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Basic Buddhist Teachings 3 - The Four Noble Truths & Practice
*After attaining enlightenment under the Bodhi tree, the World-Honored One sought out his five former “ascetic friends” at the Deer Park (Lộc Uyển), initiating the “Turning of the Dharma Wheel” by delivering the first teaching on the Four Noble Truths to the five original bhikkhus. The Buddha affirmed that he had gone through the three “turnings” (presentation, encouragement, realization) and the twelve aspects of the Four Noble Truths, thus attaining the “eye of clear wisdom,” dispelling afflictions, and preparing for his forty-five-year mission of teaching the Dharma.
*The Four Noble Truths – the four noble realities:
- Suffering (Dukkha): clearly recognizing suffering and its three forms—suffering of suffering, suffering of change, and pervasive suffering.
- Origin (Samudāya): the cause of suffering, the “nutriments” that feed suffering.
- Cessation (Nirodha): the absence of suffering and its causes, true peace and happiness.
- Path (Magga): the path of practice—the Noble Eightfold Path—to transform and end suffering.
*This teaching is founded on the Middle Way—avoiding both extreme asceticism and indulgence in sensual pleasures—and interweaves the two truths: Conventional Truth (suffering, origin, cessation, path) and Ultimate Truth (transcending all notions of suffering and happiness) through dependent co-arising. The practice consists of three stages: recognizing, generating the aspiration to transform, and realizing—forming the “three turnings” so that the Dharma wheel continues to turn endlessly.
Basic Buddhist Teachings 4 - The Four Noble Truths