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Twenty-five hundred years ago one’s man’s spiritual journey was the beginning of one of the world’s seven religions — boasting 376 million followers today. He is simply called “The Buddha,” and he grew up the son of a king…sheltered from the realities of human suffering. When he finally learned the harsh truth, he left his family and set off on a path to understand life itself — first as a monk and then as a teacher.
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Transcript Provided by YouTube:
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Twenty-five thousand years ago one’s man’s spiritual journey was the beginning of one
00:05
of the world’s seven religions — boasting 376 million followers today.
00:10
He is simply called “The Buddha,” and he grew up the son of a king…sheltered from
00:14
the realities of human suffering.
00:16
When he finally learned the harsh truth, he left his family and set off on a path to understand
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life itself — first as a monk and then as a teacher.
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Let’s take a closer look at “The Buddha”, Siddhartha Gautama on Biographics.
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Early Life
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The
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founder of Buddhism was a man named Siddhartha Gautama.
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He was the son a chieftain and believed to be born in Lumbini (modern-day Nepal) in the
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6th century B.C.
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His father Śuddhodana (translating to, “he who grows pure rice”) presided over a large
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clan called the Shakya in either a republic or an oligarchy system of rule.
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His mother was Queen Māyā of Sakya who is said to have died shortly after his birth.
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The infant was given the name Siddhartha, meaning “he who achieves his aim.”
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When Siddhartha was still a baby, several seers with the power of supernatural insight
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into the future, predicted he would either be a great spiritual leader, military leader
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or a king.
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Since Siddhartha’s mother died, he was brought up by his maternal aunt, Maha Pajapati.
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His father, hoping to steer Siddhartha in the direction of the throne, shielded him
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from religion of any kind and sheltered him from seeing human hardship and suffering.
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As such, he was raised in the lap of luxury and blissful ignorance where he knew nothing
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about aging, disease, or death.
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At the age of 16, Siddhartha’s father arranged his marriage to a cousin, Yaśodharā, who
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was also a teenager.
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She gave birth to a son, Rāhula, some years later.
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Siddhartha is said to have remained living in the palace until the age of 29 when everything
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changed.
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According to the story, one day Siddhartha travelled outside of the palace gates and
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he was deeply disturbed by the sight of an old man.
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His charioteer Channa explained to Siddhartha that all people grow old and that death is
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an integral part of life.
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This prompted Siddhartha to secretly venture outside the palace on more trips.
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When leaving, it was said that, “the horse’s hooves were muffled by the gods” so as to
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prevent the guards from knowing of his departure.
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Outside the gates on these trips he encountered a sick man, a decaying corpse, and a homeless,
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holy man (also known as an ascetic).
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Channa told Siddhartha ascetics give up their material possessions and forgo physical pleasures
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for a higher, spiritual purpose.
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After witnessing the reality of human hardship and suffering, Siddhartha had no interest
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in living at the palace.
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He left his wife and child to discover the true meaning of life, first through living
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as a traveling beggar, like the ascetics he saw on the streets.
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Ascetic life “The root of suffering is attachment.”
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Siddhartha first went to the city of Rajagaha and began begging on the streets to survive.
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He was recognized there by the king’s men and offered the throne.
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He rejected it but promised to come back and visit once he attained enlightenment.
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When he left Rajagaha, he met a hermit Brahmin saint named Alara Kalama.
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Kalama taught Siddhartha a form of meditation known as the dhyānic state, or the “sphere
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of nothingness.”
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Siddhartha eventually became his teacher’s equal and Kalama offered him his place saying,
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“You are the same as I am now.
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There is no difference between us.
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Stay here and take my place and teach my students with me.”
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But Siddhartha didn’t stay, and instead he moved on to another teacher, Udaka Ramaputta.
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Once again, he achieved high levels of meditative consciousness and was asked to succeed his
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teacher.
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Siddhartha refused the offer and moved on.
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Through the practice of meditation, Siddhartha realized dhyana, a “state of perfect equanimity
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and awareness” was the path to enlightenment.
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He also realized that living life as an extremely deprived beggar, as he had done, wasn’t
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working.
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It had been six years, and he had eaten very little and fasted until he was weak.
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Awakening
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After starving himself for days, Siddhartha famously accepted milk and rice pudding from
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a village girl named Sujata.
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He was so emaciated, she thought he was a spirit there to grant her a wish.
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Siddhartha, after having this meal, decided against living a life of extreme self-denial
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since his spiritual goals were not being met.
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He instead opted to follow a path of balance, known in Buddhism as the Middle Way.
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At this turning point, his five followers believed he was giving up and abandoned him.
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Soon after he started meditating under a fig tree (now called the Bodhi tree) and committed
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himself to staying there until he had found enlightenment.
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He meditated for six days and nights and reached enlightenment on the full moon morning of
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May, a week before he turned thirty-five.
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At the time of his enlightenment he gained complete insight into the cause of suffering,
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and the steps necessary to eliminate it.
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He called these steps the “Four Noble Truths.”
