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… you should practice meditation …”

“Mendicants, the dawn is the forerunner and harbinger of the sunrise.

In the same way, for a mendicant right view is the forerunner and harbinger of truly comprehending the four noble truths . That mendicant can expect to truly understand: ‘This is suffering’ … ‘This is the origin of suffering’ … ‘This is the cessation of suffering’ … ‘This is the practice that leads to the cessation of suffering’.

… mind, and subsequent discourses drive home the efficacy of the path that can overcome even such deep-rooted defilements. We catch a rare glimpse of Venerable Añña Koṇḍañña, the first disciple to realize the four noble truths , all those years ago in Benares. Here he is sitting in meditation at Sāvatthī, having uprooted all grounds for defilements, living proof of the Dhamma’s power. Similar discourses celebrate the Buddha himself, as …

… even a fool becomes astute.

Associate with true persons, for that is how wisdom grows. Should you associate with true persons, you would be freed from all suffering.

And you would understand suffering, its origin and cessation, the eightfold path, and so the four noble truths .”

“‘A woman’s life is painful,’ explained the Buddha, guide for those fit to train,18 ‘and for a co-wife it’s especially so. After giving birth just once,

… a display of power would subdue the pride of his listeners, awaken a sense of conviction in his attainment, and thus enable them to enter the path of practice. As he states in MN 27, only when one sees the four noble truths —usually a synonym for stream-entry—is one’s conviction in the Buddha’s awakening confirmed. Only when one puts an end to one’s mental effluents does one have firm proof of the Buddha’s awakening. The Buddha …

Although this sutta does not mention the four noble truths by name, it does speak of the four duties appropriate to those truths: comprehending stress, abandoning the origination of stress, realizing the cessation of stress, and developing the path of practice leading to the cessation of stress. In line with the Buddha’s instructions to his son, Rāhula, that the path of practice is one of reflecting repeatedly on one’s own actions (MN …

… threatened with danger.

That’s not the secure refuge,

not the supreme refuge,

that’s not the refuge,

having gone to which,

you gain release

from all suffering & stress.

But when, having gone

to the Buddha, Dhamma,

& Sangha for refuge,

you see with right discernment

the four noble truths –

stress,

the cause of stress,

the transcending of stress,

& the noble eightfold path,

the way to the stilling of stress:

… in common with SN 5:8. The remainder of SN 5:8 reads:

all-conquering,

Māra’s subduer,

everywhere undefeated,

everywhere freed, independent;

endowed with an Eye

all-seeing, reaching the end of

all kamma—

with the ending of acquisitions,

released.

He, that Blessed One,

is my teacher.

It’s in his Dhamma

that I delight.

5. For an example of how the four noble truths —right view—lead to the transcending of views, see AN 10:95.

… convincing, however, is the observation that the list of topics found in the Saṁyutta is central to the Buddha’s teaching: the aggregates, the senses, dependent origination, the elements, the path, and the four noble truths . When the Suttas list the Buddha’s essential teachings, they do so with topics from the Saṁyutta. And when later generations organized the Buddha’s teachings into coherent wholes, the same list of topics …

… first point is found of blows by spears, swords, arrows, and axes. Now this may be so. But the comprehension of the four noble truths doesn’t come with pain or sadness, I say. Rather, the comprehension of the four noble truths comes only with pleasure and happiness, I say. What four? The noble truths of suffering, its origin, its cessation, and the path.

That’s why you should practice meditation …”

“Suppose a person was to strip all …

“… the sentient beings who die as ghosts and are reborn as gods are few, while those who die as ghosts and are reborn in the ghost realm are many. Why is that? It’s because they haven’t seen the four noble truths . What four? The noble truths of suffering, the origin of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the practice that leads to the cessation of suffering.

That’s why you should practice meditation to understand: ‘This is …