The Philosophy of the Buddhists

I will give you a glimpse into the world of the Buddha and the philosophical system that he used to practise and preach. He was born as Siddhartha Gautama in the year 563 BC in Lumbini a place situated show up the Indo Nepal border. His father was the ruler of a petty kingdom of the Sakya tribes. Initially Siddhartha guide the luxurious disembodied spirittime of a prince in their palace at Kapilavastu, subsequently, he was married to Yasodhara. He had been living in marital bliss for long dozen years, when he saw an extremely sick person, a frail elder man, the corpse of a deceased person, a corpse being cremated and a sadhu or holy man.This had a major impact on Siddhartha, who realized that the normal phases in a persons life were mature age, sickness and eventually death. In the year 528 BC, Siddhartha experienced the expectant Enlightenment under the Bodhi tree in Gaya, consequently, he was known as Buddha or the enlightened one. His exhortations ar known as dhamma. H e attain Nirvana at the age of eighty, in the year 483 BC (Siddhartha Gautama). The Dhamma consists of 4 noble truths. The first of them states that life direction execrable. It is essential to realize and lease that you have to undergo suffering in order to live in the world.The world and human nature are imperfect. agree to the Majjhima Nikaya, Sutta 63, the cycle of pitch and death are continuous and humans have to experience old age, sorrow, lamentation, misery, grief and despair. There are pleasures such as ease, comfort and happiness. thus from birth to death, humans experience both suffering and happiness. This serves to render the life pattern imperfect and incomplete. The world is essentially unpleasant and bereft of perfection. The act truth is that sufferings are caused by likings and to some extent due to ignorance.Attachment towards irregular things and ignorance of the fact that those things are temporary causes suffering. Moreover, suffering is caused by des ire, passion, ardor, and craving for wealthiness and fame. A very important precept in this context is that desire causes ignorance and vice versa (L. Ross, 2007). The third noble truth is regarding the truth of cessation. Sufferings can be avoided and the complete cessation of suffering can be attained done nirodha or the unmaking of sensual craving and modelual attachment.In order to end sufferings, one should identify their roue and remove them. This can be achieved through dispassion towards material things, which are transient in nature. In former(a) words, suffering can be removed by realizing the cause of suffering and therefore removing the very cause. This is a continuous process, which eventually culminates in Nirvana or that supreme state of being that is free from all worries, complexes, fabrications and the individual self-importance (The Four Noble Truths).The fourth Noble truth is the truth of the way, which represents the via media amongst the extremes of as ceticism and indulgence. There is an eight fold path by which a human can attain Nirvana and end sufferings permanently. This way comprises of practiced knowledge, right resolve, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right heedfulness and right meditation. This path removes all sufferings from life and extends over many lifetimes of a human (L. Ross, 2007). Therefore, Peter, you have to follow this eight fold path.The Buddha institutionalized a monastic order with five basic precepts. These precepts require abstention from cleaning others, stealing, indulgence in unchaste activities and the consumption of alcoholic drinks. These fundamental precepts are mandatory for every Buddhist and Peter you have to make them an built-in part of your life. The Buddha had preached that the practise of these precepts resulted in Nirvana. Buddha refused to expatiate on the term Nirvana. According to Buddhism, both existence and nonexistence are meaningless. This philosoph y is termed as the quadruplicate Negation.It is the fundamental concept on which the Buddhist philosophy is based (L. Ross, 2007). slightly very important and basic philosophical doctrines in Buddhism are first, momentariness which states that zip exists for a long time and that things do non have significance or duration. Moreover, every moment is a new existence and is succeeded by another new existence and their interconnection results in the next moment. The abet doctrine is that of relative existence, which states that vigor has nature and character. In isolation, things are shunya, which means vacuity or a vacuum.Existence is therefore completely relative and the precisely unconditioned state is that of Nirvana. The third major doctrine is that there is no atman or soul. According to Buddhism, human beings consist of a body, feelings, ideas, impressions and momentary consciousness. Fourth, Buddhism does not accept the existence of God, Brahman or any other ultimate sub stance in the universe. Fifth, everything has a cause, which is dependent on a earlier momentary existence. Sixth, karma, is only a causation and reincarnation is caused by the actions of commonwealth in the past.Therefore, karma is the effect of past actions (L. Ross, 2007). Another important concept of Buddhism is emptiness. A major philosophical paradox of Buddhism is that form is emptiness and emptiness is form. It is the mantra of Buddhism, whose origin is the Prajna Paramita Hridaya Sutra or the Heart Sutra. There are misconceptions about this concept of emptiness western scholars defined it as nihilism. Nihilism states that reality is unknown, that nothing exists, that nothing meaningful can be described about the world.However, the Buddhist concept of emptiness is dissimilar to nihilism, because it states that the ultimate reality is knowable. It also states that there is a lucid ontological basis for phenomena. Further, human beings can communicate and acquire knowledge of the world. Sunyata or emptiness cannot be construed as nothingness. In other words, emptiness is not non existence and it is also non reality (Emptiness). Pay vast attention to these thoughts, assimilate them and meditate upon them. Your preceptor,Bodhidharma Karmapang. References Emptiness. (n. d. ). Retrieved family 11, 2007, from http//www. thebigview. com/buddhism/emptiness. html L. Ross, K. (2007). THE BASIC TEACHINGS OF BUDDHISM. Retrieved phratry 11, 2007, from http//www. friesian. com/buddhism. htm Siddhartha Gautama. (n. d. ). Retrieved September 9, 2007, from The Big view http//www. thebigview. com/buddhism/buddhasresume. html The Four Noble Truths. (n. d. ). Retrieved September 11, 2007, from http//www. thebigview. com/buddhism/fourtruths. html