Therefore, Siddhartha lead a luxurious and peaceful life, where hardship and suffering were unknown to him. As time went by, Siddhartha became more and more curious about life outside the palace and one day, he decided to step out of the palace walls and discover what the outside world was made of. After his decision was made, the young prince went outside and encountered for the first time a sick, an old person, a funeral ceremony as well as a monk that renounced all the pleasures of life. He was horrified by what he just saw, and what horrified him the most was the sight of suffering. He then went on a journey to figure out, first, the elements that cause suffering in people's life and then the solutions that would help a person overcome this suffering in one's life [ CITATION Boe99 l 1036 ]. This is especially important because as discussed later, all the teachings of Buddha, which constitute the foundations of Buddhism as a faith system, originate from this initial quest. After some unfruitful attempts, he sat down under a tree and promised himself to not move from there until he figures out the specific answers to his questions. After several days spent under the tree, he finally found the answer to the question of suffering and earned the title of Buddha, which means the one "who has awoken". Finally, he chose to transmit the knowledge he acquired during these long days to people willing to hear his teachings[ CITATION Boe99 l 1036 ].
The teachings of Buddha are summarized in what is called the, "four noble truths." They are four ordered statements that express the foundations of the Buddhist religion. The first one, called Dukkha, meaning, "suffering," in Sanskrit, states the initial problem which is that suffering is intrinsically linked to human life (Burke, pp. 59-60). This does not mean that there is no joy or such thing as pleasure in life, neither that physical pain is constantly experienced.