The Possibilities of the First and Second Noble Truths

Date: 2025-01-02 Thursday

For the first month of 2025 we’re going to the root of the Buddha’s teaching: the four noble truths.

As many of you know these four – the unsatisfactoriness of unawakened existence, the cause of this unsatisfactoriness or suffering, the possibility of freedom, and how to achieve that freedom – are shared by all Buddhist traditions.

Thus these four aren’t basic but core, meaning that if we truly realize these  four, we will awaken. With this in mind we’ll be exploring these four in ways that you can bring into your practice, into your daily lives. This is fruitful material!

We will explore these four over two weeks, Jan. 2 and Jan. 16. For this upcoming 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 2 sit we’ll explore  the problem – what does unsatisfactoriness or suffering mean, and what causes it? (Dukkha is the proper Pali word, which helps us get direct to the heart of the matter.)

Then on Jan. 16 we’ll explore the solution – what is freedom from dukkha, and how do we get there?

The four noble truths are so central to the Buddha’s teachings – in fact among the first things he taught - they seem a good way to start the year. Also people have asked for more core teachings, and it  doesn’t get more  core than this. And third, Seattle Insight will be exploring the four noble truths over the entirety of 2025, so this is in a small way paralleling that

Click here to listen to or download the talk on the Seattle Insight page.