Chan Sochun ចាន់ សុជន

The Four Noble Truths (concise Buddhism)

The whole teaching of the Buddha can be resumed in four sections, which are called The Four Noble Truths. Each of these four sections was discovered by the Buddha and can be verified by anyone who practise dhamma correctly (the purpose of this whole site is to explain what is dhamma and how to practise it in day-to-day life).

1. The Noble Truth of suffering

All existing thing is subject to suffering or insatisfaction. No living one can avoid one or other kind of suffering: suffering of being separated from things or persons we like, suffering to be obliged to stay with things or persons we do not like, suffering of starving, chilling, or any kind of troubles in our life, suffering because of sickness, old age, death...

2. The Noble Truth of the arising of suffering

Each kind of suffering is bound to a cause, a reason, that makes it come out. Suffering is caused by mental impuritities: anger, desire, fright, jealousy, pride... All these impurities are formed because of craving (one wants to own something), aversion (one wants to escape from something) and ignorance (one doesn't know things as they really are). To eradicate suffering, we have to eradicate these bad elements which are like poisons for the mind.

3. The Noble Truth of the cessation of suffering

If desire, anger and ignorance are the cause of suffering, we have to destroy them, in the purpose to put an end to suffering. So the cessation of desire, anger and ignorance leads to the cessation of suffering. The experience who is able to destroy these "poisons" in the mind is called nibbána in Pali language, or is also called Awakening. To reach nibbána, we have to train to vipassaná (the direct vision in the reality).

4. The Noble Truth of the path leading to the cessation of suffering

To definitively eradicate mental impurities, which are cause of suffering, one has to follow the noble path (or way) of the dhamma. Here, the word "way" is used as a symbol. This is not like a path in the country, but it's a set of habits to get and develop. This path is a "noble" path, that is: a pure path, respectable and full of benefits, for it brings best results for all. This noble path is the path of the dhamma, which leads to the right understanding of the reality.
Practising dhamma leads little by little to nibbána, the end of suffering. In the purpose to be wholesome and lead to the end of suffering, this practise must be fully achieved. And for this practise to be achieved, one must follow an eightfold training (that's why the dhammadána logo is divided in eight parts):

1. right understanding (to understand correctly the dhamma),
2. right thought (thought with no craving, no jealousy, no ill will or no cruelty involved),
3. right speech (including no lies, no traducing, no vulgarities, no useless chatterings),
4. right action (i.e. no killing, no stealing, no sexual misconduct, no alcohol drinking nor drug ingestion),
5. right livelyhood (one has to honestly earn one's living, avoiding harmful actions),
6. right effort (overcoming et avoiding unwholesome things, and maintaining wholesome ones),
7. right awareness (direct observation in the reality),
8. right concentration (staying concentrated on a single thing).