The Basic Tenets of Buddhism - Research Paper Example

Buddhism A number of religions became practiced among the Central Asian people in the early second and third centuries BC. Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism can serve as clear examples. Buddhism started and developed in India and travelled into the Central Asia, Korea and Japan. It soon became a leading religion in the entire Central China. Buddhism is practiced by over 300 million people all over the world. It appeared 2500 years ago due to Siddhartha Gautama, who later became known as Buddha after he got enlightened beneath a Bodhi tree. Siddhartha got distressed by all the sufferings around him and decided to leave his family and all the material comforts he possessed, and set out on a wondering life. It was in this journey that he sat under the Bodhi tree and staunchly decided not to move until he got enlightenment (Harvey 45). Buddha decided to leave the palace at the age of 29 on four different occasions to explore. During his first visit outside the palace, he witnessed an old man who was bent over and had problems walking when Siddhartha passed by; the man faced him, his red eyes squinting from his terribly wrinkled old face. In his second trip, he saw a sick man, crying in pain. On his third outing, Siddhartha came upon a corpse. He was saddened by these sights of sickness, old age and death. On his fourth outing, he met a monk who inspired him to leave the palace and all his mundane possessions, including his wife and son (Harvey 46). He sought to understand more about life and why human beings suffer, and how he would help in ending suffering in the world. During his enlightenment, he found the power to observe his former life, the power to see the rebirth of all forms, power to see death as well as the realization that he had left all the desires and ignorance that he had possessed. He had by all ways become a Buddha, meaning the “awakened one”. The Buddha, as he got to be known, gave his first sermon, “First Discourse,” to the group of his ascetics that he used to practice with, explaining his realization. This people soon became Buddha's first disciples. He went on spreading his knowledge all over the towns of India during 45 years soon after his realization, gaining overwhelming numbers of followers until meeting his death at the age of 80 (Gethin 19). The Basic Tenets of Buddhism Reincarnation According to Buddhism, human beings possess the ability to get free from sufferings by observing, meditation and cultivating a lifestyle as prescribed by Buddha. Buddha gave a number of teachings known as Dharma. The wheel is a distinguished symbol in Buddhism since it depicts the perpetual cycle of life and death. According to Buddhism, after human beings die, they are born in a new form. They could either take the form of a deity, a human being, a ghost, an animal or even an inhabitant of hell. It is the belief that all the positive thoughts and people’s actions bring good karma, and may direct an individual into getting reborn in a higher form. The consequences caused by a person’s negative deeds, or evil karma, may lead to rebirth in a lower form (Gethin 22). Buddhism as a religion does not agree with the existence of a permanent self that will reincarnate from this life to the next. The assumption of an existing self gets created by the following five aggregates: Skandha, that suffers from a constant becoming and possesses a functional cause-effect relation; the body is the material form. Feeling, or Vedanta, is the sensation that develops from the sense organs in the body. Cognition, or sanna, is the process of classifying and labeling of experiences. Mental constructions, or Sankara, are the states that initiate action. Consciousness, or vijnana, is the awareness of a mental or sensory object. These five elements become impermanent, pass constant transformation, and have no abiding principle or the self. All human beings think that they got a self because of the consciousness. However, consciousness by being in a constant process of becoming and changing lacks identification with the self that becomes seen to be permanent (Harvey 47). Nevertheless, following the teachings of Karma, something must reincarnate. When Buddha was asked about the differences among people concerning the issues of illness, lifespan or wealth, he taught that there is no real self, who will inherit the deeds and also reincarnates. According to Buddha, karma passes from one life to another. He used the example of the light of a candle that gets derived from a different candle without possessing its own substance. Just like the candle, there exists rebirth without the transfer of the self from one body to a different one. The only bridge from one life to the other is of a casual nature (Groner 34). In the Tibetan Book of the Dead, the experience of an individual takes place in intermediary state between two different incarnations described. This suggests that the deceased keeps some of the personal attributes. Although it is not evident what survives when someone dies in this case, it names the mental body that is not prone to injuries by the visions seen by the deceased. Despite the condition of the deceased in the after-death situation, any existence of the hypothetical personal nucleus disappears prior to birth. This implies that there exists no psycho mental element that gets transmitted from one life to another. This newborn individual does not remember anything from previous life. The other key element is the extreme rarity of becoming reborn as a human person. According to Buddha, if an individual tried to calculate the probability of getting the human state, and consider the surface of this great earth as being only the surface of India, the odd is once in the period of 5 multiplied by 1016 years. This amounts to 5 million times the entire age of the universe (Groner 30). The Four Noble Truths Buddha also taught about the four noble truths. These include: 1. Life is suffering. 2. There exists a cause for suffering. 