🧠 Buddhist Philosophy

Created January 1, 0001

Between stimulus and response there is a space. 

In that space is our power to choose our response. 

In our response lies our growth and our freedom.

Intro

Buddhism is a path to “waking up,” or becoming Enlightenment, to a reality that is not consciously perceived by most of us. The Buddha taught that the biggest barrier to realization is the notion that “I” am a permanent, integral, autonomous entity. It is by seeing through the delusion of ego that realization blooms. One might say that in Buddhism, the big question is not whether gods exist, but what is the nature of existence?

The ultimate goal of the Buddhist path is release from the round of phenomenal existence with its inherent Suffering To achieve this goal is to attain Nirvana, an enlightened state in which the fires of greed, hatred, and ignorance have been quenched.

The four noble truths

In Buddhism, the Four Noble Truths the truths or realities for the “spiritually worthy ones”. The truths are:

1. Dukkha ( Suffering (suffering, incapable of satisfying, painful) is an innate characteristic of existence in the realm of samsara
2. samudaya (origin, arising) of this dukkha, which arises or “comes together” with taṇhā (“craving, Desire or attachment”)
3. nirodha (cessation, ending) of this dukkha can be attained by the renouncement or letting go of this taṇhā
4. marga ( The Path, Noble Eightfold Path) is the path leading to renouncement of tanha and cessation of dukkha.

Meditation

Meditation is as science, the systematic process of training the mind. There is a big different between being inside the thought/sensation, and simply being aware of it’s presence.

Source

Here’s a traditional way of looking at Buddhism, just as some food for thought: Every sensory experience feels either pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. When contacted with a pleasant experience, passion arises. With an unpleasant experience, aversion arises. With a neutral experience, ignorance arises. All three of these reactions (passion, aversion, and ignorance) have a common element of craving. And when there is craving, there is possession; when there is possession, there is a conception of “I am” in relation to the possessed. With the conception “I am” there is our fundamental anxiety about death. However, if a mind understands fully that all sensory experiences are impermanent and out of personal control, then it will also understand that craving in response to them is the cause of suffering. With that understood, there will be no passion, aversion, or ignorance in response to pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral sensations. With no craving, there will be no possession, and with no possessions, there will be no conception “I am.” This is release from our fundamental anxiety. In the Buddha’s teaching, Awakening has two parts: seeing things as they are and release therefrom. To see things as they are means to see that all things are causal (when this is, that is; when this isn’t, that isn’t), and therefore unstable, impersonal, devoid of ultimate significance. Knowing and seeing this to be the case, it is understood that craving is the cause of suffering and therefore, as explained, there is the cessation of the conception “I am,” which is release from death.

The development of concentration and meditation:

• Right effort, by which one learns how to favor skillful qualities of mind over unskillful ones.
• Right mindfulness, by which one learns to keep one’s attention continually grounded in the present moment of experience.
• Right concentration, by which one learns to immerse the mind so thoroughly and unwaveringly in its meditation object that it enters jhana, a series of progressively deeper states of mental and physical tranquillity.

Buddhist concepts

• The Self
• Purpose of Life
• Emptiness
• The three evils
• Other Religions
• Happiness

References:

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/buddhism/beliefs/fournobletruths_1.shtml
• Access to Insight
• http://www.dhammatalks.org/sitemap.html (Thanissaro Bikkhu)
• View on Buddhism
• http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/5minbud.htm
• Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha, An Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book. (Daniel Ingram)
• http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/mahasi/progress.html#ch1
• Noble Eight-fold path
• Type of Meditation