Four Noble Truths

Buddha Turning the Wheel of Dharma for the first time

The Four Noble Truths (Skt. catvāryāryasatyā; Tib. འཕགས་པའི་བདེན་པ་བཞི་, pakpé denpa shyi; Wyl. 'phags pa'i bden pa bzhi) or the Four Realities of the Aryas, were taught by Buddha Shakyamuni as the central theme of the so-called first turning of the wheel of the Dharma after his attainment of enlightenment. They are:

• the truth (or reality) of suffering (Tib. སྡུག་བསྔལ་གྱི་བདེན་པ་, Skt. duḥkha-satya) which is to be understood,
• the truth (or reality) of the origin of suffering (Tib. ཀུན་འབྱུང་བའི་བདེན་པ་, Skt. samudaya-satya), which is to be abandoned,
• the truth (or reality) of cessation (Tib. འགོག་པའི་བདེན་པ་, Skt. nirodha-satya), which is to be actualized, and
• the truth (or reality) of the path (Tib. ལམ་གྱི་བདེན་པ་, Skt. mārga-satya), which is to be relied upon.

Cause & Effect

The four truths can be divided into two pairs of cause and effect, known as the cause and effect of 'thorough affliction' (Skt. saṃkliṣṭa; Tib. ཀུན་ཉོན་, Wyl. kun nyon) or samsara, and the cause and effect of 'complete purification' (Skt. vyavadāna; Tib. རྣམ་བྱང་, Wyl. rnam byang) or nirvana.

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་)

Tibetan Texts

W22084 འཕགས་པ་བདེན་པ་བཞིའི་མདོ། bka' 'gyur (sde dge par phud) edition, Vol. 72. ff.170r.-170v. (pp.339-340)

Oral Teachings Given to the Rigpa Sangha

• His Holiness Sakya Trizin, Paris, 15 September 1996

Further Reading

• Chögyam Trungpa, The Truth of Suffering and the Path of Liberation (Shambhala, 2009)
• The Dalai Lama, His Holiness, Buddha Heart, Buddha Mind: Living the Four Noble Truths (The Crossroad Publishing Company, 2000)
• The Dalai Lama, The Four Noble Truths (Thorsons, 1998)
• The Dalai Lama, Kindness, Clarity and Insight (Snow Lion Publications, 2006), pages 29-34
• The Dalai Lama, Lighting the Way (Snow Lion Publications, 2004), Chapter 1
• The Dalai Lama, The Middle Way (Wisdom Publications)
• Geshe Tashi Tsering, The Four Noble Truths (Wisdom, 2005)
• Jamgön Mipham Rinpoche, Gateway to Knowledge, VOL II (Hong Kong, Boudhanath & Esby: Rangjung Yeshe Publications, 2000)
• Jamyang Drakpa, 'Appendix 2' of The Light of Wisdom, Volume 1 (Rangjung Yeshe Publications, 1999)
• Kangyur Rinpoche, Treasury of Precious Qualities (Boston & London: Shambhala, 2001), pages 67-84 & 'Appendix 3'.
• Mingyur Rinpoche, Joyful Wisdom (Harmony Books, April 2009)
• Ringu Tulku, Daring Steps Towards Fearlessness: The Three Vehicles of Buddhism (Snow Lion, 2005)
• Samdhong Rinpoche, Uncompromising Truth for a Compromised World, (World Wisdom, 2006), pages 182-188
• Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching (Broadway Books, 1999)
• Thrangu Rinpoche, The Venerable Khenchen, The Life of the Buddha and the Four Noble Truths (Namo Buddha Publications, Boulder 2001)
• Walpola Rahula, What the Buddha Taught, 1959

External Links

• A Brief Overview of the Three Turnings and the Mantra Pitaka of the Vidyadharas by Khenpo Pema Vajra
• Teachings from His Holiness the Dalai Lama