THE FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS.

 

The Buddha's First Teachings

After attaining enlightenment under the Bodhi tree at Bodhgaya, Buddha Shakyamuni travelled to Sarnath near the holy city of Varanasi to see his five former companions with whom he had practiced austerities. He wanted to teach them what he had discovered. The five had previously shunned him because he had given up on the practice by eating milk rice after deciding that perhaps austerities weren't all they were wrapped up to be.
Upon seeing him again in Sarnath, they realised by his countenance that something really profound had happened to him, and invited him to sit down and tell them about it. This was the Buddha's first teaching, which is known as the 'first turning of the wheel of Dharma', and it was based on the four noble truths. It has remained the basis of Buddhist teachings to this day.
The four noble truths were taught by Buddha in a specific order. That is; there is suffering, there is a cause of suffering, there is an end to suffering, and there is a method to bring about this end.
In actual fact this is not the order in which these four phenomena occur in our lives and in the continuing flow of existence. The second noble truth, the cause of suffering will naturally come about first, the result of which is the first noble truth, that suffering exists. The fourth noble truth, the method to bring about this end will follow and the ultimate result will be the third noble truth, the end of suffering itself.
So why did the Buddha teach these four fundamentals in the order he did? This was for the benefit of our understanding. First, we must understand and accept that suffering exists, then we must comprehend its causes in order to be convinced that an end is possible. Only then will we be fully motivated to embark on the long and difficult method to bring about that end.
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