preview

The Path of Buddha

Decent Essays

Now that we have a basic understanding of the Buddha's life and goals, we can examine the Buddha's first sermon, which is the foundation of the beliefs held by those that follow the principles of Buddhism. We can first look at the Four Noble Truths: 1. All existence involves suffering. 2 This suffering was caused by desire, 3. There can be a cessation to this suffering, 4. By following the Eightfold Noble Path. Next, Buddha instructed his followers to follow the Middle Path and condemned extreme behavior, giving them a set of rules called the Eightfold Noble Path as a guide. The Eightfold Noble Path’s only prerequisite being that we must have the right association with people in our social environment. This is extremely important to understand because much of our behavior is influenced by our social interactions and social environment. The eightfold noble path includes: 1. Right Knowledge says that we must first understand the four noble truths and understand that desire and ignorance cause suffering (Smith 1994). Buddha cautioned that anger, greed, and ego could corrupt our thoughts and sway us from reaching our goal of moksha. Therefore, we must educate ourselves so that we can eliminate the desires that sway our good intentions. Only by ridding ourselves of wrong intention and by gaining virtue can we find the path of enlightenment. 2. Right Intention says that we must understand what we really want to achieve in life. We must find what goal we are really trying to

Get Access