Intro to Buddhism

Siddhartha Guatama was the founder of Buddhism and lived in Nepal over 2,500 years ago. He grew up in a royal household and was given a very privileged childhood. He was first exposed to the outside world when he went outside of his palace and witnessed sickness, death, and old age. Siddhartha searched for the truth of reality and became enlightened after 40 days of deep thought. He discovered the meaning of life and thought of ways to help others understand as well. This is when he became known as the Buddha.

The first of the Three Jewels of Buddhism represents the Buddha and his idea of enlightenment. The second jewel represents a person’s dharma, which is one’s duty, and is used to obtain enlightenment. The third jewel is the Sangha that represent examples to help obtain enlightenment as well.

 The Threefold Way of Buddhism consists of ethics, meditation, and wisdom. Its ethics explains how one should see themselves as well as others. Mediation refers to a clearer mind in order to understand reality better. And wisdom refers to when a person reaches enlightenment and can fully see and understand reality.

The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism refers to the humanity within every human being. It consists of ways to end suffering, bring about suffering, find the origin of suffering, and why it occurs. In order to end suffering, one must encounter the Noble Eightfold Path. 

The Eightfold Path is the believed way to end suffering and reach a perfect dharma in one’s life. It includes the right understanding, intention, action, effort, mindfulness, concentration, livelihood, and speech.