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The First Truth that Transforms us

In the West the term is "The First Noble Truth" but apparently that's a typically bad translation from the 19th century. The literal meaning is the first of the truths that ennoble you. But I don't like the word ennoble, as it too sounds archaic.

Buddhism is, if anything, about transforming our lives from unsatisfactory to happy, so I think my choice of the word "transforms" fits the teaching of the Buddha.

This first truth concerns human dissatisfaction. Put another way it is about humans' inability to feel mentally settled, at peace, stable. We are easily upset, annoyed, irritated, frustrated, and very often over trivial things. The phrase "the straw that breaks the camel's back" is such a good one. A series of tiny little things that annoy us seems to build up inside us until we emotionally explode or implode. Yet each thing on its own probably wasn't worth even of a negative response at all.

Of course there are much worse things that happen in our mental life: chronic anxiety, clinical depression, debilitating grief, suicidal thoughts, deep-seated fears. And there are terrible things that affect people physically: being attacked, injuring yourself, torture, and so on. But I think the Buddha was primarily referring to the everyday negative reactions we have, and the unhappiness they cause us, and often, those around us.

His point in start with this realistic condition was to get us to acknowledge it as a fundamental problem in our lives. His second truth points to the root causes of this unhelpful state.

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