Buddhism And The Non-Western Philosophy Of Buddhism

Name: Jui Shinde

Non-Western Philosophy

Essay #5-Buddhism

Date: 26, March 2014

Buddhism

Buddhism is a really big religion. I think that Buddhism is more of philosophy or ‘way of living life’. But it’s called a religion which contains about 300 million people around the world. The word Buddhism comes from ‘buddhi’ which means ‘to awaken’. Buddhism’s origins trace back to 2000-2500 years ago when Siddhartha Gotama, aka also known as the Buddha. It traces back to him because Siddharatha humself was awakened at age 35, and came out to know the reality of life. Buddhism goes beyond religion, it goes to become philosophy. Because philosophy means ‘love of wisdom’ and the Buddhist path can be summed up as: 1) lead a moral life 2) to be mindful and aware of thoughts and actions as you go through in life 3) to develop wisdom and understanding of life. I think that Buddhism explains a purpose of life to the core. It teaches us the correct way to live life, with adopted wide variety of beliefs, practices, rituals, and customs. It explains apparent injustice and inequality around the world; it provides a code of practice or way of life that leads to true happiness. But the essential teaching of Buddha was reading the underline differences between these said statements.

Buddhism religion or philosophy revolves a lot around human suffering, to show all the points and causes. There are two types of suffering that Buddhism talks about in depth. Suffering of the physical body, and suffering of the mind. Physical suffering is something that we all experience, this bodily pain which at point sometimes feels like the end of the world, no matter what our status is in life. Physical suffering includes a lack of basic necessities, n...

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...our Noble Truths say that the root of all suffering is desire. Desire in this special case is a feeling of needing of things beyond and beyond our actual needs. For instance, money, power, food, etc. It also says that the approach of suffering is not intended to convey a negative world view, but rather, a realistic point of view that deals with the world as it is, and attempts to rectify it.

It’s more helpful to understand these factors if we group them together in categories such as: Sila- morality consists of Right Speech, Right Action, and Right Livelihood. Smadhi- Mental culture consists of Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration. And last Panna- Wisdom consists of Right Understanding, and Right Thoughts. The Four Noble is very important because it describes the nature of existence, and the means to live in harmony with that nature.