According to Buddhist tradition, the first formal sermon the Buddha gave after reaching the enlightened state was the teaching on the Four Noble Truths, which was delivered to his five ascetic disciples on the 4^th day of 6^th lunar month in Deer Park. This is also known as the First Turning of the Wheel of Dharma. The Buddha declared that life and existence are marred by suffering, that suffering comes from a wide range of causes and conditions, that suffering has an end or cessation, and that there is a path to the cessation of suffering. These four points make up the Four Noble Truths: the Truth of Suffering (སྡུག་བསྔལ་གྱི་བདེན་པ་) the Truth of Cause of Suffering (ཀུན་བྱུང་གྱི་བདེན་པ་), the Truth of the Cessation of Suffering (འགོག་པའི་བདེན་པ་) and the Truth of the Path to the Cessation (ལམ་གྱི་བདེན་པ་).

The Four Noble Truths form the cornerstone of the Buddha’s teachings as well as the Buddhist path to enlightenment. They represent the Buddha’s strategy for problem solving. The Buddha pointed out that there are problems in life and existence, that the problems come out of causes and conditions, that there is an end or solution to the problem and that there is a way to reach the solution of the problem. To properly implement this problem-solving scheme, it is important to first identify the problem, before one can then eradicate its causes, and thereby actualize the solution by following the path to the solution. Using a medical analogy, Buddhist masters teach that the problem, like an illness, must be first recognized or diagnosed. Then, the causes of the problem, much like the cause of an illness, must be eschewed and eliminated and the appropriate solution, like a cure, must be sought. The path to the solution, like medical treatment from a physician, must be followed under the guidance of a teacher.

Thus, the first truth of suffering is to be understood and recognized because the ordinary world is ignorant about the nature of the life and existence. The Buddha explained suffering by elaborating birth, ageing, illness and death are suffering, that having what is displeasing is suffering, and not having what is pleasing is suffering, that meeting those whom one dislikes is suffering, and separation from those whom one likes is suffering. In brief, the five aggregates, which are the psychosomatic constituents that constitute the human condition, are suffering. Buddhist masters also classified suffering into three types: suffering of change (འགྱུར་བའི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་), or the inevitable change of happiness to suffering; the suffering of suffering (སྡུག་བསྔལ་གྱི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་), or the experience of multiple sufferings and pain; and, finally, the pervasive suffering of conditioning (ཁྱབ་པ་འདུ་བྱེད་ཀྱི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་), or the suffering entailed by one’s existential status with the ordinary body-mind complex.

While most scholars translate duḥkha (སྡུག་བསྔལ་) as suffering, others translate it as dissatisfaction. Yet no English translation fully renders the meaning of the original Sanskrit and Choekey terms. The terms duḥkha and སྡུག་བསྔལ་ mean unhappiness, suffering, pain, grief, and turmoil. In the context of the first noble truth, the term refers to anything associated with suffering and pain, and moreover anything that causes suffering, ends in suffering, and is linked to suffering as a cause, result or in its nature. It is in this respect that the Buddha characterized the whole of existence as suffering. He further characterized suffering with impermanence, selflessness and emptiness.

Thus, the First Noble Truth must help Buddhist practitioners understand and view this life and world with a sense of dissatisfaction, detachment, impermanence and illusion, and to seek higher goals of lasting happiness and peace. Seeing life and existence as transient leading from one moment of suffering and dissatisfaction to another is a framework that the Buddha asked his disciples to develop in order to help them overcome attachment to this world and seriously pursue their enlightenment.

Karma Phuntsho is the Director of Shejun Agency for Bhutan’s Cultural Documentation and Research, the President of the Loden Foundation and the author of The History of Bhutan. The piece was initially published in Bhutan’s national newspaper Kuensel in a series called "Why We Do What We Do."