The Four Noble Truths
The four noble truths — suffering (dukkha), its origin, its cessation, and the path — are the core teaching the Buddha proclaimed when he first set the Wheel of Dhamma in motion at the Deer Park.
Read the full sutta: Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta (SN 56.11) — Setting the Wheel of Dhamma in Motion: full text →Related: The Noble Eightfold Path · Dependent Origination · The Five Aggregates · How Do You Let Go? The Buddha's Seven Methods for Removing Defilements · Why Buddhism Says Sensual Desire Leads to Suffering
Where the Four Noble Truths Stand: The Wheel of Dhamma and Sāriputta's Commission
The Saccavibhaṅgasutta ('The Analysis of the Truths', MN 141) is set in the Deer Park at Isipatana near Varanasi — the very place where the Buddha gave his first discourse. The sutta opens with the Buddha announcing to the monks that the Tathāgata has set rolling there the unsurpassed Wheel of Dhamma, which no ascetic, brahmin, god, Māra, or Brahmā can turn back; and the content of that wheel is precisely the announcing, teaching, describing, establishing, revealing, analyzing, and clarifying of the four noble truths. The first turning itself is recorded in the Dhammacakkappavattanasutta (SN 56.11), whose core is likewise the four truths.
Having stated this headline, the Buddha does not continue the exposition himself. He tells the monks to associate with Sāriputta and Moggallāna, wise monks, and singles out Sāriputta as one able to announce, teach, describe, establish, reveal, and analyze the four noble truths in detail. Then he rises from his seat and enters his dwelling. Soon after the Buddha has left, Sāriputta takes over and analyzes the four truths for the monks one item at a time — which is exactly what the title 'Saccavibhaṅga', the analysis of the truths, means.
This framing itself marks the standing of the four noble truths: they are not one doctrine among many but the very content of the Wheel of Dhamma; and they call not only for proclamation but for analysis — each truth, each term, given an explicit definition. MN 141 is among the fullest term-by-term treatments of the four truths in the Pali Canon, and the sections below follow Sāriputta's exposition in order.
Tathāgatena bhikkhave arahatā sammāsambuddhena bārāṇasiyaṁ isipatane migadāye anuttaraṁ dhammacakkaṁ pavattitaṁ appaṭivattiyaṁ samaṇena vā brāhmaṇena vā devena vā mārena vā brahmunā vā kenaci vā lokasmiṁ yadidaṁ
「諸比丘，如來、阿羅漢、正等正覺者在波羅奈斯城仙人墮處鹿野苑轉動了無上法輪，此法輪不可逆轉，無論世間的沙門、婆羅門、天神、魔、梵天或任何人皆不能止息，即是——
catunnaṁ ariyasaccānaṁ ācikkhanā desanā paññāpanā paṭṭhapanā vivaraṇā vibhajanā uttānīkammaṁ
對四聖諦的宣說、教導、闡明、建立、開示、分析與明解。
Sāriputto bhikkhave pahoti cattāri ariyasaccāni vitthārena ācikkhituṁ desetuṁ paññāpetuṁ paṭṭhapetuṁ vivarituṁ vibhajituṁ uttānīkātun ti
諸比丘，舍利弗能夠廣詳地宣說、教導、描述、建立、闡明、分析四聖諦。
Idamavoca bhagavā
世尊說了此語。
Idaṁ vatvāna sugato uṭṭhāyāsanā vihāraṁ pāvisi
說了這話之後，善逝者從座起身，進入了精舍。
The Truth of Suffering, Part One: Birth, Aging, and Death Defined
Sāriputta begins with the summary statement of the noble truth of suffering: birth is suffering, aging is suffering, death is suffering; sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, and despair are suffering; not getting what one wants is suffering; in brief, the five aggregates subject to clinging are suffering. This list is not a lament but a table of contents — the sutta goes on to define every item on it in a formal question-and-answer style: 'And what, friends, is birth? ... This is called birth.'
