Editing Four Noble Truths (section)

===Ending rebirth===
[[File:Sera Monastery Lhasa Tibet China 西藏 拉萨 色拉寺 - panoramio (3).jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.8|Tibetan [[Bhavacakra]] or "Wheel of Life"]]

The four truths describe ''dukkha'' and its ending as a means to reach peace of mind in this life, but also as a means to end rebirth.

According to Geoffrey Samuel, "the Four Noble Truths [...] describe the knowledge needed to set out on the path to liberation from rebirth."{{sfn|Samuel|2008|p=136}} By understanding the four truths, one can stop this clinging and craving, attain a pacified mind, and be freed from this cycle of rebirth and redeath.<ref group=web name="EB-DL Four Truths"/>{{sfn|Williams|Tribe|Wynne|2002|pp=74–75}}{{refn|group=note|name="Moksha"}} Patrick Olivelle explains that [[moksha]] is a central concept in Indian religions, and "literally means freedom from samsara."<ref group=web name="Brittanica" />{{refn|group=note|Patrick Olivelle: "[[Moksha]], also spelled mokṣa, also called mukti, in Indian philosophy and religion, liberation from the cycle of death and rebirth (samsara). Derived from the Sanskrit word muc ("to free"), the term moksha literally means freedom from samsara. This concept of liberation or release is shared by a wide spectrum of religious traditions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism.<ref group=web name="Brittanica"/>}} Melvin E. Spiro further explains that "desire is the cause of suffering because desire is the cause of rebirth."{{sfn|Spiro|1982|p=42}} When desire ceases, rebirth and its accompanying suffering ceases.{{sfn|Spiro|1982|p=42}}{{refn|group=note|Melvin E. Spiro: "Desire is the cause of suffering because desire is the cause of rebirth; and the extinction of desire leads to deliverance from suffering because it signals release from the Wheel of Rebirth."{{sfn|Spiro|1982|p=42}}}} Peter Harvey explains:

{{Blockquote|Once birth has arisen, "ageing and death", and various other dukkha states follow. While saying that birth is the cause of death may sound rather simplistic, in Buddhism it is a very significant statement; for there is an alternative to being born. This is to attain Nirvāna, so bringing an end to the process of rebirth and redeath. Nirvāna is not subject to time and change, and so is known as the [[Anutpada|'unborn']]; as it is not born it cannot die, and so it is also known as the "deathless". To attain this state, all phenomena subject to birth – the [[Nirvana (Buddhism)|khandhas]] and [[Nidana|nidānas]] – must be transcended by means of [[Nekkhamma|non-attachment]].{{sfn|Harvey|2013|pp=71–72}}}}

The last sermon, the ''[[Maha-parinibbana Sutta]]'' (Last Days of the Buddha, Digha Nikaya 16)", states it as follows:
{{Blockquote|[...] it is through not realizing, through not penetrating the Four Noble Truths that this long course of birth and death has been passed through and undergone by me as well as by you [...] But now, bhikkhus, that these have been realized and penetrated, cut off is the craving for existence, destroyed is that which leads to renewed becoming [rebirth], and there is no fresh becoming.<ref group=web name="ati_Maha-parinibbana_Sutta"/>}}