The Buddha attained enlightenment at the age of 35 on the full moon day of May under a Bodhi tree at a place called Bodh Gaya through His own effort without the help of any teacher. Gautama Buddha then decided to teach the path of liberation that He had discovered to others to help them attain enlightenment through their own effort and escape from human suffering and the cycle of birth and death (samsara). His first sermon, the Dhammachakkappavattana sutta meant ‘turning of the Wheel of the Truth’. In this sermon, the Buddha expounded on the Middle Path to liberation that He had discovered, avoidance of the two extremes of self-indulgence in sensual pleasures and self-mortification, and disclosed the four Noble Truths. The first Noble Truth is like a physician's diagnosis of a disease. The second Noble Truth is like the physician’s discovery of the cause of the disease, etiology. The third Noble Truth is like the assurance of the physician that there is a cure for the disease and prognosis. The fourth Noble Truth is like the physician’s prescription to cure the disease.
The Four Noble Truths
The Truth of universal suffering (dukkha satya)
Birth is suffering. Aging is suffering. Sickness is suffering. Death is suffering.
Association with the unpleasant is suffering. Dissociation from the pleasant is suffering. Not to receive what one desires is suffering.
The five aggregates of clinging are material form (rupa), feeling (vedana), perception (sangya), mental formations (sanskhara) and consciousness (vigyana). In short, the five aggregates connected with clinging is suffering.
The Truth of the origin of suffering (samudaya satya)
Craving for sense pleasures (kama-tanha). Craving for becoming or existence (bhava-tanha). Craving for non-becoming or non-existence (vibhava-tanha). Craving, clinging, and desire itself is believed to result from ignorance which is the inability to see the reality of all the physical and mental phenomena that have the common characteristics of impermanence (anicca), suffering (dukkha), and not-self (anatta).
The Truth of the cessation of suffering (nirodha satya)
Remainderless fading and ceasing, giving up, relinquishing, letting go, and rejecting that same craving leads to the cessation of suffering. Cessation of all suffering can be achieved by overcoming and abandoning the craving leading to the attainment of Nibbana – the sublime state beyond all suffering; a state of complete peace, joy, and happiness. This is also the end of the cycle of birth and death (samsara). Nirvana in Sanskrit means the ‘extinguishing of the flame of craving’
The Truth of the path leading to the cessation of suffering (marga satya)
This is the Eightfold noble path of Pragya, sila, and samadhi:
WISDOM (Pargya):
Right understanding: Right understanding is the understanding of things as they are, and it is the four noble truths that explain things as they really are. Right understanding therefore is ultimately reduced to the understanding of the four noble truths.
Right intentions: Right intentions denotes the intentions of selfless renunciation or detachment, intentions of love, and intentions of non-violence, which are extended to all beings.
MORAL CONDUCT ( Shila)
Right Speech: Abstention from telling lies, backbiting, slander, talk that may bring about hatred, enmity, disunity, and disharmony; harsh, rude, impolite, malicious, and abusive language, and idle, useless, and foolish babble and gossip. If one cannot say something useful, one should keep “noble silence.”
Right action: Right action aims at promoting moral, honorable, and peaceful conduct. It admonishes us that we should abstain from destroying life, stealing, dishonest dealings, from illegitimate sexual intercourse, and that we should also help others to lead a peaceful and honorable life in the right way.
Right livelihood: Right livelihood means that one should abstain from making one’s living through a profession that brings harm to others, such as trading in arms and lethal weapons, intoxicating drinks or poisons, killing animals, cheating, etc., and should live by a profession which is honorable, blameless, and innocent of harm to others.
MEDITATION ( Samadhi)
Right effort. The energetic will (1) to prevent evil and unwholesome states of mind from arising, (2) to get rid of such evil and unwholesome states that have already arisen within a man, and also (3) to produce, to cause them to arise, good, and wholesome states of mind not yet arisen, and (4) to develop good, and wholesome states of mind not yet arisen that have already arisen within a man.
Right mindfulness: Right mindfulness is to be diligently aware, mindful, and attentive about (1) the activities of the body (kaya), (2) sensations or feelings (vedana), (3) the activities of the mind (citta) and (4) ideas, thoughts, conceptions, and thing (dhamma). Regarding ideas, thoughts, conceptions, and things, one should know their nature, and how they appear and disappear. This is best described in the Satipathanasutta.
Right meditation: Finally all sensations, even of happiness and unhappiness, of joy and sorrow, disappear, only pure equanimity and awareness remaining.
(Excerpts from https://drarisworld.wordpress.com/2017/02/25/the-four-noble-truths-in-theravada-buddhism/)
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