My spiritual journey continues, with the study of Buddhism. While condensing the vast religion is difficult, it is based on The Four Noble Truths from The Buddha, or “Awakened One” who lived in India 2500 years ago.
Buddhists don’t pray to God, but rely on the self. Buddha recognized that suffering was part of the human condition, and created The Four Noble Truths so his followers would have a spiritual solution to suffering .
The Four Noble Truths:
- The truth of suffering – physical and mental pain
- The truth of the origin of suffering – our desires, our ignorance of self, our cravings for something outside ourselves to make us happy, our frustration when things don’t turn out the way we expect, and our wish to hold onto things that are constantly changing.
- The truth of the cessation of suffering – ending the craving for outside things to achieve Nirvana.
- The truth of the path that frees us from suffering – by ending the chase for satisfaction, we achieve enlightenment.
The Buddha said that to achieve peace and wisdom, we must know ourselves, do no harm to others, and concentrate, so we can cut through our delusions.
To achieve this, we must walk the Eightfold Path:
- Right View
- Right Intention
- Right Speech
- Right Action
- Right Livelihood
- Right Effort
- Right Mindfulness
- Right Concentration
These ancient beliefs are still relevant today. By borrowing from the Buddhist philosophy, we can ease our own suffering by looking into our own souls and tempering our desires, letting go of our attachment to things and beliefs that no longer serve us, and detaching until we learn that within ourselves we have all we need.
Ann.
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