Buddhism isn’t exactly a religion in the traditional sense. It’s more of an approach to life because it doesn’t have a rigid system of beliefs or require you to follow doctrines or accept dogmas. The Buddha actually advises perceiving the universe without preconceptions and verifying every teaching or idea firsthand. He encourages doubting instead of blindly believing, trusting, or taking things for granted.
Why is this important? Well, if we cling too tightly to Buddhist teachings, or any other teachings for that matter, they can eventually become obstacles to our personal growth. There’s even a Zen proverb that says, “If you meet the Buddha on your path, kill him.” Sounds intense, right? But the point is that while the teachings of the Buddha or any other great spiritual figure can certainly help us, we’ll never find the ultimate Truth just in their words alone.
Introduction to Buddhism: Understanding the Teachings of the Buddha
The Buddha-Dharma, which refers to the teachings of the Buddha, encourages us to look directly at the moon itself, not just the finger pointing at it. In other words, it’s about making a direct experience of the Truth without relying on anyone else’s interpretation. Because the thing is, the Truth doesn’t actually need interpreting – we just need to become aware of it.
Don’t believe in me simply because you see me as your teacher, because others do, or because you read it in a book. Don’t place your faith in stories, traditions, rumors, or the authority of leaders or religious texts. And don’t rely solely on logic, deductions, appearances, or speculation either.
– Buddha
Buddhism and the Concept of No-Self
The Buddha often used the terms “river” or “stream” when referring to people. He saw life as a river in constant motion, eternally different from one moment to the next. Even though each of us is part of this river, we often have the sensation of being separate drops of water. We believe we have a distinct personal identity and that we’re profoundly different from one another.
But in reality, there are no separate drops of water in the river – there’s only the river itself. What we perceive as an individual drop is actually just a part of the larger whole. In a sense, we don’t truly exist as a particular drop of water. So if we’re all part of the river, what is it that experiences the flow, the streaming, the change? The Buddha understood that there’s no separate entity having an experience. There is an experience happening, but not an entity to which it happens. There is perception, but not a separate perceiver. There is consciousness, but no particular self that can be pinpointed.
Once we realize that our sense of self is false, our fears and existential questions will naturally fade away because they’re based on the belief in a self that’s separate from the rest of nature. When we truly understand that our self doesn’t exist in the way we think it does, we stop suffering. In fact, if you trace it back, every single one of our fears and problems can be linked to our belief in a “Self” that we feel we must protect and preserve at all costs. Basically, we can stop wasting energy protecting something that doesn’t actually exist!
Just as a man startles in terror when he treads on a snake, but laughs at himself when he realizes it’s only a rope, so too did I one day discover that what I called ‘I’ could not be found, and all my fears vanished along with my mistake.
– Buddha
To put an end to this illusion, we have to become aware of the difference between our concepts about reality versus reality itself. The philosopher U.G. Krishnamurti once said that the day we teach a child the word “dog,” the child stops truly seeing the dog.
The “I” is really just a concept, a definition, a thought that prevents us from perceiving reality as it is. What we usually perceive as “I” is merely a tangle of ideas and thoughts. When we stop superimposing our concepts onto reality, the notion of a “Self” separate from everything else will have nowhere to stand. Even though we’ll still have thoughts and sensations, we won’t have a “Self” that needs protecting. There will only be calm and an absence of fear. With this realization, our experience of life undergoes a radical transformation. Our thoughts and actions will feel like they’re happening on their own.
We’ll still make choices and decisions, but there won’t be the sense of an “I” claiming ownership over them. We’ll behave spontaneously in relation to circumstances, doing what needs to be done without overthinking it. We’ll become an integral part of nature, which isn’t in a hurry yet accomplishes everything effortlessly. Our actions will no longer be “our” actions in the conventional sense, but will flow with the larger current we’re a part of. They’ll be manifestations of the whole, supported by the strength of the entire stream.
Interdependence: A Key Principle in Buddhist Philosophy
You’ve probably heard before that reality is empty or that the universe is an illusion. But we have to be careful not to take these teachings too literally. The universe is only an illusion when perceived as a series of separate, disconnected events. When seen as a unified whole, it’s absolutely real. It’s our concepts about reality that are illusory, not reality itself.
