Editing Four Noble Truths (section)

===''Dukkha'' and its ending===
As a proposition, the four truths defy an exact definition, but refer to and express the basic orientation of [[Buddhism]]:{{sfn|Gethin|1998|p=59}} sensory contact [[Pratītyasamutpāda|gives rise]] to [[Upādāna|clinging and craving]] to temporary states and things, which is ultimately unsatisfactory, ''dukkha'',{{sfn|Warder|2000|pp=45–46}} and sustains ''[[Saṃsāra (Buddhism)|samsara]]'', the repeated cycle of ''[[bhava]]'' (becoming, habitual tendencies) and ''[[Jāti (Buddhism)|jāti]]'' ("birth", interpreted as either [[Rebirth (Buddhism)|rebirth]], the coming to be of a new existence; or as the arising of the sense of self as a mental phenomenon<ref name="Payutto"/><ref group=web name="Buddhadasa"/>).
<!--** START OF NOTE ("SAMSARA") **-->{{refn|group=note|name="Samsara"|On samsara, rebirth and redeath:<br /><br />* Mahasatipatthana-sutta: "And what, ''bhkkhus'', is the noble truth that is the arising of pain? This is craving that leads to rebirth."{{sfn|Anderson|2013|p=91}}<br /><br />* accesstoisight.org: "Because of our ignorance (avijja) of these Noble Truths, because of our inexperience in framing the world in their terms, we remain bound to samsara, the wearisome cycle of birth, aging, illness, death, and rebirth."<ref group=web>accestoinsight.org, [http://www.accesstoinsight.org/theravada.html ''What is Theravada Buddhism?'']</ref><br /><br />* Paul Williams: "All rebirth is due to karma and is impermanent. Short of attaining enlightenment, in each rebirth one is born and dies, to be reborn elsewhere in accordance with the completely impersonal causal nature of one's own karma. The endless cycle of birth, rebirth, and redeath, is samsara."{{sfn|Williams|Tribe|Wynne|2002|pp=74–75}}<br /><br />* Buswell and Lopez on "rebirth": "An English term that does not have an exact correlate in Buddhist languages, rendered instead by a range of technical terms, such as the Sanskrit PUNARJANMAN (lit. "birth again") and PUNABHAVAN (lit. "re-becoming"), and, less commonly, the related [[Redeath|PUNARMRTYU]] (lit. 'redeath')."{{sfn|Buswell|Lopez|2003|p=708}}{{sfn|Schmidt-Leukel|2006|pp=32–34}}{{sfn|Makransky|1997|p=27}}<br /><br />The term ''Agatigati'' or ''Agati gati'' (plus a few other terms) is generally translated as 'rebirth, redeath'; see any Pali-English dictionary; e.g. p. 94-95 of Rhys Davids & William Stede, where they list five Sutta examples with rebirth and re-death sense.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0Guw2CnxiucC&pg=PA94|title=Pali-English Dictionary|first1=Thomas William Rhys|last1=Davids|first2=William|last2=Stede|date=23 May 1993|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publ.|isbn=9788120811447 |via=Google Books}}</ref><br /><br />See also ''[[Saṃsāra#Punarmrityu: redeath|punarmrityu]]''}}<!--** END OF NOTE ("SAMSARA") **-->
By following the Buddhist path, craving and clinging can be confined, peace of mind and real happiness{{sfn|Warder|2000|pp=45–46}}
<!--** START OF NOTE ("PLEASURE") **-->{{refn|group=note|name="Pleasure"|Warder refers to Majjhima Nikaya 75: "I gave up the desire for pleasure [...] I did not long for them [...] Now what was the cause? That delight, Māgandiya, which is apart from pleasures, apart, from bad principles, which even stands completely surpassing divine happiness, enjoying that delight I did not long for inferior ones, did not take pleasure in them."{{sfn|Warder|2000|pp=45–46}}}}<!--** END OF NOTE ("PLEASURE") **-->
can be attained, and the repeated cycle of repeated becoming and birth will be stopped.
<!--** START OF NOTE ("MOKSHA") **-->{{refn|group=note|name="Moksha"|Graham Harvey: "Siddhartha Gautama found an end to rebirth in this world of suffering. His teachings, known as the dharma in Buddhism, can be summarized in the Four Noble truths."{{sfn|Harvey|2016}} Geoffrey Samuel (2008): "The Four Noble Truths [...] describe the knowledge needed to set out on the path to liberation from rebirth."{{sfn|Samuel|2008|p=136}} See also: {{sfn|Spiro|1982|p=42}}{{sfn|Vetter|1988|pp=xxi, xxxi–xxxii}}{{sfn|Makransky|1997|pp=27–28}}{{sfn|Williams|Tribe|Wynne|2002|pp=74–75}}{{sfn|Lopez|2009|p=147}}{{sfn|Harvey|2016}}{{sfn|Kingsland|2016|p=286}}<ref group=web name="EB-DL Four Truths" /><ref group=web>Thanissaro Bhikkhu, [http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/truth_of_rebirth.html ''The Truth of Rebirth And Why it Matters for Buddhist Practice'']</ref><br /><br />The Theravada tradition holds that insight into these four truths is liberating in itself.{{sfn|Carter|1987|p=3179}} This is reflected in the Pali canon.{{sfn|Anderson|2013}} According to Donald Lopez, "The Buddha stated in his first sermon that when he gained absolute and intuitive knowledge of the four truths, he achieved complete enlightenment and freedom from future rebirth."<ref group=web name="EB-DL Four Truths">{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Four-Noble-Truths|title=Four Noble Truths|website=www.britannica.com}}</ref><br /><br />The ''[[Maha-parinibbana Sutta]]'' also refers to this liberation.<ref group=web name="ati_Maha-parinibbana_Sutta"/> Carol Anderson: "The second passage where the four truths appear in the ''Vinaya-pitaka'' is also found in the ''Mahaparinibbana-sutta'' (D II 90–91). Here, the Buddha explains that it is by not understanding the four truths that rebirth continues."{{sfn|Anderson|2013|p=162 with note 38, for context see pp. 1–3}} ''Mahaparinibbana-sutta'':
{{Blockquote|Through not seeing the Four Noble Truths,<br />Long was the weary path from birth to birth.<br />When these are known, removed is rebirth's cause,<br />The root of sorrow plucked; then ends rebirth.<ref group=web name="ati_Maha-parinibbana_Sutta"/>}}On the meaning of moksha as liberation from rebirth, see Patrick Olivelle in the Encyclopædia Britannica.<ref group=web name="Brittanica">[[Patrick Olivelle]] (2012), Encyclopædia Britannica, [https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/387852/moksha ''Moksha (Indian religions)'']</ref>}}<!--** END OF NOTE ("MOKSHA") **-->

