The Four Noble Truths (cattāri ariyasaccāni) were the subject of the Buddha’s very first discourse at the Deer Park in Isipatana. Like a doctor, the Buddha identifies the illness, its cause, the possibility of a cure, and the treatment.
1. Dukkha — suffering
Life contains dukkha: pain, stress and unsatisfactoriness. Birth, ageing, sickness and death are dukkha; so are being apart from what we love and meeting what we dislike. Even pleasant things are unsatisfying in the end, because they change and pass away. The task for this truth is to understand it fully.
2. Samudaya — the cause of suffering
The cause of dukkha is craving (taṇhā): craving for sense pleasures, craving to become something, and craving for things not to be. This thirst keeps us restless and bound to the cycle of rebirth. The task is to abandon it.
3. Nirodha — the end of suffering
When craving fades away completely, suffering ends. This cessation is Nibbāna (Nirvana) — peace, freedom and release. The task is to realise it.
4. Magga — the path
The way to the end of suffering is the Noble Eightfold Path, a Middle Way that avoids both indulgence in sense pleasures and harsh self-denial. The task is to develop it.
The Four Noble Truths are not pessimistic. The first truth names the problem honestly so that the third and fourth can offer real hope.