Buddhism

Buddhism

Buddhism is a religion practiced all over the world today by some 300 million people. It orginated around 2,500 years ago when the Buddha, Siddhartha Gotama, was enlightened, or awakened, at the age of thrity-five. To it's practioners Buddhism is more than simply a philosophy or religion but it becomes a way of life. In a nutshell, the goals of those who live a Buddhist life are to lead a moral life, be aware of thoughts and actions and mindful, and develop understanding and wisdom.
The Buddha was Siddhartha Gotama who was born into a royal family in what was called Lumbini (now Nepal) in 563 BC. When he was twenty-nine he realised that he did not find happiness in luxury and wealth and began to explore the teachings of different religions and philosophies. His purpose was to find the key to human happiness. It took him six years of meditation and study but he felt had found the "middle path" and been enlightened. After that he spent his life teaching the principals of Buddhism, called the Dhamma or Truth. He died at the age of eighty. Buddha was NOT a god, he was only a man who taught a path to enlightenment.

    After his enlightenment, the first lesson Buddha taught were the Four Nobel Truths:
I. Life is dukkha (suffering). Life includes pain, getting old, disease, and ultimately death. Other dukkha we endure in life are fear, embarrassment, disappointment, anger, loneliness, and frustration. This cannot be denied and it is realistic rather than pessimistic.
II. The cause of dukkha is desire. Suffering (dukkha) is caused by aversion and craving. If we expect other people to conform to your expectation, we will suffer, etc. Getting what you want does on guarantee happiness. Wanting deprives us of happiness. A lifetime of wanting and craving, especially craving to continue to exist, creates a powerful energy which causes the individual to be born. Craving leads to physical suffering because it causes us to be reborn.
III. Cessation of desire brings release from dukkha. Suffering can be overcome and happiness can be attained; true happiness and contentment are possible. If we give up useless craving and learn to live each day at a time without dwelling on the past or imagining the future we can become free and happy. Then we will have more time and energy to help others. This is Nirvana.
IV. Desire can be conquered through adherance to the Eightfold Path. This means that the Noble Eightfold Path is the path which leads to the end of suffering.

The Noble Eightfold Path is the Buddha's idea for the release from attachments and ultimately the cessation of suffering:
1. Right Understanding
2. Right Thought
3. Right Speech
4. Right Actions
5. Right Livelihood
6. Right Effort
7. Right Mindfulness
8. Right Contemplation
     These steps lead one to be moral, focus the mind on being fully aware of our actions and thoughts, and developing wisdom by understanding the Four Nobel Truths and developing compassion for others.

The Five Precepts of Buddhism are the moral code. They are:
I. Do not harm other beings.
II. Do not lie or speak falsely.
III. Do not steal or take that which is not freely given.
IV. Do not engage in sexual misconduct.
V. Refrain from intoxicants that cloud the mind.

Karma is the law that every cause has an effect; all of our actions have results. This law explains many things. It underlines the importance of all individuals being responsible for their past and present actions. The karmic effect of our actions can be determined by first looking at the intention behind the action, then the effects of the action to oneself, and finally, the effect of the action on others.
In Buddhism wisdom is important. Buddhism teaches wisdom should be developed with compassion. You must walk the middle ground between being too goodhearted and a fool and attaining knowledge without emotion. The middle path will develop both. The highest wisdom is seeing that in reality, all phenomena are incomplete, impermant, and does not constitue a fixed entity. It is not believeing what we are told but experincing and understanding truth and reality. Wisdom requres an objective, unbigoted, open mind.
Compassion is also important. This includes the qualities for readiness to give comfort, concern, caring, sympathy, and sharing. We can really understand others, when we can really understand ourselves through wisdom.

     In Buddhism, there are beings known as Arahants or Arhats and Bodhisttvas. An Arahant is a being who has overcome all desires. When an Arahant dies, he/she will no longer be reborn because they have achieved Nirvana.
     To reach Nirvana, one must follow the Eight-Fold Path. This means to believe right, desire right, think right, live right, do the right efforts, think the right thoughts, behave right, and to do the right meditation.
     There are different Bohisattvas, most Buddhist sects and cultures have a favourite. A popular figure in Chinese Buddhism is Guan Yin, the Bodhisattva of Compassion. Manjushri is the Bodhisattva of Wisdom. Traditional Buddhists believe that calling on the aid of a Bodhisattva will bring help in a time of need. It's also believed that since these beings are enlightened, they transcend the normal boundaries of human existance, can be either or no gender, can be in different places at once, and can take different forms at will.
     According to Buddha, life is a long suffering. The suffering is caused by passions people desire to accomplish. The more one desires the less he accomplishes and the more he suffers. People who do not accomplish their desirable passions in ther lives will be reborn to this life circle which is full of suffering and so will distant themselves from Nirvana. In Buddhism there is no god, but many Buddhists keep images of Buddha. Buddha is seen as the fourth prophet of the religion and is given thanks for his teaching. He is respected, but not worshiped.

