The Way of the Buddha

Fundamental Buddhist Teachings

Gautama was not a god, a prophet or any kind of supernatural being. The Buddha did not teach that a God created the universe. Rather, he pointed to a great law or Dharma running through everything that exists. It is by living in accordance with this Law that true wisdom and compassion and hence freedom from suffering may be achieved. Suffering may only be overcome, however, by being met and endured.

In the Buddha's words: "Suffering I teach and the way out of suffering." The way that he taught is often called the Middle Way, because it teaches that we should try and keep to a middle path between all extremes.

Fundamental Buddhist doctrines include the following:

The Three Signs of Being

Change
Suffering
No-I

The first, Change, points out the basic fact that nothing in the world is fixed or permanent. We are not the same people, either physically, mentally or emotionally, that we were one year or even one minute ago. Living as we do, then, as shifting beings upon shifting sands, it is not possible for us to find lasting security.

Suffering is not a good translation of the original word dukkha. Dukkha implies the generally unsatisfactory and imperfect nature of life. There is joy in life, but life can't be all joy; even in the most fortunate of lives there is suffering.

Buddhists do not believe that that there is anything everlasting or unchangeable in human beings, no soul or self in which a stable sense of 'I' might anchor itself. The whole idea of 'I' is in fact a basically false one that tries to set itself up in an unstable and temporary collection of elements.

'I' is made up of various aggregates (Skandhas): form (body), perception, conception, volition and consciousness (mind). Upon death these elements do not vanish from the face of the universe; they form new combinations elsewhere.

The Four Noble Truths

Suffering and unsatisfactoriness exist
The cause of suffering and unsatisfactoriness exists
The cause may be brought to an end
The means by which this may be achieved are by following the precepts of the Noble Eightfold Path

Buddhism begins with the fundamental fact of suffering. Life is generally unsatisfactory and imperfect. But before we can do anything about it, we must know its cause, which is the deeply-rooted sense of 'I'. Due to this, we are always struggling to get things that are pleasurable. to avoid things that are painful and generally to manipulate people and situations to be the way we want them.

Because the rest of the world does not necessarily fit in with what we want, we often find ourselves cutting against the general flow of things, and getting hurt and disappointed in the process. Therefore suffering may be brought to an end by transcending this strong sense of 'I' so that we come into harmony with things in general.

The means of doing this is the Noble Eightfold Path.

The Noble Eightfold Path

Right Seeing
Right Thought
Right Speech
Right Action
Right Livelihood
Right Effort
Right Mindfulness
Right Contemplation

Here "right" means in accordance with the facts, with the way things are which may be different from the way we would like them to be.

Right Seeing is important at the start because, if we cannot see the truth of the Four Noble Truths, then we can't make any sort of beginning. Right Thought follows naturally from this.

Right Thought, Right Speech, Right Action and Right Livelihood involve moral restraint - refraining from lying, stealing, committing violent acts, earning one's living in a way harmful to others, and things like that. Moral restraint not only helps bring about general social harmony but also helps us control and diminish the sense of 'I'. Like a greedy child, 'I' grows unruly the more we let it have its own way.

Right Effort is important because 'I' thrives on idleness, and in any case if we are not prepared to exert ourselves we cannot hope to achieve anything at all.

The last two steps of the Path, Right Mindfulness and Right Contemplation, represent the first foothold on the shore of No-I. They involve meditation.

In the most basic form of Buddhist meditation, a person sits upright, quietly watching the rise and fall of the breath. If thoughts, emotions or impulses arise, he just observes them come up and go like clouds in a blue sky, without rejecting them on the one hand or being carried away into daydreaming or restlessness on the other.

The Three Fires

"Your house is a fire, burns with the Three Fires; there is no dwelling in it." Thus spoke the Buddha in his Fire Sermon. The house he speaks of here is the human body; the three fires that burn it are Desire/Wanting, Anger and Delusion. They are called fires because, untamed they can rage through us and hurt us and others too.

In General

Although Buddhists value highly such virtues as loving kindness, humanity, patience and giving, perhaps they value compassion most of all. Ahimsa or harmlessness is closely connected to compassion. The compassionate desire to cause no harm to other beings (Buddhists would include animals, plants, inanimate objects and the world in general) has caused many Buddhists to become pacifists or vegetarians, although they are not obliged to do so. [Vegetables != plants? Jains eat discovered dead objects]

In all things Buddhism places great stress on self-reliance and the Buddha himself told his followers not to believe a thing because he told it but to test things for themselves. Buddhism is also a very practical religion and aims at helping people to live their lives; it is as much, if not more, concerned with giving people things to do as with giving them things to believe.

The Wheel Of Suffering

The unwanted sufferings of aging and death are produced in dependence upon birth;
Birth is produced in dependence upon the potentialised level of action called "existence";
"Existence" is produced in dependence upon grasping;
Grasping is produced in dependence upon attachment;
Attachment is produced in dependence upon feeling;
Feeling is produced in dependence upon contact;
Contact is produced in dependence upon the six sense spheres;
The six sense spheres are produced in dependence upon name and form;
Name and form are produced in dependence upon consciousness;
Consciousness is produced in dependence upon action;
Action is produced in dependence upon ignorance.