The Essence of Faiths
Whispers from everywhere
The Essence of Buddhism
The Buddha (Siddartha Gautama 563-483 BC) was the son of a King who sheltered him in the palace. However, when still a young man, he escaped into the community and saw disease, old age and death for the first time. The suffering which he saw affected him deeply and he left his rich palace to seek answers to the problem amongst the wise men of his time. The wise men did not have the answers he sought so he had to find them himself. He came to see that all life is suffering (1), that the cause of suffering is desire or craving (2) and that people can conquer desire and thus put an and to the experience of suffering (3). This can be done by leading a 'good life' which, in the Buddha's terms, involves following the eightfold path (4). The steps in the path are given below in ascending order of difficulty.
- Perfect Speech - avoidance of lying, slander and gossip
- Perfect Conduct - avoidance of actions that go against local patterns of moral discipline
- Perfect Livelihood - avoidance of professions that are harmful to living things eg hunter, butcher, dealer in weapons and drugs
- Perfect Effort - cultivating behaviour that will have good repercussions rather than bad
- Perfect Mindfulness - ongoing mindfulness of body, feelings, thinking, and objects of thought
- Perfect Concentration - being free from opinions, in that you do not grasp on to ideas
- Perfect View - the view based on the four noble truths (see above) and the nonindividuality of existence
- Perfect Resolve - being totally committed to a life of renunciation, good will, and non harming of living things.