The first noble truth is the noble truth of suffering (dukkhaṃ ariyasaccaṃ).
In the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta the Buddha gave a list of things which are
suffering: birth, ageing, sickness, death, meeting with people and things that
are displeasing, separation from people and things that are pleasing, and not
to have one’s wish fulfilled. We can also add to this list sorrow, lamentation,
pain, grief and despair. But at the end of the list in the
Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta the Buddha said: “In short the five-aggregates
subject to clinging are suffering.”

So the truth of suffering is, in short, these five-aggregates subject to
clinging: the aggregate of materiality, feeling, perception, mental-formations,
and consciousness, subject to clinging. If we simplify them we can say that
they are mundane mental and physical phenomena (nāma-rūpa). They are the
truth of suffering because they have the nature of being subjected to
suffering.

The second noble truth is the noble truth of the cause of suffering (dukkha-samudayaṃ
ariyasaccaṃ). The Buddha traced the cause of suffering to craving that
leads to renewed existence or rebirth, that is accompanied by delight and lust,
that finds delight here and there in one existence or another. It is this
craving that compels and propels beings, at the time of death, to seek rebirth
and so be embroiled into yet another cycle of birth, aging, sickness, and
death, another cycle of suffering. And as long as craving is present the cycle
of suffering will go on and on from one birth to another, each birth marking
the beginning of another cycle of suffering.

The third noble truth is the noble truth of the cessation of suffering (dukkha-nirodhaṃ
ariyasaccaṃ). Here the Buddha gave us hope. Even though there is suffering
in the world there can also be an end to it. Suffering ceases, according to the
Buddha, when there is the complete fading away and cessation of its cause i.e.
craving.

Not only did the Buddha said that suffering can cease, he even gave us the way
of practice, the method to bring suffering to an end. This is the fourth noble
truth, the noble truth of the way that leads to the cessation of suffering (dukkha-nirodha-gāminī
paṭipadā ariyasaccaṃ). This is the Noble Eightfold Path consisting of right
view, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right
effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration.