The Buddhism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Buddhism - Essay Example It is true that Buddhists seek enlightenment, but the immediate philosophical and spiritual concerns are short-term rather than long term. In order to better understand the unique place held by Buddhism in the spiritual world, this essay will examine how the Buddha characterized the meaning of life, how his characterization was practiced at the individual level, and how Buddha's characterization of life has been misinterpreted by others. As an initial matter, the Buddha was not particularly impressed with the physical world in which he existed. Although he has been reported to have lived a privileged life he was also keenly aware of the suffering of the less fortunate. As noted by Karen Armstrong, a leading religious scholar, "When he looked at human life, Gotama could see only the grim cycle of suffering, which began with the trauma of birth and proceeded inexorably to aging, illness, death, sorrow and corruption only to start again with the next life cycle" (2006: 274). His broad characterization of the meaning of life, therefore, was constructed of three main theoretical assumptions. The first assumption was that birth was a traumatic event, that these traumas persisted throughout life, and that the ultimate trauma was death. Life, as characterized in this manner, was an unhappy affair. The second assumption was that suffering was a varied and nuanced concept; more particularly, the Buddha saw suffering as a prod uct of basic needs (such as food and shelter) as well as the product of human desires for such non-necessary things as excessive food, fame, and excessive wealth. Suffering, in this way, was defined differently by the Buddha than the concept is commonly understood in Western societies. This is because the Buddha linked notions of pain and longings or desires intimately and considered both to be types of suffering. The final assumption was that this life cycle was repetitive. The aforementioned suffering throughout a life was bound to be repeated over and over again unless someone found a way out. This was the Buddha's quest, to find a way for the individual to transcend the suffering, and it consumed the majority of his adult life. The Buddha attempted to transcend the suffering by positing that "these painful states must have their counterparts" (qtd. in Armstrong: 2006: 274) and elaborating by suggesting that "supposeI start looking for the unborn, unaging, deathless, sorrowless, incorrupt, and supreme freedom from all this bondage" (qtd. in Armstrong: 2006: 274). What began as a series of observations, about suffering and the human life cycle, developed into a full-blown thesis ripe for experimentation. The Buddha's thesis was that suffering could not exist in isolation, that it must result from some other underlying cause or causes, and that the counterpoints to pain and suffering must exist. A main theoretical obstacle was how to discover these counterparts; the Buddha solved this theoretical obstacle by relying of what to him was known as Nibbana or Nirvana. Translated literally, Nirvana means a "blowing out." For the Buddha, this meant the "blowing out" of the passions and the desires that led to suffer ing. This belief by the Buddha, that passions and desires caused suffering, was the next step in his characterization of life. It can thus be argued that the Buddha was most