How have you been these last few weeks?!
Well, I'm sure!
Today, I want to tell you about The Buddha.
Many of you would have heard of him.
Today, I want to tell you about The Buddha.
Many of you would have heard of him.
To many, who grew up studying about him in school, he was 4 marks if you knew his 4 Noble Truths, another 4 if you could tell his 8-Fold Path correctly and 5 marks if you wrote a paragraph on him.
Lets see what we can do about these marks !
He was born a prince called Siddhartha in North India about 2550 years ago.
Why was man born again and again?
Every effect has a cause, and when the cause is removed, the effect is removed too.
Lets see what we can do about these marks !
He was born a prince called Siddhartha in North India about 2550 years ago.
He led a peaceful life, married, had a child and then came across certain realities of life which were inescapable,whatever your wealth, standing or beliefs.
He had a scientist's questioning mind, so he set out to find the answers.
He studied and practiced all the eight types of Meditations prevalant then and did learn a lot, but realized that the mystery still remained, that he had not gone to the root of the problem.
He still had questions-
Why was man born again and again?
Why was there illness? Suffering?
And Death?
And birth again?
Could this cycle be stopped?
If so, How?
He sat down with the determination of getting up only after finding the answers, which had to be true for all the people all over the world for all times to come.
Luckily for us, he did.
He sat down with the determination of getting up only after finding the answers, which had to be true for all the people all over the world for all times to come.
Luckily for us, he did.
His moment of Enlightenment was the moment he got all the answers, realized the truth of this universe, its functioning and the way to get out of the cycle of birth and death.
He became the Buddha at the age of 29 and spent the next 45 years teaching the technique to people, holding back nothing.
He found that there were certain things which were unchanging, and dealt with them methodically, calling them The Four Noble Truths.
Why Noble?
He found that there were certain things which were unchanging, and dealt with them methodically, calling them The Four Noble Truths.
Why Noble?
When does a Truth become Noble?
A truth is a truth when it is universal, irrespective of time, place and people.
When you watch it without reacting to it, it becomes Noble.
Because by learning to do so, it is you eventually become noble.
The First Noble Truth is that There is Suffering.
The First Noble Truth is that There is Suffering.
Sure there is joy and happiness and hope and anger and fear,but the prominent aspect impacting our life is sorrow, or suffering.
Even in enjoyment, there is a fear and sadness that this is not going to last.
Having accepted this fact, he proceeded to find more.
Does suffering just happen ?
Does suffering just happen ?
Do we invite it?
Why does it come ?
To put it simply, we suffer because Unwanted things happen to us and Those that we wish for, do not.
To put it simply, we suffer because Unwanted things happen to us and Those that we wish for, do not.
This is the Second Noble Truth.
Every effect has a cause, and when the cause is removed, the effect is removed too.
Similarly, When the cause of suffering is eradicated, so is suffering.
This is the third Noble Truth.
The Fourth Noble Truth gives us the path to eradicate the root cause.
The Fourth Noble Truth gives us the path to eradicate the root cause.
The Eight-Fold Path.
Simple and effective!
The efficacy in the Buddha's technique lies in its practise of working on one's own mind without depending on any external ritual.
Simple and effective!
The efficacy in the Buddha's technique lies in its practise of working on one's own mind without depending on any external ritual.
It does not matter whether you believe in past or future lives, it starts working immediately on this current one, teaching you how to remove the causes of your suffering.
The peace that you get out of your own efforts, the lessons that you learn are beyond words.
Which is why, the technique that I follow has 9 days out of the 10 spent in total silence.
The peace that you get out of your own efforts, the lessons that you learn are beyond words.
Which is why, the technique that I follow has 9 days out of the 10 spent in total silence.
It's awesome!
I will tell you about it the next time.
Have a good day-
I will tell you about it the next time.
Have a good day-
3 comments:
Hi Dear Shubhaji,
Hope you had a good time.
I guess you had been to a vipaashyana session ?
Well, I wanted to write here for many days, but ultimately, here I am now writing.
There are a lot of questions, which I would like to discuss.
Let me start from this moment.
This question is about this same post.
I have read and listened many times that the Great Shankaracharya defeated all the people in debate against Boudhha teachings and established the Hindu religion again. So could you let us know what exactly this was ?
Regards
Mandar
hi
this is more of an observation on the comment posted... i dont think, rather can't see, any difference between the basic teachings of what he terms as 'Hindu' religion and what 'Buddha' taught.
Hi Ranjana,
I agree with your observation.
And precisely thats the reason, I have posted that question. If there is no difference in the basic teachings between Hindu religion and what Buddha taught, then what was it that was defeated by Shri. Shankaracharya?
The only difference I read about in an article is the way in which meditation process differs. But apart from it, I dont know any difference. So I am eager to find out more about this.
Regards
Mandar
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