What are the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism?
The Four Noble Truths are the core teaching of Buddhism: (1) life involves suffering (dukkha), (2) suffering arises from craving and attachment, (3) suffering can end (nirvana), and (4) the path to ending suffering is the Eightfold Path of right view, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and concentration.
The Four Noble Truths form the foundation of Buddhist teaching, delivered by Siddhartha Gautama — the Buddha — in his first sermon at Deer Park in Sarnath after achieving enlightenment. They represent a systematic diagnosis of the human condition and a practical path to liberation.
The First Noble Truth — dukkha — is often translated as 'life is suffering,' but this is misleading. Dukkha encompasses a broader range of experiences: physical pain, emotional distress, the anxiety of impermanence, and the fundamental unsatisfactoriness of even pleasant experiences that are inevitably temporary. The Buddha was not saying life is nothing but misery, but that dissatisfaction is a pervasive feature of unenlightened existence.
The Second Noble Truth identifies the cause of dukkha: tanha, or craving. This includes craving for sensory pleasure, craving for existence (clinging to life), and craving for non-existence (wanting to escape reality). The deeper issue is attachment — the tendency to cling to things, people, ideas, and even our own sense of self as permanent, when everything is actually in constant flux.
The Third Noble Truth offers hope: nirvana, the cessation of suffering, is possible. By extinguishing craving and attachment, one can achieve a state of profound peace and liberation from the cycle of rebirth (samsara).
The Fourth Noble Truth lays out the practical path: the Eightfold Path, which encompasses ethical conduct (right speech, action, livelihood), mental discipline (right effort, mindfulness, concentration), and wisdom (right view, intention). The Buddha called this the Middle Way — avoiding both luxury and extreme asceticism. These truths have guided Buddhist practice across diverse cultures for over two and a half millennia.