Foreword by Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Preface
Editors Preface
The Four Noble Truths Sutra
1: Setting the Wheel of Dharma in Motion
The Four Truths
The Structure of the Sutra
The Order of the Four Noble Truths
The Etymology of the Term Four Noble Truths
The Benefits of Studying the Four Noble Truths
The Two Sets of Cause and Effect
How the Two Sets Work
Being Our Own Refuge
Responsibility to Ourselves and Others
2: The Truth of Suffering
Why the Buddha Began with the Teaching on Suffering
The Three Phases
Types of Suffering
The Three Types of Suffering
The Eight Types of Suffering
The Five Aggregates
The Four Characteristics of the Truth of Suffering
Impermanence
Suffering
Emptiness
Understanding the Truth of Suffering in Our Everyday Lives
There Is Suffering
Letting Go of Clinging to Problems
Meditating on the First Noble Truth
3: The Truth of Origin
Delusions
The Three Phases
Ignorance
Afflictive Emotions
The Three Kinds of Craving
Karmic Action
How Cause and Effect Works
Substantial and Contributory Causes
Karma
Karmic Imprints
The Origin of Suffering Is Within Suffering Itself
Dealing with Afflictive Emotions
Acquired and Innate Afflictive Emotions
The Ten Nonvirtuous Actions
Dealing with the Coarsest First
How the Twelve Links Operate over Three Lifetimes
The Twelve Links in Forward Order
The Four Characteristics of the Truth of Origin
4: The Truth of Cessation
Cessation, Liberation, and Enlightenment
The Three Phases
What Is the Cessation of Suffering?
Symbolic, Residual, and Nonresidual Cessation
Liberation and Enlightenment
Cessation and Enlightenment
Cessation According to Theravada
The Two Obscurations
The Two Cessations
A Buddhas Two Bodies
The Connection Between Liberation and Emptiness
The Four Characteristics of True Cessation
5: The Truth of the Path
The Noble Eightfold Path and the Three Trainings
The Three Phases
The Path to Enlightenment
The Many Paths in Buddhism
The Three Trainings
Being on the Path
The Five Paths
The Individual Liberation Practitioner and the Bodhisattvayana Practitioner
When Are We Actually on the Path?
The Four Characteristics of the Truth of the Path
The Sixteen Characteristics of the Four Noble Truths
Notes
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
About the Authors
The Foundation of Buddhist Thought
