Principal_Beliefs_of_Buddhism_-_Preliminary_Course

Principal Beliefs The Dharma as refuge – The Dharma is the law or truth of the Buddha’s teachings. Fundamental to the Buddha’s Dharma is the message that all human beings are already enlightened in their deepest and most true nature. Thus, deliverance consists of awakening to our true selves. The Four Noble Truths -To help communicate the Dharma to his followers, the Buddha packaged The Four Noble Truths in terms of a well-known Vedic medical formula: What is the illness' What has caused the illness' Does a cure exist' What does the patient need to do in order to be cured' The Buddha observes the symptoms of Dukkha (Suffering) in the world, identifies the Tanha (Desires) that cause suffering, gives a prognosis of the condition (That it can be resolved), and prescribes a remedy for it (The Eightfold Path To Enlightenment). Thus, the Buddha’s basic teaching gives a diagnosis of the human condition, and the Path provides a therapeutic course of action to cure the condition. Dukkha – The truth of suffering is Dukkha. Dukkha is that which is difficult to bear. It is inseparable from the self it does not mean that there are no pleasures in life but that everything is temporary, nothing lasts including ourselves and it is this very nature of life that is unsatisfactory. Tanha – The truth of the origin of suffering is Tanha, desire, because one’s desires or wants are never truly satisfied. Nirvana – The truth of the cessation of suffering is Nirvana, Since Dukkha has causes, and if these causes or desires are removed then Dukkha will cease to exist. This will lead to a freedom called Nirvana. The attainment of this state is the objective of Buddhism The Eightfold Path - The truth of the Path is the practice of Buddhism. It is the Path to enlightenment, Nirvana. By following the Buddhist way of overcoming desire, one finds the way to freedom from suffering. The Truths and the Path are interlocking doctrines. In a very practical sense they assume that by keeping the right company; one is more likely to learn about the Path and to follow it because of the association with life-affirming, spiritually minded people who are themselves seeking wisdom and enlightenment. Dukkha – Dukkha is the first of the Four Noble Truth’s and is commonly referred to as ‘suffering’. Dukkha characterises the nature of the ordinary experience of reality as unsatisfactory or deficient in some crucial way. It is the central problem of life. Buddha pinpoints particular moments or occasions when suffering is especially evident. These are: the trauma of birth, the experience of illness, fear of old age, and the threat of death; he also includes the absence of pleasure, the presence of pain, and the lack of what we desire. Anatta - Buddhism teaches that everything in the universe is impermanent and eventually fades away. The individual ego and its worldly desires are as impermanent as the physical body. Buddha teaches that there is no eternal soul that is reborn after the empirical ego dies with the body. This is the Buddha’s doctrine of Anatta. Anatta is one of the most difficult things to teach in Buddhist psychology. In its most simple form, the doctrine of Karma holds that good or wholesome action leads to happy states; bad or unwholesome action leads to unhappy states. In other words, there are moral consequences to our actions – thoughts, words and deeds. The key, however, is the intention of the action. If an action is inadvertent or unintentional, then there are no Karmic consequences. As with all similar spiritual principles, the law of Karma cannot be proven to be true. Sometimes we seem to get away with doing the wrong thing; other times, we seem to suffer innocently. As a rule for living, however, it makes sense that good comes from good, and bad comes from bad. Belief in Karma thereby gives meaning to life and provides a guide for our actions in the present world with an eye towards future consequences. Samsara – Samsara (literally, ‘wandering through’) refers to the plane of ordinary human existence in which we wander about pointlessly from one life to the next. It is the ‘wheel of birth-and-death’, the sensory realm of ignorance and suffering. Following The Eightfold Path takes us on a spiritual journey to the highest and most noble goal attainable, enlightenment. We are led from the self-ignorance and suffering of Samsara to the wisdom and fulfilment of Nirvana. When we have a life-path to follow and a life-goal to aim for, such as seeking enlightenment, life itself becomes enriched with meaning and direction. We have values and ideals which allow us to tell good from bad, worthwhile from worthless, beneficial from detrimental. Thus, even before we reach the goal of liberation from suffering, we are already in a position to see suffering in some kind of perspective. Our life ceases to be a senseless round of birth-death-reincarnation.