Transcript The Human Condition / The Goals

The Goals
The Four Noble Truths – Part Two
The Four Noble Truths - Reminder
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1.
2.
3.
4.
These are the basis of all Buddhist teaching
These were alluded to in the Buddha’s first sermon
(The Sermon at Benares)
Buddhists use a doctor analogy to explain them:
The Buddha is the doctor who makes the diagnosis
– Dukkha
The cause of the illness is craving (tanha) –
Samudaya
There is a cure, it is to achieve nibbana – Nirodha
The prescription is to follow the Noble Eightfold Path
- Magga
The First Noble Truth - Dukkha
• Also one of the Three Universal Truths /
Marks of Existence
• Means ‘unsatisfactoriness’
• Caused by failure to understand anicca
Second Noble Truth - Samudaya
•The cause of dukkha (the actual illness) is tanha
(craving)
•Because you do not understand anicca, you crave
permanence and possessions
•All this craving makes you suffer: tanha causes
dukkha
The Third Noble Truth - Nirodha
• There is a way to cure the illness of dukkha
• The way to be cured forever is to achieve
enlightenment (nibbana)
• This is the ULTIMATE GOAL of all Buddhists
• Nibbana is not a place, but a state of mind
• Difficult to describe – must experience it to
understand fully (fish and turtle story)
• Enlightened beings are outwith the realm of
cause and effect, so are not reborn when they
die
• See ‘What the Buddha Taught’ and ‘QKM’