Buddhism: Emphasizing Individual Faith And Spiritual Autonomy

Buddhism is a non-theistic faith that began in India around the 6th or 5th century BCE and is now considered one of the world's major religions. It is based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, also known as the Buddha, who is considered an extraordinary being but not a god. Buddhists focus on achieving enlightenment, a state of inner peace and wisdom, and believe that the path to enlightenment is attained by utilising morality, meditation and wisdom.

Buddhism emphasises individual faith through its focus on the individual's journey to enlightenment. While the religion has many philosophies and interpretations, and there is no single Buddhist symbol, it is united by a set of core beliefs and practices that revolve around the concept of suffering and its causes. Buddhists believe that human life is a cycle of suffering and rebirth, but that it is possible to escape this cycle and reach an enlightened state called nirvana. This can be achieved by following the teachings of the Buddha, or dharma, and the path to enlightenment is known as the Middle Way.

The Middle Way is a way of life between the two extremes of asceticism and wealth, and involves following a set of guidelines for daily life called the Five Precepts:

- Do not harm or kill living things

- Do not take things unless they are freely given

- Do not speak unkindly or tell lies

- Do not abuse drugs or drink alcohol

The importance of meditation

Meditation is a key component of Buddhism. It is the second part of the 'threefold path' to spiritual awakening, coming after ethics and before the development of wisdom.

Meditation is a way of taking control of the mind so that it becomes peaceful and focused, and the meditator becomes more aware. The purpose of meditation is to stop the mind from rushing about in a stream of thoughts, and to still the mind.

There are many methods of meditating. Some involve focusing on the breath, while others involve chanting mantras or concentrating on a particular object. Walking meditation is a popular Zen method, and repetitive movements using beads or prayer wheels are used in other faiths.

Meditation is important in Buddhism because it is the key to attaining enlightenment. The Buddha himself attained enlightenment through meditation, and it is through meditation that anyone can achieve this state.

Meditation is also seen as a way to eliminate the three mental defilements of greed, hatred, and delusion, which are considered the root cause of all suffering. By purifying the mind through meditation, Buddhists can avoid unnecessary mental suffering and keep their minds and actions good and wholesome for future lives.

Meditation also plays a crucial role in the Noble Eightfold Path, which the Buddha described as the path to the end of suffering. Samma Samadhi, or right meditation, is one of the components of this path.

In addition, meditation is seen as a way to generate loving-kindness and compassion. It is also a way to connect with the Buddhist community and feel a sense of belonging.

Finally, meditation has practical benefits, such as stress reduction and improved relationships. It is also increasingly used as a therapy for promoting good health and boosting the immune system.

The Middle Way

The first aspect of the Middle Way refers to a spiritual practice that steers clear of two extremes: extreme asceticism and sensual indulgence. This spiritual path is defined as the Noble Eightfold Path, which leads to awakening. The Buddha himself, before his awakening, embraced the extreme of asceticism, practising mortifying austerities. However, he ultimately realised that both indulgence and deprivation were equally useless, even detrimental, to his goal of achieving awakening.

The second aspect of the Middle Way refers to how the Buddha's teachings approach ontological issues of existence and personal identity. Here, the Middle Way refers to the avoidance of eternalism (or absolutism) and annihilationism (and nihilism).

Eternalism refers to the view that there is an indestructible and eternal self, or that the world is maintained by a permanent being or entity, like God. The problem with this view is that it leads to grasping at the five aggregates, which are impermanent and empty of a self.

Anihilationism, on the other hand, is the idea that a person is utterly annihilated at death, and there is nothing which survives. The problem with this view is that it leads to nihilism, particularly ethical nihilism.

By steering clear of these two extremes, the Middle Way teaches that existence is constituted by a current of conditioned phenomena devoid of a metaphysical self yet continuing on from birth to birth as long as the causes that sustain it remain effective.

In Mahayana Buddhism, the Middle Way refers to the insight into śūnyatā ("emptiness") that transcends the extremes of existence and non-existence. The Madhyamaka school, founded several hundred years after the Buddha's lifetime, takes its name from the Sanskrit term for the Middle Way, madhyama-pratipad. The school's exemplar, the philosopher-monk Nagarjuna, applied the Middle Way to existence and non-existence: in between any two opposites lies emptiness, or sunyata, which is not nothingness but a vast creative potential.

The Four Noble Truths

• The truth of suffering (Dukkha)
• The truth of the origin of suffering (Samudaya)
• The truth of the cessation of suffering (Nirodha)
• The truth of the path to the cessation of suffering (Magga)

The First Noble Truth

Suffering comes in many forms. The Buddha identified three obvious kinds of suffering: old age, sickness and death. However, according to the Buddha, the problem of suffering goes much deeper. Life frequently fails to live up to our expectations, and human beings are subject to desires and cravings. Even when we are able to satisfy these desires, the satisfaction is only temporary.

The Second Noble Truth

The Buddha taught that the root of all suffering is desire, or 'thirst'. This comes in three forms, which he described as the Three Roots of Evil, or the Three Fires: hate, greed and ignorance.

The Third Noble Truth

The Buddha taught that the way to extinguish desire, which causes suffering, is to liberate oneself from attachment. This is the possibility of liberation. The Buddha was a living example that this is possible in a human lifetime.

The Fourth Noble Truth

The final Noble Truth is the Buddha's prescription for the end of suffering. This is a set of principles called the Eightfold Path. The eight stages are not to be taken in order, but rather support and reinforce each other:

• Right Understanding
• Right Intention
• Right Speech
• Right Action
• Right Livelihood
• Right Effort
• Right Mindfulness
• Right Concentration

The Eightfold Path is also called the Middle Way: it avoids both indulgence and severe asceticism, neither of which the Buddha had found helpful in his search for enlightenment.

Karma

The Four Topics of Karma

The Law of Cause and Effect

The basic principle of karma is that nothing can come into being without a cause, and certain causes bring about certain effects. For example, a barley seed will only grow barley, not rice or any other plant. In the context of karmic or behavioural cause and effect, virtuous/beneficial actions will bring about results of happiness, and non-virtuous/harmful actions will bring about results of suffering.

The Urge Borne of Habits of Mind

Thoughts and feelings come from compulsive urges, such as desire and attachment, which lead us to see things, think about them, and act out in certain ways related to them. Over time, these actions lead to habits that are either reinforced by continuing to act in those same ways or diminished by opposing them.

Actions Propelled by Such an Urge

The Effects/Results of Those Actions

The effects of karma can be ripened (occurring later on) or correspond to their causes in our actions or experiences. For example, if we harm others, we will continue to wish to harm them in the future. Understanding this process is important as karma is the urge that leads to an intention and an action. By completing the action, we create more karmic urges that keep us in the cycle of compulsive behaviour.

The only way out is to overcome karma completely and attain liberation from samsara.

Nirvana

The term "nirvana" is derived from the Sanskrit root √vā, meaning "to blow". It is interpreted as the extinction of the "three fires" or three poisons of greed, aversion, and ignorance. When these fires are extinguished, release from saṃsāra, the perpetual grasping activity of the mind, or the cycle of rebirth, is attained.

There are two types of nirvana: sopadhishesa-nirvana, or "nirvana with a remainder", which is attained and maintained during life, and parinirvana or anupadhishesa-nirvana, "nirvana without remainder" or final nirvana, which is achieved at death when there is no fuel left.

In Zen, Tibetan Buddhism, and other types of Mahayana Buddhism, the state of nirvana is synonymous with becoming a Buddha, or realising one's innate Buddha-nature.

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