Four dogmas
The four dogmas, also known as four noble truths, are the truth of suffering, truth of the origin of suffering, truth of cessation of suffering or nirvana, and truth of the path to cessation of suffering. The truth of suffering is about life‘s stock of great distresses, collectively termed eight distresses: birth, aging, sickness, death, goals unattainable, confronting the abhorred, separation from the beloved, and all ills of the five skandhas or aggregates. Such sufferings emerge and reemerge throughout life‘s journey.
From start to finish. One after another. Incessantly. Overflowing with sorrows unsolvable and anxieties innate. The Buddha instructs and guides the investigation into what causes the myriad sufferings. Innate greed, anger, and ignorance in all living beings when astir with emotional imbalance, behavior results and so does retribution of suffering. Such is the truth of the origin of suffering. With emotional imbalance eradicated and life inducted into the realm of peace and joy, auspice and harmony, purity and transformation, rebirth in the human state ceases. Such is nirvana, via which to extinguish myriad distresses.
Ultimately, there needs to be the way to attain. Such is the truth of the path to cessation of suffering, via which to effectuate the end of distresses. The Dharma methods via which to cultivate and learn the path to cessation of suffering include thirty seven prerequisites for the attainment of the Way, six paramitas, four immeasurables, four all-embracing virtues, five precepts, and ten virtues—all great paths via which to eradicate suffering.
