What is Buddhism?

For more than 2,500 years, the religion we know today as Buddhism has guided many great civilizations, inspired refined cultural achievements and produced a vast body of profound teachings. Some of the wisest people to have walked the planet have been Buddhist monks and nuns. today, large numbers of men and women from divers back grounds throughout the world are following the teachings of the Buddha

The Buddha

The person who was to become the Buddha was born Siddhattha Gotama approximately 2,600 years ago as a prince of a small kingdom near what is now the Indian-Nepalese border. Although he was raised as a prince outside the palace walls Siddhattha was deeply moved by suffering bound up with a normal human life. He saw that old age, failing health and death inescapably touch the life of every living being, on one occasion he also saw a wandering renunciate, a person seeking a true solution to life's pain, and this then motivated Siddhattha to begin a spiritual quest.He became very adept at meditation under various teachers, and then took up ascetic practices.

A path of inquiry

there are no fixed beliefs that a person must adopt in order to be a Buddhist. n fact the Buddha warned against the dangers of blind faith and encouraged wise inquiry and tolerance.

Meditation

meditation refers to the the mental activity of sustaining clear awareness on one thing: and object, a perception, a concept, a process or a understanding. for example, one could pay attention to the process of breathing, a physical sensation, an external object, the emotion of loving kindness, the mental repetition os a meaningful word or the perception of impermanence. meditation can be done in any position. but the most common ones are sitting crosslegged or walking back and forth. as mindful awareness becomes increasing continuous, the dispersed and distracted energy of the mind becomes clearer and more focused. the act of sustaining awareness calms and soothes both the body snf the mind, while the focusing attention energizes and brightens the heart.

The Four Noble truths

The First Noble Truth

Suffering (Dukkha)

Suffering comes in many forms. Three obvious kinds of suffering correspond to the first three sights the Buddha saw on his first journey outside his palace: old age, sickness and death.

But according to the Buddha, the problem of suffering goes much deeper. Life is not ideal: it frequently fails to live up to our expectations.

Human beings are subject to desires and cravings, but even when we are able to satisfy these desires, the satisfaction is only temporary. Pleasure does not last; or if it does, it becomes monotonous.

Even when we are not suffering from outward causes like illness or bereavement, we are unfulfilled, unsatisfied. This is the truth of suffering.

The Second Noble Truth

Origin of suffering (Samudāya)

Our day-to-day troubles may seem to have easily identifiable causes: thirst, pain from an injury, sadness from the loss of a loved one. In the second of his Noble Truths, though, the Buddha claimed to have found the cause of all suffering - and it is much more deeply rooted than our immediate worries.

The Buddha taught that the root of all suffering is desire, tanhā. This comes in three forms, which he described as the Three Roots of Evil, or the Three Fires, or the Three Poisons.

The Third Noble Truth

Cessation of suffering (Nirodha)

The Buddha taught that the way to extinguish desire, which causes suffering, is to liberate oneself from attachment.

This is the third Noble Truth - the possibility of liberation.

The Buddha was a living example that this is possible in a human lifetime.

The Fourth Noble Truth

Path to the cessation of suffering (Magga)

The final Noble Truth is the Buddha's prescription for the end of suffering. This is a set of principles called the Eightfold Path.

The Eightfold Path is also called the Middle Way: it avoids both indulgence and severe asceticism, neither of which the Buddha had found helpful in his search for enlightenment.

The middle way

The Middle Way is a Buddhist term with rich connotations. Most simply, it implies a balanced approach to life and the regulation of one's impulses and behavior, close to Aristotle's idea of the "golden mean" whereby "every virtue is a mean between two extremes, each of which is a vice."

The Noble Eightfold Path

1. Right vision, or understanding: understanding that life always involves change and suffering; realising that following the Noble Eightfold Path is the way to overcome suffering and be really happy.
2. Right emotion: commiting oneself to wholeheartedly following the path.
3. Right speech: speaking in a positive and helpful way; speaking the truth.
4. Right action: living an ethical life acording to the precepts.
5. Right livelihood: doing work that doesn’t harm others and is helpful to them.
6. Right effort: thinking in a kindly and positive way.
7. Right mindfulness: being fully aware of oneself, other people, and the world around you.
8. Right meditation, or concentration: training the mind to be calm and positive in order to develop Wisdom.

Karma

1. Every action generates a force of energy that returns to us in like kind . . . what we sow is what we reap. And when we choose actions that bring happiness and success to others, the fruit of our karma is happiness and success.
2. Rebirth
3. The concept of past and future lives is intrinsic to the Buddhas teachings.The Buddha however, never praised believing in a doctrine merely out of blind faith. With advanced abilities in meditation it becomes possible to remember past lives, but until then rebirth remains a matter of reasoned reflection.
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