The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching summary

According to the Buddha, denying our suffering is like carrying an impossibly heavy burden. Suffering comes in many forms, from eating food that isn’t nourishing to engaging in work that harms others. Because it’s painful, most people try to escape it. But this isn’t actually possible – our pain is part of us.

Healing is impossible unless you choose to embrace your pain. Instead of viewing it as something to run away from, see it as a Holy Truth – a pathway to growth and freedom. Take your suffering into your arms, the way a mother gently picks up a crying baby. Only then can you start identifying the nature of your pain.

In his teachings, the Buddha told the story of a young couple crossing a desert with their two-year-old son. Long before their journey was over, they ran out of food. The couple realized that the only way they could survive was to kill their son and ration his flesh for the rest of the journey. So that’s what they did. But every time they ate their son’s body, their suffering increased, and they wept.

While this example is extreme, many of us are like that couple. We constantly feed our suffering. This happens through our ingestion of toxins. These toxins may not always be obvious to us, so we must pay attention to everything we consume – and evaluate whether it’s causing us pain.

Think back to when you were a child. Hopefully, you enjoyed the blessings of a strong, healthy body. But you probably didn’t appreciate your well-being until you had an accident or got sick. You may only have recognized the wonder of health once that health was no longer available.

The Third Noble Truth helps us access well-being by valuing what we have. Most people forget to treasure a lack of suffering until suffering itself arrives. But by practicing mindfulness, you can become grateful for your well-being – and this will increase your happiness.

In 1966, Thich Nhat Hanh attended a peace rally in Philadelphia. A reporter asked him whether he was from North Vietnam, which supported communism, or South Vietnam, which was pro-American. Nhat Hanh replied that he was from the center. He wanted the reporter to see beyond the labels we impose on others and engage with the reality of the moment.

To walk the Noble Eightfold Path, you must begin by practicing Right View. In this practice, you acknowledge that transformation is possible and arises from understanding suffering. But Right View doesn’t end there. It asks you to examine your perceptions constantly; after all, how you perceive things influences what you believe is true. 

Imagine you’re a smoker. You’re probably already aware that smoking harms you. But mindfulness can help you explore the impact of smoking far beyond only yourself. By thinking deeply about your habit, you’ll see how it affects your family and those you live with. It even has ramifications for the broader community. Understanding this can be enough to inspire you to quit. In this way, mindfulness enables transformation.

Right Mindfulness sits at the very core of the Buddha’s teachings, uniting all elements of the Noble Eightfold Path. Practicing it means lovingly finding opportunities throughout each day to focus on the current moment. This makes you fully present. And being fully present gives rise to healing joy.

A woman once asked Thich Nhat Hanh why she should stop drinking alcohol. She’d been drinking two glasses of wine a week for 20 years without causing herself any harm; did she really need to quit? Nhat Hanh replied that while she may not be susceptible to alcoholism, there was no way of knowing that her children weren’t. In giving up alcohol, she’d help her children and, by extension, society.

Right Action – the next practice in the Noble Eightfold Path – is grounded in a reverence for all life. That includes you, other people, plants, animals, and even minerals. This reverence prevents you from harming and killing, or supporting those who kill. Every time you hurt someone or the world, you hurt yourself. So, to avoid this cycle of damage, you must practice nonviolence.

There once was a monk in Tang Dynasty China who conscientiously meditated day and night. He was proud that he practiced more than the other monks, believing that by sitting all day, he’d become a Buddha. But despite all his efforts, he didn’t find the enlightenment he sought.

Right Diligence is an energy that helps us put the Noble Eightfold Path into action. Like the Chinese monk, you might think you’re being diligent in your practice – but if your diligence isn’t based on Right View, then you’re not being diligent in the right way. So how do you know whether you’re practicing Right Diligence? Well, there will be a sense of ease in your actions – and they will bring you joy.