Buddha
Even before the class that we had that discussed religion, I was interested in Buddhism, but it was only after the class that I actually reached into it. I wanted to enlighten myself as to the ways in which that religion is different from any other. I was baptized catholic and raised catholic as well but have found much pf what they say to be very one-sided and incomprehensible for me to understand completely and be able to adhere to in my everyday life. Therefore I decided that maybe the best thing for me was to look elsewhere for the faith I needed. My father has always been interested in the eastern religions so it was not hard for me to acquire information on the subject as well as the wealth of information you can find on the Internet. Though if it wasn’t for the class we had the discussed religion I might not have taken the time to look into it further, or at least it would not have been anytime soon. In this paper, I would like to explain why the Buddhist culture has made a difference in my world.
In class, we learned that Siddhartha Gautama, or Buddha, lived around 6th century B.C. in northern India and while there he lived unhappily and had an intuition that there was something more to life so he went out in quest. Eventually, he found a tree to sit under where he discovered 3 main truths and they were 1. Life is suffering 2. The root of all suffering is desire and 3. In order to give up suffering, we must give up desire therefore gaining enlightenment. He also came up with the eight-fold path that states it’s “ all about the moment”, also that the value of experience is more important than knowledge and that the mind does not equal knowledge. After learning this I decided to investigate this subject some more. I learned the Buddha truly means “he who is awake” and Siddhartha Gautama became awake after many tries at finding the true answer to his dyer question of how one loses the feeling of suffering. He was born prince of Sakya, a tribe in Nepal, and about the time he was twenty-nine he went out in search of this answer. He left his wife and new son to eventually find himself immersed in life under a fig, or bodhi, tree. He went first through deep concentration to free him of mind filling worries, and then through mindless meditation, which brought him freedom of all thought. Once free of all thought he was brought to sheer enlightenment that allowed him to see all his previous lives and all that was going on in the world. With this enlightenment, he went around for forty-five more years teaching what he had been privileged to experience under that tree.
After reading about how Buddha came to be I wanted to learn what it was that he had to teach. I found the Seven Factors of Enlightenment were:
In conclusion, because of my Communication Skills IV class, I learned more about Buddhism and what it took to get me to look into it more so that I would gain a greater appreciation for it and about it. I will leave this class this semester taking that with me in hopes that it will bring me greater peace in the long run so that I may approach my goals in my education and life with less stress and greater appreciation and love for the people and things around me.
Even before the class that we had that discussed religion, I was interested in Buddhism, but it was only after the class that I actually reached into it. I wanted to enlighten myself as to the ways in which that religion is different from any other. I was baptized catholic and raised catholic as well but have found much pf what they say to be very one-sided and incomprehensible for me to understand completely and be able to adhere to in my everyday life. Therefore I decided that maybe the best thing for me was to look elsewhere for the faith I needed. My father has always been interested in the eastern religions so it was not hard for me to acquire information on the subject as well as the wealth of information you can find on the Internet. Though if it wasn’t for the class we had the discussed religion I might not have taken the time to look into it further, or at least it would not have been anytime soon. In this paper, I would like to explain why the Buddhist culture has made a difference in my world.
In class, we learned that Siddhartha Gautama, or Buddha, lived around 6th century B.C. in northern India and while there he lived unhappily and had an intuition that there was something more to life so he went out in quest. Eventually, he found a tree to sit under where he discovered 3 main truths and they were 1. Life is suffering 2. The root of all suffering is desire and 3. In order to give up suffering, we must give up desire therefore gaining enlightenment. He also came up with the eight-fold path that states it’s “ all about the moment”, also that the value of experience is more important than knowledge and that the mind does not equal knowledge. After learning this I decided to investigate this subject some more. I learned the Buddha truly means “he who is awake” and Siddhartha Gautama became awake after many tries at finding the true answer to his dyer question of how one loses the feeling of suffering. He was born prince of Sakya, a tribe in Nepal, and about the time he was twenty-nine he went out in search of this answer. He left his wife and new son to eventually find himself immersed in life under a fig, or bodhi, tree. He went first through deep concentration to free him of mind filling worries, and then through mindless meditation, which brought him freedom of all thought. Once free of all thought he was brought to sheer enlightenment that allowed him to see all his previous lives and all that was going on in the world. With this enlightenment, he went around for forty-five more years teaching what he had been privileged to experience under that tree.
After reading about how Buddha came to be I wanted to learn what it was that he had to teach. I found the Seven Factors of Enlightenment were:
- Mindfulness
- Investigation
- Energy
- Rapture
- Tranquility
- Concentration
- Equanimity
- Sensuous lust
- Aversion and ill will
- Sloth and torpor
- Restlessness and worry
- Skeptical doubt
- Generosity
- Morality
- Renunciation
- Wisdom
- Energy
- Patience
- Truthfulness
- Resolution
- Loving-kindness
- Equanimity
- Feeling (Pleasant, Unpleasant or Neutral)
- Perception
- Volition
- Consciousness
- Self-delusion
- Doubt
- Clinging to ritual
- Sensuous lust
- Ill will
- Greed of fine materials
- Greed of material existence
- Conceit
- Restlessness
- Ignorance
In conclusion, because of my Communication Skills IV class, I learned more about Buddhism and what it took to get me to look into it more so that I would gain a greater appreciation for it and about it. I will leave this class this semester taking that with me in hopes that it will bring me greater peace in the long run so that I may approach my goals in my education and life with less stress and greater appreciation and love for the people and things around me.
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