on the evasion of suffering,
rather it focus on the expansion of the capacity to
endure suffering
– The Bodhisattva way is the enduring of sufferings
for others so they too can attain Nirvana
Conclusion
• The Four Noble Truth (along with the Eightfold
path) are the foundational teachings of
Buddhism.
• The entire focus is on the evasion of suffering
and the ways to achieve the state of nonsuffering (or Nirvana)
• The Mahayana tradition expanded on the
teaching to the embrace of sufferings
Questions