The Nature Of The Buddhist 's Claim Of Suffering

Buddhism is not about God or Gods, it doesn't supply a hypothesis about what may occur in after death, nor does it express perspectives about creation; it is situated in the realm of day by day living. Furthermore, Buddhism is largely associated with the condition of being awaken by the nature of humanity. As the fourth-largest religion in the world, Buddhism has proven to be both influential and significant. While most religions have profound theoretical foundations that they are built upon, and while most individuals within such religions have faith that the theory is true, Buddhism does not address theories; nor does it agree or disagree with any religion, but rather acknowledges religion as a means to live in a positive manner. This religion is about not only living a peaceful life but also about enlightening a person through the regaining of wisdom and grace from within. The purpose of this paper is to examine the depth of Buddhism through Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path, and karma.

The first two steps in the Eightfold Path, which leads to the cessation of suffering, are right understanding and right resolution; a person must first discover and experience the correctness of the Four Noble Truths, and then resolve to follow the correct path. The next three steps form a kind of unit: right speech, right behavior, and right livelihood. These reflect the external aspects of a person's life, which must not be neglected. The interior disciplines constitute the final three steps: right efforts, right mindfulness, and right contemplation. By this means, the follower of Buddha can arrive at Nirvana. (Robinson)

The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism are: LIFE is suffering, DESIRE causes suffering, ENDING desire, ends suffering, and FOLLOWING the Eightfold path ends desire. Life is suffering is a true belief, if we have a good sense of this concept then we can handle most of life’s ups and downs more effectively. Second, the desire for thing can yield a life of suffering due to excess. Webster’s dictionary says, excess is a state or an instance of surpassing usual, proper, or specified limits. Next, we have Ending desire ends suffering, means being content or excepting certain notations pertaining to life will bring more joy and less suffering.

The Buddha went in between to extremes to find the middle way. The middle way consists of the four noble truths and the eightfold path. The four noble truths are the most commonly shared belief between Buddhists. They are ways to eliminate desire, which will eliminate suffering. Number one says, “ life consists of suffering.” Number two says, “everything is impermanent and ever-changing, we suffer because we desire those things that are impermanent.” Number three says, “ the way to liberate oneself from suffering is to eliminate desire.” And number four says, “ desire can be eliminated by following the eightfold path.” The eightfold path is a group of statements, they are not sequential things, they are just attitudes and actions. The eightfold path consists of right understanding, right thought, right speech, right action, right live hood, right effort, right awareness and right meditation. By following these attitudes and actions, you can achieve a life without suffering#.

In looking at the human condition, one cannot deny the immutable presence of suffering as a central tenet of life. Nobody, not even the Buddha, walks through life without experiencing pain, anguish, and suffering. However, one cannot experience suffering without also knowing its opposite of love, joy, and happiness. Buddhist terminology refers to these emotional states as dukkha and sukha. Importantly, however, these emotional conditions are impermanent and deeply related to one another. Dukkha comes from the fruitless but eternal human plight of grasping at an ephemeral sense of happiness. Too many live without acknowledging that their endeavors of maintaining a static feeling of bliss, or sukha, is both unrealistic and futile. While some would criticize this life philosophy as deeply pessimistic, the reality is that the Buddha’s observations are an insightful and irrefutable fact of life. The human race’s continuous inability to grasp the concept of life as suffering has led to the erroneous and often western misconception that Buddhism is an inherently cynical religion. This ethnocentric line of criticism, however, ignores the rewarding and deeply spiritual facets of Buddhism that attempt to enrich one’s life by mitigating dukkha. The Buddha’s Four Noble Truths reflects this understanding, and serves to remind adherents that life is suffering and that it arises from the existential plight of impermanence. In this vein, life is dukkha but there are ways to alleviate the

The eightfold path is not a set of rules that can be broken, but is instead a guideline to having a fulfilling life and to reach Nirvana. The Buddha first examined what causes the human condition. He knew that life could not be perfect because this would make it so we could not possibly notice ourselves, so this is why we feel pain and suffering. The Buddha also says that you must practice to find happiness and combat the imperfections of life. This is why the eightfold path is not a set of rules waiting to be broken, but instead is a way of life that will lead one to the truth and bring happiness to our

Buddhism is a spiritual tradition that focuses on person spiritual development and the attainment of a deep insight into the nature of life. Buddhism believe that nothing is fixed or permanent and that change is always possible. The four noble truths are suffering, cause of suffering, cassation of suffering, and path to the cessation of suffering. Path to the cessation of suffering goes into noble eightfold path that goes into three trainings wisdom, ethical conduct, and mental development.

To understand the Eight Fold Path one must fist understand how it cam about. The first teaching the Buddha ever gave was in the deer park to five of his old friends who later became his most devoted followers. In that first teaching the Buddha told his friends about the Four Noble Truths which he had discovered on his struggle to understand the nature of suffering. The first noble truth is the truth of suffering. Through his experiences as a prince and as a spiritual seeker the Buddha found that no one is exempt from suffering, that all non-enlightened beings are trapped in the cycle of samsara. This means that all beings will suffer, whether it is emotional, or physical, it is inescapable. The second truth is the truth of the cause of suffering,