The truth of ''[[dukkha]]'', "incapable of satisfying",<ref group=web name="Sumedho-first"/> "painful",{{sfn|Nyanatiloka|1980|p=65}}{{sfn|Emmanuel|2015|p=30}}{{refn|group=note|name=dukkha}} from ''dush-stha'', "standing unstable,"{{sfn|Monier-Williams|1899|p=483, entry note:&nbsp;}}{{sfnp|Analayo|2013b}}{{sfnp|Beckwith|2015|p=30}}{{sfnp|Alexander|2019|p=36}} is the basic insight that ''[[Saṃsāra (Buddhism)|samsara]]'', life in this "mundane world",<ref group=web name="EB-DL Four Truths" /> with its clinging and craving to [[Saṅkhāra#Conditioned things|impermanent states and things]]"{{sfn|Nyanatiloka|1980|p=65}} is ''dukkha'',{{sfn|Khantipalo|2003|p=41}} unsatisfactory and painful.<ref group=web name="Sumedho-first" />{{sfn|Nyanatiloka|1980|p=65}}{{sfn|Emmanuel|2015|p=30}}{{sfn|Williams|Tribe|Wynne|2002|pp=74–75}}{{sfn|Lopez|2009|p=147}}<ref group=web name="EB-DL Four Truths" /> We expect happiness from states and things which are impermanent, and therefore cannot attain real happiness.

