What are the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism?

THE MIDDLE WAY AND THE EIGHTFOLD PATH

One of Buddha's most important teachings was his theory of the Middle Way. For Buddha, the Middle Way was a spiritual path of salvation, winding between the extreme asceticism and the unrestrained sensuality he had known while a Hindu. To describe his Middle Way, Buddha offered four main principles, which have come to be called the Four Noble Truths:

Suffering is universal. Buddha taught that the very act of living involves suffering from birth until death. Even death brings no relief, however, because of the cycle of rebirth, suffering and death. Salvation (nirvana) is to be released from this unending cycle of suffering. The cause of suffering is craving (selfish desire). People remain in this endless cycle, because they are too attached to their health, wealth, status and physical comfort. This is because they are ignorant of the nature of reality and they fall victim to what Buddha called tanha (attachment, desire). The cure for suffering is to overcome ignorance and eliminate craving. Since to live is to suffer and suffering is caused by craving, if a person could remove craving from his or her life, suffering would end. Suppress craving by following the Middle Way ‑ the Noble Eightfold Path. First, Buddha isolated the cause, tanha, humanity's inability to escape from the squirrel cage of death and rebirth. Next he worked out a system called the Eightfold Path by which a Buddhist could rid himself of tanha. The Eightfold Path consists of eight ways of right living: (1) right viewpoint, (2) right aspiration, (3) right speech, (4) right behavior, (5) right occupation, (6) right effort, (7) right mindfulness and (8) right meditation.

Buddha claimed that whoever could follow this Eightfold Path would eventually reach nirvana, a release from the endless cycle of death and rebirth. When Buddha was asked to define the state of nirvana, he replied that he had never tried to solve this question. His mission was to show man the way to escape the suffering of life, not to describe what he would find once he had been liberated.

The Hinduism that Buddha rejected said that life in this world is maya (illusion); thus, suffering, which is part of this world, is also illusion. Buddha, however, proclaimed that life in this world is quite real. It involves real suffering; because of this suffering, the world must be escaped by following Buddha's Eightfold Path.

Buddha said that "to live is to suffer," and he said that the reasons for suffering were ignorance and craving. The Bible agrees that suffering is everywhere and that a good deal of suffering is due to misplaced desire, but at the core, the Bible provides a very different explanation for suffering. The Bible explains that the entire world "groans" and that all men suffer because of sin (see Romans 8:18‑23). All of us have put our own personal desires ahead of God's. All of us are sinners by choice. We decide to live our lives independently of God and His laws (see Isaiah. 53:6).

Buddha observed that suffering comes from craving‑desire or attachment of any kind. For Buddha, all desire was bad and had to be eradicated. The Bible, however, teaches that, while there are bad desires, there are also good ones. For example, we are encouraged to have great desire for God, His glory in our lives and for His kingdom (see Ps. 27:4; Matt. 6:33).

As for bad desires, James 1:13‑15 points out that a man is enticed from within by "lusts" ‑ passions or appetites that tend to get out of control. When a person yields to these temptations, he sins. The result of sin is spiritual suffering, and death (see Romans 6:23). Christians agree that the cause of much suffering is selfish desire, but they disagree with Buddhism's way of removing this desire.

Buddha taught that the only way to rid oneself of selfish desire was through self‑effort. For centuries his followers have tried to stay on the Eightfold Path, but many have found that "the heart is deceitful above all things" and will sabotage the best of human intentions (Jer. 17:9).

For a person to master himself, he must have a higher source of strength. But Buddha was agnostic. He ignored the possibility of help from God. The apostle Paul (see Titus 3:3‑8) reminds us that every Christian was once a slave to desire and selfish hungers but that Christ came into the world as God and as man to supply the strength to overcome these desires. Without the help of God, the only way to end desire is to die. But with God, we can become "new creatures" who die (figuratively) to selfish desires (see John 3:5; 2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 2:20).

Buddha said that to end desire one must follow the Eightfold Path ‑ a noble goal that must be pursued solely through one's own determination and resources. Jesus gave a similar set of standards in the Sermon on the Mount (see Matt. 5), but He also promised to give us His personal strength through the Holy Spirit so that we might live this kind of God ‑ pleasing life (see John 16:7‑15; Romans 8; Galatians 5).

The Theravada Buddhist has eight guidelines for the right way to live, but Buddha promised him no power to live that way. Also, the Buddha had no authority for saying these eight steps are right, as noble as they may sound. Mahayana Buddhists find the Eightfold Path a lonely one and look to the Bodhisattvas for help.

Buddha taught that you yourself must make the effort. Christ teaches us to turn ourselves over to Him and He will give us power to live successfully. Christ does not simply give the Christian a list of commandments and orders to obey. He promises to help the Christian grow, change and develop.