What Are The Four Noble Truths

If you want to be happy in life, then you have to understand why you're not.

This is the core basis of the Buddha's teachings: the Four Noble Truths. The Four Noble Truths describe the truth of the reality of life.

The Four Noble Truths are:

1. The truth of suffering

2. The truth of the origin of suffering

3. The cessation of suffering

4. The path to the cessation of suffering

The first truth is the truth of suffering. Everything good in life will eventually come to an end. No single state is ever permanent. This is called impermanence. Sunshine eventually gets clouded by rain. The people we love will die. We, ourselves, will die. Some of us will die through great suffering as we succumb to diseases and accidents. Others will die through a slow suffering through a deep dissatisfaction in life. Life is naturally full of adversity that can be very painful and unforgiving. This is the first truth of life. With life naturally comes suffering.

Where does this suffering come from? Attachment.

If we attach to a specific state as though it's permanent, as though it is within our rights for it to be permanent, then when we inevitably face the nature of life, which is that nothing is permanent, we will experience suffering. Everything you've attached to will eventually be ripped away from your life, including your own life, and you will have to mourn the loss of that thing.

When we attach onto people, opinions, ideas, outcomes, and materialism, we put these things into boxes of good or bad, right or wrong. But it's not possible for anything to fit into those boxes indefinitely. People change, grow, and become anew. The more you try to confine people into the ideals and boxes which you've attached them to, the more pain you will face when you realize that they don't want to live in those boxes anymore. When we attach onto ideas and opinions, we attach our worth and identity to these ideas. We struggle to face any information that conflict with these ideas, because we don't want to have to reconstruct our identity to match the changing circumstances. This causes us to become deluded with our own ideals, and when we eventually face the truth of that delusion, it's painful because we realize that we've wasted so much time living in a lie.

Life is full of changes, but the more we resist this fact, the more suffering we will experience. This is the second noble truth: the truth of the cause of suffering. We must be willing to open our minds and hearts to new possibilities. That's how we grow and find peace in our circumstances.

This leads us to the next truth, which is the cessation of suffering. The cessation of suffering is essentially the opposite of the cause: non-attachment. Without attachment, we can leave behind suffering and experience true joy. Think about it. Some of the best experiences in your life likely occurred when you didn't have any expectations about what was going to happen. Those experience happened because you decided to take a leap of faith and just experience the moment for what it is, regardless of any expectations.

I'll give you an example. During the first summer that my boyfriend and I met, we had an adventure that I'll never forget. One night, we decided to drive an hour and half away to a beach we had never been to before. We saw it on a map and decided it would be a good idea to go there. When we got there, we discovered that this beach was not really a recreational beach, but just a little water access beside a subdivision and park. It was the dead of the night - it must have been midnight - and we wanted to go swimming, but we didn't bring our bathing suits.

Naturally, we decided to go skinny dipping.

We stripped our clothes and ran full force into the lake. The lake was the perfect temperature. It was a beautiful, clear night; we could even see the stars. When we got out of the water, we decided to hang out at the park. We didn't think to put our clothes on; we assumed no one would be around at this time. Then, of course, a police car came driving by. We freaked out and ran down the street to our car (well, Sam hopped because he had a broken foot). We ended up streaking, butt-naked and bare-foot, down a friendly neighbour street in the middle of the night, while running away from a cop, who by the way, luckily, turned around and did not end up seeing us.

It was definitely a night to remember. We weren't there to create any outcomes, and honestly, blame it on youth and naivety but, whatever outcome came our way, we were willing to just embrace it anyways. We were open to experience life together and enjoy the ride, and that's what we did.

So often in my life, I've realized this very important lesson: when you let go of the "how" of what you want - when you let go of the steps and the timing and the control - that's when you get what you need. When you let go of attachment, or as Lao Tze said, "when you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you."

But this isn't easy. It's not easy to let go. Shit happens. We get sidetracked and knocked down. We hyper-focus on things we think we need to be happy and fulfilled in this life, and then things don't go our way and we lose our way. That's the nature of life.

That's where the fourth noble truth comes in. The fourth noble truth, the truth of the path of the cessation of suffering, teaches you how you can learn to create a life of awareness and mindfulness, so that you don't unnecessarily hold on to attachments and create suffering for yourself. This path is called the eight-fold path. This path teaches you how you can live your life in a way that cultivates more love, peace, and awareness. But I'll explain the eight-fold path another time.

If you want to experience joy and happiness in your life, you must be willing to let go of the suffering that you inadvertently attach to. We can do this by understanding that nothing is permanent and by consciously living in a way where we choose to enjoy and embrace each moment for what it is and what we decide it to be.

"You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough." - Mae West