Four Noble Truths

The Four Noble Truths (Pali, "cattari ariya saccani") are taught in Buddhism as the fundamental insight or enlightenment of Sakyamuni Buddha (the historical Buddha), which led to the formulation of the Buddhist philosophy.

1. Dukkha: All worldly life is unsatisfactory, disjointed, impermanent, suffering.

2. Samudaya: There is a cause of suffering, which is attachment or desire (tanha).

3. Nirodha: There is a way out of suffering, which is to eliminate attachment and desire.

4. Marga: The path that leads out of suffering is called the Noble Eightfold Path.

This outline form is exactly that used by doctors of the Buddha's culture when diagnosing and prescribing for a disease: identify the disease, its cause, whether it is curable, and the prescribed cure. Thus the Buddha treats suffering as a "disease" we can confidently expect to cure.

Because of its focus on suffering, Buddhism is often called pessimistic. But since Gautama Buddha presented a cure, Buddhists consider it neither pessimistic nor optimistic but realistic.

See also