Buddha has some pretty epic quotes, I’m sure we’ve all heard of them at some point, I’ve even quoted him in one of my articles.
I didn’t know much about Buddhism, but I wanted to learn more, so I’m here writing this article from what I’ve learned about Buddhism, and my thoughts on it.
So I am writing this not as a Buddhist Monk showing you the ways of Buddhism, but just as someone learning about it.
The Story of the Buddha
The story begins with Buddha, or Siddhartha Gautama, who was born to King Śuddhodana. At the time of Siddharta Gautama’s birth, it was prophesized that Siddharta Gautama would either grow up to be a world monarch or a Buddha(a highly enlightened teacher). Of course, now we know what happens, but let’s go on with the journey.
The thought of Buddha becoming an ascetic or spiritual teacher, scared Buddha’s father(Śuddhodana). This is why he gave the Buddha a palace, actually not a palace but three, with all the luxuries away from harsh reality so he would enjoy these luxuries, and become a king.
However, the Buddha ended up leaving the palace due to his renunciation and went out into the world, where he saw people ageing and dying and getting sick, which made him realize the suffering of life and want to figure a way out of it.
The Buddha was also born to a warrior class the Kshatriyas and so was made to fight, but he never killed a person because he did not see it as the right thing, something throughout his life which set him apart was his attraction towards non-violence.
Seeing the suffering in the world made him try a bunch of things, he learned different breathing and meditation techniques from some great spiritual teachers and even mastered them. He also heard there were people who did a different kind of meditation one where you don’t breathe but hold you are breath painfully for long periods of time.
He saw the methods of self-mortification like eating extremely little food(like surviving on one grain a day), or wild food, Siddhartha Gautama even went through a period where he would never be in a relaxed position like lying down he always kept his back straight and never stood straight but only squatting, he even walked around squatting. From starving himself, or eating minimally, his stomach was pretty much till his spine; No surprise he grew extremely weak from this. This is when he realized after six years of doing this, he had NOT found any new light, and only lost physical strength, so he quit this practice.
After that, he sat under a tree and meditated saying he wouldn’t move until he got enlightened. Evil Passions tried distracting Gautama, but he won the battle and the evil passion fled. It took him 7 weeks to get enlightened,
This is when he understood the four noble truths of life :
The truth of suffering- You stub your toe, you get sick, natural disasters exist, and even school is a thing. You get the idea. If you listen to Jordan Peterson you’ve probably already heard of this one.
The truth of the cause of suffering- desire, and ignorance lies at the root of suffering. By desire, Buddhists refer to craving pleasure, material goods, and immortality, all of which are wants that can never be satisfied.
The truth of the end of suffering- To be free from desire
The truth of the path that leads to the end of suffering is the 8-fold part:
Noble Eightfold Path.
Right Understanding,
RightThought,
Right Speech
Right Action,
Right Livelihood
Right Effort
Right Mindfulness
Right Concentration.
We’ve seen the Buddha go from being a prince and having palaces, to going through extreme self-mortification for 6 years, this is probably why the Buddha came up with the eight-fold path or the middle way. And he doesn't mean living in moderation with two extremes ( pleasure and self-mortification) but living without them.
Some questions you might have in mind:
Is the Buddha God?
To make it clear the Buddha is not god, he is not meant to be worshipped or prayed to, he was more of a person who showed the way to go, somewhat of a spiritual teacher.
There are gods in Buddhism, however, they are not omniscient, all-knowing, and all-powerful, like the gods in Abrahamic religions, but they are also bound by the cycle of karma.
Did the Buddha really exist?
This is a bit hard to tell, but most scholars and sources agree that he existed, whether divine or not.
The Cycle of Rebirth
Karma plays out in the Buddhist cycle of rebirth. There are six separate planes into which any living being can be reborn -- three fortunate realms, and three unfortunate realms. At the time of writing this article, something that boggles my mind is how is it possible for re-birth to occur even though Buddha doesn’t believe in a soul.
What is the difference between Buddhism and Hinduism?
I’ve seen people who think Buddhism is a sect of Hinduism, but make it clear it is a different religion. They might have similar beliefs like karma, and reincarnation, but Buddhism rejects the priests of Hinduism, the formal rituals, and the caste system
This article was a bit different, I don’t usually write about my writings on religion, however, I do hope this was informative and you enjoyed reading it :)
I’m thinking of writing more articles, religion-themed, let me know how you’re liking them.
Edit: When I originally published this article, I was in a hurry and hadn’t edited it well, so I apologize for the many mistakes this article had. I’ve fixed them now.
-Info Bites
Some links:
https://www.pbs.org/edens/thailand/buddhism.htm#:~:text=The Second Truth%2C on the,that can never be satisfied.
https://tricycle.org/beginners/buddhism/dependent-origination/
Hey Info Bites here!
When I originally uploaded this article in a hurry, there were a lot of errors I hadn't notice.
I apologize for those.
I've now fixed them