In: Psychology
Describe the Four Noble Truths. What do Buddhists mean when they say that life is suffering? What causes this suffering, and how can we escape it? Does this preoccupation with suffering make Buddhists pessimists? Why or why not.
The four noble truths consists of:
(1)Dukha:(suffering,incapable of satisfying,painful) is a innate characteristic of existence with each rebirth.
(2)Samudaya:(origin,cause)it is craving,desire or attachment.
(3)Nirodha:(cessation,ending)can be attained by eliminating all craving,desire and attachment.
(4)Magga:(path,noble eightfold path)is the means to end this dukkha.
these 4 noble truths comprise the essence of Buddha's teaching,though they leave much left unexplained.First one is the truth of suffering,second is the truth of path of suffering,third is the truth of end of the suffering,and the fourth one is the truth of the path that leads to the end of the suffering.
Buddhists mean when they say life is suffering is that to live means to suffer because human nature is not perfect neither the world we live in.during our lifetime we have to endure physical pain through tiredness,injury,sickness,old age etc.and we have to endure sadness,weeping,frustation,blaming,depression etc.There are different degrees of suffering in the world and opposite to that we have comfort,happiness,excitement too.life is totally impermanent and incomplete.we are not able to keep permanent for what we strive.we keep only passing by happy moments and we ourselves will pass away one day too.The attachment to desire to have that is craving and desire not to have that is averson is the basic cause for this suffering.
HOW TO ESCAPE SUFFERING: The process of escaping suffering is usually called "enlightenment".The Eight Fold Path is being followed inorder to escape the suffering,the eight fold path is:
(1)Right View
(2)Right intention
(3)Right speech
(4)Right Action
(5)Right livelihood
(6)Right effort
(7)Right Mindfulness
(8)Right Concentration
This is the way to reach nirvana.
The Four Noble Truths are often misunderstood to mean that Buddhists teachings are pessimistic,or that it stresses only the suffering,pain and unhappiness which are inherent in us.But sitting under a tree ,the Buddhists experience nature of life as it is,de-tangling human suffering knot-by-knot.