The Buddha taught the Four Noble Truths, according to legend, soon after his awakening experience, providing core tenets for Buddhist practitioners worldwide. The first: life is suffering. The second: source of this suffering is craving and the ego's attachment to that craving. The third: this suffering can cease. The fourth: the way to achieve this cessation is through living the Eightfold Path. The Path consists of wisdom components (Right Understanding and Right Thought), moral components (Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood), and meditation components (Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration). The Five Precepts of Buddhism are rules that help support the right action and conduct by illustrating what not to do.

But what do these Truths (Four Noble) and methods (Eightfold Path and five precepts) mean? How might one or several aspects of the Four Noble Truths, Eightfold Path, or the Five Precepts be relevant to your life?

1: Explain your understanding of the ideas listed above. How might you inject these ideas into your own life? Do the five precepts remind you of similar religious codes of conduct? How would you begin applying some of these ideas to your life and understanding of yourself? Give concrete examples of how you would do this and consider the difficulty you may encounter while trying to make changes as you apply some of the ideas in the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path, and the Five Precepts.