Four Noble Truths
The Buddhist religion is far different from typical Christianity or Catholicism. Followers of Buddhism do not follow a specific god, but they tend to follow more of what they call teachings or the ultimate teacher (Vaughn 109). More often than not followers also have to set their own path down the road of Buddhism making all their own personal changes to direct their life around what the spiritual Buddhists believe is essential for obtaining a special heavenly estate called nirvana (Vaughn 111). Buddhism teaches that there are four noble truths about reality and how your life should be lived and if followed even if one does not profess to be Buddhist, these would make an individual a good and more peaceful person.
The central theme of the Four Noble Truths is “the suffering.” Some think that the truths are “constructed in a way that allows a lot of discussions about the validity of the ‘truths” (Radu 39). The first noble truth is that life is suffering. This first noble truth can also be called by the name Dukkha. Dukkha or suffering comes in different sizes big and small and arises from …show more content…
Suffering can be extinguished is desire if desire is extinguished because Dukkha will end if desire ends. One must get rid of “selfish desires” and thereby get rid of Dukkha to “attain nirvana” (Vaughn 111). Nirvana is the “ultimate aim of all Buddhist practice” (Vaughn 111). It is what all Buddha’s teaching points to (Vaughn 111). According to Walpola Rahula, the person who finds Nirvana, “is the happiest being in the world” (Vaughn 111). “The third ‘truth’ then, tells us that suffering ceases when desire ceases” (Radu 43). Radu criticizing the Noble Truths makes this statement, “(shown, as we have seen, to be only ‘noble semi-truths’, or sometimes even lies) we have seen that all the suffering is put, without a minimum discrimination, into ‘the equation’ of salvation”
The Buddhist religion is far different from typical Christianity or Catholicism. Followers of Buddhism do not follow a specific god, but they tend to follow more of what they call teachings or the ultimate teacher (Vaughn 109). More often than not followers also have to set their own path down the road of Buddhism making all their own personal changes to direct their life around what the spiritual Buddhists believe is essential for obtaining a special heavenly estate called nirvana (Vaughn 111). Buddhism teaches that there are four noble truths about reality and how your life should be lived and if followed even if one does not profess to be Buddhist, these would make an individual a good and more peaceful person.
The central theme of the Four Noble Truths is “the suffering.” Some think that the truths are “constructed in a way that allows a lot of discussions about the validity of the ‘truths” (Radu 39). The first noble truth is that life is suffering. This first noble truth can also be called by the name Dukkha. Dukkha or suffering comes in different sizes big and small and arises from …show more content…
Suffering can be extinguished is desire if desire is extinguished because Dukkha will end if desire ends. One must get rid of “selfish desires” and thereby get rid of Dukkha to “attain nirvana” (Vaughn 111). Nirvana is the “ultimate aim of all Buddhist practice” (Vaughn 111). It is what all Buddha’s teaching points to (Vaughn 111). According to Walpola Rahula, the person who finds Nirvana, “is the happiest being in the world” (Vaughn 111). “The third ‘truth’ then, tells us that suffering ceases when desire ceases” (Radu 43). Radu criticizing the Noble Truths makes this statement, “(shown, as we have seen, to be only ‘noble semi-truths’, or sometimes even lies) we have seen that all the suffering is put, without a minimum discrimination, into ‘the equation’ of salvation”