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Sacca

The sacca (or, more precisely, cattāri-ariya-saccāni) are the Four Noble Truths discovered by the Buddha. They are as follows:

(1) There is suffering.

(2) Suffering has causes.

(3) Suffering ceases.

(4) There is path leading to the cessation of suffering.

Annotations

(1) Suffering exists. Most of the time this simple fact is ignored and a lot of energy is invested into maintaining the illusion that suffering is not supposed to arise. Instead of acknowledging that suffering exists, seemingly more enjoyable options are chosen, like going shopping, watching a movie, etc.

(2) Suffering has a specific cause. This cause has its origin in the conditioning of a specific mind. Every person associates some phenomena with pleasant feelings and others with unpleasant or neutral feelings. The conditioning of mind can be explored, understood, and changed.

(3) Suffering ceases. Nothing lasts forever, so every unpleasant phenomenon will pass away at some point. Sometimes there is the idea that one can "make the suffering go away", and sometimes there is the realization that this happens all by itself.

(4) There is a pattern behind the arising and passing away of feelings and thoughts that lead to suffering. This pattern can be understood and used to avoid suffering in the future. What this pattern looks like depends on the conditioning of the individual mind. Therefore, everyone has to explore the path for themselves. The process of exploration develops understanding.


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