An Overview of Buddhism & Its Teachings

 

What is Buddhism & from where does it come? Who is the originator of this culture? What does it teach to the humanity? Is there any significance & implication of principles of Buddhism in our real life?

These are some of the few questions that you all might have come across at least once in your lifetime. Roughly most of you know that the Originator of Buddhism is “Siddhartha Gautama”, but what are the principles of Buddhism & a deep insight how these principles help in our real life.

What is Buddha?

Buddha comes from the Sanskrit root Budh – 'to wake' i.e., to be awakened. He is a person who has woken fully, as if from a deep sleep, to get that suffering, sort of a dream, is over.

The Buddha didn't teach that a God created the Universe. He pointed to an excellent Law or Dharma running through everything that exists. It is by living in accordance with this Law that true Wisdom and Compassion and hence freedom from suffering could also be achieved.

Origin & spread of Buddhism

Buddhism may be a faith that was founded by Siddhartha Gautama (“the Buddha”) quite 2,500 years ago in India. Buddhism is not bound by books it’s from within.

It teaches the inner soul of an individual what is right & what is wrong & shows them the path to inner peace & tranquility. Its practice has historically been most prominent in East and Southeast Asia, but its influence is growing within the West.

The Basic Teachings of Buddha which are core to Buddhism are:

• The Three Universal Truths
• The Four Noble Truths
• The Noble Eight-fold Path

1. The Three Signs of Being

Change: It points out the basic fact that everything in this world is impermanent. We ourselves are not the same people, either physically, emotionally or mentally that we were 10 yrs or 10 min ago.

Suffering: Buddhists do believe that happiness in life & their impermanence are on the same page & even in the most fortunate of lives there is suffering.

Law of Cause & effect: This is the general principle of karma. There is a reason for everything that happens. For every effect, there's a cause, whether we all know what it's or not.

Like Positive thoughts, words and actions create positive effects in the lives of individuals, leading to happiness & vice versa.

2. The Four Noble Truths

The Noble Truth of Suffering (Dukkha): As, human beings our desires & cravings are endless, the satisfaction is temporary. Suffering can take place in many forms. According to Buddha, three obvious sufferings that take place in human life are in form of old age, sickness and death.

Even once we aren't affected by outward causes like illness or bereavement, we are unfulfilled, unsatisfied. This is the truth of suffering. Some people that encounter this teaching may find it pessimistic. Buddhists find it neither optimistic nor pessimistic, but realistic.

The Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering (Samudaya): Our day-to-day troubles may seem to have easily identifiable causes like thirst, pain from an injury, sadness etc. The Buddha taught that the basis of all suffering is desire, tanha. This comes in three forms, which he described because the Three Roots of Evil, or the Three Fires, or the Three Poisons.

• Greed and desire: These 2 things can turn anyone into a different person as ‘greed’ ‘desire for having more’ is never ending & it makes the person to put in all efforts & achieve it either by hook or crook.

• Ignorance or delusion: We as humans keep on ignoring our instincts & surroundings which makes us probe to the worsen situation in future.

• Hatred and destructive urges: It makes person more vulnerable & take him/her on the wrong path just for sake of revenge from someone.

The Noble Truth of Cessation of Suffering (Nirodha): It means the “Possibility of Liberation.” Buddha taught that the way to extinguish desire, which causes suffering, is to liberate oneself from attachment. The Buddha was a living example that this is often possible during a human lifetime.

Nirvana (Extinguishing): it's a state of profound spiritual joy, without negative emotions and fears. Attaining nirvana is reaching enlightenment meaning extinguishing the three fires of greed, delusion and hatred.

Someone who has attained enlightenment is filled with compassion for all living things.

The Noble Truth of the Way (Magga): It is the Buddha's prescription for the end of suffering. This is a group of principles called the Eight-fold Path. In order to end suffering, you must follow the Eight-fold Path i.e., given below.

3. The Noble Eight-fold Path: It avoids both indulgence and severe asceticism, neither of which Buddha had found helpful in his look for enlightenment.

Right View: It’s the most important step in the beginning because if we cannot see the truth of the Four Noble Truths then we can't make any sort of beginning.

Right Thought: ‘Right' here means in accordance with the facts: with the way things are - which can vary from how a private would really like them to be.

Right Speech, Right Action & Right Livelihood: It involves moral restraint refraining from lying, stealing, committing violent acts, and earning one's living in a way harmful to others.

Moral restraint not only helps cause general social harmony but also helps us control and diminish the sense of 'I'.

Right Effort: It is important because 'I' thrives on idleness and wrong effort, so effort must be appropriate for the diminution of ‘I’.

Right Mindfulness & Right Concentration: They represent the first stage toward liberation from suffering.

Conclusion

Buddhist practice may be a process of self-perfection that needs painstaking efforts to accumulate positive notions while striving to extinguish the consequences of past negative notions and avoiding new negative notions. At the end message given by Buddhists is:

'Not to try to to any evil; to cultivate good; to purify one's heart’

 

Written By - Sudiksha Garg

Edited By - Umme Amara Shaikh