Four Noble Truths

Buddha Turning the Wheel of Dharma for the first time

Four Noble Truths (Skt. catvāryāryasatyā; Tib. pakpé denpa shyi; Wyl. 'phags pa'i bden pa bzhi) — as the first turning of the wheel of the Dharma after attaining enlightenment, Buddha taught the Four Noble Truths. They are:

• the truth of suffering, which is to be understood,
• the truth of the origin of suffering, which is to be abandoned,
• the truth of cessation, which is to be actualized, and
• the truth of the path, which is to be relied upon.

Sixteen Aspects of the Four Noble Truths

Suffering
1. Suffering (Skt. duḥkha; Tib. སྡུག་བསྔལ་བ་)
2. Impermanence (Skt. anitya; Tib. མི་རྟག་པ་)
3. Emptiness (Skt. śūnyatā; Tib. སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་)
4. Selflessness (Skt. anātmaka; Tib. བདག་མེད་པ་)

Origination
5. Cause (Skt. hetu; Tib. རྒྱུ་)
6. Origination (Skt.samudaya; Tib. ཀུན་འབྱུང་)
7. Intense Arising (Skt. prabhava; Tib. རབ་སྐྱེ་)
8. Condition (Skt. pratyaya; Tib. རྐྱེན་)

Cessation
9. Peace (Skt. śānta; Tib. ཞི་བ་)
10. Cessation (Skt. nirodha; Tib. འགོག་པ་)
11. Perfection (Skt. praṇīta; Tib. གྱ་ནོམ་པ་)
12. True Deliverance (Skt. niḥsaraṇa; Tib. ངེས་འབྱུང་, Wyl. nges 'byung)

Path
13. Path (Skt. mārga; Tib. ལམ་)
14. Appropriate (Skt. nyāya; Tib. རིགས་པ་)
15. Effective (Skt. pratipatti; Tib. སྒྲུབ་པ་)
16. Truly Delivering (Skt. nairyāṇika; Tib. ངེས་འབྱིན་)

Further Reading

• Ringu Tulku, Daring Steps Towards Fearlessness: The Three Vehicles of Buddhism, Snow Lion, 2005
• Kangyur Rinpoche, Treasury of Precious Qualities (Boston & London: Shambhala, 2001), 'Appendix 3'.

External Links

• A Brief Overview of the Three Turnings and the Mantra Pitaka of the Vidyadharas by Khenpo Pema Vajra