Page 20 - The Buddha‘s Noble Eightfold Path

and Rebirth, and the Four Sunyatas. In dealing with them we

should remember that here we are not concerned with any
merely theoretical understanding. We are trying with the help
of these doctrinal categories, to obtain a glimpse of the Truth

— trying to achieve some kind of vision of the nature of
existence.

(d) The Four Noble Truths
Perfect Vision is usually explained in the doctrinal manuals as a

vision, or an understanding, of the Four Noble Truths. These
are (i ) The Truth of Suffering, Unsatisfactoriness, or

Disharmony, which we see all around us and also experience
within ourselves. (ii ) The Truth of the Cause of Suffering, which

is selfish craving or 'thirst', both within ourselves and within
others. (iii ) The Truth of the Cessation of Suffering, i.e. the
total eradication of suffering which is synonymous with the

state of Enlightenment or Buddhahood. (iv) The Truth of the
Way leading to the Cessation of Suffering, which is the Noble

Eightfold Path.

It is interesting to note that the first and second Noble Truths,

that is to say, Suffering and the Cause of Suffering, together
correspond to the image of the Wheel of Life. Suffering being

the effect, and Craving the cause, there is here a cause-effect,
action-reaction type of relationship. In other words, there is the
same cyclical pattern as represented by the Wheel of Life. The

third Noble Truth, that of the Cessation of Suffering,
corresponds to the image of the Buddha or the Mandala of the

Five Buddhas. The fourth Noble Truth, that of the Eightfold
Path, corresponds to the image of the Path, or Spiral Path. We
therefore see that the Four Noble Truths present conceptually

what our three images present in terms of images, but it is the
same vision: a vision of the nature of conditioned

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