THE FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS

The First Noble Truth: be aware that life brings with it many forms of dissatisfaction, frustration, irritation, and many levels of suffering.

The Second Noble Truth: recognise that these different types of suffering are produced by your mind, even if the apparent cause is external. The mind reacts negatively to life experiences that we didn’t want, and does the same when we don’t get things we were hoping for. The Buddha called these wants and dislikes “thirsts”. It is thirsts that cause unhappy states of mind.

The Third Noble Truth: we can learn to cultivate skills that stop our thirsts and thus end our various forms of suffering.

The Fourth Noble Truth: to cultivate these skills we have to follow a path that contains eight components, as follows.

Right Mindfulness: mindfulness is a three-pronged skill with regards to our state or frame of mind. Notice. Pause. Change. Although taught around the world today mindfulness is often misunderstood by its teachers and therefore also by its students, so it is important to learn mindfulness the way it was originally taught, that is, within the wider context we are summarising here. One could say that Right Mindfulness is the development of the ability to notice unhealthy thoughts and feelings, then shift the mind away from these to much wiser ones.

Right Concentration or Focus: if mindfulness is taking the mind away from unhelpful states, then Right Concentration or Focus is its partner. We try to develop the ability to keep our mind on positive or useful states of mind or where we want our mind to be, rather than constantly being distracted, say by emails, passing moods, daydreams, etc. 

To find out more about our unique programme and how it can help you and your family business, please follow this link and download our brochure.

Alternatively, you can email us [email protected]

Copyright 2025 Russ Haworth and Martin Stepek

THE FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS

The First Noble Truth: be aware that life brings with it many forms of dissatisfaction, frustration, irritation, and many levels of suffering.

The Second Noble Truth: recognise that these different types of suffering are produced by your mind, even if the apparent cause is external. The mind reacts negatively to life experiences that we didn’t want, and does the same when we don’t get things we were hoping for. The Buddha called these wants and dislikes “thirsts”. It is thirsts that cause unhappy states of mind.

The Third Noble Truth: we can learn to cultivate skills that stop our thirsts and thus end our various forms of suffering.

The Fourth Noble Truth: to cultivate these skills we have to follow a path that contains eight components, as follows.

THE EIGHTFOLD PATH

As with the word Noble above, the Eightfold Path uses a word that needs a little clarification. Each of the eight paths starts with the word Right. In this case it does not mean right as opposed to immoral, so it is not judgemental. Nor does it mean correct as opposed to wrong. It is best thought of as skilful or wise.

The four previous “paths”, covered in previous episodes, relate directly to how we live our lives - our thoughts and feelings, our communication with others, our decisions, and our working life. The next three are the methods or disciplines to use to ensure we do in fact learn to manage our wayward minds.

Right Effort: changing our volatile, conditioned mind doesn’t happen overnight. It took us our entire lifetime to date to become who we are today, so reversing and changing our mindset takes time. Therefore we need to work at it with effort. Again, the word right means skilful. Skilful effort means we don;’t slacken off or lapse, but nor do we exhaust ourselves in too zealous an effort.

To find out more about our unique programme and how it can help you and your family business, please follow this link and download our brochure.

Alternatively, you can email us [email protected]

Copyright 2025 Russ Haworth and Martin Stepek

THE FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS

The First Noble Truth: be aware that life brings with it many forms of dissatisfaction, frustration, irritation, and many levels of suffering.

The Second Noble Truth: recognise that these different types of suffering are produced by your mind, even if the apparent cause is external. The mind reacts negatively to life experiences that we didn’t want, and does the same when we don’t get things we were hoping for. The Buddha called these wants and dislikes “thirsts”. It is thirsts that cause unhappy states of mind.

The Third Noble Truth: we can learn to cultivate skills that stop our thirsts and thus end our various forms of suffering.

The Fourth Noble Truth: to cultivate these skills we have to follow a path that contains eight components, as follows.

THE EIGHTFOLD PATH

As with the word Noble above, the Eightfold Path uses a word that needs a little clarification. Each of the eight paths starts with the word Right. In this case it does not mean right as opposed to immoral, so it is not judgemental. Nor does it mean correct as opposed to wrong. It is best thought of as skilful or wise.

Right Livelihood: this always astonishes me. 2500 years ago the Buddha was directly teaching rulers, employers, and employees how to work wisely. In particular he advised against doing work or careers which are inherently cruel or destructive, and if a person has no choice then they should make some amends by doing good in their spare time. This is what in recent years is now called CSR and ESG and “purpose-driven” but the Buddha taught it millennia ago and had a much stricter perspective than we have today.

To find out more about our unique programme and how it can help you and your family business, please follow this link and download our brochure.

Alternatively, you can email us [email protected]

Copyright 2025 Russ Haworth and Martin Stepek

THE FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS

The First Noble Truth: be aware that life brings with it many forms of dissatisfaction, frustration, irritation, and many levels of suffering.

The Second Noble Truth: recognise that these different types of suffering are produced by your mind, even if the apparent cause is external. The mind reacts negatively to life experiences that we didn’t want, and does the same when we don’t get things we were hoping for. The Buddha called these wants and dislikes “thirsts”. It is thirsts that cause unhappy states of mind.

The Third Noble Truth: we can learn to cultivate skills that stop our thirsts and thus end our various forms of suffering.

The Fourth Noble Truth: to cultivate these skills we have to follow a path that contains eight components, as follows.

THE EIGHTFOLD PATH

As with the word Noble above, the Eightfold Path uses a word that needs a little clarification. Each of the eight paths starts with the word Right. In this case it does not mean right as opposed to immoral, so it is not judgemental. Nor does it mean correct as opposed to wrong. It is best thought of as skilful or wise.

