Essay - Four Truths the First Teaching Ever Given by the Buddha...

Four Truths

The first teaching ever given by the Buddha was to five student monks in a deer park about the truths he had discovered while struggl*****g for enlightenment. These became the central teachings of Buddhism. It was his ***** awareness that life brings illness, age, misery and death that lead to a search for a deeper underst*****ing of the way one lives and ***** end suffering. The ***** of ***** Buddha revolve around a central belief system known as the "Four Noble Truths."

The first truth can be translated ***** "suffering." When Western people hear this word, they have a negative connotation. However, Buddha did not mean it in this way. He wanted *****dividuals to recognize that their lives ***** not ***** much *****ing ***** were ***** fulfilling. Most important, this could be changed. This is not to deny the fact that people have pleasing experiences. The question is, how superficial or deep are these experiences? Are they lasting and do they change the person for the better? Or, are ********** merely short-lived d*****tractions to keep busy and unthinking? As Albert Schweitzer stated: "Only at quite rare moments have I felt really glad to be alive. I could not but feel with a symp*****thy full of regret all the pain that ***** saw ***** me, ***** only that of *****n, but ***** ***** whole creation."

Buddha then mentioned six points in life when ***** experiences become very noticeable: at the trauma of birth, when one becomes ill, as one ages and frailer, as a person starts to fear de*****h, when an individual cannot escape a distasteful lifestyle and if one is separated from a loved one. These are the time of most suffering when a person must be the strongest.

***** second truth ***** ********** ***** as "desire." Once again, it is important to see ***** in a positive light. The desire is to become a better person and for personal fulf*****ment. When ***** are selfless, they become free. People are va***** ***** self*****h and wrapped up in their own *****. *****y ***** concerned ***** "me" rather than "you" and "them." The object is to think about oneself as ***** a small part of the whole, not alone ***** together with others.

***** third ***** is an extension or outcome of the second. If people realize the necessity ***** exchanging selfish f***** selfless, *****y will begin to find ways for overcoming the intense need for conceit. It is recognizing that one can and ***** end peesonal suffering.

***** can be accomplished, said Buddha, through the fourth truth or ***** eightfold path to enlightenment: This is a series of changes designed to release the individual ***** ignorance ***** unwitting impulse and pick ***** a person where he/she is at that moment in l*****e and set him/her *****wn as a different individual who no longer h***** the disabling human traits. ***** is a path ***** one continues ***** follow throughout all of life.

Right Views: A way of life always consists