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The Cascading Four Noble Truths

by Eric Van Horn

Copyright © 2014 Eric K. Van Horn

for free distribution

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This interactive outline uses the Four Noble Truths as an organizing principle for the main teachings of the Buddha. Click on the arrows to expand the subordinate levels of the outline.

  1. Down arrow First Noble Truth - Dukkha
  2. Down arrow Second Noble Truth - the Cause of Dukkha
  3. Down arrow Third Noble Truth - the Cessation of Dukkha
  4. Down arrow Fourth Noble Truth - the Eightfold Noble Path
    1. arrow Right view
      1. arrow The wholesome and the unwholesome
        1. arrow The unwholesome
          1. arrow Unwholesome acts
            1. Killing living beings
            2. Taking what is not given
            3. Misconduct in sensual pleasures
            4. False speech
            5. Malicious speech
            6. Harsh speech
            7. Gossip
            8. Covetousness
            9. Ill will
            10. Wrong view
          2. arrow Unwholesome roots
            1. Greed
            2. Hate
            3. Delusion
        2. arrow The wholesome
          1. arrow Wholesome acts
            1. Abstention from killing living beings
            2. Abstention from taking what is not given
            3. Abstention from misconduct in sensual pleasures
            4. Abstention from false speech
            5. Abstention from malicious speech
            6. Abstention from harsh speech
            7. Abstention from gossip
            8. Abstention from covetousness
            9. Abstention from ill will
            10. Abstention from wrong view
          2. arrow Wholesome roots
            1. Non-greed
            2. Non-hate
            3. Non-delusion
      2. arrow Nutriment, origin, cessation, the way leading to cessation
        1. Physical food
        2. Contact
        3. Mental volition
        4. Consciousness
      3. arrow(Four Noble Truths)
      4. arrow Aging, death, origin, cessation, and the way leading to cessation
      5. arrow Taints
        1. Sense desire
        2. Being
        3. Ignorance
      6. arrow Causation (dependent origination/co-arising)
        1. arrow Ignorance
        2. arrow Fabrication
          1. Bodily
          2. Verbal
          3. Mental
        3. arrow Consciousness
        4. arrow Name and form
          1. Feeling
          2. Perception
          3. Intention
          4. Contact
          5. Attention
          6. Earth
          7. Air
          8. Fire
          9. Water
        5. arrow Six senses
        6. arrow Contact
        7. arrow Feeling
        8. arrow Craving
          1. Sense
          2. Becoming
          3. Non-becoming
        9. arrow Clinging
          1. Sense
          2. View
          3. Habit
          4. Doctrine of self
        10. arrow Becoming
          1. Sense
          2. Form
          3. Formless
        11. arrow Birth
        12. arrow Aging and death
      7. arrow Three marks of conditioned existence
        1. Impermanence (anicca)
        2. Not-self (anatta)
        3. Un-satisfactoriness (dukkha)
    2. arrow Right intention
    3. arrow Right livelihood
    4. arrow Right action
    5. arrow Right speech
    6. arrow Right energy
    7. arrow Right mindfulness
      1. arrow Brahma viharas (noble abidings)
        1. Love
        2. compassion
        3. sympathetic joy
        4. equanimity
      2. arrow The four foundations of mindfulness
        1. arrow The body
          1. arrow Mindfulness of breathing
            1. Understanding the long breath
            2. Understanding the short breath
            3. Experiencing the whole body
            4. Calming the whole body
          2. arrow The modes of deportment
            1. Going (walking)
            2. Standing
            3. Sitting
            4. Lying down
          3. arrow The four (?) kinds of clear comprehension
            1. Clear comprehension and going forwards and backwards
            2. Clear comprehension in looking straight on and in looking away from the front
            3. Clear comprehension in the bending and stretching of limbs
            4. Clear comprehension in wearing shoulder-cloak and so forth
            5. Clear comprehension in the partaking of food and drink
            6. Clear comprehension in cleansing the body
            7. Clear comprehension of walking and so forth
          4. arrow Reflection on the repulsiveness of the body (32 body parts)
            1. arrow Earth element group
              1. Head hair
              2. Body hair
              3. Nails
              4. Teeth
              5. Skin
              6. Flesh
              7. Sinew
              8. Bones
              9. Marrow
              10. Kidney
              11. Heart
              12. Liver
              13. Membrane
              14. Spleen
              15. Lungs
              16. Intestine
              17. Mesentary
              18. Gorge
              19. Feces
              20. Brain
            2. arrow Water element group
              1. Bile
              2. Phlegm
              3. Pus
              4. Blood
              5. Sweat
              6. Fat
              7. Tears
              8. Grease
              9. Saliva
              10. Mucus
              11. Synovia
              12. Urine
          5. arrow The four elements
            1. Earth
            2. Air
            3. Fire
            4. Water
          6. arrow Cemetery contemplations
            1. A body dead one, two, or three days
            2. Whilst it is being eaten by crows
            3. A skeleton together with some flesh and blood held together by the tendons
            4. A blood smeared skeleton without flesh but held in by the tendons
            5. A skeleton held in by the tendons but without flesh and not besmeared with blood
            6. Bones gone loose, scattered in all directions
            7. Bones white in color like a conch
            8. Bones more than a year old heaped together
            9. Bones gone rotten and become dust
        2. arrow Feelings (vedana)
          1. Pleasant worldly feeling
          2. Painful worldly feeling
          3. Neither pleasant nor painful worldly feeling
          4. Pleasant unworldly feeling
          5. Painful unworldly feeling
          6. Neither pleasant nor painful unworldly feeling
        3. arrow Mind
          1. Affected by lust
          2. Affected by hatred
          3. Affected by delusion
          4. Contracted mind
          5. Distracted mind
          6. Exhalted mind
          7. Surpassed mind
          8. Unsurpassed mind
          9. Concentrated mind
          10. Unconcentrated mind
          11. Liberated mind
          12. Arising
          13. Passing away
          14. Both arising and passing away
        4. arrow Mental phenomena
          1. arrow Five hindrances
            1. Sense desire
            2. Ill will
            3. Sloth and torpor
            4. Restlessness
            5. Doubt
          2. arrow Five aggregates
            1. Form
            2. Feeling
            3. Perception
            4. Mental formations
            5. Consciousness
          3. arrow Six sense basis
            1. Eye
            2. Nose
            3. Ear
            4. Tongue
            5. Body
            6. Mind
          4. arrow Seven factors of awakening
            1. Mindfulness
            2. Investigation
            3. Energy
            4. Rapture
            5. Tranquility
            6. Concentration
            7. Equanimity
          5. (Four Noble truths)
      3. arrow Mindfulness of breathing
        1. arrow The body
          1. Breathing long
          2. Breathing short
          3. Experiencing the whole body
          4. Calming the whole body
        2. arrow Feelings
          1. Experiencing rapture
          2. Experiencing pleasure
          3. Sensitive to mental processes
          4. Calming mental processes
        3. arrow Mind
          1. Sensitive to the mind
          2. Gladdening the mind
          3. Steadying the mind
          4. Liberating the mind
        4. arrow Mental phenomena
          1. Focusing on impermanence
          2. Focusing on fading away
          3. Focusing on cessation
          4. Focusing on relinquishment
    8. arrow Right concentration
      1. arrow First jhana
        1. Applied thought
        2. Sustained thought
        3. Rapture
        4. Pleasure
      2. arrow Second jhana
        1. Self-confidence
        2. Singleness (unification) of mind
        3. Rapture
        4. Pleasure
      3. arrow Third jhana
        1. Pleasure
        2. Equanimity
      4. arrow Fourth jhana
        1. Equanimity

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