I really enjoy this series Pathfinder!
It can give ideas to people stucked with only one belief/religion.
It helps keeping an open mind to be aware of alternatives!
Thanks.
It can give ideas to people stucked with only one belief/religion.
It helps keeping an open mind to be aware of alternatives!
Thanks.
This was the purpose of it :) I'm glad you enjoy reading.
However, I would also gladly discuss these with other people around here, but it looks like everyone knows everything and no one has questions :)
I kind of feel uncomfortable knowing that I don't know very much :)
However, I would also gladly discuss these with other people around here, but it looks like everyone knows everything and no one has questions :)
I kind of feel uncomfortable knowing that I don't know very much :)
Anyway, once I made a little thinking about this Buddhist way, saying that suffering is just as well the part of life as happiness, so I decided to look after what would be the result if I would start with "life means happiness".
Well, it turned out that either way you'll arrive at the eightfold path, since happiness can be ultimately defined as the riddance of suffering. However, this path may seem to be more joyful if you look at it as it begins from happiness, yet, this thought is just an illusion which creates a Karmic bondage, thus it has to be demolished eventually.
Buddha also taught, anyway, that the true nature of all the living beings is the buddha-nature, meaning that in essence everything what lives is buddha. The teaching that our true nature is enlightened leads to the conclusion that there is something in our mind what veils this truth from us. This something is the ego, which doesn't really exist, because there is no part whatsoever that can be called our true self. We can call many things ourselves, however, they are never the same as ourselves. So the ego is simply an enigma which has to be avoided from thinking.
The seemingly most powerful way to avoid the ego is the way called Vipassana. This is a meditation technique in which you label everything you perceive or do, whether it be an external event or a thought. Through this process you simply label things as they happen, regardless to yourself. Thus you avoid using the "self" or "I" reference and the ego slowly falls apart.
It is also very interesting in Buddhism that Buddha taught people about subatomic particles, saying that all bodies (both living and nonliving) consist of the smallest units (I don't know how this is translated in English Buddhist texts). These tiny units are the particles which - as Buddha said - do not exist, although everything consists of them. This teaching very much seems to be a 2500 year old lecture on the latest quantum theory event called superposition.
Well, it turned out that either way you'll arrive at the eightfold path, since happiness can be ultimately defined as the riddance of suffering. However, this path may seem to be more joyful if you look at it as it begins from happiness, yet, this thought is just an illusion which creates a Karmic bondage, thus it has to be demolished eventually.
Buddha also taught, anyway, that the true nature of all the living beings is the buddha-nature, meaning that in essence everything what lives is buddha. The teaching that our true nature is enlightened leads to the conclusion that there is something in our mind what veils this truth from us. This something is the ego, which doesn't really exist, because there is no part whatsoever that can be called our true self. We can call many things ourselves, however, they are never the same as ourselves. So the ego is simply an enigma which has to be avoided from thinking.
The seemingly most powerful way to avoid the ego is the way called Vipassana. This is a meditation technique in which you label everything you perceive or do, whether it be an external event or a thought. Through this process you simply label things as they happen, regardless to yourself. Thus you avoid using the "self" or "I" reference and the ego slowly falls apart.
It is also very interesting in Buddhism that Buddha taught people about subatomic particles, saying that all bodies (both living and nonliving) consist of the smallest units (I don't know how this is translated in English Buddhist texts). These tiny units are the particles which - as Buddha said - do not exist, although everything consists of them. This teaching very much seems to be a 2500 year old lecture on the latest quantum theory event called superposition.
Buddhism was founded as a path to overcome the lifelong suffering and pain. It wasn’t meant to be a religion; hence it doesn’t deal with an ultimate entity what we may identify as a god.
The Buddhist way was established by an Indian prince called Gautama Siddhartha about 2500 years ago. He found that even if his life is full of richness, fun and joy, even he cannot avoid old age and diseases; that all the living beings will eventually face death and expiration.
Gautama left his life of richness and became a wandering monk. Years later he found that not only the everyday joy, but even asceticism is a wrong way, which cannot lead to enlightenment. The way Gautama defined enlightenment is equal to the Hindu definition, since the most popular religion in India was Hindu that time, this is: life is a dream and when you awake to your own reality then you become enlightened; all of the dark veils which cover reality will be removed, and the world itself, as it really is, will be enlightened in you, you will be aware of it.
After his enlightenment, Gautama used the name Buddha, which means the awaken one. During his way to this event, he realized that there is one basic principle which is the root of all the pain and suffering in the world (attachment), and once this is avoided, man is set free from his bondages. He wrote down the so-called middle path, which consists of the Four Noble Truths:
1. Life means suffering.
2. The origin of suffering is attachment.
3. The cessation of suffering is attainable.
4. The path to the cessation of suffering.
The fourth truth is the Noble Eightfold Path, which is essentially the way which, if properly followed, eventually leads to enlightenment. These are:
1. Right View
2. Right Intention
3. Right Speech
4. Right Action
5. Right Livelihood
6. Right Effort
7. Right Mindfulness
8. Right Concentration
Whether something is right or wrong is based on the conception of the Karma, which basically means that if you do good then you receive good, if you do bad then you receive bad. However, the way of enlightenment has a goal in the riddance of Karma, and not in creating good Karma.
Karma is based on the belief of reincarnation, meaning that even if you do bad things and you receive good things in this life, eventually you will receive the bad things for your bad deeds, if not in this life, then in a forthcoming one. According to Karma, everyone who has a karmic attachment to anything will reborn and get his/her reward for his deeds, speeches and thoughts. So the only way of riddance and enlightenment is to avoid creating more karmic attachments. And this is what the eightfold path is about.
In the Buddhism the ultimate goal is Nirvana, which is in essence the realm of unity, where no karma occurs, and all beings become one with the ultimate existence, which is Brahman (the source of everything). In this realm, there is no reincarnation, the one who achieves this will not reborn anymore; but this can only be achieved via demolition of all karmic relations.
The previous part of the series, Hermeticism, can be read here.
The next issue in this series is going to be Vedanta.