The 3rd truth: The truth of the cessation of suffering

What causes the suffering in Samsara? It is the defilements brought by our discursive thoughts, caused by ignorance, which lead to the committing of negative karma by body speech and mind. Away from such defilements, with the attainment of wisdom which dispels the ignorance, we reach the state of Nirvana ("Nir" meaning without or free from, and "Vana" meaning forest), free from the forest of defilements.

Without these defilements we reach a peaceful stage of permanent happiness. This is the stage that can be attained by Arhatship and Pratyeka Buddhas, a state they reach by rejecting Nirvana and seeking for permanent peace. This is what Buddha expounded in the first turning of the wheel of Dharma.

There is however a higher state of Nirvana, where we neither reject nor seek the two extremes of abject suffering and ultimate bliss. That is the middle way, to remain completely non-dualistic. That is the state of Buddha and the state that Bodhisattvas train towards.

Arhats and Pratyeka Buddhas seek the reversal of the 12 interdependent links of origination, from the ending of birth and dying to the ending of ignorance.

Bodhisattvas strive for the understanding that there is no birth and dying to no ignorance and also no ending of birth and dying to no ending of ignorance.

As the ultimate truth, commonly known as "emptiness" in English, is actually inexpressible, we can only attempt to describe it by expressing what it is not. This is what is expounded in the second turning of the wheel of Dharma, for the Mahayana followers who are training as Bodhisattvas.

In brief, there is no real inherent existence in any material objects in this world, there is not even a real inherent existence to our thoughts. There is no birth and no ending to all these, they are not real.

So is everything unreal and non-existent? In the third turning of the wheel of the Dharma, Buddha points out there is but the One thing which is completely pure, permanent and actually existent, that is the Buddha Nature, the Tathagatagarbha.

Once we discover this Buddha Nature, which is inherent in all of us, we become enlightened.