The Story of Buddha – Simplified

Born in the 5th century BC, Siddhartha Gautama was the legendary figure who later became Buddha (meaning ‘the enlightened’) that people still revere today. Though he was a royal prince who grew up in riches, he soon left his mortal life covered in wealth and ease after he had seen poverty that some common people were suffering. He first followed a Brahmin teacher, and then a hermit, but after some time, having learned all he could, he moved on to becoming a an ascetic alongside five other monks for six years. After a near death experience from extreme fasting, he realized ascetism was not the way to reach spiritual liberation. He later sat under a Bodhi tree in the Uruvela forest and entered deep meditation, musing he would not leave unless enlightenment was attained. During this time, he was faced with great disturbance caused by the very nature of human instinctive desires. Eventually, 49 days passed, Siddhartha became fully enlightened.

His long, arduous journey seeking liberation from mortal suffering reaped fruits. Originally, he did not simply pursue liberation for himself, but he indeed wanted to [help] liberate all of mankind.

In the next 45 years, he materialized his fateful, lifelong mission by conducting speeches about Dhamma (the Truth) that he had obtained from enlightenment. His teachings were recorded by his disciples and practitioners through writings that later became sacred Buddhist classics, even later generations, though Buddha himself never left any writings of his own Dhamma, nor did he intend to do so.

Why? Let’s discover the answer in the next section.

Some notes about Buddha and Buddhism

First of all, it’s worth mentioning that Buddhism is in fact an irreligious practice. It is, at its roots, a pure philosophy and a way of life. Buddha himself always avoided superstitions, so he did not want his teachings to be religionized (rendered into religion). However, things didn’t go as he wished; Buddhism was gradually religionized by later generations, giving rise to various schools of practice. Two major schools of Buddhism today are Theravada and [East Asian] Mahayana.

Theravada is mainly practiced in South Asian countries while Mahayana is prominent in East Asian cultures.

Bearing the meaning of ‘Small Vehicle’, Theravada is the school of practice that’s closest to the original teachings of Buddha. It’s called like that because to strictly follow the path that Buddha took to reach ultimate liberation, man must overcome his instincts and go beyond the animalistic part to be truly free from suffering. As such, not many can go down that road, hence the name ‘Small Vehicle’ as few could come along.

On the other hand, Mahayana, meaning ‘Great Vehicle’ because it’s supposed to help many reach liberation more than Theravada, is dominant in East Asian countries, particularly China. This Buddhist school has made modifications to better suit the common people.

How come?

Because after reaching full enlightenment, even Buddha himself had some hesitation with regard to passing down how he arrived at the Ultimate Truth, as he realized different individuals possess different levels of awareness and intellectuality.

The cold, harsh fact is, generally speaking, nobody wants to admit they’re stupid, let alone being called so. We want to hide our weaknesses. Yet, the truth is—we ARE all stupid, just at varied levels. Explanation? One single logic, which is also a fact: We are ignorant to what we haven’t known; that’s why we’re constantly learning, and humanity has plauded knowledge as a noble, timeless and priceless attribute of man.

It doesn’t matter what subject, any lesson given will be interpreted differently, which produces multiple outputs by different individuals, because as human beings, not everyone has the same or similar intellectual levels, nor does everyone think alike. We will always understand things in this world accordingly to our level, and this is more or less a cognitive default, so it’s hard to change that, but it can still be improved to some degree.

In the end, original Buddhism is difficult to practice because it discovered the nature of why people suffer in life. The reality is—there’s nothing godly of divine beyond comprehension – we suffer because of greed and ignorance. This is no rocket science. When we desire something but can’t get it, we think about it negatively, feeling sad, disappointed and such. All these stirred emotions lead to our suffering, and this is self-inflicted; another form of suffering is externally caused, e.g. a powerful nation invading a weaker one, wrecking havoc on civilians, and so these normal people suffer from war brought about by a foreign force.

That’s not all. Our awareness/consciousness is also limited; there are way too many things we do that we can’t see their possible consequences. Now, let’s put the macroscopic stuff aside because that’s all in all beyond control for most people; we will consider the personal-level things in daily life, e.g. when someone insults you, normally, you would snap back with insults or even use violence. You keep doing it and think it’s justified. Even if law is not involved, what do you actually gain from such interactions? It costs your time and energy. It takes away your peace. Engaging in abusive language is mentally draining, and physical confrontation could end in injuries or death. If it’s not an important matter, is such tit-for-tat behavior worth it? That’s ignorance.

So, what’s the solution?

As “simple” as the identified problem, it’s to cut off your desires, or at least have them under control. Stop over-wanting and chasing the masses. In other words, you must overcome your primal instincts. The answer is simple and ideal, yet it’s too ideal and unrealistic that it’s insanely difficult for people to follow, because we humans are also animals that rely on instincts for survival. We compete to earn the right to pass on our genetic legacy, which is, a lot of times, synonymous with causing the demise of others.

But then, over time, as our life gets better, we have civilization, we develop technology, we have accumulation of what caters to our basic cravings, etc., and so such accumulation leads to ownership of things which become our wealth (properties). As the material aspect of our life improves, we don’t simply stop at basic necessities; we go from fighting for basic needs to fighting for gains beyond these needs. We always want more and more. There’s no end to this repetitive cycle.

Theoretically, that’s how to end suffering, but it’s quite unthinkable for practice. Also, Buddhism doesn’t force people to abandon the way beings have always been and must strictly commit to some coercive cult-like practice to reach Nirvana. It depends on each individual’s level of consciousness and intellectuality. If one sees the Buddhist way as fit, then one embarks on it; otherwise, all’s fine. Buddhism doesn’t force its teachings on others as do some other major religions in the world.

In Buddhism, you are taught to think critically and question things that are presented by others, not taking them for granted. Even at school, as a student who takes a class from a teacher, you should find ways to verify the teacher’s knowledge; don’t simply follow on the premise of the fact that he’s a teacher so he knows what he’s teaching.

In any case, whenever you learn something and there’s a teacher to give you instructions, unless you have experienced or learned the lesson yourself, do not just follow anyone’s teachings. This does not mean you disregard any knowledge that’s being passed down to you, but instead you are supposed to examine it carefully to identify what makes sense and what doesn’t. To do this, a little tip here is to apply scientific thinking to this examination.

Note that when you scrutinize something, pay attention to your intention. If you examine it with the attitude that you want to identify its weaknesses and expose them, then you are already geared towards negativity, which is a highly subjective outcome, because you only see what you want to see, not its true nature. Conversely, if you look at it with curiosity and genuine interest for knowledge, then you will always be able to judge matters more objectively, because you are not seeking information that validates your expectation.

For example, if you think that in the animal kingdom, the survival of species is too harsh and brutal, and that a predator is branded as “bad” because it consumes its prey, then you’re only forcing your subjective worldview as a human being on the way that nature has always been. There’s no human concept in the wild, the labels and definitions we stick onto things are no more than what we think is right, not things as they objectively are.

You see, intention is key when it comes to what kind of outcome you will obtain from doing pretty much everything in your life. Such an intangible element makes a whole world of difference.

In Buddhism, ‘intent‘ is a salient factor. It will determine what kind of reality you will see, and you can’t do the “right” thing without the “right” mind.

That’s about it for today. We will get to know more about Buddhism in detail in the next part.

Upcoming – Part 2: The Teachings (Dhamma) of Buddha and Explanation of the World according to Buddhism.