This Friday we begin studying The Four Noble Truths, the foundational teachings of Buddhism. We will begin by reading the source text: the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta: Setting the Wheel of Dhamma in Motion. Then we will begin  watching The Four Noble Truths with His Holiness the Dalai Lama.   

 

Seven weeks after the Buddha's enlightenment, he gave his first sermon at Deer Park, addressing the Four Noble Truths of sentient existence:

1. The existence of suffering, or dukkha
2. The cause of suffering (karma)
3. The cessation of suffering (nirvana)
4. The Path that leads to the cessation of suffering

This set of lectures on the Four Noble Truths was given by His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama in 1997 in England. The lectures were a landmark event, bringing together for the first time in the West a nonsectarian Buddhist and lay audience for over six hours of emotional and intellectually challenging engagement with these central teachings of the Buddhist canon. The impressive intellect and scholarship of His Holiness is everywhere evident in these talks as he traverses the expansive body of Buddhist scriptures and commentaries. One also catches glimpses of his mischievous sense of humor and, of course, his inspiring compassion.

The first talk is a framework for the discussion of the Four Truths. His Holiness discusses the importance of developing a critical insight toward one's perceptions of reality, and he emphasizes the value of the Three Jewels (Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha) in finding the way to this insight. Though he begins in English, as he gets into the finer points of Tibetan philosophy he turns to his native language and speaks through a translator. The tape concludes in a lighthearted mode with a question-and-answer period, again in English, in which he giggles over the Western interest in finding the "quickest, cheapest, and most efficient" way to enlightenment.

Besides offering a thorough exposition of Mahayana view, and indeed practice, with an anything but common traversal of the Four Noble Truths by a master, in these four videos one is invited to spend a few intimate hours in the presence of the Dalai Lama, always an ennobling experience.