Birth is defined as the birth, coming forth, descent (into the womb), production, appearance of the aggregates, and acquisition of the sense bases of beings in the various orders of beings — not 'life' in the abstract, but the whole process by which a lifetime comes into being. Aging is equally concrete: old age, brokenness of teeth, greyness of hair, wrinkling of skin, decline of vitality, failing of the faculties. Death is the passing away, dissolution, disappearance, the breakup of the aggregates, the laying down of the body, the cutting off of the life faculty. Together the three definitions trace a lifetime from its arising to its dissolution.
One detail worth noting: sickness, familiar from the common formula 'birth, aging, sickness, and death', is not listed as a separate item in this sutta's summary of the first truth; it appears instead in the later passage on not getting what one wants — beings 'subject to sickness' wish not to fall sick. Details like this only become visible when the source text is read line by line.
Katamañcāvuso dukkhaṁ ariyasaccaṁ
那麼，道友們，什麼是苦聖諦？
Jātipi dukkhā jarāpi dukkhā maraṇampi dukkhaṁ sokaparidevadukkhadomanassupāyāsāpi dukkhā yampicchaṁ na labhati tampi dukkhaṁ saṅkhittena pañcupādānakkhandhā dukkhā
生亦是苦，老亦是苦，死亦是苦，愁、悲、苦、憂、惱亦是苦；所欲不得亦是苦；簡言之，五取蘊是苦。
Katamañcāvuso maraṇaṁ
諸友，復何為死？
Yā tesaṁ tesaṁ sattānaṁ tamhā tamhā sattanikāyā cuti cavanatā bhedo antaradhānaṁ maccu maraṇaṁ kālaṅkiriyā khandhānaṁ bhedo kaḷevarassa nikkhepo jīvitindriyassupacchedo
凡彼彼有情類中諸有情，從彼彼有情類的死歿、消逝、壞滅、消失、死亡、死、命終、諸蘊壞散、色身棄捨、命根斷絕，
idaṁ vuccatāvuso maraṇaṁ
諸友，此即名為死。
The Truth of Suffering, Part Two: Sorrow, Frustrated Wishes, and the Five Aggregates
Sāriputta then defines the five terms 'sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, and despair' one by one. Sorrow (soka) is the inner grief of one struck by misfortune; lamentation (parideva) is the wailing and crying out; pain (dukkha) here means specifically bodily pain — the painful, disagreeable feeling born of bodily contact; distress (domanassa) is mental pain — the painful feeling born of mental contact; despair (upāyāsa) is the anguish of one overwhelmed by misfortune. These definitions show that 'dukkha' carries both a narrow sense (bodily pain) and a broad sense (everything the first truth covers).
The definition of 'not getting what one wants' is strikingly concrete: in beings subject to birth the wish arises, 'Oh, that we were not subject to birth, that birth would not come to us!' The same wish arises in beings subject to aging, sickness, death, and to sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, and despair. But 'this is not to be attained by wishing' — and that unbridgeable gap between wish and reality is itself suffering.
Finally, 'in brief, the five aggregates subject to clinging are suffering' gathers the whole truth into a single formula: the clinging-aggregates of form, feeling, perception, volitional activities, and consciousness. Everything enumerated before — birth, aging, death, sorrow, frustrated wishes — resolves into these five categories of body and mind held with clinging. See the topic page on the five aggregates for the full treatment.
