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The Buddha's Four Noble Truths: A Logical Basis for Philosophy

The Buddha Shakyamuni was born in the 6th century BCE in the area

presently known as Nepal. During his 80 year lifetime, he systematically

developed a pragmatic, empirically based philosophy which he claimed would lead

its followers towards an enlightened existence. Buddhism is commonly called a

religion; however, it differs from the usual definition of a religion in that it

has no deities, does not promote worship of demigods, and is based on logical

reasoning and observation rather than spiritual faith. At the heart of Buddhist

philosophy is the Buddha's enumeration of Four Noble Truths: Dukkha (suffering),

Samudaya (origin of suffering), Nirodha (cessation of suffering), and Magga

(path to cessation of suffering). The Buddha's Four Noble Truths are based on

archetypal traits that were elucidated through careful empirical observance and

intensive introspection. These Four Noble Truths form a logically coherent set

of axioms upon which the whole of Buddhism is based, and provide a solid

foundation for a philosophy which is applicable several millennia after its

formulation.{1}

"What we call a 'being,' or an 'individual,' or 'I,' according to Buddhist

philosophy, is only a combination of ever-changing physical and mental forces or

energies...." - Walpola Rahula{2}

In order to fully understand the Four Noble Truths, it is necessary to

investigate the Buddhist view of the individual and its makeup. In some

respects, the manner in which Buddhism deals with the mind/body problem is much

more advanced than most religious views, and closer to science's understanding

of the mind and body. Rather than postulating the existence of an eternal soul

with no physical manifestation, the Buddha taught that the person is really a

collection of five skandhas or aggregates. These include rupa (matter), vedana

(sensations), sanna (perceptions), samkhara (mental formations), and vijnana

(consciousness). The aggregate of matter encompasses all tangible aspects of

the world. The aggregate of sensations is akin to the process of sensory input;

e.g., the activation of retinal cells in the eye. Vedana does not include the

process of perception, however; the act of perceiving the senses, i.e.,

recognition of external sensations, is within the realm of the sanna. Buddha

classified mental activities (samkhara), i.e., ideas and thoughts, as being

disparate from the state of mental consciousness (vijnana). Consciousness, in

the Buddhist view, is the awareness of the sensations and perceptions that the

person experiences, while the mental formations are the volitions, whims,

thoughts, and ideas that a person has. The breakdown of the individual into the

skandhas is strikingly similar to the classifications used in the modern field

of psychology. Matter, sensation, perception, cognition, and consciousness are

common nomenclature in both paradigms.

"There is this Noble Truth of suffering: Birth is suffering, aging is suffering,

sickness is suffering, death is suffering, sorrow and lamentation, pain, grief,

and despair are suffering, association with the loathed is suffering,

dissociation from the loved is suffering, not to get what one wants is

suffering...." - Shakyamuni Buddha{3}

The First Noble Truth, the Truth of Dukkha, is based on Buddha's

observation that all people in the world are in a state of dukkha. Dukkha,

which translates literally as ‘suffering' from the Pali, does not mean pain or

distress as the word ‘suffer' usually implies. Instead it is used to convey the

idea that the very act of living is one of imperfection and impermanence, and

hence is a situation that must be remedied in order to achieve true happiness.

There are three types of dukkha: dukkha-dukkha (suffering in the conventional

sense), viparinama-dukkha (suffering caused by the ephemeral nature of happiness

in life), and samkhara-dukkha (suffering caused by existence itself). Suffering

in the conventional sense of the word, such as that caused by pain, disease, and

poverty, is classified as dukkha-dukkha. The Buddha also noted that happiness

itself, being a fleeting emotion, usually resulted in an eventual loss of

happiness greater than the initial happiness. This loss of happiness is caused

by the removal of whatever situation or object precipitated the happiness in the

first place; therefore the transitory nature of life itself is the root of

dukkha, in this case called viparinama. This leads to the conclusion that

suffering is an inherent trait of existence itself, and is classified as

samkhara. And thus the question is raised that if suffering is inherent in life

itself, what is the cause (and the remedy) for this undesirable state of

affairs?

"There is this noble truth of the origin of suffering: It is craving, which

produces renewal of being, is accompanied by relish and lust, relishing this and

that; in other words, craving for sensual desires, craving for being, craving

for nonbeing." - Shakyamuni Buddha{4}

While dukkha has a variety of direct causes, Buddhist doctrine teaches

that at the heart of all suffering is a basal craving or thirst called tanhâ.

Tanha is defined in the original texts as “... this thirst which produces re-

existence and re-becoming, and which is bound up with passionate greed, and

which finds fresh delight now here and now there...

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