The History of Buddhist Thought c10.11

c10.11

The positive doctrines of the teaching are called the four Noble Truths. (1) The truth that suffering exists; (2) the truth that suffering has a cause, which is “thirst” (taṇhā) or craving for existence; (3) the truth that this craving can be stopped; (4) the truth of the Noble Eightfold Path consisting of the eight practices of self-training by which the Truths may be realized and a permanent state of peace attained. This is the Doctrine,² which all schools have recognized as fundamental, and if it could have been kept free from the metaphysical problems lurking in the references to the self and the world, it might conceivably have remained essentially a religion, a doctrine teaching a way for the salvation of the individual, and discarding everything in human life and thought that appeared to hinder that goal.