Morals of Buddhism
Buddhism is one of the most popular religions in the world today. The religion first began around the year 566 BCE with birth of Siddharta Gautama. He was born into a wealthy family in northern India and kept sheltered by his father. It is believed that Siddhartha's father was visited by a wise man after Siddhartha was born. This wise man told his father that Siddhartha would become one of two things: a great king or a holy man. His father had no intention of his son becoming a holy man, and for this reason tried desperately to keep his son from suffering in an effort to make his son a great king. This method worked for a while, until Siddhartha was twenty nine years old and he saw an old man for the first time. He later saw a diseased man, a corpse, and a wandering monk who refrained from all pleasures. This is when he first became aware of the suffering people went through and he then followed his fate as the wise man had once predicted and began his journey as a religious leader. Siddhartha ran away and began to search for the cessation of suffering. He sat underneath the Bodi tree and meditated for 49 days in search of truth. After he found this truth he was then referred to as “the Buddha” the enlightened or the awake one. This new religion began to spread to one of the major religions in the world today.
Buddhism's main focus is on the enlightenment of oneself. Buddha told his disciples specifically to not worship him, but to find truth with his help. Buddha created the Four Noble Truths to better ones life. The first being life means suffering, followed by there is a cause of suffering; suffering can end, and follow the eightfold path.
The Eightfold path is the most important part of the Buddhist religion. It is divided into three sections: wisdom, ethics, and mental. Wisdom includes Right View which is when you realize there is suffering and try to understand it. The second part of wisdom is Right Intention, this is when you attempt to rid your life of desire, try to not harm anyone, and become compassionate.
The second part in the eightfold path under ethics is Right Speech. Right speech is when you do not lie, say cruel things to other people, or gossip. The second piece of ethics is the Right action. It is important to avoid yourself from doing anything that will harm others. This could be as simple as being a vegetarian, and as extreme as wiping insects out of the way before you walk as not to harm them. Right action includes many different precepts for how you are supposed to behave, such as the five precepts which say that you should not harm life, not take what is not yours, not commit sexual misconduct, false speech or intoxications. Avoiding the statements in the precept leads to a good life. Other precepts of moral conduct include the eight precepts, and the ten precepts. Both include almost all of the 5 precepts along with absence of sex, refraining from eating at the wrong time, refraining from dancing, singing, watching shows, using cosmetics, using a high seat or a bed, and not accepting gold or silver. The final piece of ethics in the eightfold path is Right Livelihood. Right Livelihood is basically refraining from having a profession that directly or indirectly hurts anyone or anything living. For example, you should not be a butcher, work in a cigarette factory, sell or create weapons, alcohol, or drugs and various other jobs because they all have the potential to cause pain to others.
The next section of the path is the mind. The first piece of the mind is Right Effort. This means that you are trying to make yourself a good person, and keeping your mind free from anything that could keep you from following the path. The second piece of the mind is Right Mindfulness which is the ability to see things as they are; you see how things affect your mind and your body. The final part of the mind of the eightfold path is Right Concentration. This is when you are aware of reality and lack cravings. This usually involves intense mediation. There are many different Sutras that Buddhists follow besides the eightfold path, and the noble truths, but the eightfold path contains all moral beliefs of Buddhism.
Once one follows the eightfold path to its entirety they have reached nirvana. Nirvana is the absence of greed, hatred and ignorance. Actions that lead to these things are bad, and actions that avoid these are good. Sometimes you cannot do what is right but it is important to do what you can, and know what you ought to do if you are for some reason unable.
Karma is another important part of Buddhism. This is the idea that we make ourseleves. If we chose to do evil things then evil things will follow us. Buddhists believe in reincarnation, which is why they stress so highly eating meat, or harming others because they believe these living creatures may be past family members. If we choose to be good in our life then good things will happen to us, yet if we decide to be bad, bad things will happen to us.
Buddhists have a unique way of practicing their religion. There are four stages in their ceremony. The first is to focus on breathing, and to clear the mind. The second is the use of the four Brahma Viharas, these are used to help people gain virtues while meditating. The third step is to focus on suffering. The final step is when a person is reborn, because they have gained knowledge from their meditation.
Buddhism today is a very popular religion. Buddhists celebrate the birth, enlightenment, and death of Buddha. They practice vegetarianism, and usually eat very little. Although many parts of Buddhism remains the same, there are many different groups that hold different Buddhist traditions. The Theravada Buddhists, and the Mahayana Buddhists are the most well known, but there is also Tibeten and Zen Buddhism and many others.
The Therevado Buddhists are the stricter of the groups. They are very individualistic, and believe that Buddha is a saint. Those who follow Therevada must practice meditation seriously, and it involved a lot of time alone. The Mahayan tradition is much less strict and believes that anyone can reach Buddha hood and become a Bodhisattva who helps others.Tibeten Buddhism is practiced in Tibet, and is most famous for its leader the Dali Lama. They hold powerful rituals taught by Lamas who are acutally reincarnations of past teachers who reached Buddhahood.
A final type of Buddhism is called Zen Buddhism. It is mostly Buddhism with pieces of Taoism. Zens goal is to find harmony through experience. Unlike other Buddhist groups those in Zen believe that enlightenment is obtainable right away, it does not have to be a far away distance goal. They believe enlightenment is impulsive and independent, it could happen anytime regardless of the circumstance.
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