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Introduction to Buddhism
BUDDHA !
It was
about 2500 years ago that Gautama Siddhartha attained enlightenment and
became Buddha. Thereafter, Gautama Siddhartha became known as Sakyamuni,
the sage from Sakya clan. In the present day, we call him as Sakyamuni
Buddha' or Gautama Buddha'.
Buddha is the one who has awakened to the truth. Enlightenment
means that the one who; because of his/her ignorance used to view the world
and his/her life mistakenly and, because of this, often chose a wrong way
of life, awakens to the real state of the world and his/her life.
It is to restore the genuine self' by coming to possess a true view of
the world and one's life. Having attained enlightenment through his
deep insight, Sakyamuni Buddha ascertained that living in an enlightened
state is the only way for human beings to live in true happiness.
He taught about the true nature of life and led all other people to attain
Buddhahood. In this way, Buddhism is a teaching which ultimately
leads one to become a Buddha himself.
Looking at our life, we wish to always be young and to always
live a happy life. In order to accomplish this end, we try to take
good care of ourselves, to save money, to have our children study hard,
and to persevere in our efforts for a stable future. We sometimes
imagine that our convenient situation surely continue forever, ignoring
the truth of impermanence of this world. We, however, are often disappointed
by unexpected happenings and circumstances. Even though we all wish
for peace without exception, conflicts never cease. Even in the ordinary
family, where harmony is to be expected, there is often hostility.
At the same time. we are walking on a one way path towards old age, sickness
and, without exception, we will all have to sink into the abyss of death
in the end. Not being eager to accept such unpleasant realities of
life, we try to divert our eyes from it as much as possible or in unconscious
level. As a result we consume our un-repeatable precious life in
vain without seriously thinking about its meaning. When young Gautama
Siddhartha recognized these realities of life, he abandoned his position
as the crown prince of the Sakya Kingdom to seek the solution to these
problems. He came to the conclusion that: since he could never be
free from the fundamental sufferings of old age, sickness and death, no
matter how much he sought immediate pleasures, he could never be happy
after all.
Then, what do we do, when we are confronted by the unstable realities
of life? Some people pray to gods to protect them from various disasters.
Some give up on the present life and beg gods to bring them to a heaven
which is filled with joy. Many religions teach that such ways are
the solutions to life's problems. There were many of religious masters
who expounded various methods to get rid of suffering in the times of Sakyamuni
Buddha. At first young Gautama Siddhartha studied and practiced some
of their teachings. But finding that these teachings did not contain
the proper method to solve the problem of suffering, he left
and began to find the fundamental way of solving the problem of suffering
by himself.
When we are faced with successive unhappiness in everyday life,
we seek to avoid dealing with the reality. We often pray to gods
to protect us from unhappiness. Sakyamuni Buddha never assumed such an
attitude. He averted his eyes from the reality because the reality
placed the dependence for the solution of our problems onto others.
Instead of attributing the cause of suffering to some outward form of existence,
he penetrated reality for himself; searched for the cause of suffering,
and decided to thoroughly eradicate the cause itself.
In general, religion judges whether something is true or not
based upon religious authority, like the words of god.' To follow
such truth is generally regarded as faith. During the time of Sakyamuni
Buddha, such a religious authority existed (which was known as Brahmanism,
present Hinduism's former figure). Nevertheless, he never depended
upon this authority or entrusted himself to a god's will. He faced
up to the reality of suffering and discerned the nature of suffering.
After serenely observing the cause of suffering and the way of deliverance
from it, he discovered the answer at last. This attitude of forcing
oneself to face a matter squarely, which is often called to observe
a matter squarely' or to see the reality as it is', consistently provided
the foundation for Sakyamuni Buddha's speculation.
Not only is this a fundamental Buddhist way of thinking, but
also it should be noted that this attitude distinguishes Buddha-dharma
from other religions which talk of the revelation of the truth by a god
or supreme being.
Sakyamuni Buddha was doing his samadhi(meditation), observed
what all sorts of being in the phenomenal world should be in the state
of inter-connectedness, by the workings of his perfected prajnaparamita(wisdom)'.
Up to that time, it had been thought that the "matter" appeared
and the "matter" disappeared. But Sakyamuni Buddha discovered the
fact that the "matter" which was perceived as the subject of appearance
and disappearance, had not been confirmed its peculiar substance.
In a word, the real nature of our external environment cannot be gathered
by our perceptive abilities because of its actual incessant fluctuation
in a condition of non-stagnant "time". Then, the views which something
stand-still extent "matter" changes its form moment by moment is totally
wrong. Eventually, the true reality of the transient form has no
individuality of the substance and exists on the stage of the sunyata-emptiness'.
Sakyamuni Buddha grasped such a true reality of each existence,
since then he never recognized the phenomenal world through the workings
of the substantial concept which is formed by the perceptive stand-still
aspects like us the ordinary people, and he gained the wisdom of non-discrimination'
which never works with attaching to anything substantial. After
he reached that state, the "ignorance"- the root of all attachments was
interrupted and he was totally liberated from all sufferings. Ever
since, he had lived for the only purpose to make the people who is suffered
by the "ignorance" to liberate. We call such a state of his mind
as a "Great Compassion".
As the result of observing the matter squarely, Sakyamuni Buddha realized many significant truths which people in his time could not realized.
- Suffering does not come to us from some higher being outside of ourselves. Our own ego-centric mind, full of self attachment and blind passion, creates the suffering that we are bothered by.
- Our ego-centric mind arises from our ignorance of the way things are and from a misunderstanding of true reality.
What does it mean that our mind creates both suffering and pleasure'? We see things through our eyes, we hear sound with our ears, and thereby perceive what things are. After that we judge whether these things are pleasing or disturbing. Although we suppose that we see, hear, and perceive things correctly, can it really be so? We often say that since I did not pay attention to it. I overlooked it' or it did not reach my ears because I was angry at something else.' Even if we suppose that we perceive something correctly, its appearance is subject to change according to our mental state.
The nature of our thought, however, is deeply rooted in an ego-centric mind which always indulges in wishful thinking about ourselves and our surroundings. It is this mind that is always greedy to gain wishful things and to reject un-desirous things. It is this mind that fails to recognize the facts truthfully, regards other's criticisms as faults, and is blind to reason. When we admit that our view of the world is based on such a mind, we see that our picture of the world is already distorted. Yet, we firmly convince ourselves that we see things properly. If not only one person but also other people perceive the world in such a distorted fashion; continually judging what is good or bad based on one's personal wishes, and insisting on a perceived infallibility of one's own judgment, it is certain that conflicts will arise among them.
In this sense, what we perceive as suffering does not really have a substance; we are actually terrified of things that we ourselves have created. Sometimes though we do not even notice that we are troubled by such nightmares, and we remain in darkness. This is the state of our existence. That is why we are called a deluded person' or a sentient being.' Sakyamuni Buddha made clear that our suffering and illusion are derived from evil passions present in our minds.
(Bibliography:)
"Approaching the heart of Buddhism" by Dr. Daishun Ueyama
"Bukkyo no juyou" by Dr. Zuiho Yamaguchi
This web page owned by Oxnard Buddhist Temple.
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