Buddhism : The Philosophy And Religion

Buddhism has been around for over two thousand years, and continues to do so in many countries around the world. This religion originates in Asia and has a very unique adversity, much of its structure arose from the end of World War II, predominantly Asian nations needed to restructure society (RoAT 167). The word ‘Buddha’ means one who has awakened and will no longer be reborn. Thereafter, one who will enter nirvana, the state of being free from suffering.

Buddhism originated in the early Fifth century BCE, from the teachings of Siddhartha Buddha (Fisher, 2005). Plagued by the desire to help end human suffering, Buddha reached a state of pure enlightenment showing him the way to end earthly suffering. Through meditation, people can control the desires of their human nature. By gaining control of our desires we can end our suffering. He taught his wisdom to all that wanted to learn. After his death, three main forms of Buddhism emerged; there was the Theravada’s, the Mahayana’s, and the Zen Buddhists (Fisher, 2005). For the sake of this report, the local Buddhist

An organization of Buddhists that maintain the website Buddhaweb hold these teachings as the core concepts of Zen Buddhism. The Four Noble Truths state that suffering exists, suffering arises from attachment to desires, suffering ceases when attachment to desire ceases, and freedom from suffering is possible by practicing the Eightfold Path. The Noble Eightfold Path teaches three disciplines in wisdom, morality, and meditation. Wisdom, or panna , is learning to have the right view and thoughts. Morality, or sila , teaches to control your speech correctly, act correctly, and pursue a correct livelihood. Meditation, or samadhi , has you discipline your efforts, your mindfulness, and your contemplation. These teachings in qualities are meant to be practiced to obtain peace, and for some to travel the path towards Enlightenment. (“ buddhaweb ”)

The principle of mindfulness is based on Zen Buddhism which can be problematic when mindfulness and acceptable are not based on Biblical truth (Tan, 2011, p. 247). Mindfulness principle is emerged from spirituality and religious beliefs and involves self-regulation of attention and adopting a particular orientation to event around an individual. Self-regulation is done through maintaining attention on the immediate experience which allows for an increased recognition of mental events in the present moment (Tan, 2011, p. 243).

The life of Siddhartha Gautama has captivated millions of people around the world. Millions of humans practice and try to live a life free of possessions and free of distractions from the materialistic plane of existence we call society. In essence, a popular belief about life becomes mainstream and therefore a new religion is created. I would argue that Buddhism is merely a way of approaching life from an uncharacteristic perspective. Therefore, I am suggesting that the Buddha created a philosophy and deserves a place among the great fathers of human thought such as Aristotle, Plato, and many others. Where Buddhism differentiates from the three major religions of the world, is the amazing techniques that Buddhists pursue every day to optimize their inner thinking within. The philosophies of Buddhism and new research in the scientific community surrounding techniques done by its followers, has created a growing interest in the way of life, especially in western culture. Going along, we will explore what makes this so.

Thich Nhat Hanh introduced the “Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings of Buddhism,” and these principles ultimately guide the audiences to see a different perception and the ways to deal with the hardships of everyday life. Throughout this article, humans’ minds will be closer to nature and help them to have a comfortable time in the modern life.

Release from this cycle is only achieved by attaining enlightenment, the ultimate goal for Buddhists. A Buddha is an all-knowing being who has reached that perfect state of transcendence in which the concepts of humanities greed, hate and delusion are exterminated. Another key aspect is that upon passing into nirvana, one is never subject to rebirth again. According to tradition, the founder of Buddhism was born in 563 B.C.E. Siddhartha left his palace, renouncing his wealth and status, to find the cause of suffering. After years of searching, he found his answer and went on to teach others. When he died, he attained nirvana, the release from earthly desires and suffering, and became the Buddha. The Buddha 's teachings were written down by his followers who spread his message. These texts are called sutras. A religion began to form and new branches of Buddhism were created.

