Beginning with the leading cause of ignorance, and ending with aging and death, the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination illustrate the cause of Samsara. By understanding what we actually are and the mental process that leads to suffering, we can break the cycle of ignorance and achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings.
The Buddha’s first teaching after his Enlightenment centered on the Four Noble Truths, which is the foundation of Buddhism. The truths are: the truth of suffering, the truth of the cause of suffering, the truth of cessation, and the truth of the path that frees us from suffering.
The course covers a series of subjects beginning with colors and shapes then proceeding to examine Buddhist criteria for existence. How existing phenomena may be categorized into causes and effects, generalities and instances, contradiction and relation, defining characteristics and objects defined, negative and positive phenomena and more.