The Four Noble Truths

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Truth about the existence of suffering

 

Truth about the causes of suffering

 

Truth about the existence of happiness

 

Truth on the way forward

 

 

 

 

The Eightfold Path

 

The Middle Way is also called the Noble Eightfold Path, because it consists of eight divisions, whose development should be pursued simultaneously.

 

- right understanding

 

- right thinking

 

- right word

 

- right action

 

- just livelihoods

 

- fair efforts

 

- right attention

 

- right concentration

 

These eight branches allow the development and perfection of the three main elements of Buddhist training and discipline:

 

- ethical conduct (shila)

 

- mental discipline (samadhi)

 

- wisdom (prajna)

 

 

 

Impermanence

 

 

 

Fundamental principle of Buddhism, applies to all things which, in their general and constant correlations, are in perpetual state transitions.

 

This changing and transitory character of all existences is called "impermanence". It is a universal reality, present in the world, beings, and all situations. Impermanence makes birth, death, life and knowledge possible; it is also what makes us die.

 

 

 

Interdependence

 

 

 

The Buddha's teaching, the Dharma, teaches us that everything is interdependent: what we are and our world, everything that exists and everything that is known. There is nothing, no experience or knowledge, that is not dependent on something else!

 

Moreover, what we are as individuals is also seen by the Dharma as a set of interacting elements. At a first, commonly accepted level, it is therefore a quasi-scientific notion: that of a world as a network of interconnections, of cause and effect relationships.

 

The notion of interdependence thus understood goes hand in hand with that of impermanence.

 

 

 

The Vacuity

 

 

 

Śūnyatā, a Sanskrit term, in devanāgarī शून्यता; in Pali Suññata, in Chinese kōng 空, in Buddhism, refers to the emptiness or ainsity (tathatā) of beings and things, their absence of being in themselves, in other words, the inexistence of all essence, of all fixed and unchanging character.

 

It applies to things as well as to thoughts and states of mind.

 

According to Buddhism, everything is in essence emptiness (śūnyatā), both samsâra and nirvana. Śūnyatā does not mean 'emptiness'. It is a very difficult word to understand and define. It is with reserve that I translate it as 'emptiness'. The best definition is, in my opinion, "interdependence", which means that everything depends on others to exist. ...] Everything is by nature interdependent and therefore empty of its own existence.

 

Emptiness does not empty things of their content, it is their true nature (Philippe Cornu, quoting the madhyamika philosopher Nāgārjuna, Dictionnaire encyclopédique du bouddhisme, 2001, Seuil

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