The Four Noble Truths

In July 1996, for the first time in the West, His Holiness the Dalai Lama gave two exclusive days of teaching in London on The Four Noble Truths – the heart of the Buddha’s teachings.

The Four Noble Truths – the truth of suffering, the truth of the origin of suffering, the truth of the cessation of suffering and the truth of the path leading to this cessation – was the first sermon the Buddha gave after he was enlightened. As well as elucidating these teachings, His Holiness the Dalai Lama also explains the relationship between relative and absolute compassion.

“Whenever I have been given the opportunity to introduce Buddhism I always make it a point to explain Buddhism in terms of two principles. One is the development of a philosophical viewpoint based on the understanding of the interdependent nature of reality. And the second principle is that of non-violence which is the actual action of a Buddhist practitioner and which derives from that view of the interdependent nature of reality.” – His Holiness the Dalai Lama