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After his awakening, the Buddha met two merchant brothers from the city of Balkh in modern-day
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Afghanistan.
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The brothers, Trapusa and Bahalika, offered the Buddha his first meal after enlightenment
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and they became his first lay disciplines.
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According to some texts, each brother gave a hair from his head and these became relics
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enshrined at the Shwe Dagon Temple in Rangoon, Burma.
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The Teacher
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“I teach because you and all beings want to have happiness and want to avoid suffering.
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I teach the way things are.”
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Legend has it that initially Buddha was reluctant to spread his knowledge to others as he was
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doubtful of whether the common people would understand his teachings.
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But then the king of gods, Brahma, convinced Buddha to teach, and he set out to do that.
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The Buddha travelled to Deer Park in northern India, where he set in motion what Buddhists
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call the Wheel of Dharma by delivering his first sermon to the five companions who had
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abandoned him earlier.
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Together with him, they formed the first Buddhist monks, also known as saṅgha.
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All five attained nirvana, a state along the path to enlightenment yet not full enlightenment.
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They were known as arahants, meaning “one who is worthy,” or “perfected person.”
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From the first five, the group of arahants steadily grew to 60 within the first few months
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and eventually, the sangha reached more than one thousand.
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The sangha traveled through the subcontinent, expounding the dharma.
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This continued throughout the year, except during the four months of the Vassa rainy
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season when ascetics of all religions rarely traveled.
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One reason was that it was more difficult to do so without causing harm to animal life.
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At this time of year, the sangha would retreat to monasteries, public parks or forests, where
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people would come to them.
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The first vassana was spent at Varanasi when the sangha was formed.
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After this, the Buddha kept a promise to travel to Rajagaha, capital of Magadha, to visit
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King Bimbisara.
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During this visit, Sariputta and Maudgalyayana were converted by Assaji, one of the first
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five disciples, after which they were to become the Buddha’s two foremost followers.
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The Buddha spent the next three seasons at Veluvana Bamboo Grove monastery in Rajagaha,
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the capital of Magadha.
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Upon hearing of his son’s awakening, Suddhodana sent, over a period, ten delegations to ask
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him to return to Kapilavastu.
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On the first nine occasions, the delegates failed to deliver the message and instead
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joined the sangha to become arahants.
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The tenth delegation, led by Kaludayi, a childhood friend of Gautama’s (who also became an arahant),
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however, delivered the message.
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Now two years after his awakening, the Buddha agreed to return, and made a two-month journey
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by foot to Kapilavastu, teaching the dharma as he went.
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At his return, the royal palace prepared a midday meal, but the sangha was making an
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alms round in Kapilavastu.
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Hearing this, Suddhodana approached his son, the Buddha, saying: “Ours is the warrior
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lineage of Mahamassata, and not a single warrior has gone seeking alms.”
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The Buddha is said to have replied: “That is not the custom of your royal lineage.
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But it is the custom of my Buddha lineage.
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Several thousands of Buddhas have gone by seeking alms.”
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Buddhist texts say that Suddhodana invited the sangha into the palace for the meal, followed
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by a dharma talk.
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After this he is said to have become a sotapanna.
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During the visit, many members of the royal family joined the sangha.
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The Buddha’s cousins Ananda and Anuruddha became two of his five chief disciples.
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At the age of seven, his son Rahula also joined, and became one of his ten chief disciples.
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His half-brother Nanda also joined and became an arahant.
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His wife, reportedly became a nun.
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Throughout his life, Buddha encouraged his students to question his teachings and confirm
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them through their own experience.
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This non-dogmatic attitude still characterizes Buddhism today.
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Buddhism “You yourself must strive.
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The Buddhas only point the way.”
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Buddhism is the fourth largest religion in the world and t is also one of the oldest,
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established in the 6th century B.C. in present-day Nepal, India.
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Unlike other religions, Buddhists do not worship a God.
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Instead, they focus on spiritual development with the end-goal of becoming “enlightened”
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— though not in the intellectual sense of the word.
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In the Western world, enlightenment is most often associated with the 18th century European
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Enlightenment Period, a movement characterized by a rational and scientific approach to politics,
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religion, and social and economic issues.
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In Buddhism, the simplest explanation of attaining enlightenment is when an individual finds
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out the truth about life, and experiences “an awakening” where they are freed from
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the cycle of being reborn.
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Central to Buddhism is the notion that to live is to suffer, and everything is in a
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constant state of change.
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All Buddhists believe, unless one has become enlightened, they will be reincarnated again
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and again.
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Enlightenment can be achieved through the practice and development of morality, meditation
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and wisdom.
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Four Noble Truths The Four Noble Truths contain the essence
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of the Buddha’s teachings.
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It was these four principles that the Buddha came to understand during his meditation under
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the bodhi tree.
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These are: The truth of suffering (Dukkha); the truth of the origin of suffering (Samudāya);
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the truth of the cessation of suffering (Nirodha); and the truth of the path to the cessation
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of suffering (Magga).
