Buddhism

History

Buddhism is a philosophy/way of life that can be traced back 6 BCE. Over time there have been many variations of Buddhism but the central idea remains the same : through tedious meditation and dedication you can achieve nirvana, which is the highest state of enlightenment.

Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha) was born into a extremely wealthy family his father was a king and lived a luxurious life until he reached the age of 29. He looked out of the castle for the first time and saw 4 people; a sick man, a old man, a holy man, and a corpse. This was the start of his journey where he realized that his privileged status would not protect him from sickness, old age, and death. Gautama renounced his worldly life and began a spiritual quest eventually reaching enlightenment after years of contemplation meditation and experiencing the world.



meditation

  • Mindful Meditation - its to practice being actively aware of one’s thoughts & feelings. There are two main types of meditation - concentration & awareness. Concentration is where you focus on one particular item whether it’s an object or a “chakkra” which could be a part of your body. This normally puts one in a trance like state which at times could be used to find a sense of motivation to pursue something. The goal of mindfulness is to become aware of your reflexive thoughts and feelings. By doing this, we learn to become less reactive to certain things that we come across as we go about our life and we have more control on how things affect our mental and emotional state.

  • “The benefits of meditation are a spontaneous result of gradually changing the nature of our relationship to our own thought process.”




The Journey of Buddhism

To become a buddhist there are 4 steps that everyone must go through, step number 1. believing. Buddhism doesn't think that you should 100% believe everything once you start your journey into buddhism but without some belief you would not have chosen to become a buddhist. Buddhism encourages its followers to have doubts and actively search for their own answers. The 2nd step is understanding. To understand means to question life and the human condition, questions like “why must people suffer” “what's the meaning of life” “what can be done” are normal questions that a buddhist monk would ponder on for years and through prayers, meditation and analysis of sacred text, one might find a answer. The 3rd step is doing which essentially means to practice what you preach. This is where a buddhist must follow the dharma and live in accordance of buddhism. Buddha is the example.

The final step is proving, this step is where you prove to yourself and other students of buddhism that the dharma actually works. You achieve true happiness and peace of mind by casting out suffering, achieving enlightenment.