Budhism
Buddhism is for some a religion for others, it's a philosophy of life. Buddisim teaches people to reduce suffering by reaching a deep understanding of themselves. It is a way of finding reality. Buddhism is named ahter Gautama Buddha, a man who lived between about 563 and 483 BC. He was a rich prince who gave up everything to work out how best to live. He is considered as an awakened or enlightened teacher who shared his insights to help sentient beings (beings in contrast with buddhahood; sentient beings are characteristically
not enlightened, and are thus confined to the death, rebirth, and suffering) end ignorance of dependent origination which is a concept that states that all phenomena are arising together in a mutually interdependent web of cause and effect. This leads to escaping what is seen as a cycle of suffering and rebirth.
According to Buddha when people do bad things all they get is evil responses. His teachings started in India and slowly spread, after his death, through most of Asia, to Central Asia, Tibet, Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia, and the East Asian countries of China, Mongolia, Korea, and Japan and have now spread to the west.
Nirvana
Overcoming suffering bis the key principle underlying the praeching of Buddha.
- overcoming suffering allows a person to be truly happy.
- if people make good decisions they would be happy and have peace of mind.
- life is imperfect and suufering is inevitable.
- we suffer because of desire, anger and stupidity.
- we could end our suffering by letting go of desires and overcoming anger and stupidity.
- The complete letting go of these negative influences is called Nirvana,
meaning "to extinguish", like putting out the flame of a candle.
- Nirvana and enlightenment mean the same thing: to avoid all evil, to do good, to purify one's mind.
Buddhism teaching
- Non-harm and moderation or balance in everything. This refers to a practice of non-extremism: a path of moderation away from the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification
- Buddhists often meditate, or think deeply, while sitting in a special or specific way.
- They often chant and meditate for the following reasons:
1. to understand the human heart and mind,
2. to understand the way the world works,
3. to find peace.
- The ultimate state of being is Norvana (perfect enlightenment). It is a state wherein it becomes clear that all dualities apparent in the world are delusory.
Three Marks of Existence
- Impermanence:
the Buddhist notion that all compounded or conditioned phenomena
(all things and experiences) are inconstant, unsteady, and impermanent.
Everything we can experience through our senses is made up of parts,
and its existence is dependent on external conditions. Everything is in
constant flux, and so conditions and the thing itself are constantly
changing
- Suffering (Dukkha):
This is a central concept in Buddhism. The word roughly corresponds to a number of terms in English including suffering, pain, unsatisfactoriness, sorrow, affliction, anxiety, dissatisfaction, discomfort, anguish, stress, misery, and frustration.
Although the term is often translated as "suffering", its philosophical
meaning is more analogous to "disquietude" as in the condition of being
disturbed. As such, "suffering" is too narrow a translation with
"negative emotional connotations" which can give the impression that the Buddhist view is one of pessimism,
but Buddhism seeks to be neither pessimistic nor optimistic, but
realistic. In English-language Buddhist literature translated from Pāli,
"dukkha" is often left untranslated, so as to encompass its full range
of meaning.
- Not-self:
Upon careful examination, one finds that no phenomenon is really "I" or
"mine"; these concepts are in fact constructed by the mind. In the Nikayas
anatta is not meant as a metaphysical assertion, but as an approach for
gaining release from suffering. In fact, the Buddha rejected both of
the metaphysical assertions "I have a Self" and "I have no Self" as ontological views that bind one to suffering.