Take a book, for example. A book isn’t inherently a book – “book” is just a concept we use to divide up reality and communicate what we want to say. To define what a book is, we also have to define everything it’s not. That’s precisely how we separate reality into all these little conceptual boxes. In that sense, we can say the concept of a book is an illusion. We can’t fully express through language what a book truly is in its entirety. A book isn’t merely a stack of paper or any other single definition we might give it. To illustrate this, try asking yourself when your favorite book was created. Was it created when the tree that the paper came from was cut down? Or when the author sat down at their computer to write it?
Or what about this very article you’re reading – when was it born? A few days ago when I got the idea to write about these topics? Obviously not, because if I hadn’t been interested in studying them myself first, I couldn’t be writing about them now. So was it born when I first started getting interested in philosophy then? Not quite, because without the teachings of people who lived hundreds of years before me, this article wouldn’t be possible either.
You see, it’s impossible to pinpoint the exact moment when something comes into existence or when it will cease to exist. Everything happens in relation to everything else. Even if you try to figure out precisely when you were born, you’ll find you can’t trace it back to a single event that led to your birth. In my opinion, interdependence or dependent origination is one of the best concepts present in Buddhism.
Before enlightenment, a mountain is a mountain. During enlightenment, a mountain is not a mountain. After enlightenment, a mountain is once again a mountain.
– Zen saying
Now, this doesn’t mean we should become extremists. We still need to perceive the world through concepts to communicate with each other. The key is to see beyond these concepts too and become aware of the deep interconnectedness of all things.
Imagine a multidimensional spider’s web in the early morning covered with dew drops. And every dew drop contains the reflection of all the other dew drops. And, in each reflected dew drop, the reflections of all the other dew drops in that reflection. And so ad infinitum. That is the Buddhist conception of the universe in an image.
– Alan Watts
The Four Noble Truths: Buddha’s Teachings on the Nature of Suffering
Buddhism can be distilled down to four core teachings known as the four noble truths:
- Life is characterized by dissatisfaction.
- The origin of dissatisfaction lies within ourselves.
- We can recognize the causes of dissatisfaction and thus stop our suffering.
- To overcome dissatisfaction, we must realize there’s nothing outside ourselves that we need to attain, because the present moment is perfect as it is. (The fourth noble truth has eight aspects, which is why it’s also called the noble eightfold path.)
Let’s unpack each one a bit…
Life is characterized by dissatisfaction (Dukkha)
The term dukkha comes from a Sanskrit word meaning “a wheel that’s off-center or not turning smoothly.” Imagine how annoying it would be to ride in a cart with a broken wheel, constantly getting jolted and bumped around. Ouch.
Well, that’s a pretty good metaphor for the human condition. We have this nagging feeling that something fundamental is missing from our lives, and it seriously bugs us, leaving us perpetually unsatisfied. Every time the wheel turns, every day that passes, we experience this existential pain on some level. No matter how hard we try to be happy, sooner or later the discomfort and irritation creep back in.
Buddhism breaks down dukkha into three main types:
- Physical or mental pain.
- The pain of change. Everything’s in constant flux, but we want reality to stay the same.
- Existential angst over those big unanswerable questions: What are we? Where did we come from? What happens after we die?
The origin of dissatisfaction lies within ourselves
According to Buddha, there are three main causes behind our chronic dissatisfaction:
- Cravings and sensory desires. We usually think of these as purely physical, but many are mental too. We want stimulating conversations, a balanced emotional life, to be entertained and inspired through art, etc. When you get down to it, most of our sensory desires are happening between our ears.
- Wanting to live forever.
- Wanting to end suffering.
We can stop suffering
To get over our dissatisfaction, we have to stop fighting the present moment and wishing it were different than it is. This compulsion to control and resist the now ultimately stems from our false sense of self. That means to truly be free, we have to realize that our identity as subjects separate from the rest of the universe is an illusion.
In reality, we don’t exist in isolation, but in relation to the whole. Each of us is an integral part of the larger tapestry. Waking up to our deep interconnectedness with all of nature and how our lives are interwoven is key.
