For anyone interested to explore and study The Path of Enlightenment, one must begin with a deep understanding of The Four Noble Truths.

The Four Noble Truths is the first discourse offered by Gotama Buddha as his very first Teaching upon him attaining Enlightenment as The Fully Perfectly Enlightened Buddha.

You can study his progression and dedication to reaching Enlightenment through understanding his story that led him there. This Chapter will provide details on his actual first Teaching once he became The Fully Perfectly Enlightened Buddha and a subsequent Chapter will help you understand a portion of his life story.

The Four Noble Truths is the core understanding required to establish “Right View”. Right View gives a Practitioner’s mind the foundation in which to apply all the other Teachings and practices taught by Gotama Buddha. A Practitioner would have no ability to attain Enlightenment unless they learned, reflected, and practiced The Four Noble Truths to establish “Right View”.

The Four Noble Truths explains the wisdom of discontentedness, the wisdom of the cause of discontentedness, the wisdom of the elimination of discontentedness, and the wisdom of the way of practice leading to the elimination of discontentedness.

In four (4) simple statements, Gotama Buddha shares the problem with the unEnlightened mind, the cause of the problem, the elimination of the problem, and the path leading to the complete elimination of the problem.

Before we explore The Four Noble Truths in The Words of The Buddha, I will first share a summarized version of this Chapter to provide you a high-level understanding of The Four Noble Truths and related Teachings to prepare the mind for deeper investigation of this Teaching.

The content in the following table will help you get a basic understanding of The Four Noble Truths and related Teachings.

Understanding and practicing "The Four Noble Truths" is the first step towards The Path to Enlightenment, Nibbāna, and a Higher Consciousness.

The Four Noble Truths is the first step of "The Eight Fold Path" called "Right View”. The Eight Fold Path is The Path to Enlightenment with the other Teachings from Gotama Buddha connecting into this path.

Impermanence: Everything is constantly changing and there is no permanent state. Material objects/possessions, relationships, thoughts, ideas, states of mind, everything in the world is constantly changing. All conditioned feelings will cease to exist. All that arises will cease to exist. There is no steady, constant, or fixed mental state other than Enlightenment.

Discontentedness: Gotama Buddha describes three feelings as discontent or “Dukkha” due to their nature of being based on impermanent conditions. The goal of these Teachings is to eliminate discontentedness of mind providing the mind a permanent place to reside in Enlightenment.

Craving/Desire/Attachment/Wants/Expectations/Grasping/Holding/Clinging: a mental longing for something with a strong eagerness. The mind pulling in a direction for objects of its affection.

The Four Noble Truths —-> “Right View”

1.) First Noble Truth: Everyone that is unEnlightened will experience discontentedness.

2.) Second Noble Truth: Discontentedness is caused by our own cravings/desires/attachments because the mind wants everything to be permanent when everything in the world is impermanent.

3.) Third Noble Truth: The elimination of discontentedness is possible by eliminating cravings/desires/attachments.

4.) Fourth Noble Truth: The path to eliminating discontentedness is The Eight Fold Path.

The goal in life is not to be happy, as that is an impermanent feeling. When the mind is not happy, it will move to sadness, anger, or worse.

The goal in life is to develop a peaceful, calm, serene, and content mind with joy free of cravings/desires/attachments that is “satisfied with what is….” - the Enlightened mind. The Enlightened mind will not base its inner feelings on impermanent conditions therefore it is a permanent mental state. The Enlightened mind is unconditioned.

Author’s Thoughts: The Four Noble Truths can be summarized and understood in the following way.

You need to accept responsibility for your own discontent mind and the emotions you experience. Rather than blaming pleasant feelings, painful feelings, and feelings that are neither painful-nor-pleasant on someone or something external, see the truth that you cause your own discontent mind. See the truth that your own mind is causing itself to experience these unwelcome feelings. By observing the truth that you are the problem, the next step is that you have the ability to resolve the problem.

By accepting responsibility for your own discontent mind, you then have 100% ability to eliminate discontentedness in the mind through understanding and practice of these Teachings. Because if you are the cause of the discontent mind, that means you have the ability to eliminate and resolve the discontentedness in the mind. You have 100% ability to attain a content mind through learning and practicing these Teachings.

The way leading to the complete elimination of discontentedness in the mind and attaining a peaceful, calm, serene, and content mind with joy is to learn and practice “The Eight Fold Path”. The Enlightened mind will be calm and relaxed yet attentive and alert. The mind will be concentrated, steady, and unshakable.

Understanding The Four Noble Truths is the first step towards a content and peaceful mind and life. Right View is the first step of The Eight Fold Path. Without accepting responsibility for the discontent mind, you will never be able to take steps to resolve the discontentedness in the mind because of the “wrong view” that something or someone else is causing the mind to be discontent means you feel that you have no ability to attain a content mind. If it is others who are causing you to experience discontentedness, then you will need to train the entire world to do things your way.

You are unable to train the entire world to do things the way of your choosing.

Therefore, with “wrong view” you will always experience discontentedness in the form of pleasant feelings, painful feelings, or feelings that are neither painful-nor-pleasant. You may find that you are attempting to train others to do things your way rather than train your mind to understand The Natural Laws of Existence.

However, since it is impossible to train everyone in the entire world to react and respond to you in the way of your choosing, you need to train the mind to be peaceful, calm, serene, and content with joy to no longer experience discontentedness in any and all situations. You have the ability to change your own mind through training but you have no ability to change the mind of another person.

The problem is not the outside world, but the inner world. Training the mind (inner world) is what produces a peaceful existence.

You cause your own sadness, anger, frustration, irritation, annoyance, guilt, shame, fears, boredom, loneliness, shyness, jealousy, resentment, stress, anxiety, and all other discontent feelings. Because you are the cause of these discontent feelings, this means that you can eliminate the discontent feelings through understanding and practice of these Teachings.

These Teachings are a “life practice” to establish an understanding and to practice Teachings that eliminate 100% of the discontentedness in the mind. The first step is to understand The Teachings intellectually, reflect on these Teachings, then observe these Teachings in practice so that you can attain the wisdom and truth in The Teachings.

Through the wisdom you acquire in the practice of these Teachings, you will liberate the mind through wisdom to experience Enlightenment, Nibbāna, a Higher Consciousness. This new found wisdom "gradually" improves the way the mind functions in the world through how the mind interacts in the world and will eliminate discontentedness of mind. When the mind attains Enlightenment, the mind will not experience any discontentedness. The mind will be peaceful, calm, serene, and content with joy - permanently.