The Story of Buddha (2 of 3) - The Four Noble Truths (四聖諦)

After abandoning his old life behind him (the palaces, his father, his wife and his son), Siddhartha began to beg for alms everyday for living like other monks while making his journey to enlightenment. He was determined to find the truth of life and suffering, and ways to end all the sufferings. He wanted to do it for himself and for all everyone.
Siddhartha spent six years on the quest of knowledge, truth and answers. First, he made his way to two Hindu masters to study with them, hoping to learn how to end suffering. From them, he learned the concepts of Rebirth (輪迴) - the cycle of birth/death/rebirth, and Karma (因果) - the philosophy of cause and effect; and the arts of Meditation (冥想) - a technique of deep concentration in a relaxed state where the mind can be freed from all distractions, and Yoga (瑜伽) - a series of postures and breathing exercises practiced to achieve control of the body and the mind for deep concentration. While he had learned much from the two masters, Siddhartha found that he was unable to find ways to end suffering from them. Next, he turned his attention to asceticism (苦行) - the practices of self-denial and self-mortification in order to attain a high spiritual and moral state. He joined five ascetics in search of the understanding of suffering. The ascetics were very strict. They starved themselves and denied themselves of all physical comforts. They tried to master suffering by making their minds so strong that they forgot their bodies.
For a long time, Siddhartha only had water from the rain and a grain of rice for food while he did meditation all of his time. He became very thin and weak, and was close to death. Until one day during meditation, he heard a voice of a boat people saying to another when they were trying to pull up the sail of the boat in the river, "If you tighten the string too much, it will snap. If you leave it too slack, it won't play." Suddenly, Siddhartha realized he had been wrong all the time. Starving could not help to clear his mind, and neither was asceticism. Siddhartha now discovered the only path to enlightenment was the 'Middle Way' - a line between the two opposite extremes of self-indulgence and self-denial. So he went down the river and drank the water. A young girl passing by gave him a bowl of rice and he began to eat. The five ascetics saw him and felt he was not strong enough in the pursuit of truth. They were disappointed and left him in disgust.
Siddhartha did not bother. He knew firmly that he had already found the right path to enlightenment and was very close in finding the answers. On a pleasant night in May, he seated himself under a Bodhi tree (菩提樹) and began his meditation on the final process to enlightenment. He seated firmly in his posture of the Lotus Position (蓮花座) and overcame distractions of all sorts - crime, greed, fear, ignorance and desire. There he stayed in deep meditation the whole night until at last he understood everything. His final process was completed in three stages. In the first stage, he reviewed all his past existences and understood the laws of cause and effect. In the second stage, he reviewed death and rebirth of all living creatures and understood the laws governing the cycle of birth and death. In the third stage, he identified the Four Noble Truths - the prevalence of suffering, the cause of suffering, the solution to suffering and the ways to end suffering. It was at this point Siddhartha attained enlightenment. He now understood the true nature of life, death and suffering. At the age of 35, Siddhartha became a Buddha.

Buddha's approach to the answer to end suffering resembles very much the modern systematic problem solving methodology, viz:
. identify the problem,
. determine the cause of the problem,
. find solution to the problem,
. develop plan to resolve the problem.

The Four Noble Truths can be presented in a simplistic way as follows:
1. The Truth of Suffering - Life is filled with suffering.
People are happy or unhappy for various reasons. But neither happiness nor unhappiness is permanent. Even when people are happy, they fear old age, sickness and death. They fear losing the people and things they have. Therefore, suffering is always present. even at the moment of happiness.
2. The Truth of the Cause of Suffering - The cause of suffering is desire.
People are not satisfied with what they have or what they are. Their minds are filled with greediness and desire, and suffering will automatically follow. The attitude of selfishness and greediness is the cause of dissatisfaction, resulting in suffering.
3. The Truth of the End of Suffering - Suffering stops when desire stops.
This part is relatively simple. Knowing suffering comes from desire, if we can end desire, we can end suffering.
4. The Truth of the Path to End Suffering -The way to end desire and hence suffering is to follow the Eightfold Path (八正道).
Like a medical doctor prescribing treatment to illness, here the Buddha laid out in a very logical, systematic and precise manner the ways to end suffering. Following the eight-step Eightfold Path is difficult but achievable. It would lead ultimately to the liberation of all sources of desire and hence suffering, enabling people to attain nirvana (涅槃) - the state of being freed from all sufferings.

The Four Noble Truths, together with the Eightfold Path, built upon the concepts of Rebirth and Karma, constitute the main essential theories of Buddhism. Buddha further explained the Eightfold Path in details .............................