There are various approaches I could take to sharing with you the knowledge of the Four Noble Truths. Indeed their profundity can be revealed through many traditions of Buddhism, but for my sources I rely on the early scriptures, such as the nikayas, the early Pali sutras, also known as the agamas, and from the Sanskrit shastra called Abhidharmakosha ( The Treatise on Benefit Knowlede1. Other approaches include that of the Madhyamika (Middle Way)2 and the Yogacara (Mind-Only)3, two very dominant Indian schools of thought that were very authoritative in their explanations of the Four Noble Truths. In Chinese Buddhism, besides the lines of Chan -Linji and Caodong (Zen: Rinzai and Soto)-there were the Tientai and the Huayan traditions4, each with its own way of explaining the Four Noble Truths. So, with this in mind, I will be commenting primarily from the point of view of the earlier, more fundamental Buddhist tradition.

Three Aspects of Suffering

The first noble truth is the truth of the existence of suffering The Buddha taught that suffering should be seen from three aspects5: first is the suffering of suffering, second, the suffering of change, and third the pervasive suffering of the five skandhas, which I will discuss later.

The Suffering of Suffering

The suffering of suffering is ordinary suffering that we can feel in body and mind. Examples of suffering of suffering would be the discomfort from illness, or being separated from a loved one. These kinds of suffering everybody can recognize. But on a much more fundamental level, the suffering of suffering means that we are not our own masters. We are constantly under the influence and conditioning of other forces, from the external environment to the experiences and workings of our own minds and bodies. All these conditions are 'other-powered' because all the causes and conditions that make up a particular moment are dependent on other things happening, either in the environment or in our own body. This is called 'conditioned arising' or 'dependent origination.' At a deeper level we are not even in control of our minds and thoughts. this inability to control our very own being is suffering.