The Teaching of Buddha

The Teaching of the Budha

Budhism is a not a sectorial religion. Budhism is a philosophy based on nature law. The great person, great soul and liberator of mankind the Budha was born 624 BC from the womb of Queen Mahamaya.


In the first sermon, known as the Dhammacakkapavattana Sutta, or the Turning of the Wheel of the Dhamma, the Budha taught that seekers of truth must avoid two extremes- that of the path of sensual pleasure, and that of extreme penance or austerity. Having avoided these two extremes the Budha discovered the middle path and so he taught this to the people. he explained it by means of the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path.



The Four Noble Truths.

-Life is a chain of suffering

-Suffering has a cause: craving

-If craving ceases, suffering ceases

-There is a path leading to the cessation of suffering and this path is the Eightfold Path, divided into three divisions of Sila( Moral) living, samadhi(Contorl of the mind), and Panna(total purification of the mind by wisdom,insight into the four noble truths.


The Eightfold Path

Wisdom


Right view ( Samma - ditthi)

Right thought (samma-sankappo0

Moral Conduct (Sila)


Right speech (samma-vaca)>br>
right action (samma-kammanto)

Right livelihood (samma-ajivo)

Control of Mind ( Samadhi)


Right effort (samma-vayamo)

Right awareness(samma-sati)

Right concentration(samma-samadhi)

The Law of Dependent Origination


The Budha explained the working of the Four NOble Truths by means of the Law of Dependent Origination(Paticcasamuppada).


"With ignorance and craving as our companions, we have been flowing in the stream of repeated existences from time immemorial. We come in to existence and experience various types of miseries, die, and are reborn again and again without putting an end to this unbroken process of becoming. " The Budha said that this is samsara. He further said:"Rightly understanding the perils of this process, realizing fully 'craving' as its cause, becoming free from the past accumulations, and not creating new ones in the future, one should mindfully lead the life of detachment." One whose craving is uprooted finds his mind has become serene, and finds himself far away from this process, and achieves a state where there is no becoming at all." This is the state of nibbana, freedom from suffering.


A closer look at the workings of the Law of Dependent Origination will show clearly how this process of becoming can be stopped, and liberation realized. There are tweleve interconnected links in the circular chain of becoming. These explainn the process responsible for our misery, and how, by the technique of Vipassana meditation, this process can be stopped. Vipassana means to see thigs as they really are and not just as they appeared to be. This is the ancient technique rediscovered by Gotama the Budha. This is the unique, applied, practical aspect of his teaching of the Dhamma.

The following are the tweleve links which make the wheel of becoming revolve.


Dependent on ignorance, reaction arise,

Dependent on reaction, consciousness arises,

Dependent on consciousness, mind and body arise,

Dependent on mind and body, the six sense doors arise,

Dependent on the six sense doors, contact arises,

Dependent on contact, sensation arise

Dependent on craving, clinging arises,

Dependent on Clinging, becoming arises,

Dependent on becoming, birth arises,

Dependent on birth, decay and death arise

This shows that depending on one, there is the origin of the other. The former serves as the cause, and the latter appears as the effect.


To break this unending chain of repeated existence, the Budha found by means of his own personal experience that suffering arises because of the habit of craving. Having learned to examine the depths of his mind, he realized that between the external object and the mental reaction of craving there is a link, the feeling of body sensations. Whenever we encounter an object through the five physical senses or the mind, a sensation arises in the body. And based on the sensation, craving arises. If the sensation is pleasant we crave to prolong it; if the sensation is unpleasant we crave to get rid of it. In the chain of Dependent Origination he expressed this discovery: dependent on contact, sensation arises, dependen ton sensation, craving arises. The immediate cause for the arisiing of craving and of suffering is, thereofre, not something outside of us but rather the sensations that occur within us. To free ourselves of craving and of suffering we must deal with this inner reality, that, with sensation.


The Budha states how he practised this to achieve Enlightenment in the Brahmajala Sutta: " Having experienced as they really are the arising of sensations, their passing away, the relishing of them, the danger in them, and the release from the, the Enlightened One, O monks, has become detached and liberated."


The habit of an untrained mind is to relish sensations,k to generate craving with every sensation we experience. By learning to observe them, however, we come to see that all sensations are impermanent and therefore, casues of suffering. Realizing this, we deliberately refrain from developing craving towards the sensations we experience by adopting the stance of an impartial observer, appreciating all sensations as manifestations of an essenceless, chaning reality, and remaining equanimous towards them. This sets in motion a process by which the accumulated conditioning of the mind mannifests itself in sensations. The more we observe dispassionately, the more layers of past conditioning are eradicasted until we reach the stage where the mind is freed from the habit of reacting with craving. As a result, the process " dependent on sensation craving arises," changes into" dependent on sensation wisdom arises," and the vicious circle of misery is arrested. this gradual process of purification is Vipassana. The Budha said " I have shown a step -by-step extinguishing of mental conditioning. " Each step is taken by observing body senstions. This is the path that leads to the final goal, a goal that all can attain through the practice of Vipassana meditation, the practical application of the middle way shown by the infinitely compassionate Budha.

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