Buddhism: A Moral System by Aaron Poelker
Source:shaolin-overseas
Buddhism is the religion and philosophy originated from Siddhartha Gautama. The widespread advancement of the this combination of religion and philosophy occurred almost five centuries after the death of Siddhartha Gautama throughout all of Asia. There are two divisions of Buddhism, one being Theravada and the other being Mahayana. They differ in that Theravada Buddhism takes the Buddhist scripture as the final word and Mahayana Buddhist emphasize the teachings of the Buddha. The main goal of all Buddhism, though, is to the end the cycle of life and achieve the state called nirvana.
Nirvana is the place where one can reach eternal rest, and it is the place where you can reach the absolute truth. It is said that to even speak of nirvana is impossible because no one alive has reached nirvana so to speak of it is not possible. To achieve nirvana you must obey the laws of karma. Karma states that every negative action has a negative effect and that every positive action has a positive effect.
It is important to remember the birth story of the originator of Buddhism. It is said that the mother of Siddhartha envisioned the birth of her son and was even told by prophets she would bare a child would be the “enlightened one.” This story resembles the birth story and visitation of the angel Gabriel to Mary. His birth occurred one morning when his mother was attending to the garden, she picked up a tree branch and at that moment Siddhartha Gautama was born.
As Siddhartha’s life continued he experienced something that Buddhist today now call the Four Passing Sights. The story goes that Buddha was on the road walking and he encountered four men: a cripple, a sick man, a decaying corpse, and a wandering holy man. These four men lead him to the realization that everyone regardless of age or sex is born, will be sick, and will eventually die and that this has happened since the beginning of time. Upon this realization Siddhartha decided to give up the wealth he had inherited, his wife, and all his possessions to answer the questions of birth, life, and death. In doing this he became like the wandering holy man he encountered.
Siddhartha’s dedication to finding the truth lead him to another realization that life is not what we want it to be because of our humanly desires and cravings. The only way to combat these carnal desires were to follow the eightfold path. This teaching are the four noble truths.
The first of the four noble truths is dukkha. Dukkha that all humanly life is suffering. The second noble truth is Samaduya. Samaduya states that the cause of this suffering are our desires to for evil. The third noble truth is Nirodha. Nirodha states that there is an end to all suffering which will happen when the individual reaches nirvana. And the fourth and final noble truth is Magga which states that there is a path that can lead us to nirvana and that is called the eightfold path.
The eightfold path includes right understanding, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. Right speech in laymen’s terms is not lying and straying from those things that lead us away from the truth. Right understanding is seeing the world for what it really is, i.e. suffering and sadness. Right thought is being able to have purity of the mind and not think of the bad you could do. Right action is not killing, stealing, or having premarital or unchaste relations. Right livelihood is turning your life from badness into a good life. Right effort is defined as combating and abandoning evil, coming to talents you thought you did not have, and coming into knowledge. Right mindfulness is remaining focused and knowing your body, your mind, and all the mental qualities you may possess. Right concentration is the ability to abandon all the bad things and remaining pure.
Another key practice in Buddhism is the willingness to follow the five precepts, or commonly translated as Pancasila. You immediately are a follower of the five precepts once you start following Buddhism. The five precepts are as follows: refrain from killing human or animal life, refrain from stealing, refrain from unchaste acts, refrain from wrong speech, and refrain from indulging in anything that leads to carelessness.
The Buddha also teaches about the three marks of existence. Buddha taught that everything in the world, all the time is marked by these three characteristics. The first is Dukkha which is that nothing outside of the world we know can bring everlasting satisfaction. The second mark is Anicca. Anicca is that everything is always changing, or flux, and that everything at some point will cease to exist. The third and final mark is Anatta. Anatta is that there is no such thing as "soul." Anatta says that our self is comprised of humanly and psychological facets which are constantly changing, therefore there is no "central core."