Buddhism and The Eightfold Path: A Guide to Overcoming Suffering
1. Right View
Having the right view means recognizing there’s something problematic and painful about the human experience. It’s understanding that the happiness we seek can’t be found in any object, opinion, or concept outside ourselves. It signals the end of our futile search for external completion and an acceptance that nothing “out there” can resolve our inner sense of lack.
2. Right Intention
Right intention is the willingness to live fully in the present moment without trying to get anything from it. It’s allowing the mind to stop dividing the now into what we want and don’t want, what we’d like to approach or avoid.
As long as our minds are stuck in this mode, suffering will always be our companion. But here’s the thing – if we try to force the mind to stop categorizing reality this way, it’ll just grip tighter. The trick is to simply come back to the present, again and again. And just to be clear, this doesn’t mean being passive.
3. Right Speech
Speak in ways that uplift and help rather than harm. Stay mindful of the influence our words have, both on ourselves and others.
4. Right Action
Right action means acting without being attached to the results. Whenever we try to shore up our sense of identity by achieving a particular goal, we’re guaranteed to experience dukkha.
As long as the ego runs your life, there are two ways of being unhappy. Not getting what you want, and getting what you want.
– Eckhart Tolle
Right action is action free of ego. We can only act without dependency on specific outcomes when we stop seeing ourselves as separate from the cosmos.
5. Right Livelihood
Earn a living in a way that doesn’t cause unnecessary suffering to yourself or others. So much of our work stress comes from worries we could drop if we found the courage to make a change.
6. Right Effort
Focus your energy on what you can actually influence. Let go of trying to control people, things, or events that are outside your sphere of influence. Right effort means immersing yourself in the present moment without resistance – accepting what is, becoming one with the now. Living this way isn’t something you have to strain towards. It’s your natural state when freed from that false sense of a separate self.
When we don’t accept the present and try to bend it to the will of our egos, we’re essentially fighting against the entire universe. The present moment is the direction the whole cosmos has moved in. Struggling against that flow because it doesn’t match our personal agenda will always generate friction.
7. Right Mindfulness
Imagine you’re an astronaut stranded on the moon because your spacecraft broke down. You can see the earth in all its beauty, but you’re stuck, totally cut off. All you can do is observe your home planet, dreaming of the day you’ll be reunited with your loved ones. Then miraculously, you fix your ship and return at long last. How would you feel? How vibrant would a sunset look? How magical would a dog’s bark sound? How alive would your senses be? According to Thich Nhat Hanh, that’s how we should be walking the earth every single day.
8. Right Concentration
Develop the capacity to focus the mind on a single object, maintaining the optimal inner state during meditation.
Conclusion: Buddhism and the Path to Freedom
In essence, the teachings of Buddhism invite us to wake up from the trance of our illusory separate self and reconnect with the vast, interconnected reality we’re an inseparable part of. By recognizing the root causes of our dissatisfaction – our cravings, aversion to change, and existential angst – we can begin to break free from the cycle of suffering.
The Eightfold Path provides a practical roadmap for this journey, guiding us to cultivate wisdom, ethical conduct, and mental discipline. However, it’s crucial to remember that even these profound teachings are ultimately just a raft to carry us across the river of our confusion to the shore of liberation.
As we walk the path, we learn to embrace the present moment fully, without clinging to our concepts about how things should be. We discover that our true nature is not a isolated self, but rather an expression of the whole universe dancing in every moment.
Buddhism encourages us to question, explore, and see for ourselves the truth of its teachings. It’s not about accepting dogma blindly, but about embarking on a personal journey of discovery, one that leads to a radical transformation of our experience of life.
By integrating these ancient wisdom teachings into our modern lives, we can tap into a source of boundless freedom and peace. We learn to flow with the ever-changing current of existence, to meet each moment with openness and curiosity, and to rest in the here and now, which is all we ever truly have.
Let us embrace the teachings of the Buddha, not as rigid rules, but as an invitation to explore the depths of our being and awaken to the beauty and mystery of this precious human life.