Jātidhammānaṁ āvuso sattānaṁ evaṁ icchā uppajjati
賢友，對具有生性的眾生（或：執著於生的眾生），如此欲求生起：
aho vata mayaṁ na jātidhammā assāma na ca vata no jāti āgaccheyyā ti
『啊，願我們不具有生性，願我們的出生不再來！』
Na kho panetaṁ icchāya pattabbaṁ
然而此不能僅藉欲求而得達。
Idampi yampicchaṁ na labhati tampi dukkhaṁ
此亦是『求不得苦』——所欲而不得，彼亦是苦。
Katame cāvuso saṅkhittena pañcupādānakkhandhā dukkhā
賢友們，那麼哪些是苦——簡而言之，五取蘊？
Seyyathidaṁ rūpupādānakkhandho vedanupādānakkhandho saññupādānakkhandho saṅkhārupādānakkhandho viññāṇupādānakkhandho
即是：色取蘊、受取蘊、想取蘊、行取蘊、識取蘊。
Ime vuccantāvuso saṅkhittena pañcupādānakkhandhā dukkhā
這些，簡而言之，即是（稱為）苦的五取蘊。
Idaṁ vuccatāvuso dukkhaṁ ariyasaccaṁ
諸友，這稱為苦聖諦。
Origin and Cessation: Craving and Its Ending
The noble truth of the origin of suffering answers the question 'where does suffering come from?' Sāriputta's definition points to a single word: craving (taṇhā) — the craving that leads to renewed existence, accompanied by delight and lust, delighting now here, now there. The sutta then divides it into three: craving for sensual pleasures, craving for existence, and craving for non-existence. In other words, the cause of suffering lies not in the world but in this restless drive that keeps demanding more.
The noble truth of the cessation of suffering is the same sentence in reverse: the remainderless fading away and cessation of that very craving — its giving up, relinquishment, release, and non-attachment. Notice that the third truth is defined entirely in terms of the second: what ceases is not the world, nor feeling, but craving itself. Origin and cessation are two faces of one causal relation: when craving arises, suffering arises; when craving ceases, suffering ceases.
Both definitions are remarkably brief in the original, yet they form the hinge of the whole fourfold structure: the first truth maps the problem, the second names its sole cause, the third establishes that the cause can be brought to an end. What remains is the question 'how?' — and that is the fourth truth.
Katamañcāvuso dukkhasamudayaṁ ariyasaccaṁ
諸友，那麼什麼是苦集聖諦？
Yāyaṁ taṇhā ponobbhavikā nandīrāgasahagatā tatratatrābhinandinī seyyathidaṁ
那渴愛，導向再有，伴隨喜與貪，在此處彼處耽樂，即：
kāmataṇhā bhavataṇhā vibhavataṇhā
欲愛、有愛、無有愛。
idaṁ vuccatāvuso dukkhasamudayaṁ ariyasaccaṁ
諸友，這稱為苦集聖諦。
Katamañcāvuso dukkhanirodhaṁ ariyasaccaṁ
諸友，那麼什麼是苦滅聖諦？
Yo tassāyeva taṇhāya asesavirāganirodho cāgo paṭinissaggo mutti anālayo
就是對那渴愛的無餘離貪滅盡、捨棄、放捨、解脫、無依著。
idaṁ vuccatāvuso dukkhanirodhaṁ ariyasaccaṁ
諸友，這稱為苦滅聖諦。
The Truth of the Path: The Noble Eightfold Path
For the noble truth of the way leading to the cessation of suffering, Sāriputta's answer is: 'It is just this noble eightfold path' — right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. The eight factors are not eight stages but eight constituents of a single road, and MN 141 goes on to define each factor in turn, from right view all the way to right concentration (the four jhānas).
The definition of the first factor, right view, deserves special attention: knowledge of suffering, knowledge of the origin of suffering, knowledge of the cessation of suffering, knowledge of the way leading to the cessation of suffering — right view just is knowing the four noble truths. This creates a circular structure: the fourth truth unfolds into the eightfold path, and the path's first factor points back to the four truths. The truth of the path is thus not merely one quarter of the scheme but the pivot that turns the other three truths into something that can be practiced.
The full definitions of all eight factors — the three right intentions, the four abstentions of right speech, the four right efforts, the four foundations of mindfulness, the four jhānas — are treated in the topic page on the noble eightfold path; MN 141 is one of the key canonical sources for those factor-by-factor definitions.
