The Buddha’s most important teaching is called the Four Noble Truths.  This was the main part of the first sermon that he preached after his enlightenment.  In his sermon, he told the people who were listening about the cause of suffering and the way to overcome it.  He said that when people really understood the Four Noble Truths they would be able to change their lives.

No-one can escape dukkha because it is the result of kamma from their previous lives.  Every life has something wrong with it.  Nobody is perfect until they reach enlightenment.  So being reborn means that people always suffer because of their previous lives.

Everybody is basically selfish.  We all tend to think about ourselves more than others.  We are always more concerned with what we think than with what other people think.  This selfishness is often a cause of suffering in this world.  The Buddha said that even being reborn is really selfish.  People should try to break out of the rebirth cycle.

When you no longer want anything – when you can see beyond yourself, you can leave the suffering behind.  A Buddhist believes that you can only do this by breaking out of the rebirth cycle.  This freedom is Nibbana.

The Noble Eightfold Path is the way of living that the Buddha discovered led to Nibbana.  He said that it is as if people are living in muddy ground.  They need helping out of it, but this help can only be given by people who are standing on firm ground.  The Noble Eightfold Path is a way of helping people by showing them how they should live.  It is called the Noble Eightfold Path because there are eight ‘steps’ that people should follow.