Linked Discourses on the Truths

Mendicants should develop immersion so as to understand the four noble truths: suffering, its origin, its cessation, and the path.

Mendicants should develop seclusion so as to understand the four noble truths.

Members of good families go forth to understand the four noble truths.

Members of good families go forth to penetrate the four noble truths.

True ascetics understand the four noble truths.

True ascetics become awakened through understanding the four noble truths.

Don’t think bad thoughts. Instead, think of the four noble truths.

Don’t think in useless ways. Instead, reflect on the four noble truths.

Don’t argue. Instead, converse on the four noble truths.

Don’t gossip. Instead, talk about the four noble truths.

The famous first discourse, taught at Varanasi to the group of five ascetics. It begins by rejecting the extremes of asceticism and indulgence and recommends the middle way of the eightfold path. Then it defines the four noble truths and analyzes them in twelve aspects. It ends with Venerable Kondañña becoming the first person apart from the Buddha to realize the Dhamma.

All Realized Ones understand the four noble truths in their twelve aspects.

The four noble truths are defined, with the five aggregates under the truth of suffering.

The four noble truths are defined, with the six sense fields under the truth of suffering.

The Buddha asks the mendicants how they remember the four noble truths.

The Buddha asks the mendicants how they remember the four noble truths.

Ignorance is not knowing the four noble truths.

Understanding is knowing the four noble truths.

Each of the four noble truths has innumerable implications.

Each of the four noble truths are real, not otherwise.

It is because of not understanding the four noble truths that both the Buddha and others have wandered for so long in transmigration. With verses.

True ascetics understand the four noble truths. With verses.

The Realized One is called the Buddha because he understands the four noble truths.

All Buddhas become awakened through the four noble truths.

Only by knowing and seeing the four noble truths are the defilements ended.

You should encourage your friends in the four noble truths.

The four noble truths are real, not otherwise, that is why they are noble.

In this world, the Realized One is the noble one, that is why the four truths are noble.

The first truth is to be understood; the second is to be given up; the third is to be realized; and the fourth is to be developed.

Some mendicants are discussing whether the four truths are necessarily seen together. Venerable Gavampati asserts that he has learned it from the Buddha that they are: if you see one, you see them all.

In a siṁsapā grove, the Buddha holds up a handful of leaves, and compares it to all the leaves in the forest. So too, he has taught the four noble truths, which is only a fraction of what he knows.

Just as it’s impossible to keep water in a basket of pine needles, it’s impossible to end suffering without penetrating the four noble truths.

Beings who have not seen the four noble truths roam on from one birth to another, like a stick thrown end to end.

Even more than if your clothes are on fire, you should make an effort to understand the four noble truths.

Even more than if you’re being tortured with spikes, you should make an effort to understand the four noble truths.

The small creatures in the ocean are greater in number than all the foliage in the jungles of India. Still, your rebirths are more than this.

As the dawn precedes the sunrise, right view precedes the penetration of the four noble truths.

As long as there are no sun and moon, the world is in darkness. So too, as long as the Realized One has not arisen and declared the four noble truths, the world is in darkness.

One who has not seen the four noble truths is as feeble as a tuft of cotton wool, while one who has seen them is like a deep-rooted pillar.

No-one can refute you if you are well grounded in the four noble truths.

The Buddha tells the curious tale of a man who sat by a lotus pond to speculate about the world, and saw an army enter a lotus stalk. He thought he was going mad. The Buddha said that no, the army was real. Nevertheless, you should not speculate about such things, but should reflect on the four noble truths.

The Buddha takes the mendicants to a steep precipice, and points out that those who do not understand the four noble truths fall into a still deeper precipice.

The Buddha speaks of a hell called the great inferno, and points out that those who do not understand the four noble truths fall into a still fiercer inferno.

Just as it’s impossible to climb the upper floor without building the lower floors first, it’s impossible to end suffering without penetrating the four noble truths.

Ānanda sees Licchavi youths shoot arrows through keyholes. But seeing the four noble truths is even harder.

Interstellar space is dark and empty; but not seeing the four noble truths is even worse.

A blind turtle would put its head through a yoke with a hole in it floating in the ocean sooner than someone in the lower realms would be reborn as a human.

A blind turtle would put its head through a yoke with a hole in it floating in the ocean sooner than someone in the lower realms would be reborn as a human.

As seven bits of gravel are smaller than Mount Sineru, so is the suffering remaining to one who has seen the four noble truths.

As seven bits of gravel are smaller than Mount Sineru, so is the suffering remaining to one who has seen the four noble truths.

As a bit of dirt under a nail compared to the whole earth, so is the suffering remaining to one who has seen the four noble truths.

As a drop of water on a blade of grass compared to a massive dam, so is the suffering remaining to one who has seen the four noble truths.

As a few drops of water compared to the confluence of great rivers, so is the suffering remaining to one who has seen the four noble truths.

As a few drops of water compared to confluence of the great rivers, so is the suffering remaining to one who has seen the four noble truths.

As a few jujube seeds compared to the great earth, so is the suffering remaining to one who has seen the four noble truths.

As a few jujube seeds compared to the great earth, so is the suffering remaining to one who has seen the four noble truths.

As a few drops of water compared to the ocean, so is the suffering remaining to one who has seen the four noble truths.

As a few drops of water compared to the ocean, so is the suffering remaining to one who has seen the four noble truths.

As seven bits of gravel are smaller than the Himalayas, so is the suffering remaining to one who has seen the four noble truths.

As seven bits of gravel are smaller than the Himalayas, so is the suffering remaining to one who has seen the four noble truths.