“苦谛”是什么？

Next we win elaborate on the characteristics of each of the Four Noble Truths.

下面就四谛各自的行相做比较细节的说明：

The Noble Truth of Suffering

苦谛

This encompasses the non-sentient world of land, rivers, mountains and so forth, as well as the sentient world of all living beings in the six realms. In other words, all sentient beings and what their six consciousnesses (eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind) come in contact with are all included in the domain of the Noble Truth of Suffering. Because we are in constant contact with both the sentient and the non-sentient world, suffering manifests around us all the time. We ourselves are also part of it. Even so, people have hardly known correctly the nature of suffering, which in turn leads to much distress. It is therefore so important to understand it well.

苦谛本身，包括外面山河大地的器世界，与六道众生的有情世界。也就是说，六道有情众生，以及从眼、耳、鼻、舌、身、意六识所接触到的所有现象，都属于苦谛的范畴。因为经常接触到，所以苦谛离我们最近，人的自身也包含在苦谛中。虽说离得最近，但凡夫对苦谛却从来没有准确地认识。由于缺乏认识，就导致了很多痛苦。所以，认识苦谛是至关重要的。

Why do the four characteristics—impermanence, suffering, not-self and emptiness—have profound impact on liberation from samsara? Because all negative karma such as killing, stealing and sexual misconduct that one commits out of greed，hatred and delusion result from not having the right understanding of these four characteristics.

苦谛的四种行相：无常、痛苦、无我、空性，为什么会对解脱轮回有深远的影响呢？因为，平时我们因贪嗔痴所造的杀、盗、淫等罪业，都是因为对这四种行相没有正知正见而造成的。