Study of Religions

Study of Religions

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Study of Religions

The four noble truths contain the main concept of Buddha’s teachings. These were teachings that came up during this meditation under the boodhi tree. The four noble teachings include: the truth of suffering, the truth of the original suffering, the truth of the cessation of suffering and the last truth being the truth of the path to the cessation of suffering.

The four noble truths characterize life as suffering. This cannot be the true definition of life. Even though Buddhism offers a way out of suffering but what we should understand is that life is a mixture of pains, suffering, enjoyments, ups and downs, sorrows and other beneficial staffs. Buddhism goes ahead to view all sorts of enjoyments and pleasures as a road to suffering which cannot be said to be true.

Buddhism looks at life in an aspect that life is full of suffering meaning that the sufferings started right when you were born till the time you will die. According to the truths one should be able to cut off his attachments to desires and pleasures so that you can become happy. In life one has to be happy and the only way to do this is by having a good outlook of life and developing good relationships with other individuals that will make your life have memories that are obviously leading to your happiness.

The Buddhist tradition softened the pessimism of the Buddha in a way that you could change your point of view on whether the noble teachings make one see life as pessimistic. The Buddhist tradition that is mainly the teachers say that people misunderstand the noble truths hence they claim that Buddhism is not pessimistic.

The Buddhist teachers will always say that at the end the noble truths offer a solution for suffering in this world which is not the case. One cannot suffer for the rest of his life. But according to the noble truths one suffers for life.

References

Friesen , S. J., Schowalter, D. N., & Walters, J. C. (2010). Leiden; Boston : Brill.

Harding, J. S., & Rodrigues, H. P. (2009). Routledge.