Today is Buddha Poornima (full moon). Gautama, the Buddha has attained enlightenment and that holy day is noted with his name. This is an opportunity for us to know more about Buddha. Buddha, the man who was a pioneer of equality, scientific analysis of mind and giving humanity a new, unique, justifying dimension.
Gautama the Buddha, as you all know was a prince of a kingdom. One day he went out of his palace on his chariot with his charioteer. First, he saw an old man, then an ill person shivering with pain and lastly he saw some people taking a dead body, for the funeral. The same night he left the palace in search of ultimate truth. After enlightening, he shared many things. The following are 10 great teachings for life given by him.
Acquired enlightening
Buddha philosophy did not rely on any outer effect or special initiation by godmen. It acknowledges only one way of enlightening and that is by self-exploration. Gautama, the Buddha after leaving his Palace dedicated his life in self-exploration. After many years of hard work, he reached a peak of self-realization.
After self-realization, he shared his practices, his views, and his path with his disciples and other common folks. The philosophy of Buddha believes in self-exploration and the dedicated practice of self-realization.
Buddha is not a person or a god. It is a stature acquired after self-realization of the ultimate truth. The meaning of the word Buddha is nothing other than, a person who has attained self-realization and Gautama is one of Many Buddhas.
God or godmen not allowed
In most of the religions of the world, there are God and godmen. You can call them preachers. The prime role of these preachers is to worship the Gods and follow the rituals as described in the books of religion. Godmen are associated with Hindu temples. In Christianity, in the churches, there are fathers and pastors. Many other religions also follow the same system of preachers.
Surprisingly in Buddha’s philosophy, there is no room for temples, so there is no role for preachers. It’s very interesting that Buddha philosophy even does not believe in the existence of God and does not recommend the practice of worshipping the idols. These two qualities make this philosophy unique. That is the reason philosophers and general folks from all over the world are attracted to it.
Essence of equality
Equality is the most important principle embedded in the Buddha philosophy right from its inception. If I am not wrong, this is the only religion on this planet that provides equality to each and everyone, regardless of his race, religion, caste, ethnicity, and sex. Buddha philosophy believes that all creatures are equal on this planet.
It believes in equal opportunity and equal rights on all kinds of Natural Resources. No discrimination can be tolerated at all because all the creatures are the creation of nature. In many religions, women and lower caste people are restricted from following religious traditions or even practices for self-realization.
But Buddha philosophy does not discriminate on any basis. Buddhism is the only philosophy on the planet which debars the caste system.
No faith in rebirth
Most of the religions of the world believe in rebirth, and they also believe that the rebirth of any creature takes place depending on their Karma. Karma is the good deeds and bad deeds done by any creature in his life. As a result of the karma done by the person, he gets rebirth in good condition or bad situation.
One who does bad deeds mostly gets a rebirth in a very worst situation. On the other hand, who engages throughout his life in Good deeds, gets rebirth in Luxury conditions. Buddha philosophy believes that this life is the only and ultimate chance every person has for reaching the peak of self-realization. Once a person reaches the peak of self-realization, concepts like death and birth vanish ultimately.
Goodbye to rituals
All the religions on this planet have rituals that have been in many parts of the world translated into traditions. Mostly it is believed that if you want to attain self-realization, you need to devote to the god. Devoting to the god requires some rituals. These rituals are divided into many parts. Worshiping, fasting, pilgrimage are some of its forms.
In Indian culture, there are thousands of gods. Each God needs to be pleased with a different offering. Some God needs white color flower, some needs red-colored flower, some get pleased by offering rice, some by offering fruits and some by offering sweets. Buddha philosophy does not believe in any kind of rituals because it does not accept the existence of God.
Realistic religion
Buddhism is not a religion; it is a philosophy of life. Each and every concept of this philosophy is designed considering the least human of the society. It is based on some of the most endorsed principles like equality, scientific attitude, and belief in self. This philosophy not only helps any person to reach the peak of self-realization but also guides him through his worldly life.
As this religion is based on peace it does not have any conflicts or any competition with any other religion or within itself theoretically. This is the realistic philosophy or religion for the whole of mankind.
Be the light on your path
The guidelines of Buddha’s philosophy are very simple. They are very simple to digest, acquire, and implement in one’s daily life. As we have discussed above, this philosophy does not believe in any God, Godmen, and any rituals. Hence, this philosophy tells you to be the light on your path and that is the ultimate beauty of this philosophy.
It says that you are the path yourself, you are the light yourself and you are the pilgrim. This outlook makes this philosophy unique on this planet. It believes that whatever life is, it has to face by the self ultimately. Hence one has to fight the battle of his life on his own. Therefore one should become the light on his path himself.
Vipassana – the ultimate practice
If you ask me, what is the greatest contribution of Buddha’s philosophy of the world? I will answer in one single world… that is ‘Vipassana’. It is a spiritual practice that is a gift of the Buddha philosophy to the world. In this simplest method to get a realization of the ultimate truth. The word ‘Vipassana’ means sitting close to self. This is the basic idea of meditation in Buddha philosophy.
The philosophy says that you have to sit with yourself at least for a few minutes daily. Sitting idle, just observe whatever is happening inside your body. It believes that with the practice of ‘Vipassana’ one understands human anatomy, the emotional anatomy, and the anatomy of the spirit. This is the simplest available path for self-realization.
Desire – the root cause
Gautama, the Buddha after observing three stages. These are described in the second paragraph of this post. Then he started scientific analysis of human life. On the other hand, he started his practice for self-realization. After years of practice and training of the mind, he realized the ultimate truth. He explored that nothing other than desire is the foundation of all the grief.
Buddha says that desire is the root cause for each and every sorrow of human beings. Let’s elaborate on it in a simple way. Imagine a colleague in your office. You expect something from him. It may be polite talking, good relations, and helping nature, and so on. When the colleague fails to fails to fulfill your desire, You get trapped into sorrow.
Samyak Darshan
In Buddhist philosophy, you will find a word repeatedly… that is ‘Samyak’. ‘Samyak’ is a word derived from the Pali language. In English, Appropriate is a synonym for it. It has a very deep meaning. Buddha philosophy talks about how to control your emotions, daily acts, and your practice of self-realization. In this regard, this word is used.
The meaning of ‘Samyak’ is you will have to choose appropriately from all the available resources throughout your life. Many spiritual seekers report having different kinds of experiences. If you think about it deeply you will find that more than 95% of these experiences are fake or expressions emerging out of their own minds. ‘Samyak’ experiences are realistic and pass scientific tastes.
Many times you think about something in your life or you come across some question. At such instances measure the situation on the scale of appropriateness and then you can take the decision accordingly.
Gautama, the Buddha is the most celebrated and accepted philosopher of the world. The reason behind this is it does not please anybody. It offers a scientific method for analyzing life. It provides the path to get rid of all kind of sorrow in land for self-realization
Buddha teaches does not create any controversy. But these principles settle inside you giving you a very thoughtful insight. I hope you will try to find out more about Buddha’s philosophy and practice his teaching in your life.