Buddhism to Solve the Problem of Human Suffering
Introduction
Buddhism which is a major world religion was started in Northeastern Indian by Siddhartha Gautama, who is famously known as Buddha. This religion was established around 500BC after Gautama, who belonged to an aristocratic family decided to give away all his personal belongings in search of enlightenment. Siddharta left the palace and began to behold for misery, poverty, and sickness. After joining a group of individuals who were searching for enlightenment, he realized that the path to enlightenment was not achieved through poverty or through a spoilt life. One day, he sat under a fig tree where he achieved his enlightenment after fighting various temptations for long (Violatti, 2013). According to his theory of enlightenment, life is filled with suffering which is often caused by people’s passions to achieve more in life. People that fail to accomplish their life’s desires often get born again in this circle and often tend to distant themselves from Nirvana, the world without suffering. The Four Noble Truths states that life is filled with suffering that is often filled with caused by unending desires and adopting a moderate and controlled lifestyle ends desire and suffering.
Four Noble Truths
Dukkha (Suffering)
This concept that human suffering can appear in different forms including death, old age, and sickness. Suffering occurs because life is not ideal and often fails to live up to people’s expectations. Humans are often subjected to cravings and desires whose satisfaction is only temporal and does not last since it results in monotony (Williams, 2008). When people are not suffering as a result of bereavement or illness, they suffer from a lack of satisfaction.
Samudaya (origin of Suffering)
The cause of human suffering is a desire which often comes in three forms; delusion or ignorance, desire, and reed, destructive needs, or hatred (Doniger, 2006). According to the Fire Sermon, Buddha stated that the for senses and the mind often cause suffering through attachment to negative, positive, and neutral sensations.
Nirodha (Cessation of Suffering)
According to Buddha, the best way to extinguish suffering was to free oneself from any form any of attachment (Gupta & Agrawal, 2017). He set an example with his life to show people that it was possible for an individual to liberate themselves from attachments.
Nirvana
According to this noble truth, one must extinguish the fire of hatred, delusion, and greed in order to achieve enlightenment. An individual that has attained nirvana achieves a state of mind that is filled with spiritual joy without any forms of negative fears and emotions (Tsering, 2005). Such an individual has compassion for all things and has freed themselves from suffering.
School of Thoughts
The Theravada school of Buddhism is considered the best representation of the Four Noble Truths. According to the canon of Theravada, the four truths are liberating in themselves since, the forces that often produce samsara in illusion often become incapable to produce any forms of karma when the truth is known. Understanding the four truths together makes it possible for individuals to attain liberation in a single moment. According to Hopfe & Woodward (2009), Theravada is considered the school of thought that often puts into practice the four truths in that it contains the essential teachings for understanding enlightenment and the Dhamma in that it explains various sections of the nirvana which refers to cessation and the resultant happiness and peace of mind.
Mahayana School of Buddhism
The significance of the Four Noble Truths has diminished significantly in this school of Buddhism which means the “Great Vehicle.” Its significance has diminished owing to the fact that it is often considered a mixture of different visions that are overlapping and sometimes contradictory. Its relevance has declined owing to the fact that its development was presented as a rather straightforward and suspicious chain of events (Bullitt, 2005). According to this concept, a completely enlightened Buddha stays in the world as a form of compassion for other sentient beings and does not leave samsara. This is contrary to the four truths which do not provide such a doctrinal interpretation.
Conclusion
The Four Noble Truths states that life is filled with suffering that is often filled with caused by unending desires and adopting a moderate and controlled lifestyle ends desire and suffering. The four Noble Truths explain human suffering, the origin of suffering, cessation of suffering, and nirvana which is the highest level one attains after extinguishing fires of hatred, ignorance, and hatred among others. Out of the schools of Buddhism, Mahayana has lost its significance in modern Buddhism owing to its overlapping and contradicting versions of the noble truths. On the contrary, Theravada school is the most relevant and is considered the best representation of the noble truths.
References
Bullitt, J. T. (2005). What is Theravada Buddhism? Access to Insight, 2005-09.
Doniger, W., (2006). Britannica encyclopedia of world religions. Encyclopædia Britannica, 2006.
Hopfe, L. M., & Woodward, M. R. (2009). Religions of the World. Pearson Education.
Tsering, T. (2005). The four noble truths: The foundation of Buddhist thought (Vol. 1). Simon and Schuster.
Gupta, K., & Agrawal, R. (2017). Sustainable development and spirituality: A critical analysis of the GNH index. International Journal of Social Economics.
Violatti, C., (2013). A short history of Buddhist schools. Ancient History Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.ancient.eu/article/492/a-short-history-of-the-buddhist-schools/
Williams, P. (2008). Mahayana Buddhism: the doctrinal foundations. Routledge.