What was Buddha's message? The liberation from conflict, which is at the centre of Buddha Dharma, is expressed in the Four Noble Truths of buddhism, which were the Buddha's first teaching.
The Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, often known as the Turning of the Wheel of Truth, is the source of this first lesson.
The Four Noble Truths: What Are They?
The reality of dukkha. Dukkha is a Sanskrit word that means struggle, pain, difficulty, anxiety, unhappiness, and stress. We don't want to hear that life is challenging by nature because everything is transient.
(2) The origin of Dukkha in actuality. This realisation that we create our own struggles implies that there is a cause or purpose for conflict and misery. When we strive to hold on to even a single moment rather than accepting each moment for what it is, we suffer.
More about Suffering and the First Noble Truth
The Buddha Dharma refers to this crucial insight as dukkha. It is sometimes translated as "suffering," but it actually has a far deeper and more nuanced meaning. Three captivating encounters with illness, ageing, and death marked the beginning of the historical Buddha's spiritual path.
A wonderful illustration of the entire Buddhist philosophy is the teaching on dukkha, which is elegantly simple. Most of the time, we strive to avoid dukkha, but it is also quite easy to get overwhelmed and depressed by our own suffering and the suffering of those around us. Therefore, the first Noble Truth is about having a clear understanding of what dukkha is. How frequently do we pause while experiencing pain to simply examine and truly comprehend what is happening? The traditional teachings contain a number of dukkha.
- Dukkha-dukkha (dukkha as common suffering) (dukkha as ordinary suffering). Being ill, being injured, or experiencing any type of immediate bodily, emotional, or mental pain and suffering constitutes pure and simple suffering.
- Vipariṇāma-dukkha (dukkha as created by change) (dukkha as produced by change). This is the worry or anxiety that comes from attempting to cling to ever-changing things. To get things the way we want them and maintain them there, we are continuously running on a hamster wheel.
- Saṃkhāra-dukkha (dukkha of conditioned states) (dukkha of conditioned states). The realisation that, fundamentally, we cannot find happiness where we typically go for it causes this core unhappiness or discontent. Everything is conditional, mutable, transient, and devoid of inner essence or substance. Things never live up to our standards or expectations.