Editing Four Noble Truths (section)

===Theravada===
{{See also|Vipassana movement}}

According to Carol Anderson, the four truths have "a singular position within the Theravada canon and tradition."{{sfn|Anderson|1999|pp=230–231}} The Theravada tradition regards insight in the four truths as liberating in itself.{{sfn|Carter|1987|p=3179}} As Walpola Rahula states, "when the Truth is seen, all the forces which feverishly produce the continuity of [[samsara]] in [[Avidyā (Buddhism)|illusion]] become calm and incapable of producing any more [[Karma in Buddhism|karma-formations]] [...] he is free from [...] the 'thirst' for becoming."<ref group=web name ="WP_ch4"/>{{refn|group=note|Walpola Rahula:
* "When wisdom is developed and cultivated according to the Fourth Noble Truth (the next to be taken up), it sees the secret of life, the reality of things as they are. When the secret is discovered, when the Truth is seen, all the forces which feverishly produce the continuity of saṃsāra in illusion become calm and incapable of producing any more karma-formations, because there is no more illusion, no more 'thirst' for continuity."<ref group=web name ="WP_ch4"/>
* "The remaining two factors, namely Right Thought and Right Understanding go to constitute Wisdom."<ref group=web name="WP_ch5">{{cite web |website=Walpola Rahula: What the Buddha Taught |title=CHAPTER V. THE FOURTH NOBLE TRUTH: ''MAGGA'': THE PATH |url=https://sites.google.com/site/rahulawhatthebuddha/the-fourth-noble-truth}}</ref>
* "Right Understanding is the understanding of things as they are, and it is the Four Noble Truths that explain things as they really are. Right Understanding therefore is ultimately reduced to the understanding of the Four Noble Truths. This understanding is the highest wisdom which sees the Ultimate Reality."<ref group=web name="WP_ch5"/>}} This liberation can be attained in one single moment, when the four truths are understood together.{{sfn|Carter|1987|p=3179}} Within the [[Theravada]] tradition, great emphasis is placed upon reading and contemplating ''[[Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta|The Discourse That Sets Turning the Wheel of Truth]]'', and other suttas, as a means to study the four noble truths and put them into practice.{{sfn|Geshe Tashi Tsering|2005|loc=loc. 275–280}} For example, Ajahn Sumedho states:
{{Blockquote|The ''Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta'', the Buddha's teaching on the Four Noble Truths, has been the main reference that I have used for my practice over the years. It is the teaching we used in our monastery in Thailand. The Theravada school of Buddhism regards this sutta as the quintessence of the teachings of the Buddha. This one sutta contains all that is necessary for understanding the Dhamma and for enlightenment."{{sfn|Ajahn Sumedho| 2002|p=5}}}}

Within the Theravada-tradition, three different stances on ''[[Nirvana (Buddhism)|nirvana]]'' and the question what happens with the ''Arhat'' after death can be found.{{sfn|Gethin|1998|p=77}}{{sfn|Hick|1994|p=436}}{{sfn|Bronkhorst|1993|pp=96–97}}{{sfn|Geisler|Amano|2004|p=32}} ''Nirvana'' refers to the cessation of the defilements and the resulting peace of mind and happiness (''khlesa-nirvana''); to the final dissolution of the five skandhas at the time of death (''skandha-nirvana'' or ''[[parinirvana]]''); and to a transcendental reality which is "known at the moment of awakening".{{sfn|Gethin|1998|p=77}}{{refn|group=note|Gethin: "(I) it is the extinguishing of the defilements of greed, hatred, and delusion; (2) it is the final condition of the Buddha and arhats after death consequent upon the extinction of the defilements; (3) it is the unconditioned realm known at the moment of awakening.{{sfn|Gethin|1998|p=77}}}} According to Gethin, "modern Buddhist usage tends to restrict 'nirvāṇa' to the awakening experience and reserve 'parinirvāṇa' for the death experience.{{sfn|Gethin|1998|p=76}} According to Geisler and Amano, in the "minimal Theravada interpretation", ''nirvana'' is a psychological state, which ends with the dissolution of the body and the total extinction of existence.{{sfn|Hick|1994|p=436}}{{sfn|Geisler|Amano|2004|p=32}} According to Geisler and Amano, the "orthodox Theravada interpretation" is that nirvana is a transcendent reality with which the self unites.{{sfn|Geisler|Amano|2004|p=32}} According to Bronkhorst, while "Buddhism preached liberation in this life, i.e. before death",{{sfn|Bronkhorst|1993|p=96}} there was also a tendency in Buddhism to think of liberation happening after death. According to Bronkhorst, this

{{Blockquote|...becomes visible in those canonical passages which distinguish between Nirvana—qualified in Sanskrit and pali as "without a remainder of upadhi/upadi" (anupadhisesa/anupadisesa)—and the "highest and complete enlightenment" (anuttara samyaksambodhi/sammasambodhi). The former occurs at death, the latter in life.{{sfn|Bronkhorst|1993|p=97}}}}

According to [[Walpola Rahula]], the cessation of ''dukkha'' is ''nirvana'', the ''summum bonum'' of Buddhism, and is attained in this life, not when one dies.<ref group=web name ="WP_ch4"/> ''Nirvana'' is "perfect freedom, peace, tranquility and happiness",<ref group=web>{{cite web|website=Walpola Rahula: What the Buddha Taught |url=https://sites.google.com/site/rahulawhatthebuddha/the-first-noble-truth |title=CHAPTER II. THE FIRST NOBLE TRUTH: ''DUKKHA''}}</ref><ref group=web name ="WP_ch4"/> and "Absolute Truth", which simply ''is''.<ref group=web name ="WP_ch4">{{cite web |website=Walpola Rahula: What the Buddha Taught |url=https://sites.google.com/site/rahulawhatthebuddha/the-third-noble-truth |title=CHAPTER IV. THE THIRD NOBLE TRUTH: ''NIRODHA'': THE CESSATION OF ''DUKKHA''}}</ref><!-- **START OF NOTE** -->{{refn|group=note|According to Rahula, in ''[[What the Buddha Taught]]'',

