Philosophy. Buddhist Ethics.
Buddhist: the Problem of Suffering and Way to end Suffering
Buddhism is a widespread Asian religion or philosophy, founded by Siddhartha Gautama in north-eastern India in the 5th century BC. The main question that Gautama Buddha (c.566 BC - c.480 BC), sought to answer was: "Why do pain and suffering exist?"
Unlike any of the world’s religions, Buddhism locates suffering at the heart of the world. According to Buddhism, existence is suffering. The search for a spiritual path is born out of suffering. It does not begin with decorations and happiness, but with the strong hits of pain, disenchantment, and confusion.
The Buddha does not just obliquely trace the problem of suffering; it is actually the very keystone of his teachings. His Four Noble Truths aim to add up this very message declaring the inseparable link between life, and something he calls ‘’dukkha’’. This is a Pali word that usually refers to suffering, but it much deeper than agony and desolation. It denotes a basic insufficiency running through lives of all those who are yet to be enlightened. This unsatisfactoriness at times may vent out as distress, anguish, or dejection; but typically it cloaks us as a sort of itching awareness, a vague generalized sense inside us that things are somehow lacking something, never fully acceptable, as we expect them to be.
The question arises of how we could rid ourselves of this suffering? It is believed, to get liberty from this suffering completely, we have to attack its roots, which means to eradicate ignorance. But how does one go about “eradicating ignorance”? The answer follows clearly from the nature of the adversary. Ignorance is not only, not knowing, but also includes not wanting to know. What is needed is knowledge of things as they really are. Not merely theories or concepts or hints, but perceptual knowledge, a sense of knowing which is also a seeing. It relates to the skill to construe or achieve a deep state of awareness of something through
Buddhism is a widespread Asian religion or philosophy, founded by Siddhartha Gautama in north-eastern India in the 5th century BC. The main question that Gautama Buddha (c.566 BC - c.480 BC), sought to answer was: "Why do pain and suffering exist?"
Unlike any of the world’s religions, Buddhism locates suffering at the heart of the world. According to Buddhism, existence is suffering. The search for a spiritual path is born out of suffering. It does not begin with decorations and happiness, but with the strong hits of pain, disenchantment, and confusion.
The Buddha does not just obliquely trace the problem of suffering; it is actually the very keystone of his teachings. His Four Noble Truths aim to add up this very message declaring the inseparable link between life, and something he calls ‘’dukkha’’. This is a Pali word that usually refers to suffering, but it much deeper than agony and desolation. It denotes a basic insufficiency running through lives of all those who are yet to be enlightened. This unsatisfactoriness at times may vent out as distress, anguish, or dejection; but typically it cloaks us as a sort of itching awareness, a vague generalized sense inside us that things are somehow lacking something, never fully acceptable, as we expect them to be.
The question arises of how we could rid ourselves of this suffering? It is believed, to get liberty from this suffering completely, we have to attack its roots, which means to eradicate ignorance. But how does one go about “eradicating ignorance”? The answer follows clearly from the nature of the adversary. Ignorance is not only, not knowing, but also includes not wanting to know. What is needed is knowledge of things as they really are. Not merely theories or concepts or hints, but perceptual knowledge, a sense of knowing which is also a seeing. It relates to the skill to construe or achieve a deep state of awareness of something through