Buddism

The Buddha

Siddhartha Gautana was a prince in a kingdom near the Indian-Nepalese border. He lived a privileged life but realized life included old age, sickness, and death. He then questioned the meaning of life and left his palace to seek Truth. He practiced various teachings but still had not found the answer. Instead, he look into his heart and mind for the answer and sat beneath a pipal tree until he gained Enlightenment. After 40 days, he gained this Enlightenment and became know as the Buddha (The Enlightened One).

The Three Jewels

The three jewels are the ideals at the heart of Buddhism. The Buddha is the yellow jewel. This jewel stands for Buddha himself and the spiritual journey to achieving Enlightenment. The blue jewel is Dharma. It stands for the teachings of Buddha or the truth he understood. It can also stand for the teaching that was born when the Buddha first put his realization into words. Dharma is also the corpus of scriptures which are apart of he Buddist canon and the practices outlined in them. The red jewel is Sangha. Sangha means spiritual community and the people with whom we share our spiritual lives. In a braod sense it is all the Buddhist in the world, living, dead or yet to be born.

The Threefold Way

The Threefold Way includes ethics, meditation, and wisdom. The path is progessive as ethics provides a basis for meditation, and meditation is the ground on which wisdom can develop. With ethics there is a code known as the Five Precepts. They are principles of training which are undertaken freely and put into practice with intelligence and sensitivity. Meditation is a means of transforming the mind. It includes techniques that that encourage and develop concentration, clarity, emtional positivity, and a clear seeing of the true nature of things. Wisdom is the aim of all Buddhist practices. It means developing our own direct understanding of the truth.

The Four Noble Truths

These are the most basic formulation of the Buddha's teaching:
1. All existence is dukkha (suffering/ unsatisfactoriness)
2. The cause of dukkha is craving
3. The cessation of dukkha comes with the cessation of craving
4. There is a path that leads from dukkha

The Noble Eightfold Path

This is a further unpacking of the Threefold Way and is one of the most widely known of Buddha's teachings.
1. Right Understanding
2. Right Resolve
3. Right Speech
4. Right Action
5. Right Livelihood
6. Right Effort
7. Right Mindfulness
8. Right Meditation