The Four Noble Truths as a Point of Departure

On 17th January, Fo Guang Shan South Island’s fifth English Buddhism Terminology Class was held. Those who attended the class Venerable Juexi, Venerable Miaoyu and 13 other Temple volunteers and staff. English Social Education leader Shenghan Lim began the class by reviewing the previous week 4’s lesson to measure retention rates amongst the students. Terminology reviewed included the ‘Buddhist Sutra’, ‘Mantra’ and the ‘Five Precepts’.

This week, the focus was on the Four Noble Truths. They are: the Truth of suffering, the Truth of the cause of suffering, the Truth of the ending of suffering, and the Truth of the path leading to the ending of suffering. ‘Truth’ here means investigation and reality. The different types of sufferings within the categories of ‘two sufferings’, ‘three sufferings’ and ‘eight sufferings’ were introduced to the students.

The students were divided into two groups, where they actively engaged in group discussions and came up with examples for each of the ‘eight sufferings’. The group discussions not only promoted a better understanding of suffering, they also trained the students in responding to questions about suffering and motivated them to think.

At the end of the discussion, the students from both groups presented their examples to the rest of the class. Many of them employed real-life examples to illustrate each type of suffering. This class is an opportunity for students to gain a better understanding of Buddhism terminology and improve their English at the same time.