     In Buddhism there are two main doctrines, Hinayana and Mahayana. Mahayana Buddhist believe that the right path of a follower will lead to the redemption of all human beings. The Hinayana believe that each person is responsible for his/her own fate. There are also other Buddhist beliefes like Zen Buddhism (origniated in Japan), and Tibetian Hindu Tantric Buddhism. Zen Buddhism is a combination of Buddhism as it arrived from India to Japan and the original Japanese beliefes. The Hindu Tantric Buddhism is a mixture of Indian Buddhims and the original Tibetian beliefs which existed in Tibet before the arrival of Buddhism. Among these Tibetian beliefes are tantras, magic, and ghosts.

     Buddhism doesn't indulge in metaphysical speculation, has no theology, and no worship of a deity. This is a very straightforward look at the human condition. Everything the Buddha taught was based on his own observation of the way things are and everything he taught can be verified by our own observation of the way things are.
    Taking an honest look at life will show use that it is marked with pain and frustration. Also, everything is marked by inpermanence. The world is always changing. Pain, impermanence, and egolessness are called the three marks of existence.
    Egolessness can be confusing to some. In the Buddhist sense, ego is NOT th ego which Freud speaks of. The Buddhist ego is a collection of mental events classified into five categories (the Five Skandhas) which are refered to as heaps or bundles. At the beginning, things were find but there came some point where a loss of confidence was experinced which caused a primordial panic producing confusion about what was happening. Instead of acknowledgeing this loss of confidence there was an identification with confusion and panic. This was when Ego began to form and is known as the first skandha (the skandha of form).
    After the identification with confusion, ego expolores how it feels about the formation of this experince. The way we feel about the experince is called the skandha of form, what we try to do about it is the skandha of perception or impluse. If we like the experince we try to draw it in. If we dislike the experince, we try to destroy it or push it away. If we feel neurtral then we simply ignore it. Then we attempt to label the experince. If it can be put into a category, we can better manipulate it. This is the skanda of concept. In the last step of the birth of ego, ego begins to throw emotions and thoughts around. This makes ego feel real and soild. the throwing around of these things is samsara (literally translated: "to whirl about"). This motion is the skandha of consiousness. The way the ego feels about its general situation is the skanda of feeling and will determind which of the six relams of existience it creates for itself.
The Six Realms
     If ego likes the situation, it will being in come up with all sorts of ways to possess it. A craving to consume the situation will come about and we will long to satisfy the craving. If we do, a ghost of that craving carries over and we look for something else to consume. This is a habitual pattern of being consumer oriented. This realm is the hungry ghost realm where we make an occupation of craving. We will never find satisfaction in this realm.
      There is also the animal realm. This is where we find security by making certain that everything is predictable. Thoughts of new possiblities frighten us and we scorn those who suggest anything innovative. This is a realm characterised by ignorance; we put on blinders and only looks straight ahead.
     Another realms is the hell realm which is charactereisd by acute agression. When we build a wall of anger between ourselves and out experince. We are irritated by everything, even the most innocent statements. The heat of our own anger is reflected back on us and sends us into a frenzy to escape from our torture, which causes us to to fight even hearder and become angrire. This builds on itself until we don't know if we're fighting with someone else or our self. We are too busy fighting to find an alternative to fighting.
    These three realms are the lower realms. One of the three higher realms is caleld the jealous god realm. This is a pattern or existance characterised by paranoia. Always concered with "making it" and all things are seen from a competitive point of view. We are always scoring points and preventing others from scoring on us. We never trust, and when we are heped we attempt to find their motivation. If we aren't helped they are uncooperative and we will get even later.
      Eventualy, we may learn about spirituality. Learn meditation techniques, and make our minds peaceful. When everything sparkles in light and love we become godlike beings. Then we become proud and enter into blissful states of existance. However, we ignore everything that does not conform to our godhood. Then we begin to doubt and fall back into the lower realms. Eventually we work our way up again only to fall down. At some point we try to find another way to deal with the world and enter the human realm. It is in this realm that liberation from the six states of existence is possible. This is the realm characterised by inquisitiveness and doubt and a longing for something better.
Nirvana
While many people think Nirvana is an eastern version of heaven, or a early 1990s rock band, it means "cessation." It is the cessation of passion, ignorance, and aggression; the cessation of the struggle to prove our existence to the world, to surive. When we realise we do not need to struggle to survive, that we have already survived.