Four Noble Truths

The Buddha teaching the Four Noble Truths. Sanskrit manuscript, c. 700-1100 CE. Nālandā, Bihar, India.
Translations of
Four Noble Truths
Sanskritचत्वार्यार्यसत्यानि
(catvāryāryasatyāni)
Palicaturāriyasaccāni
Bengaliচতুরার্য সত্য
(Chôturarjô Sôtyô)
Burmeseသစ္စာလေးပါး
(MLCTS: θɪʔsà lé bá)
Chinese四聖諦(T) / 四圣谛(S)
(Pinyin: sìshèngdì)
IndonesianEmpat Kebenaran Mulia
Japanese四諦 [ja]
(Rōmaji: shitai)
Khmerអរិយសច្ចបួន [km]
(areyasachak buon)
Korean사성제 [ko](四聖諦)
(sa-seong-je)
MongolianХутагтын дөрвөн үнэн [mn]
(Khutagtiin durvun unen)
(ᠬᠤᠲᠤᠭᠲᠤ ᠢᠢᠨ ᠳᠥᠷᠪᠡᠨ ᠦᠨᠡᠨ)
Sinhalaචතුරාර්ය සත්‍යය [si]
(Chaturarya Satya)
Tibetanའཕགས་པའི་བདེན་པ་བཞི་
(Wylie: 'phags pa'i bden pa bzhi
THL: pakpé denpa shyi)
TagalogAng mga Apat na Maharlikang Katotohanan
Thaiอริยสัจสี่ [th]
(ariyasat sii)
VietnameseTứ Diệu Đế [vi] (四妙諦)
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In Buddhism, the Four Noble Truths (Sanskrit: चत्वार्यार्यसत्यानि, romanized: catvāryāryasatyāni; Pali: cattāri ariyasaccāni; "The Four arya satya") are "the truths of the noble one (the Buddha),"[a][b] a statement of how things really are when they are seen correctly.[1][note 1] The four truths are

The four truths appear in many grammatical forms in the ancient Buddhist texts,[15] and are traditionally identified as the first teaching given by the Buddha.[note 3] While often called one of the most important teachings in Buddhism,[16] they have both a symbolic and a propositional function.[17] Symbolically, they represent the awakening and liberation of the Buddha, and of the potential for his followers to reach the same liberation and freedom as him.[18] As propositions, the Four Truths are a conceptual framework that appear in the Pali canon and early Hybrid Sanskrit Buddhist scriptures,[19] as a part of the broader "network of teachings"[20] (the "dhamma matrix"),[21] which have to be taken together.[20] They provide a conceptual framework for introducing and explaining Buddhist thought, which has to be personally understood or "experienced".[22][note 4]

As a proposition, the four truths defy an exact definition, but refer to and express the basic orientation of Buddhism:[23] unguarded sensory contact gives rise to craving and clinging to impermanent states and things,[24] which are dukkha,[25] "unsatisfactory,"[3] "incapable of satisfying"[web 3] and painful.[24][26][27][note 2] This craving keeps us caught in saṃsāra,[note 5] "wandering", usually interpreted as the endless cycle of repeated rebirth,[note 6] and the continued dukkha that comes with it,[note 7] but also referring to the endless cycle of attraction and rejection that perpetuates the ego-mind.[note 6] There is a way to end this cycle,[29][note 8] namely by attaining nirvana, cessation of craving, whereafter rebirth and the accompanying dukkha will no longer arise again.[note 9][30] This can be accomplished by following the eightfold path,[note 3] confining our automatic responses to sensory contact by restraining oneself, cultivating discipline and wholesome states, and practicing mindfulness and dhyana (meditation).[31][32]

The function of the four truths, and their importance, developed over time and the Buddhist tradition slowly recognized them as the Buddha's first teaching.[33] This tradition was established when prajna, or "liberating insight", came to be regarded as liberating in itself,[34][35] instead of or in addition to the practice of dhyana.[34] This "liberating insight" gained a prominent place in the sutras, and the four truths came to represent this liberating insight, as a part of the enlightenment story of the Buddha.[36][37]