3. Suffering always has an end. 4. There exists a way that leads to the end of suffering. Life is suffering This is the first teaching by Buddha. He teaches us that life entails a suffering that takes a number of forms. According to Buddhists, disease, pain, conflict and loneliness are all forms of suffering. The religion of Buddhism believes that suffering is inextricable from life and should be accompanied with expectation. Buddha also teaches that happiness exists, and the transitory nature of happiness that includes the contentment of one’s family and friendship also contributes to the suffering that we undergo (Quain 26). There exists a cause for suffering The second teaching of Buddha tells us that craving and attachment lead to suffering. The desire for pleasure and happiness leads to suffering since happiness is always fleeting and does not fully satisfy. The dissatisfaction feeling causes one to seek more pleasure to satisfy desires, but tends to have the desire of deepening one’s suffering when the euphoria disappears. According to Buddha, attaching one’s self to the sensual pleasures will enslave the person’s body and mind (Quain 27). Suffering always has an end This is the third noble truth that offers the believers an answer to their problem of continuous suffering. According to the teachings of Buddha, lasting happiness is possible if a person learns how to give up all the desires and the constant need for sensual pleasure. The people that live each day in perfect denial of their self get nirvana, the state of total peace, enlightenment and the happiness that the Buddha himself achieved at the age of 35. In order to end the suffering, one has to live each day as its own eternity. This means that one cannot look at the life he or she lived in regret or look ahead in anticipation. Each day should be lived as though there will exist no other days (Quain 26). There exists a way that leads to the end of suffering This is the final noble truth that tells how to follow the eightfold path to run away from suffering for good. These paths are: right knowledge, right speech, right intention, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration, right action and right livelihood. The Buddhists believe the term “right” means following the way Buddha did his things that he described as the ‘Middle Path’. This is the balance that exists between the desire and the total withdrawal from human emotions. The knowledge of right is an awareness of who an individual is; right action is doing anything exceptional; right intention involves having pure motives; right speech involves refraining from telling lies, slander and gossip; right effort involves having righteous thoughts and removing dark thoughts; right mindfulness is getting to know an individual’s emotions and mind while right concentration requires a person to meditate to bring peace and contentment (Quain 27). Nirvana The main objective of Buddhism is to get knowledge and attain nirvana. Nirvana becomes attainable with the removal of greed, ignorance and hatred within an individual. Nirvana symbolizes the end of death cycle and rebirth. In view of the four noble truths, life is suffering; hence, ending the cycle of rebirth is a desirable thing. Some Buddhists view Nirvana as a form of heaven without suffering. Other Buddhists view nirvana as the state of mind that is free from suffering. In the Buddhists’ belief, final nirvana gets found at the time of an enlightened person’s death and no longer exists as a part in the cycle of both reincarnation and death (Harvey 54). How to Achieve Nirvana According to the Buddhists’ belief, the path towards nirvana, named the Middle Way or at times the Eightfold Path, describes the way in which individuals should live their lives in order to attain Nirvana. This eightfold path comprises of three categories. These are: 1. Moral Conduct 2. Concentration 3. Wisdom Moral conduct comprises of: 1. The right speech; this is refraining from engaging in malicious talk, falsehood and use of abusive language. 2. The right action; this involves refraining from killing of people, stealing and unchastely behavior. 3. Right livelihood; comprises of earning a living through proper and correct ways, and not by killing living beings, practicing fortune telling and making of astrological forecasts. Concentration involves: 1. The right effort; this is the will to avoid or get rid of evil deeds and promote goodness among people. 2. Right mindfulness; comprises of being diligently aware, attentive and mindful of the well being of others. 3. Right concentration; this involves getting rid of the unwholesome thoughts and obtain pure equanimity and awareness. Wisdom involves: The right thought; these are the thoughts of selflessness and detachment, and the universal thoughts of love and existence of a community free from violence. Right understanding; this includes the understanding of things as they appear, the full understanding of the written Four Noble Truths. Bodhisattvas A number of schools in Buddhism, including the ones of Chinese Buddhism, tend to believe that becoming Bodhisattvas is more valuable for human beings than attaining nirvana. Bodhisattva is an individual who has obtained enlightenment, but refuses not to enter into the final nirvana until all the existing living things get released from suffering (Mitchelle 23). These people choose to be reincarnated, so that they are able to continue with work of removing the suffering of others, and trying to make them become aware of the teachings of Buddha. For example, in China, Bodhisattvas are at times worshipped as much as Buddha. Works Cited Gethin, Rupert. Foundations of Buddhism. London: Oxford University Press, 2005. Print. Groner, Paul. A History of Indian Buddhism. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2003.Print. Harvey, Peter. An Introduction to Buddhism. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001.Print. Michelle Santos. "Seven Practices of Bodhisattvas." ehow (2010): 23.Web. Quain, Sampson. "Important Beliefs in Buddhism." ehow (2011): 26-27.Web. Read More