{{Blockquote|... if Nirvāṇa is to be expressed and explained in positive terms, we are likely immediately to grasp an idea associated with those terms, which may be quite the contrary. Therefore it is generally expressed in negative terms."<ref group=web name ="WP_ch4"/>}} According to Gombrich this distinction between [[Apophatic theology|apophatic]] and cataphatic approaches can be found in all religions.{{sfn|Gombrich|2009|pp=150–152}} Rahula gives an overview of negative statements of ''nirvana,'' whereafter he states:

{{Blockquote|Because Nirvana is thus expressed in negative terms, there are many who have got a wrong notion that it is negative, and expresses self-annihilation. Nirvāṇa is definitely no annihilation of self, because there is no self to annihilate. If at all, it is the annihilation of the illusion of the false idea of self.<br />
It is incorrect to say that Nirvāṇa is negative or positive. The ideas of 'negative' and 'positive' are relative, and are within the realm of duality. These terms cannot be applied to Nirvāṇa, Absolute Truth, which is beyond duality and relativity [...]<br /><br />
Nirvāṇa is neither cause nor effect. It is beyond cause and effect. Truth is not a result nor an effect. It is not produced like a mystic, spiritual, mental state, such as dhyāna or samādhi. TRUTH IS. NIRVĀṆA IS.<ref group=web name ="WP_ch4"/>}}

Rahula refers to the ''Dhātuvibhaṅga-sutta'' (the Majjhima-nikāya 140) for his interpretation of "Nirvāṇa as Absolute Truth", which, according to Rahula, says:

{{Blockquote|O bhikkhu, that which is unreality (mosadhamma) is false; that which is reality (amosadhamma), Nibbāna, is Truth (Sacca). Therefore, O bhikkhu, a person so endowed is endowed with this Absolute Truth. For, the Absolute Noble Truth (paramaṃ ariyasaccaṃ) is Nibbāna, which is Reality.'<ref group=web name ="WP_ch4"/>}}

While Jayatilleke translates ''amosadhamma'' as "ineffable",{{sfn|Jayatilleke|2009|p=306}} Thanissaro Bhikkhu gives a somewhat different translation:
{{Blockquote|His release, being founded on truth, does not fluctuate, for whatever is deceptive is false; Unbinding—the undeceptive—is true. Thus a monk so endowed is endowed with the highest determination for truth, for this—Unbinding, the undeceptive—is the highest noble truth.<ref group=web>{{Cite web|url=https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.140.than.html|title=Dhatu-vibhanga Sutta: An Analysis of the Properties|website=www.accesstoinsight.org}}</ref>}}

In response to Rahula, [[Richard Gombrich]] states that:
{{Blockquote|In proclaiming (in block capitals) that 'Truth is', Rahula has for a moment fallen into Upanisadic mode. Since truth can only be a property of propositions, which have subjects and predicates, and nirvana is not a proposition, it makes no sense in English to say that nirvana is truth. The confusion arises, perhaps, because the Sanskrit word satyam and the corresponding Pali word saccam can indeed mean either 'truth' or 'reality'. But in our language this will not work.{{sfn|Gombrich|2009|pp=156–157}}}}

Richard Gombrich also states that Rahula's book would more aptly be titled ''What [[Buddhagosa]] Taught''.{{sfn|Gombrich|2009|pp=156–157}}  According to David Kalupahana, Buddhagosa was influenced by Mahayana Buddhism, and introduced "the substantialist as well as essentialist standpoints of the Sarvastavadins and Sautrantikas."{{sfn|Kalupahana|1992|pp=208, 210}}}}<!-- **END OF NOTE** --> Jayatilleke also speaks of "the attainment of an ultimate reality".{{sfn|Jayatilleke|2009|p=306}} According to Bhikkhu Bodhi, the "elimination of craving culminates not only in the extinction of sorrow, anguish and distress, but in the unconditioned freedom of nibbana, which is won with the ending of repeated rebirth."{{sfn|Bhikkhu Bodhi|2011|p=10}}

According to Spiro, most (lay) Theravada Buddhists do not aspire for ''nirvana'' and total extinction, but for a pleasurable rebirth in heaven.{{sfn|Spiro|1982|pp=76–77}} According to Spiro, this presents a "serious conflict" since the Buddhist texts and teaching "describe life as suffering and hold up nirvana as the ''summum bonum.''"{{sfn|Spiro|1982|p=78}} In response to this deviation, "monks and others emphasize that the hope for nirvana is the only legitimate action for Buddhist action."{{sfn|Spiro|1982|p=78}} Nevertheless, according to Spiro most Burmese lay Buddhists do not aspire for the extinction of existence which is ''nirvana''.{{sfn|Spiro|1982|p=78}}{{refn|group=note|name="Wallace"}}

According to [[B.R. Ambedkar]], the Indian Buddhist [[Dalit]] leader, the four truths were not part of the original teachings of the Buddha, but a later aggregation, due to Hindu influences.{{sfn|Karunyakara|2002|p=67}} According to Ambedkar, total cessation of suffering is an illusion; yet, the Buddhist Middle Path aims at the reduction of suffering and the maximizing of happiness, balancing both sorrow and happiness.{{sfn|Karunyakara|2002|pp=67–68}}