1. The Human Condition The Four Noble Truths – Part One

2. The Four Noble Truths • These are the basis of all Buddhist teaching • These were alluded to in the Buddha’s first sermon (The Sermon at Benares) • Buddhists use a doctor analogy to explain them: • The Buddha is the doctor who makes the diagnosis that something is ‘wrong’ – Dukkha • The diagnosis of the cause of the illness is craving (tanha) – Samudaya • There is a cure; it is to achieve nibbana – Nirodha • The prescription is to follow the Noble Eightfold Path - Magga

3. The First Noble Truth - Dukkha • Also one of the Three Universal Truths / Marks of Existence • Means ‘unsatisfactoriness’ • Idea that suffering is everywhere all the time – even if we think we are happy! • Caused by failure to understand anicca

4. Second Noble Truth - Samudaya • The cause of dukkha (the actual illness) is tanha (craving) • Because you do not understand anicca, you crave permanence and possessions • You want relationships to always be good, you want to never be ill, you always want money and possessions thinking they’ll make you happy forever, etc. • This is also a link with the Three Mental Poisons (or Three Fires): Greed, Hatred and Ignorance • All this craving makes you suffer: tanha causes dukkha • This is the Second Noble Truth of Samudaya • See Dhammapada 334-342 (Cravings)