Dukkha

Traditions of Chan/Zen Buddhism and Pure Land Buddhism Some of the key differences the traditions of Chan/Zen Buddhism and Pure Land Buddhism are just schools of practice. They differ mainly by practice, and beliefs, ones that has been handed down from generation to generation. The schools/sects of Buddhism are just preferences; the right to express choice, one which and individuals believes is more desirable. These monks created centers of instruction that carried the Buddhism tradition to new…

The arts in China and Japan are greatly influenced by the religious beliefs of each country. Both countries' beliefs are syncretic; they each have more than one religious belief blended together. The two dominant religions in China are Buddhism, which the main goal is to archive nirvana and Daoism, living in harmony with nature and the universe. Chinese artworks are known to be very precise and symmetrically balanced, well controlled and uniformed. Their arts focus on religion and Chinese…

Hindu Theology emphasizes self as inherently liberated; however, suffering due to ignorance prevents humans from living a liberated life. Chapter 4 in A Hindu Theology of Liberation explores “The Liberated Life” and the challenges of achieving this state by examining the causes of suffering, the consequences of ignorance, and how love, compassion, and generosity exhibit actions of liberation. “The Liberated Life” not only helps define how liberation is reached in Hinduism, but also helped me…

Nirvana refers to the dousing or extinguishing of a fire in general terms. In ancient India, their people had a tradition to smother the fires before anyone commenced the voyage of renunciation and asceticism (Jayaram, 2017). In spiritual meanings, Nirvana indicates the conclusion of a severe undertaking. The meaning introduces the condition of imaginary, inappropriate, and absence influenced by the obliteration of coexistence, along with identification at the completion of an extended and…

Some 2,500 years ago, an Indian prince, Siddhartha Gautama, sat quietly in a place known as Deer Park at Sarnath in India, and began to offer simple teachings, based on his own experience. These teachings, referred to as the dharma, meaning simply “truth,” were practical instructions on how to free oneself from suffering by relating it to the everyday experience of life and mind. This practice became known as Buddhism. The Buddha’s discovery cannot effectively be described as a religion, a…

The eightfold path begins with accepting the Four Noble truths. The Four Noble Truths are as follows: life has inevitable suffering, there is a cause to our suffering, there is an end to suffering, and the end to suffering is contained in the eightfold path. Buddhism is a religion that is primarily concerned with suffering, with yourself and with others. “These form a central focus of the religion, its practice and its philosophy. One is encouraged to explore what suffering is, the various forms…

Why do people suffer? This question has been pondered by key religious and ideological figures throughout history. One such figure was Siddhartha Gautama, an Indian prince whose teachings make up Buddhism. The Four Noble Truths can summarize Buddhist ideology; doctrines that were delivered during the first sermon Siddhartha gave following his enlightenment. The first truth acknowledges the existence of suffering in the form of such phenomena as death, aging, sickness, and not getting what one…

Buddhism is one of the most important Asian traditions. How could it be that Buddhism, a totally foreign religion, successfully established itself in China? There are a plethora of reasons why this type of diffusion occurred. I will be providing the historical overview of the introduction to Buddhism and how it was developed once it spread through China. It begins with one man Gautama Siddhartha, (563-483 B.C.E), the founder of Buddhism, even though he was contemporaneous Confucius. He was…

“First Buddhist Women,” is a Therigatha book comprised of many poems describing how women of different caste found enlightenment through Buddhism. The written works in this books were once passed down orally and then finally written down in the first century B.C.E.. They center around the teaching of Siddhartha Gautama, the man born into a Sakyan chief’s family who would become the Buddha. Gautama wished to seek a way out of suffering, birth, old age, and death. In his efforts he established a…

Throughout our lives, we all endure the trials and tribulations of suffering. One can define suffering as to be submitted to or to be forced to endure. We can also add to the definition by saying that suffering is inevitable or unavoidable. Those who read the Old Testament find that people are expected to endure the pains of suffering in their lives. Throughout the Bible, especially the old testament, God’s people endured suffering and the faith of God’s people was always being tested. On the…