The four truths grew to be of central importance in the Theravada tradition of Buddhism by about the 5th-century CE,[38][39] which holds that the insight into the four truths is liberating in itself.[40] They are less prominent in the Mahayana tradition, which sees the higher aims of insight into sunyata, emptiness, and following the Bodhisattva path as central elements in their teachings and practice.[41] The Mahayana tradition reinterpreted the four truths to explain how a liberated being can still be "pervasively operative in this world".[42] Beginning with the exploration of Buddhism by western colonialists in the 19th century and the development of Buddhist modernism, they came to be often presented in the west as the central teaching of Buddhism,[43][44] sometimes with novel modernistic reinterpretations very different from the historic Buddhist traditions in Asia.[45][46][47]

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  1. ^ Williams, Tribe & Wynne 2002, p. 41.
  2. ^ Monier-Williams 1899, p. 483, entry note: .
  3. ^ a b Analayo (2013b).
  4. ^ Beckwith (2015), p. 30.
  5. ^ Alexander (2019), p. 36.
  6. ^ Keown 2013, pp. 50–52.
  7. ^ Keown 2013, pp. 53–55.
  8. ^ a b Brazier 2001.
  9. ^ a b Batchelor 2012, pp. 95–97.
  10. ^ Buswell & Lopez 2014, p. "nirodha".
  11. ^ Anderson 2001, p. 96.
  12. ^ Keown 2013, pp. 56–58.
  13. ^ Keown 2013, pp. 58–60.
  14. ^ Norman 2003, pp. 219, 222.
  15. ^ Anderson 1999, p. 56, Quote: "There are different grammatical forms in which the four noble truths appear throughout the canonical corpus; there is no one formula for the four noble truths.".
  16. ^ Anderson 1999, p. 55, Quote: "As the context of the Buddha's first talk on dhamma, the four noble truths are recognized as perhaps the most important teaching of the Buddha.".
  17. ^ Anderson 1999, pp. 223–231.
  18. ^ Anderson 1999, p. 56.
  19. ^ Anderson 1999, p. 55, Quote: "The four noble truths are an important part of the Buddha's biography that is recorded partially in the Pali Tipitaka as well as in the Tripitaka recorded in Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit. [... They] were at the center of a specific set of teaching about the Buddha, his teachings, and the path.".
  20. ^ a b Anderson 2001, p. 85.
  21. ^ Anderson 2001, p. 86.
  22. ^ Makransky 1997, pp. 27–28.
  23. ^ Gethin 1998, p. 59.
  24. ^ a b Nyanatiloka 1980, p. 65.
  25. ^ Khantipalo 2003, p. 41.
  26. ^ Emmanuel 2015, p. 30.
  27. ^ Williams, Tribe & Wynne 2002, pp. 74–75.
  28. ^ Payutto, Dependent Origination: the Buddhist Law of Causality
  29. ^ Warder 1999, pp. 45–46.
  30. ^ Buswell & Lopez 2003, p. 304.
  31. ^ Raju 1985, pp. 147–151.
  32. ^ Eliot 2014, pp. 39–41.
  33. ^ Anderson 1999, p. 55, Quote: "However, the four noble truths do not always appear in the stories of the Buddha's enlightenment where we might expect to find them. This feature may indicate that the four noble truths emerged into the canonical tradition at some point and slowly became recognized as the first teaching of the Buddha, [...].".
  34. ^ a b Bronkhorst 1993, pp. 99–100, 102–111.
  35. ^ Anderson 1999, p. [page needed].
  36. ^ Gombrich 1997, pp. 99–102.
  37. ^ Bronkhorst 1993, pp. 93–111.
  38. ^ Anderson 1999, pp. 55–56.
  39. ^ Anderson 1999, pp. 230–231.
  40. ^ Carter 1987, p. 3179.
  41. ^ Carter 1987, pp. 3179–3180.
  42. ^ Makransky 1997, pp. 346–347.
  43. ^ Harris 2006, pp. 72–73.
  44. ^ Anderson 2001, p. 196.
  45. ^ Keown 2009, pp. 60–63, 74–85, 185–187.
  46. ^ Konik 2009, p. ix.
  47. ^ Lopez 2012, pp. 39–43, 57–60, 74–76, 122–124.


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