The Sutra On The Eight Realizations Of The Great Beings( Commentary by Thich Nhat Hanh)

The Sūtra on the Eight Realizations of Great Beings was translated by the Persian monk An Shigao, between the 2nd Jianhe year and the 3rd Jianning year (148-170), during the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220) in China. The title of this sūtra refers to the eight realizations to which the buddhas and bodhisattvas have awakened. If one is able to attain these eight realizations, the person is considered a “great being” that is to say, either a buddha or bodhisattva.  It is rich in content and compact in organization.
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Eight Enlightenments
The First Realization is the awareness that the world is impermanent. 
The  Second  Realization  is  the  awareness  that  more desire brings more  suffering.
The Third Realization is that the human mind is always searching for possessions  and never feels fulfilled.
The Fourth Realization is the awareness of the extent to which laziness is an obstacle to practice
The Fifth Realization is the awareness that ignorance is the cause of the endless round of birth and death.
The Sixth Realization is the awareness that poverty cre- ates hatred and anger, which creates a vicious cycle of neg- ative thoughts and activity.
The  Seventh Realization is that the five  categories  of desire lead to difficulties.
The Eighth Realization is the awareness that the fire of birth and death is raging, causing endless suffering every- where.