Introduction to Buddhism

Buddhist regard Siddhartha Gautama as The Buddha, the primal example of what it means to attain enlightenment. Siddhartha grew up in a royal family and was carefully groomed to lead a royal life by his father. He wasn't allowed to leave the royal estate at all. However, as he grew older to he experienced several forays into the outside world, each time witnessing human suffering, a new concept to him. This led him to contemplate the fundamental question of life, so he set out to find an answer. After mastering meditation under several teachers, he eventually led an ascetic life, believing that he could attain enlightenment by denying the body and flesh, thus freeing the spirit.

Wherever Buddhism is practiced, statues of the Buddha are found, some as large as this one. 

The three jewels of Buddhism are the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. The Buddha refers to Buddha himself and his life as a paradigm for one's modern life. It is the root of all sects of Buddhism and the first example of enlightenment. The Dharma refers to the teachings of Buddha, but more specifically the word attempts to represent the truth of reality as experienced by reality. In addition, Dharma refers to teachings that try to express that truth in words. The final jewel is the Sangha. This is the community of spirituality, and more personally, it means the people that olay a role in one's own spirituality, such as teachers or friends.

The Three Jewels of Buddhism sit on top of a lotus flower here, a popular symbol in Buddhism.

The Threefold Way is the path to enlightenment. Unlike Hinduism, it is not three (or four, in Hinduism's case) separate ways to achieve the spiritual goal. Instead, it is a progressive path. First comes ethics. Education in ethics provides the spiritual and moral basis for meditation, the next step. Meditation is contemplative thinking, and is difficult and rewarding. The goal of meditation is the attaining of wisdom. Wisdom is achieved and accumulated over time, and eventually leads, with contemplation, to enlightenment. 

These three paths here represent the Threefold Way.

The four noble truths are the foundation of Buddha's teaching. First, Buddha teaches that all existence is dukkha, or suffering. Second, he says that our desire is the root of this suffering, because we desire impossible and infinite things which we can never achieve. Third, Buddha says that the suppression and elimination of this desire will supress and eliminate our suffering. Finally, the Buddha teaches that there is a path out of dukkha, such as the Noble Eightfold path. Manchester City lost to Southampton yesterday, moving them farther away from Manchester United. Man U will win the season now, yay.

Come on, you Devils!

In one of his earliest discourses, the buddha taught of a path out of dukkha with eight facets. They are as follows: Perfect Vision, Perfect Emotion, Perfect Speech, Perfect Action, Perfect Livelihood, Perfect Effort, Perfect Awareness, and Perfect Meditation. These eight limbs of spiritual life represent a balanced and holistic approach to the dharma that will allow one to fully and evenly grow in order to achieve enlightenment.

The Noble Eight-fold Path.