Understanding Buddhism..

The word comes from 'budhi', 'to awaken'. It has its origins about 2,500 years ago when Siddhartha Gotama, known as the Buddha, was himself awakened (enlightened) at the age of 35. He was not God, nor did he claim to be. He was a man who taught a path to enlightenment from his own experience. Buddhism explains a purpose to life, it explains apparent injustice and inequality around the world, and it provides a code of practice or way of life that leads to true happiness.

The first good reason is Buddhism has answers to many of the problems in modern materialistic societies. It also includes (for those who are interested) a deep understanding of the human mind (and natural therapies) which prominent psychologists around the world are now discovering to be both very advanced and effective.

One of the Buddhist teachings is that wealth does not guarantee happiness and also wealth is impermanent. The people of every country suffer whether rich or poor, but those who understand Buddhist teachings can find true happiness.

Real Buddhism is very tolerant and not concerned with labels like 'Christian', 'Muslim', 'Hindu' or 'Buddhist'; that is why there have never been any wars fought in the name of Buddhism. That is why Buddhists do not preach and try to convert, only explain if an explanation is sought.

Science is knowledge which can be made into a system, which depends upon seeing and testing facts and stating general natural laws. The core of Buddhism fit into this definition, because the Four Noble truths can be tested and proven by anyone in fact the Buddha himself asked his followers to test the teaching rather than accept his word as true. Buddhism depends more on understanding than faith.

The Four irrefutable facts that cannot be denied. The first truth is that life is suffering i.e., life includes pain, getting old, disease, and ultimately death. We also endure psychological suffering like loneliness frustration, fear, embarrassment, disappointment and anger. Buddhism explains how suffering can be avoided and how we can be truly happy.

The second truth is that suffering is caused by craving and aversion. We will suffer if we expect other people to conform to our expectation, if we want others to like us, if we do not get something we want,etc.

The third truth is that suffering can be overcome and happiness can be attained, if we give up useless craving and learn to live each day at a time (not dwelling in the past or the imagined future) then we can become happy and free. We then have more time and energy to help others. This is Nirvana.

The fourth truth is that the Noble 8-fold Path is the path which leads to the end of suffering.

The Noble 8-fold Path is being moral (through what we say, do and our livelihood), focussing the mind on being fully aware of our thoughts and actions, and developing wisdom by understanding the Four Noble Truths and by developing compassion for others.

The moral code within Buddhism is the precepts, of which the main five are: not to take the life of anything living, not to take anything not freely given, to abstain from sexual misconduct and sensual overindulgence, to refrain from untrue speech, and to avoid intoxication, that is, losing mindfulness.

Myth-ology

Since the Pashan Yug - the stone age- several myths have been stingily followed by the storytellers, the religious seers. They have exerted hard enough to retrieve the origin of logics inserted by these myths. Their efforts have rendered basis of developed ideological expressions and differentiated it for the understanding today and for the times to come.

The word Myth has its origin from Greek word ‘Mythos’, which essentially means speech/ discourse, but has subsequently evolved and later has come to mean fable/legend. Stories those have lost in times have been explored to root, to rationalize their past existence with the present subsistence. They may have vague origins, but being basically religious and supernatural in nature, the interest never ends. The legends being originated from the basic content of Myth is usually understood by certain sages, but does fascinate every religious and critical mind.

As the historical events have been redesigned and refashioned by various storytellers, it may be hard to replenish the vital facts, which perhaps have perished with passing time and through each passing narrator.

Myths try to rationalize the purpose of Universe and everything existing in it. Giving a cosmological and historical insight to society, this has questioned the scientific interpretation of the Myths. Essentially, it has developed a subtle framework for the societies to understand them, and that too with the sophisticated influence. Also influencing Modern Science and its historical investigations.

Myths encapsulate collective imagination, dream, and this collective aspiration of society does influence our behavior and habits. When we study Myth we will establish that it is much more than an ideology or social phenomena and hence its orientation extends beyond the limits human imagination, beyond its consciousness.

A few general characteristics of mythological thinking have been derived from the fact, which primitive people have kept themselves connected from world, and not differentiate themselves from the natural world.

