Answer to Question #252162 in English for Love

Question

Buddha's four noble truths is still very much relevant in your generation. His four noble truths are to be consiy realities of life. Whether you agree with Buddha or not life will still be experienced with the four noble truths he found out. With the first two of the four noble truths in mind write specific life situations in which the four noble truths may be applied / relevant.

Answer 1

The four noble truths of Buddha are;

1. Suffering is an unavoidable reality in human life.
2. The source of suffering is craving or desire, and the bad karma it creates.
3. The craving that leads to suffering can be destroyed.
4. The Middle Way is the path to eliminate craving and suffering.

The Four Noble Truths are important because beyond the pale of religion they are very relevant to human psychology and our existence. They enable us to understand the scope and nature of our suffering and find suitable remedies for it. 

The first truth is that life always incorporates suffering or Dukkha as it was called then. Dukkha has a broader meaning than suffering. It can be the feeling you experience when you encounter pain, old age, sickness, loss, or separation from loved ones, but it can also represent a general unsatisfied feeling. To be separated from what you like is suffering. To want something and not get it is suffering. In short, the human personality, liable as it is to clinging and attachment brings suffering.

 The second noble truth is that suffering in its broad sense, comes from desire, and specifically, desire for meeting our expectations and for self fulfillment as we see it. By desiring for ourselves rather than the whole, we will always have suffering. In the same way that a child wants a new toy and then, having achieved that, will long for yet another, we seek fulfillment of our desire, to then move on to another. All the time, our lives are only temporarily satisfied.