The Buddha expounded the 84,000 tenets with the intention to work with the 84,000 varieties of disturbing emotions that we generate. Because the afflictions are innumerable and cannot be expressed in real numbers, the number 84,000 is used to describe the countless types of sentient beings’ afflictions. The antidotes to subdue the mind that entertains the disturbing emotions are included in the three turnings of the Wheel of the Dharma.

In the first turning of the Wheel of the Dharma, Buddha taught the Four Noble Truths: (1) the truth of suffering, (2) the truth of the origin of suffering, (3) the truth of the cessation of suffering, and (4) the truth of the path that leads to cessation.

We can understand these four truths in this way: the cause and effect of samsara (origin of suffering and suffering itself), and the cause and effect of nirvana (the path that leads to cessation and cessation itself).

Samsara is caused by “the origin of suffering, ignorance”, self-grasping and desire, which again creates the five afflictive emotions, anger, pride, jealousy, attachment and ignorance. These afflictive emotions lead to Samsara.

Nirvana, or enlightenment, refers the state of liberation from suffering as well as to the cessation of its causes, thus is the true and ultimate happiness.

~An excerpt from Rinpoche´s book “Crystal Clear Mind”