Another fine characteristic of the mythological phenomena is the weakness of its abstraction, as the modern ethno linguistic data represents. In Myth it is impractical to remove the object content and their space-time relationship, and essentially the situations that define these relationships. To beat the critical analysis, usually done by the common listener, logical analysis and classification is necessary via concrete imagery synthesis without becoming excessively abstract.

For our purpose of related meanings Mythology has been divided into systems, we call them Mythological Systems. These systems were followed by particular societies at a particular time and now they are subsequently being followed. We know them as Egyptian Mythology, Indian Mythology, Maori Mythology (originated in New Zealand) and Greek Mythology. Our ancient civilizations have been limited to these origins and so their remains of these Mythological origins are still alive.

If we group them geographically we have, Oceanic Mythology, Oriental Mythology and African Mythology.

Science evolves with every passing second, and somehow mythology does play a vital role in distinguishing scientific secrets. It is no doubt an acting force behind many aspects of magical and ritual practices. Mythology in an ongoing experience of facts, our society has been planned and structured because of various rational and devout reasons. The sagas and legends have ruled the basic learning of human mind from ages, but we still question their past existence, as we are unaware of many virtual facts. Moreover, it may be hard to stretch out each detail embedded but we sometimes have to accept the unknowing, ironically we have always.

Hinduism; A way of Life

Enchanting ‘OM’ behold the significance of subtle truths lying untouched in this universe. Hinduism gives a privilege to live a content life understanding the principles of instructive Vedas and Upanishads. The awakening through certain eternal truths appreciates the real nature of consciousness, which is far beyond the mind or body, or does it depend on the complex perceptions. Hinduism is a philosophy towards Vedic way of life and encourages people of various beliefs to sustain their faith towards it. It helps us learn the Truth confined beyond the world we live in.

The philosophy has extreme sense of tolerance prolonging the essence of its blissful existence. Its biggest strength is that it is not rigidly structured via any single holy book, giving its followers a freedom of thought and belongingness to their opinions. Hinduism itself hold believers and non- believers from various orientations, you can get iconoclasts and idol- worshipers here, and liberal and conservative minds sitting under the same roof that reflect the sacred of path Hinduism.

Being the world’s oldest extant religion it is not clear about its origin, and hence cannot be traced to any individual. The oldest of the Hindu scripts, the Rig Veda was composed well before 6000- 7000 B.C. The Spiritual content of Hinduism has been these four Vedas, which has been scripted by anonymous sages. These Vedic legends have been into existence because of seers who later passed on the message of Hindu Spirituality via Upanishads. Later being followed by various epic poems, like Bhagvad Gita and Mahabharat. They have helped us discover the reigning regime of this religion, which were governed by various Devi Devtas. They all suggest fragments evident with similar concept of the basic principle, which is the existence soul. It is the eccentric realities, which is hard to be effectively described in words.

Man tries to break free the vicious circle of life, i.e birth and death and seeking the divine Mokasha, which is what that has steered the Hindu psychology for so long. For centuries, we have nurtured the fluid Universe that reflects the actions of Karma, which is the force of creations. Undoubtedly, this source has illuminated the life around. We all can easily understand the concept of Karma – actions-, as it is what that in Hindu religion determines the fate of any individual. This is embedded in Hindu minds unknowingly, influencing subliminally. As the Newton’s law suggest, “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction”. Eventually, Karma being ‘action’ shapes the future we will be walking into, that will ultimately conclude our path of evolution into higher grounds. The seed cropping these actions are the never-ending desires prompting in our heart.

Desires have always been negative impact on human achievement to grow into sacred spiritual grounds. As it is when beholden, then burns the ropeway of spiritual journey of oneself before it begins.

Detachment and sacrifice are means to escape into the Spiritual world selflessly; it guides you to the supreme, when achieved. It is meaningless to stay attached to world around when it does not belong to you.

Hinduism is about selflessness. The Philosophy may be anonymously written but for sure do marvel the world we live in. we can easily feel content being part of the Vedic way of life.