The Buddha's first sermon after his Enlightenment centered on the Four Noble Truths, which are the

foundation of
Buddhism. The truths are:

The truth of suffering (dukkha)

The truth of the cause of suffering (samudaya)
The truth of the end of suffering (nirhodha)
The truth of the path that frees us from suffering (magga)

DUKKHA

The First Noble Truth: Life Is Dukkha

Much of the subtlety of Buddhist doctrines can be lost in translation.

In this case, much confusion has been caused by English translation of the Pali/Sanskrit word dukkha as "suffering."
According to the Ven. Ajahn Sumedho, a Theravadin monk and scholar, the word dukkhaactually means "incapable
of satisfying" or "not able to bear or withstand anything." Other scholars have deleted "suffering" and substituted
"stressful."
Further, the Buddha was not saying that everything about life is relentlessly awful. In other sermons, he spoke of
many types of happiness, such as the happiness of family life. But as we look more closely at dukkha, we see that it
touches everything in our lives, including good fortune and happy times.

Among other things, the Buddha taught that theskandhas are dukkha. What are the skandhas? They are the
components of a living human being -- form, senses, ideas, predilections, and consciousness. In other words, the
animated body you identify as yourself is dukkha, because it is impermanent and will, eventually, perish. This is also
true of happy times and good fortune.

The Second Noble Truth: On the Origin of Dukkha

The standard rendering of the Second Truth is that dukkha is caused by greed or desire. The actual word
from the early scriptures, tanha, is more accurately translated as "thirst" or "craving."
The Second Truth is not telling us we must give up everything we love to find happiness. The real issue
here is more subtle -- it's attachment to what we desire that gets us into trouble.
What do we mean by attachment? In order for there to be attachment, you need two things -- an attacher,
and something to attach to. In other words, attachment requires self-reference, and the thing desired must
be perceived to be separate from oneself. But the Buddha taught that this is an illusion.

The Third Noble Truth: The Cessation of Craving

The solution to dukkha, then, is to stop clinging and attaching. But how do we do that?

The fact is, you can't -- by an act of will. You can't just vow to yourself, okay, from now on I won't crave
anything. This doesn't work, because the conditions that give rise to craving will still be present.
The Second Noble Truth tells us that we cling to things we believe will make us happy or keep us safe. But
eventually we will be disappointed, because everything is impermanent. Grasping for one ephemeral thing
after another never satisfies us for long. It is only when we see this for ourselves that we can stop
grasping. But when we see it, the letting go is easy. The craving will seem to disappear of its own accord.

The Fourth Noble Truth: The Eightfold Path

Now we get to the "how." The Buddha spent the last 45 or so years of his life giving sermons on aspects of
the Four Noble Truths, and most of these sermons were about the Fourth Truth -- the path (magga).
The path is eight broad areas of practice that touch on every part of one's life, from study to ethical conduct
to what you do for a living to moment-to-moment mindfulness. Every action of body, speech, and mind are
addressed by the path. It is a path of exploration and discipline to be walked for the rest of one's life.

Without the path, the first three Truths would just be theory; something for philosophers to argue about.
Practice of the Eightfold Path brings the dharma into one's life and makes it bloom.

The Four Aryan (or Noble) Truths are perhaps the most basic formulation of the Buddha’s teaching.
They are expressed as follows:

1. All existence is dukkha. The word dukkha has been variously translated as ‘suffering’, ‘anguish’, ‘pain’, or
‘unsatisfactoriness’. The Buddha’s insight was that our lives are a struggle, and we do not find ultimate
happiness or satisfaction in anything we experience. This is the problem of existence.
2. The cause of dukkha is craving. The natural human tendency is to blame our difficulties on things outside
ourselves. But the Buddha says that their actual root is to be found in the mind itself. In particular our tendency
to grasp at things (or alternatively to push them away) places us fundamentally at odds with the way life
really is.
3. The cessation of dukkha comes with the cessation of craving. As we are the ultimate cause of our
difficulties, we are also the solution. We cannot change the things that happen to us, but we can change
our responses.
4. There is a path that leads from dukkha. Although the Buddha throws responsibility back on to the
individual he also taught methods through which we can change ourselves, for example the Noble
Eightfold Path.

The Buddha’s ‘Noble Eightfold Path’ is a further ‘unpacking’ of the ‘Threefold Way’ and is perhaps the most
widely known of the Buddha’s teachings. It is ancient, extending back to the Buddha’s first discourse and is
highly valued as a treasury of wisdom and practical guidance on how to live our lives. Traditionally the teaching
is seen as highlighting eight areas or ‘limbs’ of ‘right’ practice (Sangharakshita prefers ‘perfect’ to ‘right’), which
sit in mutual relationship to one other and are each essential elements in an integrated approach to
the Dharma:

1 Right Understanding or Perfect Vision 2 Right Resolve or Perfect Emotion

 3 Right Speech or Perfect Speech 4 Right Action or Perfect Action

5 Right Livelihood or Perfect Livelihood

6 Right Effort or Perfect Effort

7 Right Mindfulness or Perfect Awareness

5. 8 Right Meditation or Perfect Samadhi