Buddhism
Siddhartha Gautama, born a Hindu, renounced his royal heritage in order to escape the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth which, he believed, inevitably leads to suffering, loss, and pain.
He spent time alone meditating, until one day Brahman (God) spoke to him, declaring him a "buddha," (a term derived from the Sanskrit root word budh, meaning to wake up or to regain consciousness). What he had discovered was that all of the world's problems begin with a fundamental ignorance (avidya) that causes beings to misunderstand the true nature of reality. Because of this, they engage in actions that lead to their own suffering and fail to recognize what leads to happiness. And, because phenomena are in a constant state of flux there is no enduring essence underlying them, nor a supreme being who oversees the process of change and decides the fates of beings. Rather, every being is responsible for its own destiny. He spent the next 40 years of his life teaching people about ‘Buddhism’.
Buddhism involves no worship of a deity or deification of the Buddha but rather takes a very straightforward look at the human condition. It is based on the three marks of existence: pain, impermanence and loss of ego.
Buddhists believe that if we look at our life, very simply, we see that it is marked with frustration and pain. This is because we attempt to secure our relationship with the world by solidifying our experiences in some concrete way, categorizing people and material things. The problem is that the "world out there" is constantly changing so it is impossible to make a permanent relationship with anything; the higher self is speculative at best and imaginary to begin with. We have invented the idea that we need to secure ourselves, to cement our relationships, and because of this, we feel uneasy and anxious, even at the best of times. It is only when we completely abandon clinging that we feel any relief from our queasiness.
1. Life is frustrating and painful - Things may be fine for the time being, but we are going to experience ill health and suffering at some point. And, while things may be fine for us, they are not so for others in the world.
2. Suffering has a cause - The reason behind the suffering is to teach us the lessons we need to overcome our struggles with relationships, goals, material desires, etc.
3. The cause of suffering can be terminated - Our struggle to survive, our effort to prove ourselves and solidify our relationships is unnecessary. We do this by abandoning our expectations about how we think things should be.
4. The path to end the cause of suffering is through meditation or mindfulness/awareness. We become mindful by abandoning our expectations about the way we think things should be and, out of our mindfulness, we begin to develop the insight that things are really quite simple - we can handle ourselves and our relationships once we stop trying to manipulate them.
The path to liberation, as taught by the Buddha, has eight points and is known as the eightfold path.
1. Right view --. Right view occurs when we see things simply, as they are without imposing our expectations on it. We abandon hope and fear and take joy in a simple straight-forward approach to life.
2. Right intention. - If we are able to abandon our expectations, our hopes and fears, we no longer need to be manipulative. We work with what is. Our intentions are pure.
3. Right speech - Once our intentions are pure, we say what needs to be said, very simply in a genuine way.
4. Right discipline - We need to give up our tendency to complicate issues. We practice simplicity.
5. Right livelihood - We should be glad of our job, whatever it is. We should form a simple relationship with it , perform it properly, and pay attention to detail.
6. Right effort - We often approach a spiritual discipline as though we need to conquer our evil side and promote our good side. We are locked in combat with ourselves and try to obliterate the tiniest negative tendency. Right effort doesn't involve struggle at all. When we see things as they are, we can work with them, gently and without any kind of aggression whatsoever.
7. Right mindfulness - Precision and clarity. We are mindful of the tiniest details of our experience. We are mindful of the way we talk, the way we perform our jobs, our posture, our attitude toward our friends and family, every detail.
8. Right concentration - Usually we are absorbed in absentmindedness. It provides a space or gap in our preoccupation with ourselves. Our minds are completely captivated by all sorts of entertainment and speculations. Meditation cuts through our absentmindedness.
Nirvana is the cessation of the struggle to prove our existence to the world. We have survived so the struggle was just an extra complication that we added to our lives because we had lost our confidence in the way things are. We no longer need to manipulate things as they are into things as we would like them to be.
Buddhanet - This link takes you to the page on the roles of Buddhist women, but there are other interesting articles and information on this site pertaining to Buddhism.