The Tree of Enlightenment

CHAPTER FOUR
e our oble ruths
W ith this chapter, we enter the real heart of the teaching of
the Buddha. e Four Noble Truths are one of the most
fundamental of the schemes delineated by the Buddha. In many
important particulars, they virtually coincide with the whole
of the doctrine of Shakyamuni. e understanding of the Four
Noble Truths is synonymous with the attainment of the goal
of Buddhist practice. e Buddha himself indicated as much
when he said that it is failure to comprehend the Four Noble
Truths that has caused us to run on so long in the cycle of birth
and death. e importance of the Four Noble Truths is similarly
indicated by the fact that the Buddha’s first discourse, delivered
to the five ascetics at the Deer Park, near Benares, was the
Dhammachakkappavattana Sutta, which had as its subject the
Four Noble Truths and the Middle Way. In the formula of the
Four Noble Truths – that is, the truth of suffering, the truth of
the cause of suffering, the truth of the cessation of suffering, and
the truth of the path – we have a summary of the teaching of the
Buddha in theory and in practice.
Before turning to a consideration of the Four Noble Truths
individually, I would like to draw your attention to a few facts
about the formula in general. In this context, it is appropriate
to recall that the ancient science of medicine had enjoyed a certain
degree of development by the time of the Buddha. One of
the fundamental formulas evolved by practitioners of the science
of medicine in ancient India was the fourfold scheme of disease,
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