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Suffering comes in many forms.
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Three obvious kinds of suffering correspond to the first three sights the Buddha saw on
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his first journey outside his palace: old age, sickness and death.
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But according to the Buddha, the problem of suffering goes much deeper.
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Life is not ideal: it frequently fails to live up to our expectations.
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Human beings are subject to desires and cravings, but even when we are able to satisfy these
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desires, the satisfaction is only temporary.
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Pleasure does not last; or if it does, it becomes monotonous.
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Even when we are not suffering from outward causes like illness or bereavement, we are
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unfulfilled, unsatisfied.
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This is the truth of suffering.
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The next noble truth is the origin of suffering.
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Our day-to-day troubles may seem to have easily identifiable causes: thirst, pain from an
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injury, sadness from the loss of a loved one.
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In the second of his Noble Truths, though, the Buddha claimed to have found the cause
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of all suffering – and it is much more deeply rooted than our immediate worries.
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The Buddha taught that the root of all suffering is desire, tanhā.
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This comes in three forms, which he described as the Three Roots of Evil, or the Three Fires,
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or the Three Poisons.
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The three roots of evil are greed and desire, represented in art by a rooster; ignorance
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or delusion, represented by a pig, and hatred and destructive urges, represented by a snake.
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He taught more about suffering in his Fire Sermon, saying,a
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that is burning?
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The eye is burning, forms are burning, eye-consciousness is burning, eye-contact is burning, also whatever
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is felt as pleasant or painful or neither-painful-nor-pleasant that arises with eye-contact for its indispensable
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condition, that too is burning.
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Burning with what?
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Burning with the fire of lust, with the fire of hate, with the fire of delusion.
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I say it is burning with birth, aging and death, with sorrows, with lamentations, with
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pains, with griefs, with despairs.
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The Third Noble Truth is Cessation of suffering (Nirodha).
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The Buddha taught that the way to extinguish desire, which causes suffering, is to liberate
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oneself from attachment.
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This is the third Noble Truth – the possibility of liberation.
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The Buddha was a living example that this is possible in a human lifetime.
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“Estrangement” here means disenchantment: a Buddhist aims to know sense conditions clearly
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as they are without becoming enchanted or misled by them.
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Nirvana means extinguishing.
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Attaining nirvana – reaching enlightenment – means extinguishing the three fires of greed,
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delusion and hatred.
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Someone who reaches nirvana does not immediately disappear to a heavenly realm.
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Nirvana is better understood as a state of mind that humans can reach.
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It is a state of profound spiritual joy, without negative emotions and fears.
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Someone who has attained enlightenment is filled with compassion for all living things.After
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death an enlightened person is liberated from the cycle of rebirth, but Buddhism gives no
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definite answers as to what happens next.
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The Buddha discouraged his followers from asking too many questions about nirvana.
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He wanted them to concentrate on the task at hand, which was freeing themselves from
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the cycle of suffering.
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Asking questions is like quibbling with the doctor who is trying to save your life.
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The Fourth Noble Truth is the path to the cessation of suffering (Magga).
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The final Noble Truth is the Buddha’s prescription for the end of suffering.
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This is a set of principles called the Eightfold Path.
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The Eightfold Path is also called the Middle Way: it avoids both indulgence and severe
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asceticism, neither of which the Buddha had found helpful in his search for enlightenment.
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The eight stages are not to be taken in order, but rather support and reinforce each other.
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Death and Legacy
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“I can die happily.
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I have not kept a single teaching hidden in a closed hand.
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Everything that is useful for you, I have already given.
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Be your own guiding light.”
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According to the Mahaparinibbana Sutta of the Pali canon, at the age of 80, the Buddha
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announced that he would soon reach Parinirvana, or the final deathless state, and abandon
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his earthly body.
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After this, the Buddha ate his last meal, which he had received as an offering from
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a blacksmith named Cunda.
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Falling violently ill, Buddha instructed his attendant Ānanda to convince Cunda that the
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meal eaten at his place had nothing to do with his passing and that his meal would be
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a source of the greatest merit as it provided the last meal for a Buddha.
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Mettanando and von Hinüber argue that the Buddha died of old age, rather than food poisoning.
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The Buddha’s teachings began to be codified shortly after his death, and continue to be
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followed one way or another (and with major discrepancies) by at least 400 million people
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to this day.
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There are numerous different schools or sects of Buddhism.
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The two largest are Theravada Buddhism, which is most popular in Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Thailand,
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Laos and Burma (Myanmar), and Mahayana Buddhism, which is strongest in Tibet, China, Taiwan,
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Japan, Korea, and Mongolia.
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The majority of Buddhist sects do not seek to proselytise (preach and convert), with
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the notable exception of Nichiren Buddhism.
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All schools of Buddhism seek to aid followers on a path of enlightenment.
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“If with a pure mind a person speaks or acts, happiness follows them like a never-departing
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shadow.”
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This post was previously published on YouTube.
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Photo credit: Screenshot from video.