A Quick Look into Buddhism

Buddhism is based on teachings that were attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, Buddha or the Awakened One. There are 2 main branches that originally were most popular or practiced in Southeast Asia; Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism. While most will say that Buddhism is practiced mostly in Asia, today it is a widespread practice.

There are 3 jewels associated with practicing in Buddhism and they are: the Buddha, the Dharma (teaching of the Buddha), and the Sanha (the community of Buddhists). Buddhists believe in Karma: Cause and Effect. This is the energy which drives us as human beings and the cycle of suffering and rebirth for each being. Good, bad, actions produce seeds in the mind which cause your karma in life. Every time a person acts in their life there is a cause and effect. Some believe that if you have ‘bad’ karma because of the things you have done in your life, reciting texts of certain Sutras will destroy these negative energies.

Buddhists also believe in rebirth. This is the process where we go through a succession of lifetimes in one life running from our initial birth to death. Buddhists reject the idea that we are one being, or a permanent self or an unchanging eternal soul. In Buddhism there is no such thing as self, therefore a rebirth is simply an ever-changing process that is determined by the laws of cause and effect (Karma) rather than that of one being. Simply put, when we are born as a Buddhist – we have a rebirth in succession over our lifetime, jumping from one existence to the next.

There are Four Noble Truths that Buddhist lives by. These were the first teachings of Gautama Buddha after he attained Nirvana. They are also used in medical diagnosis and remedial prescription. Life as we know it will lead to suffering at some point in our lives. What causes this suffering is our attachment to worldly pleasures of all kinds. We become deluded to thinking a certain way or existence or to the things that we believe make us happy or unhappy. When we free ourselves from desire, our cravings end and our suffering ends. We have to eliminate all delusion which causes enlightenment. If we do all of these things, we have reached a liberated state by following the path of the Buddha.

Buddhism is the practice of non-extremism; a path away from self-indulgence and self-mortification. If we simply give up the idea that we need certain things in our lives to survive and live by the Buddhist way of life, there would be peace. Nirvana is the ultimate enlightenment which is achieved by following the Buddhist approach to life. No attachments to worldly possessions, no suffering, no delusions, just peace.

Human beings crave pleasure and averse to pain. If we are being controlled by our impulses and attitudes, we perpetuate the cycle of conditioned existence and suffering, thereby producing the causes and conditions of the next rebirth after death. Each rebirth repeats this process in an involuntary cycle which Buddhists strive to end by eradicating these causes and conditions by apply the methods laid out by Buddha.