Buddhist Belief — So — What Is It?
“Turn your mind away from things which are not permanent.”
~~~ Buddha
In the last post I talked a bit about why I came to follow a Buddhist lifestyle — and how that lifestyle is now leading me to start this blog about Buddhist belief. The primary motivating factor was a search for inner peace — and a search for peace throughout the world. Once I was led to begin the study of Buddhism as a way to help with my search, I found that one huge Buddhist Belief was that inner peace was possible for everyone.
Today, let’s talk about who he was and how he arrived at his amazing realizations.
First of all — Buddha was a man. He wasn’t a god during his life and he isn’t a god today.
He was born as Siddharta Gautama, the prince of a small kingdom in northern India. Until he was 29 years old, he lived the life of the son of a King. As you can imagine, that life was a highly privileged life. It probably wasn’t too far off from the lives of some of the princes of today. He probably partied a lot, ate a lot, more than likely had his share of sexual encounters and was likely quite well protected from the life of the common people.
The way I learned the story was that one day the people assigned to protect Siddharta Gautama from life outside the palace walls lost track of him. For the first time in his life, this privileged young man saw an old, sick man in the street and it horrified him. He had never before seen a human being suffering with the rages of sickness and decay. He wondered how people could ever find happiness if they knew that life led only to sickness, decay and death. These thoughts had never crossed his mind before.
The prince became quite depressed once he discovered this fact of life, until one day he met a holy man. The prince noticed that this holy man was able to maintain a level of peace and serenity despite what was happening in the world around him. So, the prince decided to follow this man, become his student, and embark on a spiritual path.
In Siddharta’s day, this path meant a drastically new way of life for him. He became a monk relying on the goodness of others for food, shelter and clothing. The school of study that he followed believed that mortification of the body would lead to purification of the mind and spirit. You were required to starve yourself. You had to sit upright for days without sleep. You had to literally whip your body until it bled. Siddharta kept this up until he reached the age of 35. At that point he was a mere skeleton of his former self. He realized that this lifestyle wasn’t anymore satisfying than his former spoiled, luxurious life as a prince.
Siddharta abandoned his monastic vows, much to the disgust of his fellow practitioners. He strengthened his body and sat down under a fig tree to do some serious thinking. That’s where the dawn struck! He came to realize that there was a way to find inner peace. At that moment he reached Enlightenment.
He was now The Buddha, which means the Enlightened One, or the Awakened One. Some of his fellow former monk-pals noticed the change in him and asked him to teach them what he had learned. He taught them about the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism. These Noble Truths are the core of the Buddhist belief system. The only way to reach Enlightenment (which is good) is to accept these Noble Truths.
In the next post we’ll start our discussion of the Four Noble Truths of Buddhist belief.
Always remember ….
“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.”
~~~ Buddha
Shanti … (A sanscrit word meaning, “Let there be Peace. Peace, beautiful Peace. Peace within, Peace without. Peace in this world. Peace for all beings.”)
“Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.”
~~~ Buddha
Have a peaceful day!! —
Ron Rink
http://www.theleaderinside.com
http://www.wecould2.com
http://www.buddhistbelief.com
Tags: Buddhism, Buddhist Belief, Meditation, Peace