The four noble truths in Buddhism are at the core of the Buddha’s teachings. It encompasses the truth about why we suffer and what it is, what causes this suffering and where it originates. There is a way to get rid of the suffering and it’s causes. There is a noble way of practices to be followed that will lead to the cessation of suffering and to a taintless way of being that is no longer bound to the suffering way of life and becoming.
After understanding suffering and the cause of suffering discussed in parts 1 and 2, the next step is to figure out what the ending of suffering is about:
Whatever was mentioned in the posting for the Second Noble Truth, here it has to be given up and outright rejected in order to get rid of the arising of suffering:
“And what is the cessation of suffering?
It is the fading away and ceasing [without remainder], the giving up, relinquishing, letting go, and rejecting of craving.” — MN I.49
When compared with medical science, the Four Noble Truths follow the same line of thought when it comes to the discipline of a disease [suffering], diagnosis [the arising and cause of suffering], the cure [the cessation of the causes] for the disease, and the medicine [the Noble Eight-fold Path] to take for it.
In the Buddhist view, the Third Noble Truth would be the cure. The discontent towards suffering is primarily stated in schematic utterances in the teachings, but it is sensible to review them one-by-one and try to understand what each cessation is explaining, and the relation to the next item in the chain of suffering:
“And what, monk, is the noble truth of the cessation of suffering?
with the cessation of birth, old age and death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, dejection, and anguish cease.
Such is the cessation of this whole mass of suffering.” — AN I.177
Craving and ignorance stand out as the two things to relinquish, the former being addressed through the teachings and practice of discipline, and the latter through the increase of wisdom and realization.
The spiritual practice of Buddhism stresses the cessation of identifying with the body and the fleeting mind, or in more direct terms, the projecting of individuality [self-identity] onto the body and the false perception of the satisfying nature of feeling pleasurable sensations. The problem lies in the fact that the impulses can’t be satisfied nor prolonged, and that depending on them reveals the false nature of the experience itself. The perpetual flux of becoming has no end unless you step out of the merry-go-round. Our bondage is the result of ignorantly seeing the self in what is not our self (anattani attanam), but only a process and flux of momentariness.
The Asankhatasamyutta explains what the destination is and the path leading to the destination. This is not some location to be driven to, or a destination in the mind, but rather a state of mind:
“And what, monks, is the destination? The destruction of lust, the destruction of hatred, the destruction of ignorance: this is called the destination.” — SN IV.373
the Suttanipata, the difficulty of the task at hand to understand the teachings is clear, as well as lust for existence [becoming] needs to be ceased:
In the next part we’ll be discussing the Fourth Noble Truth.
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