Katamañcāvuso dukkhanirodhagāminī paṭipadā ariyasaccaṁ
諸友，那麼什麼是趣向苦滅的道聖諦？
Ayameva ariyo aṭṭhaṅgiko maggo seyyathidaṁ
就是這聖八支道，即：
sammādiṭṭhi sammāsaṅkappo sammāvācā sammākammanto sammāājīvo sammāvāyāmo sammāsati sammāsamādhi
正見、正思惟、正語、正業、正命、正精進、正念、正定。
Katamā cāvuso sammādiṭṭhi
諸友，何者是正見？
Yaṁ kho āvuso dukkhe ñāṇaṁ dukkhasamudaye ñāṇaṁ dukkhanirodhe ñāṇaṁ dukkhanirodhagāminiyā paṭipadāya ñāṇaṁ
諸友，凡對苦有知智、對苦之生起有知智、對苦之止息有知智、對引向苦滅之道有知智者，
ayaṁ vuccatāvuso sammādiṭṭhi
諸友，此即稱為正見。
Relation to Mahāyāna interpretation
The four noble truths are honored across all Buddhist traditions. In the Chinese Madhyama Āgama, the 'Discourse on the Analysis of the Noble Truths' is the parallel to MN 141, likewise recording Sāriputta expounding the four truths at the Buddha's request. The East Asian tradition commonly speaks of 'eight sufferings', adding separation from the beloved and association with the disliked to birth, aging, sickness, death, frustrated wishes, and the five aggregates; the Pali MN 141 enumerates the first truth as shown on this page, so the two transmissions differ slightly in how the list is drawn up. Mahāyāna thought develops further interpretive layers: the Tiantai school distinguishes four levels of understanding the four truths (arising-and-ceasing, non-arising, immeasurable, and effortless), matched to different capacities; and the Heart Sutra's 'no suffering, origin, cessation, or path' speaks from the standpoint of emptiness — the absence of independent essence in all phenomena — rather than denying the truths' place as teaching. These interpretations are presented here side by side for comparison; this site does not adjudicate among them.
What do the four noble truths actually say, one by one?
Following the definitions in MN 141: the truth of suffering — birth, aging, death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, despair, not getting what one wants; in brief, the five aggregates subject to clinging. The truth of origin — craving that leads to renewed existence, accompanied by delight and lust: craving for sensual pleasures, for existence, and for non-existence. The truth of cessation — the remainderless fading away of that very craving, its relinquishment and release. The truth of the path — the noble eightfold path: right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.
Which sutta teaches the four noble truths?
The truths were first proclaimed in the Buddha's first discourse at the Deer Park, the Dhammacakkappavattanasutta (SN 56.11) — the 'first turning of the Wheel of Dhamma'. One of the fullest term-by-term expositions is the Saccavibhaṅgasutta (MN 141): after the Buddha reaffirms that the four truths are the content of the Wheel of Dhamma, he entrusts the detailed analysis to Sāriputta, who then defines every item, from 'birth' through the four jhānas. This page is written from MN 141.
Does the order of the four truths matter?
Yes. The four truths unfold as problem, cause, goal, and method: first the scope of suffering is established, then its cause identified, then the possibility of its cessation affirmed, and finally the concrete road to that cessation laid out. A traditional comparison is the physician's procedure: diagnosis, etiology, prognosis, prescription. In MN 141 the definition of right view — knowledge of suffering, of its origin, of its cessation, and of the way — follows the same sequence, suggesting the order is itself part of the teaching.
Does Buddhism claim that everything is suffering?
MN 141's definition calls for more precision than that. The first truth enumerates specific items — birth, aging, death, sorrow, frustrated wishes — and the sutta explicitly distinguishes bodily pain (dukkha in the narrow sense) from mental distress (domanassa), so it is not a blanket claim that every experience is painful. The summary formula is 'in brief, the five aggregates subject to clinging are suffering': the point is that body and mind held with clinging are unreliable and unsatisfactory as a whole — a diagnostic statement, not a denial that pleasant feelings exist.