Sutta Pitaka consists of Buddha’s teachings in the form stories. Buddhist philosophy strongly highlights that the world is ever changing and transient in nature so nothing is permanent and eternal. Along with this, the entire world is soulless. Sorrows are part of human existence and life. All human beings have originated from the planet earth and then they bear children for the continuity of life.
Gautama Buddha or Siddhartha Gautama Buddha is known as ‘Buddha’ which means ‘awakened being’ or ‘enlightened being’. Base of Buddhism is the teachings of Gautama Buddha. He was born in a royal Hindu family in Shakya Clan and his birthday is celebrated as ‘Buddha Poornima’. Place of Gautama Buddha’s birth is not clear as it may be the present day Nepal, Odisha or Uttar Pradesh. He was destined to become either a great king or a great holy man. As his father wanted him to be great king so he kept Gautama Buddha away from the sufferings of life. But by the age of 29 he left his palace to find his true self. On the way he saw almost everyone suffering from one or other thing. He was depressed and tried to overcome all these by living a life of an ascetic. He during his journey to find answers had found that meditation is the only way to awaken oneself. Gautama then sat under the popular pipal tree that is known as the Bodhi tree in Bodh Gaya, India and arose only after he found the truth. His mediation continued for 49 days and after that he got enlightenment. Gautama then found the cause of sufferings and ways to end these.
Teachings of Gautama Buddha are the principles of life that had been given by him after attaining the enlightenment.
The Four Noble Truths
Suffering (Dukkha) – According to Buddha suffering is common to all. It comes in many ways which is common to all like Birth, Sickness, Old age and Death. The teachings also tells us are lives are a constant struggle and how despite numerous joys and happiness in our lives, we still do not find satisfaction.
The Cause of Suffering – Buddha has explained even the reason human beings suffer. According to him, human beings are subject to desires and cravings for riches. They are ignorant to the law of Karma and are greedy for wrong kind of pleasures and desires. Always ready to benefit themselves even if that means harming other humans which leads to more suffering rather than achieving any sort of satisfaction.
End of Suffering – Buddha believed that humans are their own problems and need the solution to all these problems lives deep within us all. To start with this change one must put out greed and ignorance from his way of living. The end of all suffering in Buddhism is known to be the ‘Nirvana’ state in which the flame of suffering is completely put out.
Path to end Suffering – Correct way of living and following the Noble Eightfold path –
- Right View- The first step on changing your life, is keeping yourself open to changes. The right view of life is to see everything through compassion and wisdom.
- Right Thought- It is very well known, a man is what he thinks he is. Without any clarity in thoughts, it is hard to build a good and strong character.
- Right Speech- Your words are the first thing individual around you judge you with, so whenever you speak, you should be aware, respectful and be truthful towards others.
- Right Conduct- People create their view about us by the way, we behave with them. Before being critical of others, we need to be thoughtful about our conduct.
- Right Livelihood- Buddha was a firm believer that, an individual should be mindful of what he earns and from where he earns. One should not harm others to earn their living.
- Right Effort- Buddha believes we have only one life and we should put efforts to make lives of people around us better rather than hurting them.
- Right Mindfulness- One should always be aware of his thoughts, his deeds and his words.
- Right Concentration- To attain peace of mind, we should learn how to keep our focus on object or thing at a time.
In the state of Nirvana the soul reunites to its pure state and stop wandering in incarnations and karma.
The Supreme Power that controls the universe has no form or name.
Strong characters are built by doing good deeds and kind thoughts.
Before criticizing anyone it is better to see what you are doing.
Always do good and do not waste time and effort on things that lead to harm.
Be aware of your words and deeds.
The Five Percepts of life are the most important rules of life and these are – respect for life so no killing, respect for the property of others so no stealing, respect for pure nature so no sexual misconduct, respect for honesty so no lying and respect for a clear mind so no intoxicants.
Death is not the end of life. Energy changes into matter and matter again into energy like pale leaf fell on the ground mixes with soil, seed fell on earth to give rise to new plant and so on.
Three poisons i.e. greed, hatred and stupidity keep us in the wheel of life and death.
Be tolerant of all other religions. One should respect every spiritual person and this is a very good deed. It is just like lighting one candle from that of other. Now there won’t be the light of one candle but two candles which will illuminate you and your life.
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For more related information, you may refer to the following:
Buddhist Pilgrimage Destination in India
Buddhist Centres in Andhra Pradesh
