The On The Buddha's Enlightenment

The significance of the Buddhist teachings has impacted the everyday lives of Buddhist adherents as it provides a set of guidance, in which the goal of individuals is to improve themselves through effort and ultimately reach Nirvana, enlightenment. Through the Four Noble truths; The existence of Dukkha (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 noble truth of Buddhism is the truth of suffering. Basically along his travels Buddha found the one thing that all men have in common is suffering; and that suffering can be physical or mental. There exists a myriad of suffering within The Road, for instance this conversation between the man and the boy showing the amount of suffering they are enduring as the boy can not be assuaged of his fear; “I'm scared. I know. ...There's no one here, the man said. Okay. Are you still scared?Yes..” (Mc Cormac 173).

The concept of Dharma also exists in Buddhism. However, Buddhist Dharma is “the teachings of the Buddha” it is known to be the second of three jewels. Gautama Buddha seeks to enlighten one’s self. The Buddha teaches of four truths known as the four noble truths. The four truths are the truth of suffering, the truth of the causes of suffering, the truth of the end of suffering and the truth of the path that leads to suffering (PBS). The four truths are plans to deal with human suffering altogether. Identifying the causes and reasons behind suffering is step one. Determining what to do about it is step two. Karma is also a teaching of the Buddha. In this teaching the Buddha places emphasis that good or bad

The Buddha's teachings were based on the fact of that human existence is painful. It was also based on the ultimately dissatisfying character of human life with emphasis on finding a way to escape and attain perfection from the different lives. Buddhism also believes that the universe is a product of Karma. The Four Noble Truths are the truth of misery (dukkha), the truth that misery originates within the craving for pleasure and for being or nonbeing (samudaya), the truth that this craving can be eliminated (nirodhu), and the truth that this elimination is the result of following a methodical way or path (magga). There

Having achieved enlightenment, the Buddha began spreading his knowledge to help others achieve ?Nirvana?, which means to be released from the reincarnation cycle. He preached that there were 4 Noble Truths: (1) all life is suffering; (2) the source of suffering is desire; (3) to end desiring is to end suffering; (4) there is an eight-fold path to end suffering; to have the right understanding, thought, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and concentration. This idea of being released from suffering attracted many people, and Buddhism soon spread rapidly through Northern India, and then through Southern India.

Dharma is a word used to refer to the teachings of Buddha, as well as the natural flow of the universe, similar to “the way” in Daoism. By practicing dharma, a disciple is following Buddhist words and teachings and seeking enlightenment and harmony. Dharma is both the way the world works and the Buddhist explanation of those workings. Dharma teaches patience and compassion, as well as the Four Noble Truths. According to Buddhism, one can escape the suffering in life by following the Eightfold Path.

Buddhism see’s the Four Noble Truths as the Buddha’s way of explaining the truth of the human condition and are described as the essence of His teachings. The Four Noble Truths play an important part in understanding the Buddha’s teachings and are essential in realising the goal of His teachings, which is to show individuals how to overcome suffering and obtain Nibbana, a place of peace and happiness where an individual ceases to experience suffering (Dukkha). Buddhism can be described as a religion one must practice and experience in order to grasp a full understanding of, with the Four Noble Truths themselves coming from the personal experience of The Buddha. It is through experiencing the extremes of life that the Buddha had an awakening and ultimately came to understand the truth of the world, as elucidated in the Four Noble Truths. Buddhism see’s the Buddha’s experience and subsequent awakening as reason in itself to support the Four Noble Truths and of the possibility of attaining Nibbana for all sentient beings. Objections raised against the first Noble Truth, which states that there is suffering (Dukkha), and that everything in life is pervaded by dissatisfaction, revolve around

Perfunctory explanations of the four truths are as follows: the truth of suffering (duhkha), which explains that suffering is a part of existence from the time we are born and perpetuated by time and negative emotions; the truth of the origin of suffering, which states that, because we attach ourselves to selfish desires and things that cannot be, the origin of suffering lies within ourselves; the truth that one can be free from suffering, which states that one can be free if they sustain from selfish behaviors and renounce cravings; and the truth that one can overcome suffering by following the Middle Way, which is explained in the Noble Eightfold Path.

The first truth is that life involves suffering such as having pain, getting old, and death. It can also describe painful emotions such as loneliness, and anger (Basic Buddhism, 1993). The second truth is that suffering is caused by craving and hatred (Basic Buddhism, 1993). Instead of being disappointed when others don’t meet our expectations, Buddhism teaches us to be content and happy with what we do have (Basic Buddhism, 1993). The third truth describes giving up useless things in our lives in order to achieve true happiness (Basic Buddhism, 1993). The fourth and final truth is that the Noble Eightfold Path is the one true path that leads to ending suffering (Basic Buddhism, 1993). The Noble Eightfold Path is a Buddhist concept of focusing on the mindfulness and intentions of our thoughts and actions (Basic Buddhism,

While reaching and aboding in the Four Absorptions, the Buddha reflected on the Four Aryan Truths. With his mind fully awakened “he fathomed the Twelve Causes in the chain of Dependent Origination” (93). The Twelve Causes were as follows; “in the past life: 1. There is ignorance, 2. Ignorance conditions the predisposing mental formations, in the presents life: 3. The predisposing mental formations condition discriminative consciousness, 4. discriminative consciousness conditions mind-in-body, 5. mind-in-body conditions the six senses, 6. six senses condition contact, 7. Contact conditions feeling, 8. Feeling conditions craving, 9. Craving conditions attachment, 10. Attachment conditions the process of becoming, in the future: 11. The process of becoming conditions rebirth, 12. Rebirth conditions decay and death, likewise sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair” (93-94). The Buddha then proclaimed, “Thus does the entire mass of suffering arise. But on the complete fading out and cessation of ignorance, this entire mass of suffering comes to an end” (94). The Buddha and his followers believe that in order to achieve nirvana and cease rebirth one must first extinguish ignorance of the Four Aryan Truths within one’s self through the Four

In Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha, the four Noble Truths of Buddhism are revealed throughout the journey of Siddhartha. The Four Noble Truths include: Life means suffering, the origin of suffering is attachment, the cessation of suffering is attainable, and the path to the cessation of suffering. Siddhartha discovers that in order to reach enlightenment, one must have experiences and struggle through these Noble Truths firsthand.

Lastly Suffering or Sorrow. According to the text, this refers to the fact that life, when lived in a typical manner can never be fully satisfying because of its constant change. Even in the midst of pleasure, we are always aware that pleasure is short-lived. The Sanskrit word for this is duhkha. Buddha rejected the notion of a permanent soul but believed in rebirth. Buddhism proposes that certain elements of personality (not necessarily a soul) that make up an individual can recombine and continue from one lifetime to another while karma determines how an individual will be reborn and his/her life’s circumstances. (pages 131-132)

Buddhism arose in northern India in the 6th century BCE. The historical founder of Buddhism, Siddharta Gautama (c.560-480 BCE) was born in a village called Lumbini into a warrior tribe called the Sakyas (from where he derived the title Sakyamuni, meaning 'Sage of the Sakyas'). According to tradition Gautama's father, Suddhodana was the king of a small principality based on the town of Kapilavastu. His mother, Queen Maya, died seven days after Gautama's birth. Following the death of Maya, Suddhodana married Maya's sister, Prajapati, by whom Gautama was brought up in great luxury and sheltered from the harshness of the outside world.

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).