Buddhism aims at the demolition of the self, the creation of subtle mindfulness, bliss, great compassion and gentleness. To cultivate these passions and desires must subside allowing for reflection and a caring attitude to all life (Morrell, 2005). The Buddha’s response to suffering was a practical way of coping with the facts more than a theoretical attempt at explaining or justifying the presence of suffering in the world (Wright & Haines, 1991). The Buddhist religion strives for attaining selflessness by practicing extraordinary compassion and by putting the suffering of others before one’s own to develop the love and wisdom of Buddha. Real change and improvements are only possible when great effort is made at the rights tasks, efforts guided by the paths of Buddhism. He teaches his adherents to overcome suffering by following the four noble truth with the first truth entailing that suffering is a part of all live and that as Buddhist’s it is inevitable that they will experience disappointment, illness, death and conflict (Bratcher, n.d). The second noble truth explores the formation of suffering being a result of misconceived desire and ignorance leading us to feelings of greed and hatred. (Ryan & Goldburg, 2001). In life it is normal to not want people for whom you love to stay the same or to never die or be sick, however, the Buddha taught that we need to accept the presence of impermanence (Bratcher, n.d). People who desire many things in life may want more of it and will become greedy and because of this greedy people will lie, cheat and steal (Gladding, 2016). To overcome this, adherents are encouraged to follow the third noble truth, that freedom for suffering is capable. The Buddha taught his adherents about suffering’s existence not to deny any beauty or joy in life but rather to show them how to be happy in the moment that is and what comes after it (Bratcher, n.d). Adrienne Howley the author of The

Everyone is subject to the traumas of birth, sickness, decrepitude, death and to what they most dread (an incurable disease or an ineradicable personal weakness), as well as separation from what they love. The desire of the body and the desire for personal fulfilment is the cause of suffering. Happiness can be achieved only if these desires are overcome, and this requires following the ‘Four Noble Truths.’ These Truths refer to the diagnosis of suffering which consist of the essence of Buddha’s teachings. These are: everything in life is permeated by suffering; pain is experienced from birth, through life with its sickness, unsatisfactory nature, dejection and despair, and eventually death. The cause of this suffering is craving, desire, a thirst for pleasure, attachment to things and existence; all of which lead to samsara. This cause can be eliminated by the cessation of craving and desire and instead focus on the cultivation of non-attachment. This can be achieved by following the Noble Eightfold Path; a path with eight aspects involving right views, right attitudes, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right contemplation. It is taught in the Four Noble Truths that in order to eliminate suffering the cause of it has to be identified. The Dalai Lama states that “physical comforts cannot subdue mental suffering, and if we look closely, we can see that those who have many possessions are not necessarily happy. In fact, being wealthy often brings even more anxiety.” From this quote we can deduce that the cause of suffering in this instance is the accumulation of material possessions and wealth. Hence in order to eliminate this suffering, the accumulation of wealth and material possessions must be stopped. By following this path the Buddhist aims to attain nirvana, a condition beyond the limits of mind and feelings, a state of

Siddhartha Gautama (later known as Buddha) is the creator of the Buddhist religion. Gautama believed that the elimination of attachments or problems would prevent any disappointment and consequently suffering. This ideology stems from Gautama’s ‘Four Noble Truths’: suffering is universal, desire is the cause for suffering, suffering can be avoided by eliminating desire and, following the Eightfold Path will eliminate desire. The Eightfold Path is a practical guide laid out by Gautama for his followers to achieve enlightenment, which consists of; right mindfulness, right action, right intention, right livelihood, right effort, right concentration, right speech and right understanding. This is essentially a code of ethics, aiding the path to

The aim of living this path is to reach Nirvana. Nirvana is the goal of walking down this path, as well as the end, it is permanent bliss. The Eightfold Noble Path of Buddhism is the means to achieving Nirvana. The Noble path consists of eight very specific courses of action activities that if followed simultaneously help to realize the goal of Nirvana. The first part of the path consists of the Four Noble Truths. These Noble Truths appear obvious and simple, however, some need much more emphasis than others. The four noble truths and the eight-fold path contain common insight to the problems of living and how to live in dealing with these problems. The Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path are listed below:

The Eightfold path is the treatment to cure all desires of the heart. Briefly, they are having the right attitudes towards life, in a Buddhist way. It consists of having the Right Knowledge, Right Aspiration, Right Speech, Right Behaviour, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Absorption. It is taught that Buddhism "is a way of living, not merely the theory of life, the treading of this Path is essential to self-deliverance" .

The eightfold path are the following. Right view, right intention, right action, right speech, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. Right view is seeing the world as it is right view. Some of the traditions also include kamra (kamma) here, but most secular Buddhist view kamma as intention or action, so we place it under Right Action. Additionally, with secular Buddhists, kamma is not believed to be a system of justice that goes from one life to the next, but instead is about developing wholesome intention behind our actions so we behave ethically in this life, with Right Action. Right View also touches on our own views of the world, how we may grow to them, how we may consider them important, when they are really not important, and how we can get caught up in them. The second of the eightfold path is the path to right intention. In order not to create more suffering, we need to rely on paying attention to what our intentions are with others and with

The First Noble Truth of Buddhism is also referred to as the truth about suffering or dukkha, which posits that suffering, comes in various forms such as pain, desire and or deaths. However, the three types of sufferings coincide with the ones the Buddha witnesses on his journey outside his palace: they were sickness, old age, and death (Hardy, 2005; Young, 2013). Buddha argued that human beings are exposed to cravings and desires and even if they are able to satisfy these particular desires that satisfaction is merely temporary. In that case, pleasure is ephemeral and whenever it lasts it results into monotony (Velasquez, 2011; Besser-Jones & Slote, 2015).