The truth of ''[[samudaya]]'', "arising", "coming together", or ''dukkha-samudaya'', the origination or [[Pratītyasamutpāda|arising]] of ''dukkha'', is the truth that ''samsara'', and its associated ''dukkha'' [[Samudaya sacca|arises]], or continues,{{refn|group=note|name="continues"|Gogerly (1861): "1. That sorrow is connected with existence in all its forms. 2. That its continuance results from a continued desire of existence."{{sfn|Harris|2006|p=72}}}} with [[taṇhā]], "thirst", craving for and clinging to these impermanent states and things.
<!--**START OF NOTE "SAMUDAYA"**-->{{refn|group=note|name="Samudaya"|See:<br />* Gogerly (1861): "1. That sorrow is connected with existence in all its forms. 2. That its continuance results from a continued desire of existence."{{sfn|Harris|2006|p=72}}<br />*Perry Schmidt-Leukel: "Thirst can be temporarily quenched but never brought to final stillness. It is in this sense that thirst is the cause of suffering, duhkha. And because of this thirst, the sentient beings remain bound to samsara, the cycle of constant rebirth and redeath: it is this craving which leads to renewed existence as the Second Noble Truth."{{sfn|Schmidt-Leukel|2006|pp=32–34}}<br />* See also Williams & Wynne,{{sfn|Williams|Tribe|Wynne|2012|pp=32–34}} Spiro.{{sfn|Spiro|1982|p=42}}}}<!--**END OF NOTE "SAMUDAYA"**--> In the orthodox view, this clinging and craving produces [[Karma in Buddhism|karma]], which leads to [[Twelve Nidānas|renewed becoming]], keeping us trapped in [[Rebirth (Buddhism)|rebirth]] and renewed dissatisfaction.{{sfn|Rahula|2007a|loc=loc. 791–809}}<ref group=web name=bodhi1>{{Cite web |url=http://www.beyondthenet.net/dhamma/fourNoble.htm |title=''The Four Noble Truths'' - By Bhikkhu Bodhi |access-date=2 January 2012 |archive-date=26 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180826212523/http://www.beyondthenet.net/dhamma/fourNoble.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>{{refn|group=note|According to Schmitthausen, as cited by James egge,{{sfn|Egge|2013|p=124, note 37}} the four truths do not mention karma, but solely declare craving to be the cause of misery and rebirth.{{sfn|Schmithausen|1986|p=205}}}} Craving includes ''kama-tanha'', craving for sense-pleasures; ''[[bhava]]-tanha'', craving to continue the cycle of life and death, including rebirth; and ''vibhava-tanha'', craving to not experience the world and painful feelings.{{sfn|Rahula|2007a|loc=loc. 791–809}}{{sfn|Gethin|1998|p=70}}{{sfn|Ajahn Sucitto|2010|loc=loc. 943–946}} While ''dukkha-samudaya'', the term in the basic set of the four truths, is traditionally translated and explained as "the origin (or cause) of suffering", giving a causal explanation of ''dukkha'', Brazier and Batchelor point to the wider connotations of the term ''samudaya'', "coming into existence together": together with ''dukkha'' arises ''[[Taṇhā|tanha]]'', thirst. Craving does not cause ''dukkha'', but comes into existence together with ''dukkha'', or the five skandhas.{{sfn|Brazier|2001}}{{sfn|Batchelor|2012|pp=95–97}} It is this craving which is to be confined, as Kondanna understood at the end of the ''Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta'': "whatever arises ceases".{{sfn|Batchelor|2012|p=97}}

