Buddhism And The Human Condition - 1289 Words

In looking at the human condition, one cannot deny the immutable presence of suffering as a central tenet of life. Nobody, not even the Buddha, walks through life without experiencing pain, anguish, and suffering. However, one cannot experience suffering without also knowing its opposite of love, joy, and happiness. Buddhist terminology refers to these emotional states as dukkha and sukha. Importantly, however, these emotional conditions are impermanent and deeply related to one another. Dukkha comes from the fruitless but eternal human plight of grasping at an ephemeral sense of happiness. Too many live without acknowledging that their endeavors of maintaining a static feeling of bliss, or sukha, is both unrealistic and futile. While some would criticize this life philosophy as deeply pessimistic, the reality is that the Buddha’s observations are an insightful and irrefutable fact of life. The human race’s continuous inability to grasp the concept of life as suffering has led to the erroneous and often western misconception that Buddhism is an inherently cynical religion. This ethnocentric line of criticism, however, ignores the rewarding and deeply spiritual facets of Buddhism that attempt to enrich one’s life by mitigating dukkha. The Buddha’s Four Noble Truths reflects this understanding, and serves to remind adherents that life is suffering and that it arises from the existential plight of impermanence. In this vein, life is dukkha but there are ways to alleviate theShow MoreRelatedTheravada Buddhism And The Human Condition Essay2258 Words   |  10 PagesTheravada Buddhism is known to be the â€Å"a representative school of the earliest of the branches of Buddhism†, as it is also known as â€Å"Hinayana or the small vehicle† (Young). 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These characteristics regard to the human condition, the meaning of humanity. Despite the variability in such response from person to person, there are characteristics of the human condition that are common to humans as a whole. In great exposure to humanity and its condition, one must notRead MoreBuddhism : The Philosophy And Religion1426 Words   |  6 PagesBuddhism originated 2,500 years ago in India and today – is the prevailing world religion in the East. There are more than 360 million followers of Buddhism, including one million American followers. Buddhism has branched into a diverse selection of forms throughout its long history, however, all methods of Buddhism s hare an admiration for the teachings of Buddha with the ultimate focus on ending suffering (Religionfacts.com, 2015). In the 6th century BC, Siddhartha or Gautama Buddha was born in