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THE FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS THE FIRST NOBLE TRUTH To live is to suffer. What is the Noble Truth of Suffering? Birth
is suffering, aging is suffering, sickness is suffering, dissociation from
the loved is suffering, not to get what one wants is suffering: in
short the five categories affected by clinging are suffering.
THE SECOND NOBLE TRUTH We suffer because we are imoroperly attached to things. What is the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering?
It is craving which renews being and is accompanied by relish and lust,
relishing this and that: in other words, craving for sensual desires, craving
for being, craving for non-being. But whereon does this craving arise and
flourish? Wherever there is what seems lovable and gratifying, thereon
it arises and flourishes.
THE THIRD NOBLE TRUTH Freedom from suffering can be attained. What is the Noble Truth of the Cessation of
Suffering? It is the remainderless fading and cessation of that same craving;
the rejecting, relinquishing, leaving and renouncing of it. But whereon
is this craving abandoned and made to cease? Wherever there is what seems
lovable and gratifying, thereon it is abandoned and made to cease.
THE FOURTH NOBLE TRUTH There is a path that leads away from suffering. What is the Noble Truth of the Way Leading
to the Cessation of Suffering? It is the Noble Eightfold Path, that is
to say: Right View, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right
Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration.
See: THE FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS for further explanation. |