Over the next four weeks we'll take a look at the Buddhist Four Noble Truths. These four topics are foundational teachings in Buddhism and offer insights into the suffering and dissatisfaction we all experience in life. The good news from these teachings is the promise that freedom from suffering is possible and available to everyone.

The Four Noble Truths help us (1) realize that suffering is a real part of life, (2) what causes suffering, (3) how we can lessen or remove suffering, and finally provide us with (4) an eight step training program for finding freedom from suffering (The Noble Eightfold Path).

“The very first noble truth of the Buddha points out that suffering is inevitable for human beings as long as we believe that things last—that they don’t disintegrate, that they can be counted on to satisfy our hunger for security.” - Pema Chödrön, When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times

All things and experiences are impermanent. They come and go depending on constantly changing conditions. The issue for us is that we really don't want this to be the case and it causes us a lot of suffering. The suffering can take many forms across a wide spectrum of experience from extreme physical and mental pain to the many subtle inner struggles and conflicts that arise in this human life. The Buddha spoke of "the noble truth of suffering: birth is suffering, aging is suffering, illness is suffering, death is suffering; union with what is displeasing is suffering; separation from what is pleasing is suffering; not to get what one wants is suffering. . ." Through meditation and direct experience we can become increasingly aware of our own relationship with suffering and begin to better understand the role we play in its arising and find freedom from it.