Buddhism, followed by 380 million people, originated in northern India and is now practiced throughout Southeast Asia. It was founded by Siddhartha Gautama who developed a practice called Eightfold Path, also known as Middle Way, which was a way of achieving a state of nirvana by escaping the cycle of suffering and rebirth. Siddhartha was born into wealth and got everything he could want and still wasn’t fulfilled. Being raised in great luxury shielded him from suffering. At the age of 29, he went outside the walls of the palace for the first time and was shocked from the sights of a sick man, aged man, and corpse. These sights made him realize that his life was not permanent. After this realization and his life feeling unfulfilled, Siddhartha

Buddhist practices, like meditation are ways of changing yourself in order to develop qualities of awareness, wisdom and kindness. The experience developed within the Buddhist tradition over thousands of years has created an incomparable resource for all those who wish to follow a path, a path which ultimately leads to enlightenment or Buddhahood. An enlightened person sees the nature of reality clearly, just as it is, and lives fully and organically in accordance with that revelation. This is the goal of the Buddhist spiritual life, representing the end of suffering for anyone who attains

Buddhism is a religion mainly concerned in one’s inner peace and liberation from suffering. It is originated from India reaching almost 2,500 years of history. There are approximately 367 million followers in today’s world. Gautama Buddha, also known as the young Indian prince Siddhartha Gautama or “the awakened one”, is the founder and leader of this religion. The root word Budh in Sankrit means “to wake up” and “to know. (Smith&Novak 4)” The encouragement on how Gautama gets to bring Buddhism to people comes from the “suffering” he saw outside of his palace. During his life, Gautama established the community of monks “Sangha” and taught the path to liberate from suffering “Dharma.”

Buddhism is a religion and philosophy based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama. It is the oldest and fourth largest religion in the world with around 500 million followers. Buddhism focuses on teaching people how to come to terms with and end the suffering of themselves and others by cutting out greed, hatred, and ignorance from their lives. Unlike most major world religions, Buddhism does not revolve around worshiping a god or divine creator, instead the focus of Buddhism is living one 's best life and transforming the lives of others. The ultimate goal of Buddhism is to reach Enlightenment and upon death achieve Nirvana, the liberation of pain and suffering. For Buddhists, it is the individual’s responsibility to find his or her own path to enlightenment; the principles of Buddhism are seen more as guidelines than rules.

Mindfulness is a relatively new phenomenon to the Western world although has been practiced in other countries across the world for thousands of years as a form of meditation. Thought to have first been introduced before Buddhism thousands of years ago, mindfulness was taught to Buddha as a way of alleviating suffering. Today, mindfulness focuses on helping people in secular ways to develop skills that can be used in daily life and

Buddhism stands as a philosophy and a religion founding itself on the theory of a possible eternal soul. Until awakening is achieved, this eternal soul is locked in the vicious cycle of rebirth (Samsara). According to the Four Noble Truths preached by the Buddha, life is a perpetual suffering caused by desire and attachment, and freedom from suffering is only possible by practicing the Eightfold Path. The World is suffering in a succession of temptations and negative experiences from birth to death. Therefore Buddhism advises on searching to go beyond suffering, and only aspire to rest, nothingness, and liberation, into a final state called Nirvana. Happiness or Nirvana can eventually be achieved in a hereafter, another life, if man abandons any desire or perspective of action within his present life, in order to go past suffering.

Zen meditation is the study of self. According to great master Dogen, “To study Buddha is to study the self, to study the self is to forget the self, and to forget the self is to be enlightened by the ten thousand things.” We have to recognize the unity of the self and things surrounded in order to be enlightened and understand Buddha. By practicing zen meditation, we can achieve the state of unity.

Not trapped by the past that occasionally includes unpleasant memories, and not worried about the future that can occur ambiguous anxiety, you train yourself. You turn your attention toward the moment where you are certainly here now. That state of mind represents so called “Mindfulness.”   Mindfulness, which has recently been studied in the field of psychiatry and neuroscience, can be traced back to Yoga meditation originating in India. Meditations of Yoga, after the birth of Buddhism, were passed out along with Buddhism doctrine to the world, mainly Asia as methods to reach a spiritual awakening. Zen is one of them. In the East Asia, Zen, with other religions and ideologies, poured ethics and spirituality into fighting