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* ''[http://www.heartlandsangha.org/feeling.html The Feeling Buddha]:'' An alternate interpretation of the Four Noble Truths.
* ''[http://www.heartlandsangha.org/feeling.html The Feeling Buddha]:'' An alternate interpretation of the Four Noble Truths.
*[http://www.berzinarchives.com/sutra/sutra_level_4/list_16_4_noble_truths.html Sixteen Aspects of the Four Noble Truths]
*[http://www.berzinarchives.com/sutra/sutra_level_4/list_16_4_noble_truths.html Sixteen Aspects of the Four Noble Truths]
*[http://nyingmatrust.org/DharmaPerspectives/fourNobleTruths.html The Four Noble Truths]


{{Buddhism topics}}
{{Buddhism topics}}

Revision as of 18:44, 5 February 2010

Translations of
cattāri ariyasaccāni
EnglishFour Noble Truths
Sanskritcatvāri āryasatyāni
Palicattāri ariyasaccāni
Burmeseသစ္စာလေးပါး
(thisa lei ba)
Chinese四圣諦(T) / 四圣谛(S)
(Pinyin: sìshèngdì)
Japanese四諦
(Rōmaji: shitai)
Korean사성제
(sa-seong-je)
Thaiอริยสัจสี่
(ariyasaj sii)
VietnameseTứ Diệu Đế
Glossary of Buddhism
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The Four Noble Truths' (or The Four Truths of the Noble Ones[1]) (Sanskrit: catvāri āryasatyāni; Wylie: phags pa'i bden pa bzhi; Pali: cattāri ariyasaccāni) is one of the most fundamental Buddhist teachings. This Dharma Enlightenment makes ordinary person become the Buddha (Khun Weera Boontanorm, 2000). In broad terms, these truths relate to suffering (or dukkha), its nature, its origin, its cessation and the path leading to its cessation. They are among the truths Siddhartha Gautama is said to have realized during his experience of enlightenment.[2]

The Four Noble Truths appear many times, throughout the most ancient Buddhist texts, the Pali Canon. The early teaching and the traditional understanding in Theravada is that the Four Noble Truths are an advanced teaching for those who are ready for them.

The Sanskrit and Pali words satya and sacca, respectively, mean both "truth" and "real" or "actual thing." With that in mind, one scholar argues that it is important to recognize that the four noble truths are not asserted as propositional truths or creeds, but as "true things" or "realities" that the Buddha experienced.[3] The original Tibetan Lotsawas (Sanskrit: locchāwa; Tibetan: lo ts'a ba), who studied Sanskrit grammar thoroughly, used the Tibetan term bden pa, reflects this understanding.

Background

Why the Buddha is said to have taught in this way is illuminated by the social context of the time in which he lived. The Buddha was a Śramaṇa – a wandering ascetic whose "aim was to discover the truth and attain happiness."[4] He is said to have achieved this aim while under a bodhi tree near the River Neranjana; the Four Noble Truths are a formulation of his understanding of the nature of "suffering",[5] the fundamental cause of all suffering, the escape from suffering, and what effort a person can go to so that they themselves can "attain happiness."[4]

These truths are not expressed as a hypothesis or tentative idea; rather, the Buddha says:

These Four Noble Truths, monks, are actual, unerring, not otherwise. Therefore, they are called noble truths.[6]

The Buddha says that he taught them...

...because it is beneficial, it belongs to the fundamentals of the holy life, it leads to disenchantment, to dispassion, to cessation of suffering, to peace, to direct knowledge, to enlightenment, to Nirvana. That is why I have declared it.[7]

This teaching was the basis of the Buddha's first discourse after his enlightenment.[8] In early Buddhism this is the most advanced teaching in the Buddha's Gradual Training.

Pali and Chinese canon text

  1. The Nature of Suffering (Dukkha):
    "This is the noble truth of suffering: birth is suffering, aging is suffering, illness is suffering, death is suffering; sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief and despair are suffering; union with what is displeasing is suffering; separation from what is pleasing is suffering; not to get what one wants is suffering; in brief, the five aggregates subject to clinging are suffering."[8][9]
  2. Suffering's Origin (Samudaya):
    "This is the noble truth of the origin of suffering: it is this craving which leads to renewed existence, accompanied by delight and lust, seeking delight here and there, that is, craving for sensual pleasures, craving for existence, craving for extermination."[8][9]
  3. Suffering's Cessation (Nirodha):
    "This is the noble truth of the cessation of suffering: it is the remainderless fading away and cessation of that same craving, the giving up and relinquishing of it, freedom from it, nonreliance on it."[8][9]
  4. The Way (Magga) Leading to the Cessation of Suffering:
    "This is the noble truth of the way leading to the cessation of suffering: it is the Noble Eightfold Path; that is, right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration."[10][11]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Duff (2008), p. 17
  2. ^ Nanamoli (1995), p. 106
  3. ^ Gethin (1998), p. 60.
  4. ^ a b Warder (1970), p. 34.
  5. ^ The term used by the Buddha is dukkha. While suffering – i.e., being in a state of physical or mental pain – is one aspect of dukkha, it is believed by many that suffering is too narrow a translation and that it is best to leave dukkha untranslated.
  6. ^ Nanamoli (1995), p. 1856.
  7. ^ Nanamoli (1995), pp. 533-36.
  8. ^ a b c d Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta (SN 56.11), trans. Bodhi (2000), pp. 1843-47.
  9. ^ a b c "轉法輪經". Cbeta. Retrieved 2008-10-28.
  10. ^ SN 56.11, trans. Bodhi (2000), p. 1844. In this translation, Bodhi elides the six middle factors of the Noble Eightfold Path (between right view and right concentration). Thus Bodhi's translation for the six middle factors was taken from his translation of SN 45.1 (Bodhi, 2000, p. 1523-24). See also Feer (1976), p. 421f.
  11. ^ In AN 3.61, the Buddha provides an alternate elaboration on the second and third noble truths identifying the arising and cessation of suffering in accordance with Dependent Origination's Twelve Causes, from ignorance to old age and death (Thanissaro, 1997).

References

  • Duff, Tony (2008). Contemplation by way of the Twelve Interdependent Arisings. Kathmandu, Nepal: Padma Karpo Translation Committee. Retrieved on 2008-8-19 from http://www.tibet.dk/pktc/gelugpa.htm
  • Bodhi, Bhikkhu (trans.) (2000). The Connected Discourses of the Buddha: A New Translation of the Samyutta Nikaya. Boston: Wisdom Publications. ISBN 0-86171-331-1.
  • Gethin, Rupert (1988). Foundations of Buddhism. Oxford University Press.
  • Harvey, Peter (1990). Introduction to Buddhism. Cambridge University Press.
  • Nanamoli, Bhikkhu (trans.) (1995, ed. Bhikkhu Bodhi). The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha: A New Translation of the Majjhima Nikaya. Boston: Wisdom Publications. ISBN 0-86171-072-X. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
  • Yamamoto, Kosho (1999-2000, ed. & rev. by Dr. Tony Page). The Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra in 12 Volumes. Nirvana Publications.
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