General knowledge · Religion & belief

The Four Noble Truths

first taught at Sarnath, traditionally in the 5th century BCE

Buddhism — the framework of the Buddha's first sermon

The four propositions that Buddhist tradition places at the centre of the Buddha's teaching, set out in his first sermon in the deer park at Sarnath near Varanasi. They state that existence is marked by dukkha, unsatisfactoriness; that its origin lies in craving; that its cessation is possible; and that there is a path leading to that cessation — the Noble Eightfold Path. The structure is often compared to a physician's diagnosis: symptom, cause, prognosis, treatment.

How to spot them

▸First preached in the deer park at Sarnath to the five ascetics who had left him
▸Dukkha, samudaya, nirodha, magga — suffering, its arising, its ceasing, the path
▸The fourth truth unpacks into eight, grouped under wisdom, ethics and meditation
▸Symbolised by the dharmachakra, the wheel whose eight spokes are the eight limbs of the path

Key facts

First preached in a deer park near Varanasi to five former companions who had abandoned him

The Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, 'Setting in Motion the Wheel of the Dharma', at Sarnath

A physician's structure: the complaint, its cause, the prospect of a cure, and the course of treatment

A very old analogy for the scheme

Tanha — literally 'thirst' — named as the source of the trouble

The second of them: craving, for sensual pleasure, for existence and for non-existence

The remedy has eight limbs, running from right view to right concentration

The Noble Eightfold Path, grouped as wisdom (prajna), ethics (sila) and meditation (samadhi)

A wheel whose eight spokes stand for the eight limbs of the remedy

The dharmachakra; the 24-spoked Ashoka Chakra on India's flag comes from the lion capital at Sarnath, where the sermon was preached

The third of them is a blowing out, like a lamp going out for want of fuel

Nirodha, cessation; nirvana literally means 'extinguishing'

A middle way between the luxury of a palace and the starvation of the forest

Siddhartha Gautama had tried both before his awakening at Bodh Gaya

Right speech, right action and right livelihood form the ethical third of the remedy

Sila; the other groups are wisdom and mental discipline

Key ideas

Dukkha is often translated 'suffering', but it covers something broader: the unsatisfactoriness of things that cannot last. It is one of the three marks of existence, with anicca (impermanence) and anatta (no fixed self).

Quick-fire facts

•They were first taught in the Deer Park at Sarnath, near Varanasi, to five ascetics, in the sermon known as the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta
•The four are dukkha (suffering), samudaya (its origin in craving), nirodha (its cessation) and magga (the path)
•The Sanskrit is catvari aryasatyani, 'four truths of the noble ones'
•Craving is tanha in Pali, literally 'thirst'
•The fourth truth is the Noble Eightfold Path: right view, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness and concentration
•The eight are grouped into three trainings: wisdom, ethical conduct and mental discipline
•Nirvana comes from a root meaning to blow out, as a flame is extinguished
•Dukkha is one of the three marks of existence, alongside anicca (impermanence) and anatta (non-self)
•The dharmachakra, the eight-spoked wheel that symbolises the path, appears as the Ashoka Chakra at the centre of the Indian flag
•The Buddha reached his awakening under a pipal tree at Bodh Gaya, having rejected both palace luxury and extreme asceticism — the Middle Way

Drill it — 8 cards

1 / 8new card

Sources

BBC Religion & Ethics — The Four Noble Truths
World History Encyclopedia — Four Noble Truths