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Professor: Alexander Izrailevsky
Quan Duong
Phil 1000 – Spring 2015
THE INDIAN SAGE - THE BUDDHA
(SIDDHARTHA GAUTAMA; 560-480 B.C)
Throughout this course, Philosophy 1000, many philosophers have been discussed
in class. Each philosopher has his own thoughts and philosophy, and even though
sometimes I agree with their ideas, sometimes I don’t, I have to admit that all of
them are great minds of human history. However, I find learning about the
Buddha is the most interesting lecture, not only because I am a Buddhist, but his
teachings has also been useful for thousand years.
Siddhartha Gautama is believed to live in from 560 B.C to 480 B.C. The word
Buddha in Indian means “the awakened one”, or “the enlightened one”. The
sources for his biography are various, but the most common and interesting one
is that his mother, Queen Maha Maya, dreamt that a white elephant with six
tusks entered her right side, and Buddha the was born ten months later. The
mother died at his birth, while the infant was name Siddhartha, meaning “he who
achieves his aim.” To be born into a royal family, Siddhartha had a wealthy life,
and later got married to a beautiful wife. It was thought to be everything a man
could ask for, however, he had never been really happy. Finally, he decided to
withdraw the throne as well as his family; left the kingdom and entered the
journey to meet different types of people, to find out what real happiness was,
and the reasons why humans keep suffering from hardness of life (Dukkha). The
unsatisfactoriness drives our yearning for a better way of life, yet keep us
imprisoned in wordly existence and rebirth. According to him, a wealthy material
life was not the ultimate goal in life.
Before taking this class, I thought the Buddha was a religion leader and he has no
relations to philosophy, but it turned out that I was wrong. Buddhist philosophy is
the elaboration and explanation of the delivered teachings of the Buddha. It
concerns about explicating the dharma constituting reality. His teachings and
philosophies are very easy to understand and clear quite clear about how humans
should act and be.
“What is the meaning of life?”, “Why do we live if suffering is inespicable?”, etc.
were those types of questions that Siddhartha Gautama asked himself as he was
on the journey to live simply with compassion for all living things. He became an
ascetic torturing himself, starving himself and meditating for hours. Siddhartha
sat beneath the tree for seven weeks and during this period of meditation, he
discovered the way to enlightenment. He taught his beliefs publicly to the
followers, and the methods for finding enlightenment were considered in
“Buddha’s Four Noble Truths”:
1. There is suffering and it has a cause
2. Suffering is caused by craving and selfish desires, selfish attachments
3. There is an end to dissatisfaction and suffering is to be eliminated
4. Suffering can be eliminated by following the Noble Eightfold Path
The Eightfold Path provides guidelines for living that will help free us from
suffering. It is not necessarily a step-by-step path but several things that we can
incorporate into our lives. It consists of:
1.
Understanding is the right view, seeing the world as it really is not just
what we want it to be.
2.
Purpose urges us to decide what our hearts want, must come from the
heart and recognize the equality of life and compassion for all life, beginning with
self.
3.
Speech is about communicating thoughtfully and not speaking out of
haste or anger
4.
Behavior is do not kill, steal, or lie, avoid sexual misconduct and do not
take drugs or other intoxicants.
5. Lifestyle is equality of all living things and all life, the future is created by
what we do today.
6.
Effort is enthusiasm, positive attitude, steady and cheerful, clear and
honest thought, no jealousy and anger, only positive thinking.
7.
Mindfulness is being aware of the moment and focused, meditation,
aware of our actions, see how old patterns and habits control us, a need to
unclutter the mind
8. Deep meditation is about concentrating the mind in a worthy direction,
seeing things as they really are not what we are trained to see them as.
The Noble Eightfold Path is grouped into three essential elements: wisdom, moral
conduct, and mental discipline. Instead of intellectual knowledge, practicing is the
most important skill to understand properly and therefore, we can follow
correctly. Wisdom is to perceive the true nature of ourselves and the world
around us. Moral conduct is built upon a vast conception of universal love and
compassion for all living things. Lastly, mental discipline focuses on cutting
through delusion. This process could be reached by focusing our mind, or through
meditation. To be able to totally control your emotions and feelings is not easy,
which makes mental discipline at the most difficult level to practice.
I really like Buddha’s idea about Karma, or destiny. It is the belief that whatever
we do, good or bad things, the results will effect on our future. Reincarnation is
the concept that our soul or spirit will begin a new life in new body. Reincarnation
is the process that everyone undergoes in the afterlife, and depends on how we
lived in the past, one can either be reincarnated as human, animal, or spiritual.
Buddhism believes that there is no God, and every existence has a cause that
makes it happen.
Buddhism is a religion that believes of existing power that create the universe but
not as a God or a person who created it. Every person has sufferings through his
life and they have to face their fears, go through chains of reincarnation to reach
the state of Nirvana. Buddhism is the way to a better life, and the Five Moral
Rules are practical basis for good, ethical living. Millions of people around the
world practice and follow Buddha’s lessons. “Sitting quietly and silencing your
mind, showing compassion to all living beings and be the best person you can be
for yourself” is what the Buddha taught. I find the beauty of this path on how we
use our peaceful, logical mind to reach closer to our spirit.
Buddhism is not only a religion, but it is also a philosophy. The philosophy of
Siddhartha Gautama teaches people to coexist peacefully by avoiding hurting
each other through wrong use of words or actions. And far beyond, according to
me, Buddhism is also very scientific. For thousands of year and throughout many
eras in human history, his teachings has always correct and helpful for us to build
a better person and society. I totally agree with Albert Einstein, one of the
greatest mind of human civilization for saying that: “If there is any religion that
could respond to the needs of modern science, it would be Buddhism.”
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