The truth of ''[[nirodha]]'', "cessation," "suppression,"{{sfn|Buswell|Lopez|2014|page="nirodha"}} "renouncing," "letting go",{{sfn|Anderson|2001|p=96}} or ''dukkha-nirodha'', the cessation of ''dukkha'', is the truth that ''dukkha'' ceases, or can be confined,{{sfn|Brazier|2001}} when one renounces or confines craving and clinging, and [[nirvana]] is attained.{{sfn|Buswell|Lopez|2003|p=304}}{{sfn|Brazier|2001}} Alternatively, ''tanha'' itself, as a response to ''dukkha'', is to be confined.{{sfn|Brazier|2001}}{{sfn|Batchelor|2012|pp=95–97}} ''Nirvana'' refers to the moment of attainment itself, and the resulting peace of mind and happiness (''khlesa-nirvana''), but also to the final dissolution of the five skandhas at the time of death (''skandha-nirvana'' or ''[[parinirvana]]''); in the Theravada-tradition, it also refers to a transcendental reality which is "known at the moment of awakening".{{sfn|Gethin|1998|p=77}}{{sfn|Hick|1994|p=436}}{{sfn|Bronkhorst|1993|pp=96–97}}{{sfn|Geisler|Amano|2004|p=32}} 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}} When ''nirvana'' is attained, no more karma is being produced, and rebirth and dissatisfaction will no longer arise again.<!--** START OF NOTE ("NIRODHA") **-->{{refn|group=note |name="Nirodha"|Ending rebirth:<br />* Graham Harvey: "The Third Noble Truth is nirvana. The Buddha tells us that an end to suffering is possible, and it is nirvana. Nirvana is a "blowing out", just as a candle flame is extinguished in the wind, from our lives in samsara. It connotes an end to rebirth"{{sfn|Harvey|2016}}<br />* Spiro: "The Buddhist message then, as I have said, is not simply a psychological message, i.e. that desire is the cause of suffering because unsatisfied desire produces frustration. It does contain such a message to be sure; but more importantly it is an eschatological message. 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}}<br />* John J. Makransky: "The third noble truth, cessation (''nirodha'') or nirvana, represented the ultimate aim of Buddhist practice in the Abhidharma traditions: the state free from the conditions that created samsara. Nirvana was the ultimate and final state attained when the supramundane yogic path had been completed. It represented salvation from samsara precisely because it was understood to comprise a state of complete freedom from the chain of samsaric causes and conditions, i.e., precisely because it was unconditioned (''asamskrta'')."{{sfn|Makransky|1997|pp=27–28}}<br />* Walpola Rahula: "Let us consider a few definitions and descriptions of Nirvana as found in the original Pali texts [...] 'It is the complete cessation of that very thirst (tanha), giving it up, renouncing it, emancipation from it, detachment from it.' [...] 'The abandoning and destruction of craving for these Five Aggregates of Attachment: that is the cessation of ''dukkha''. [...] 'The Cessation of Continuity and becoming (''Bhavanirodha'') is Nibbana.'"{{sfn|Rahula|2007|p={{page needed|date=November 2020}}}}}}<!--** END OF NOTE ("NIRODHA") **--> Cessation is ''[[Nirvana (Buddhism)|nirvana]]'', "blowing out", and peace of mind.{{sfn|Rahula|2007a|loc=loc. 904–923}}{{sfn|Gethin|1998|p=75}}{{sfn|Goldstein|2002|p=158}} [[Joseph Goldstein (writer)|Joseph Goldstein]] explains:
{{Blockquote|[[Buddhadasa|Ajahn Buddhadasa]], a well-known Thai master of the last century, said that when village people in India were cooking rice and waiting for it to cool, they might remark, "Wait a little for the rice to become nibbana". So here, [[nibbana]] means the cool state of mind, free from the fires of the ''[[Kleshas (Buddhism)|defilements]]''. As Ajahn Buddhadasa remarked, "The cooler the mind, the more Nibbana in that moment". We can notice for ourselves relative states of coolness in our own minds as we go through the day.{{sfn|Goldstein|2002|p=158}}}}

The truth of ''[[Buddhist paths to liberation|magga]]'', refers to the path to the cessation of, or liberation from ''dukkha'' c.q. ''tanha''. By following the [[Noble Eightfold Path]], to ''[[moksha]]'', liberation,{{sfn|Samuel|2008|p=136}} restraining oneself, cultivating discipline, and practicing [[mindfulness]] and meditation, one starts to disengage from craving and clinging to impermanent states and things, and rebirth and dissatisfaction will be ended.{{sfn|Raju|1985|pp=147–151}}{{sfn|Eliot|2014|pp=39–41}} The term "path" is usually taken to mean the [[Noble Eightfold Path]], but [[Buddhist Paths to liberation|other versions]] of "the path" can also be found in the Nikayas.{{sfn|Bucknell|1984}} The Theravada tradition regards insight into the four truths as liberating in itself.{{sfn|Carter|1987|p=3179}}

The well-known eightfold path consists of the understanding that this world is fleeting and unsatisfying, and how craving keeps us tied to this fleeting world; a friendly and compassionate attitude to others; a correct way of behaving; mind-control, which means not feeding on negative thoughts, and nurturing positive thoughts; constant awareness of the feelings and responses which arise; and the practice of ''dhyana'', meditation.{{sfn|Bucknell|1984}} The tenfold path adds the right (liberating) insight, and liberation from rebirth.{{sfn|Bucknell|1984}}{{refn|group=note|Another variant, which may be condensed to the eightfold or tenfold path, starts with a Tathagatha entering this world. A layman hears his teachings, decides to leave the life of a householder, starts living according to the moral precepts, guards his sense-doors, practices mindfulness and the four jhanas, gains the three knowledges, understands the Four Noble Truths and destroys the [[Asava|taints]], and perceives that he's liberated.{{sfn|Bucknell|1984}}}}

The four truths are to be internalised, and understood or "experienced" personally, to turn them into a lived reality.{{sfn|Bronkhorst|1993|p={{page needed|date=November 2020}}}}{{sfn|Anderson|1999|p={{page needed|date=November 2020}}}}