Buddha’s Four Noble Truths
528 BCE
Siddh
rtha Gautama (c. 563–c. 483 BCE)
Extant accounts of the Buddha’s life indicate that he grew up amid wealth and had a privileged existence. While still a young man, Siddh
rtha Gautama was confronted with suffering in the world on three important occasions. First he went to a nearby town and came upon a sick man. On his second trip to the town he came upon an old man, and on his third trip he came upon people carrying a corpse to its resting place. These encounters affected him deeply and led to the realization that wealth and privilege offered little protection from suffering. At around the age of twenty-nine, Guatama left home and began the life of a religious wanderer. For six years he studied with spiritual teachers but found the rigors of asceticism and self-mortification to be ineffective in dealing with suffering; he realized that such practices could not lead to enlightenment. Then, when he was about thirty-five, he decided to sit quietly and reflect on the human condition. Legend has it that while sitting thus under a fig tree, or Bodhi tree, he was enlightened and became the Buddha, seeing that what was required was the Middle Way—a life of discipline without the extremes of self-indulgence or self-mortification.
As the Buddha, he taught that there are three basic characteristics of existence: (1) everything is impermanent, and thus change is constant; (2) there is no self or immortal soul; and (3) suffering, or dissatisfaction, is at the core of existence. Buddha taught that we must embrace the Four Noble Truths if we are to overcome suffering. The first truth is that suffering exists, the second is that desire is the root of suffering, the third is that if we eliminate desire we can end suffering, and the fourth truth is that there is an Eightfold Path, or Middle Way, that will lead to enlightenment.
Buddha and his followers’ teachings over the centuries are an elaboration of how to follow the Middle Way. In contemporary life, Buddhist psychology has introduced meditation and mindfulness into everyday life and into psychotherapy. Buddhist psychology deals with insight, personal transformation, and deeper awareness of reality and holds great appeal for personal and social liberation.
SEE ALSO Biopsychosocial Model of Health (1977)
Buddhas, Sri Lanka.