Spreading the Dharma...
The Buddha taught many things, but the basic concepts in Buddhism can be summed up by the Four Noble Truths.
1) Life is suffering. Our lives include pain, getting old, disease, and ultimately death. Like the Chinese like to say, 生老病死. Besides such physical sufferings, we also endure psychological suffering like loneliness, frustration, fear, embarrassment, disappointment and sadness. This cannot be denied and there is no point being pessimistic about it. lnstead, Buddhism explains how suffering can be avoided and how we can be truly happy.
2) Suffering is caused by craving. Everyday we crave for things, be it power, pleasurable things or even winning others. However, getting what you want does not guarantee happiness. Rather than constantly struggling to get what you want, try to modify your wanting. Spending a life chasing what you want deprives us of contentment and happiness. This form of emotional disturbance will distract us from being happy and free from sufferings.
3) Suffering can be overcome and then reaching happiness become possible. If we let go of our cravings to live day by day not thinking of the past or imagine about the future, we will then be happy and free. When we remove cravings completely from our minds, a state of Nirvana is obtained.
4) Path to the end of sufferings. This path is called the Noble Eightfold Path which is a key to Buddhism which I will share again soon.
This above is a summary of my understanding of the Four Noble Truths and I encourage everyone to further do some research to understand each of it in depth.
Sadhu~ Sadhu~ Sadhu~
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