1.Suffering – dukkha (through our everyday life, the mundane existence) the impermanence of pleasure and things. Picturing the innate characteristic of existence
sensory contact gives rise to clinging and craving to temporary states and things, which is ultimately unsatisfactory and painful. Picture the impermanence of things and how we hold on to them in order to feel “happy”, however it is not true happiness.
2. The cause of suffering – samudaya (the ego, the desire of attachment)
Our day-to-day troubles may seem to have easily identifiable causes: thirst, pain from an injury, sadness from the loss of a loved one. In the second of his Noble Truths, though, the Buddha claimed to have found the cause of all suffering – and it is much more deeply rooted than our immediate worries.
The Buddha taught that the root of all suffering is desire, tanhā. This comes in three forms, which he described as the Three Roots of Evil, or the Three Fires, or the Three Poisons.
The Buddha went on to say the same of the other four senses, and the mind, showing that attachment to positive, negative and neutral sensations and thoughts is the cause of suffering.
The craving keeps us from attaining nirvana and keeps us in the cycle of continuous rebirth – suffering. Only through letting go of the cravings you can reach nirvana
3. Cessation of suffering – nirodha (letting go of attachments and disturbing emotions, cravings)
The Buddha taught that the way to extinguish desire, which causes suffering, is to liberate oneself from attachment.
This is the third Noble Truth – the possibility of liberation.
Someone who reaches nirvana does not immediately disappear to a heavenly realm. Nirvana is better understood as a state of mind that humans can reach. It is a state of profound spiritual joy, without negative emotions and fears.
Someone who has attained enlightenment is filled with compassion for all living things.
After death an enlightened person is liberated from the cycle of rebirth, but Buddhism gives no definite answers as to what happens nex
4. The path – magga (the liberation)
The final Noble Truth is the Buddha’s prescription for the end of suffering. This is a set of principles called the Eightfold Path.
The Eightfold Path is also called the Middle Way: it avoids both indulgence and severe asceticism, neither of which the Buddha had found helpful in his search for enlightenment.
The eight stages can be grouped into Wisdom (right understanding and intention), Ethical Conduct (right speech, action and livelihood) and Meditation (right effort, mindfulness and concentration).
The Buddha described the Eightfold Path as a means to enlightenment, like a raft for crossing a river. Once one has reached the opposite shore, one no longer needs the raft and can leave it behind.
Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/buddhism/beliefs/fournobletruths_1.shtml
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