The Buddha delivered his first sermon, in which he laid out the essential framework upon which all his later teachings were based after his Awakening. This framework consists of the Four Noble Truths, four fundamental principles of nature (Dhamma) that emerged from the Buddha's radically honest and penetrating assessment of the human condition. He taught these truths not as metaphysical theories or as articles of faith, but as categories by which we should frame our direct experience in a way that conduces to Awakening:



1)Dukkha (suffering, unhappiness, discontent, etc.) is inherently a part of life. The Buddha is sometimes misquoted as saying that "life is suffering," but although he stated that suffering is in the nature of life, he never said that our life experiences are limited to suffering alone. The First Noble Truth may be understood in several ways. For one thing, the conditioned phenomena of the universe in which we live are ultimately unsatisfactory, due to impermanence and other factors. Not getting what one wants is dukkha; getting what one doesn’t want is dukkha; separation from beloved persons and possessions is dukkha; birth is dukkha; pain is dukkha; old age, disease, and death are dukkha.



For a more complete understanding of dukkha, one needs to see it in the context of the doctrines of anicca(impermanence) and anatta (not self), together understood as the three marks or characteristics of all existence.Anicca is impermanence and transience. Anatta is the doctrine of not-self, that there is not an essential,permanent metaphysical self



2.Dukkha arises due to craving (tanha). By craving is meant one of three things: desire for sensual pleasures, desire for existence and desire for non-existence. While craving is not the only cause of dukkha, it is a primary cause—and also one that we do have some control over. When we have a craving that we cannot fulfill, we then experience unhappiness. In addition, craving (along with other factors) helps to perpetuate Samsâra (the cycle of birth-and-death), inwhich we repeatedly experience dukkha. While the Second Noble Truth asserts craving as a cause of dukkha and craving for pleasure undeniably can lead to suffering.



In the world,the eye......In the world, the ear…. In the world, the nose…. In the world, the tongue…. In the world, the body…. In the world, the mind has the characteristic of being delightful and pleasurable. When this craving arises, it arises there.



3)Whatever is subject to origination is subject to cessation. In other words, whatever has a beginning, also has an ending. Dukkha can be brought to an end through detachment from, and relinquishing of craving. When the cause of dukkha—craving—does not arise, then dukkha does not arise. The state of total liberation from dukkha (and its causes) is called Nibbana(Nirvana).



4) The Path or method of practice that leads to the cessation of dukkha (through the cessation of craving) is the Noble Eightfold Path. The factors of this path are:



1)Right Understanding (or view),

2)Right Thought (or intention),

3)Right Speech,

4) Right Action,

5)Right Livelihood,

6)Right Effort,

7)Right Mindfulness, and

8)Right Concentration.Because of our ignorance (avijja) of these Noble Truths and our inexperience in framing the world in their terms, we remain bound to samsara, the wearisome cycle of birth, aging, illness, death, and rebirth. Craving propels this process onward, from one moment to the next and over the course of countless lifetimes, in accordance with kamma (Skt. karma), the universal law of cause and effect. According to this immutable law, every action that one performs in the present moment — whether by body, speech, or mind itself — eventually bears fruit according to its skillfulness: act in unskillful and harmful ways and unhappiness is bound to follow; act skillfully and happiness will ultimately ensue.

Phenomena are preceded by the heart, ruled by the heart, made of the heart. If you speak or act with a corrupted heart, then suffering follows you — as the wheel of the cart, the track of the ox that pulls it. If you speak or act with a calm, bright heart, then happiness follows you, like a shadow that never leaves. As long as one remains ignorant of this principle, one is doomed to an aimless existence: happy one moment, in despair the next; enjoying one lifetime in heaven, the next in hell.

The Buddha discovered that gaining release from samsara requires assigning to each of the Noble Truths a specific task: the first Noble Truth is to be comprehended; the second, abandoned; the third, realized; the fourth, developed. The full realization of the third Noble Truth paves the way for Awakening: the end of ignorance, craving, suffering, and kamma itself; the direct penetration to the transcendent freedom and supreme happiness that stands as the final goal of all the Buddha's teachings; the Unconditioned, the Deathless, Unbinding — Nibbana (Skt. Nirvana).