Right Actions: what we do should be skilful, positive, kindly, and considerate of all involved.

To find out more about our unique programme and how it can help you and your family business, please follow this link and download our brochure.

Alternatively, you can email us [email protected]

Copyright 2025 Russ Haworth and Martin Stepek

THE FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS

The First Noble Truth: be aware that life brings with it many forms of dissatisfaction, frustration, irritation, and many levels of suffering.

The Second Noble Truth: recognise that these different types of suffering are produced by your mind, even if the apparent cause is external. The mind reacts negatively to life experiences that we didn’t want, and does the same when we don’t get things we were hoping for. The Buddha called these wants and dislikes “thirsts”. It is thirsts that cause unhappy states of mind.

The Third Noble Truth: we can learn to cultivate skills that stop our thirsts and thus end our various forms of suffering.

The Fourth Noble Truth: to cultivate these skills we have to follow a path that contains eight components, as follows.

THE EIGHTFOLD PATH

As with the word Noble above, the Eightfold Path uses a word that needs a little clarification. Each of the eight paths starts with the word Right. In this case it does not mean right as opposed to immoral, so it is not judgemental. Nor does it mean correct as opposed to wrong. It is best thought of as skilful or wise.

Right Speech or Communications: we not only have to control and skilfully manage our thoughts and our intentions or goals; we also have to ensure that when we communicate these - whether by voice, email, on social media, or even body language - our words and gestures too are thoughtful, wise, and as constructive as possible.

To find out more about our unique programme and how it can help you and your family business, please follow this link and download our brochure.

Alternatively, you can email us [email protected]

Copyright 2025 Russ Haworth and Martin Stepek

As with the word Noble above, the Eightfold Path uses a word that needs a little clarification. Each of the eight paths starts with the word Right. In this case it does not mean right as opposed to immoral, so it is not judgemental. Nor does it mean correct as opposed to wrong. It is best thought of as skilful or wise.

Right Intentions or Thoughts: we need to be skilful and careful with our thoughts. If our automatic mind’s reactions rule our life we have a lot of suffering and poor judgements. We should try to manage and control our thoughts so they are wiser, more considerate and constructive.

To find out more about our unique programme and how it can help you and your family business, please follow this link and download our brochure.

Alternatively, you can email us [email protected]

Copyright 2025 Russ Haworth and Martin Stepek

The Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path are shorthand reminders of the Buddha’s core teachings on how to live a peaceful, fulfilling life. The formula was developed by his followers after his death as the Buddha left no written records of his teachings.

Note that although still in everyday use when referring to this subject the term Noble does not refer to aristocracy or any sort of superiority. It simply means truths that make you are better person.

The Fourth Noble Truth: to cultivate these skills we have to follow a path that contains eight components, as follows:

As with the word Noble above, the Eightfold Path uses a word that needs a little clarification. Each of the eight paths starts with the word Right. In this case it does not mean right as opposed to immoral, so it is not judgemental. Nor does it mean correct as opposed to wrong. It is best thought of as skilful or wise.

• Right Understanding
• Right Intentions or Thoughts
• Right Speech or Communication
• Right Actions
• Right Livelihood
• Right Effort
• Right Mindfulness
• Right Concentration or Focus

To find out more about our unique programme and how it can help you and your family business, please follow this link and download our brochure.

Alternatively, you can email us [email protected]

Copyright 2025 Russ Haworth and Martin Stepek

The Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path are shorthand reminders of the Buddha’s core teachings on how to live a peaceful, fulfilling life. The formula was developed by his followers after his death as the Buddha left no written records of his teachings.

Note that although still in everyday use when referring to this subject the term Noble does not refer to aristocracy or any sort of superiority. It simply means truths that make you are better person.

The Third Noble Truth: we can learn to cultivate skills that stop our thirsts and thus end our various forms of suffering.

To find out more about our unique programme and how it can help you and your family business, please follow this link and download our brochure.

Alternatively, you can email us [email protected]

Copyright 2025 Russ Haworth and Martin Stepek

The Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path are shorthand reminders of the Buddha’s core teachings on how to live a peaceful, fulfilling life. The formula was developed by his followers after his death as the Buddha left no written records of his teachings.

Note that although still in everyday use when referring to this subject the term Noble does not refer to aristocracy or any sort of superiority. It simply means truths that make you are better person.

The Second Noble Truth: recognise that these different types of suffering are produced by your mind, even if the apparent cause is external. The mind reacts negatively to life experiences that we didn’t want, and does the same when we don’t get things we were hoping for. The Buddha called these wants and dislikes “thirsts”. It is thirsts that cause unhappy states of mind.

To find out more about our unique programme and how it can help you and your family business, please follow this link and download our brochure.

Alternatively, you can email us [email protected]

Copyright 2025 Russ Haworth and Martin Stepek

The Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path are shorthand reminders of the Buddha’s core teachings on how to live a peaceful, fulfilling life. The formula was developed by his followers after his death as the Buddha left no written records of his teachings.

Note that although still in everyday use when referring to this subject the term Noble does not refer to aristocracy or any sort of superiority. It simply means truths that make you are better person.

In this episode we explore The First Noble Truth. This states that we should be aware that life brings with it many forms of dissatisfaction, frustration, irritation, and many levels of suffering.

On the face of it this may not seem too inspiring but in our conversation Martin and I explain why this is not the case.

To find out more about our unique programme and how it can help you and your family business, please follow this link and download our brochure.

Alternatively, you can email us [email protected]

Copyright 2025 Russ Haworth and Martin Stepek