Buddhism Essential Question

To some human beings, life is a continuous cycle that is ongoing; it starts with being

born, leads to death, ends in rebirth, and then continues. The cycle, known as samsara, has been

going for thousands of years and is still applicable today. What if life was simpler than this

constant cycle, what if life had one purpose that could be fulfilled. Buddhism explains that our

own desires lead to us experiencing suffering, a state of being that has shaped our world from the

start of biology until modern times.

It only takes a small number of words to describe the fundamental belief of Buddhism by

saying “life is suffering”. Three words to sum up the basis of religion may seem simple to

understand; however, the complexity of Buddhism is surprisingly difficult to comprehend.

Sidharata, who was born into a family of wealth, was given everything he needed to succeed in

life, yet he felt incomplete. After escaping his palace walls, Sidharata experienced old age,

illnesses, a corpse, and a monk. It was then that he understood that suffering was all around him,

an inevitable way of life, and he tried many different ways to stop this cycle from happening. He

thought the way to end suffering was by adopting the lifestyle of a monk. He abandoned his

family, cut off his hair, and developed a completely new lifestyle. While attempting the ways of

the monks, he was taught by two teachers the art of deep meditation, but he soon abandoned it

because he did not find the true insight of life. After about five to six years of asceticism, he still

did not reach his goal of life and left all the different practices he was taught behind. In a bid to

redeem himself, he sat underneath a bodhi tree for an extended period of time, and here is where

he found a way to escape the cycle of birth and death through The Four Noble Truths and by

following the Eightfold Path. The Four Noble Truths can be described as 1. life is suffering, 2.
the cause for suffering is a desire and a thirst for materialistic things, 3. suffering can be stopped

by getting rid of desire and thirst, and 4. the eightfold path is how to rid yourself of suffering.

The Eightfold Path focuses on eight major principles in no particular order: the right thought,

right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right

concentration. Once one has achieved all that was spoken of previously, they have reached life's

ultimate goal, nirvana. Nirvana means “extinguishing”, meaning that someone is finally being

released from karma, the vicious cycle of death and rebirth, and they have gained freedom from

suffering.

During the Classical era, civilization was starting to peak and increase in complexity.

People had discovered the power of money and were able to create different caste systems based

on different imagined realities. Buddhism could have been appealing to people because it

believed that everybody was the same and that everybody had the ability to achieve the same end

goal in life, Nirvana. When people were compared to others based on the different caste systems,

Buddhism showed people that the amount of money, power, or materialistic objects was not what

was important in life, and gave people the opportunity to escape a world where the top five

percent ruled the bottom 95 percent.

The state of nirvana sounds appealing in today's world because we would finally be able

to slow down and not worry about the small things that could go wrong in life. Imagine a world

where stress, crime, safety, poverty, and etc did not exist. A world where war was not such a

prevalent topic in society. Finally, Buddhism lets people live life freely end eliminates problems.

If following a path would lead to freedom in a way don't you think everybody would attempt to

achieve Nirvana. So the question is, can the practice of Buddhism lead to the correct way of life?