Buddhism/ Andrew Yousef

     According to the Buddhist faith, suffering is the current state of the human condition.  The Buddha noticed that everyone in life is in a mental state of suffering.  Therefore, aging, sickness, poverty, and death, cause humans dukka or suffering.  When the Buddha had the opportunity to explore the human condition, he noticed a reality in life he had never noticed before.  While observing out in the country, he saw a very old man and a very sick man.  When he saw these people, they did not simply pass by like anything else he has seen before.  These images made a difference in the life of the Buddha.  He then left the wealth he had, his wife, and his child, and went to find a solution for that state of suffering.

     The Buddha sat under a tree and did not move for a very long time.  During that time he reached a state of consciousness he has never reached before in his life—a state he never even heard about.  He reached that state of consciousness where he was above any human desire or craving.  That state is referred to as nirvana, or to cease the craving.  At that state, the Buddha came to complete satisfaction where he had no craving for anything on earth.  According to Buddhism nirvana is the solution to suffering.  At nirvana there is no suffering; it is a high level of consciousness that makes human rise above all temptations and cravings.

     The main problem humans have, according to the Buddha, is craving or trishna.  This unquenchable thirst humans had was the root of the human condition which caused suffering.  If people did not have trishna they would not be in the state of dukka.  It is in the human nature to be tempted to love things and crave them, and that causes us to suffer.  To move from the problem to the solution the Buddha prescribed the eight fold path.  A human needs to have the right views, intent, speech, conduct, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and concentration.  By following these eight things, the human will eventually start to move towards nirvana.  Mindfulness and concentration, unlike the six other paths, are unique in that they are types of meditation that leads to a high level of consciousness.  Mindfulness, or vippassana, is to see things the way they really are.  In vippassana, the meditator focuses on different parts of his body one part at a time and learns how to be aware of its sensation.  Concentration, or shikantaza—which literally means just sitting, is the simple form of meditation where the meditator just breathes regularly while focusing his mind on his current state.  These paths are the prescribed paths to the man who wants to leave the current state of suffering in an effort to reach nirvana.

     To live out the solution in our lives, according to the Buddhist faith, is to practice the eight fold path.  Although different sects of Buddhism emphasize different parts, a recurring theme is compassion and reality.  A Buddhist aims to have compassion for the people and tries to do the most unselfish acts he possible could.  For a Buddhist, reality is another important theme; in here a Buddhist would do his best to become aware with what is around him and at the same time try to act in proactive ways.  Essentially Buddhism is more concerned with how to solve a problem rather than finding out why the problem occurred.

     Reflecting on these philosophical religious ideas, I see Buddhism as a realistic religion.  Buddhism tries to see things the way they really are without interfering with the seriousness of the matter.  What kind of confused me when reading about Buddhism, is its emphasis on the mind.  It seems that these two things conflict—reality and the mind.  Reality is concerned with what is external and the surroundings while the mind is very internal and has little to do with the surroundings.  Yet, to see how one religion incorporates both of these and manages to place much emphasis on the both of them causes some confusion.