[Haveunique]

Learned about a nice site about Buddhism and find this introductory note a good one to start with for the interested newbies To all who enjoy this - have a pleasant reading!

The Four Noble Truths

1. Life is suffering;
2. Suffering is due to attachment;
3. Attachment can be overcome;
4. There is a path for accomplishing this.

1. Suffering is perhaps the most common translation for the Sanskrit word duhkha, which can also be translated as imperfect, stressful, or filled with anguish.

Contributing to the anguish is anitya -- the fact that all things are impermanent, including living things like ourselves.

Furthermore, there is the concept of anatman -- literally, "no soul". Anatman means that all things are interconnected and interdependent, so that no thing -- including ourselves -- has a separate existence.

2. Attachment is a common translation for the word trishna, which literally means thirst and is also translated as desire, clinging, greed, craving, or lust. Because we and the world are imperfect, impermanent, and not separate, we are forever "clinging" to things, each other, and ourselves, in a mistaken effort at permanence.

Besides trishna, there is dvesha, which means avoidance or hatred. Hatred is its own kind of clinging.

And finally there is avidya, ignorance or the refusal to see. Not fully understanding the impermanence of things is what leads us to cling in the first place.

3. Perhaps the most misunderstood term in Buddhism is the one which refers to the overcoming of attachment: nirvana. It literally means "blowing out," but is often thought to refer to either a Buddhist heaven or complete nothingness. Actually, it refers to the letting go of clinging, hatred, and ignorance, and the full acceptance of imperfection, impermanence, and interconnectedness.

4. And then there is the path, called dharma. Buddha called it the middle way, which is understood as meaning the middle way between such competing philosophies as materialism and idealism, or hedonism and asceticism. This path, this middle way, is elaborated as the eightfold path.   

[Андрей]

Are you researching Buddhism? What are the key points about Buddhism? Could you generalize? Thank you!   

[Haveunique]

Actually, I just started digging into it and will be posting thoughts as I go To put it in a few words and very generally,

To do no evil;

To cultivate good;

To purify one's mind:

This is the teaching of the Buddhas.

--The Dhammapada

Will be posting more soon =)   

[Gra-ach]

All words about spiritual values are just hints. Don′t hold onto the words as if they are realities. They are hints, almost the way I can point to the moon with my finger - but don′t catch hold of my finger. My finger is not the moon. Although my finger was pointing to the moon, it was only a hint.
In one of the temples of Japan, there is no statue of Gautam Buddha in the temple. Instead of a statue, there is a finger pointing to a far away moon. It is a temple of its own kind - because Buddha is nothing but a finger pointing to the moon. Don′t go on worshiping the finger - that will not help. Look at the moon where the finger is pointing. Forget the finger, forget the scriptures, forget the masters, forget all your religions; just try to find out what they are hinting at, and you will be surprised to find that thousands of fingers are pointing at the same moon.
And the followers of these fingers are fighting and killing each other. Mohammedans killing Christians, Christians killing Jews, Hindus killing Mohammedans; and nobody bothers that you are fighting for fingers. The fingers may be different, but the moon is the same. The angles of the fingers may be different - because people were standing in different places at different times, in different ages. How can Krishna point exactly the way Jesus is pointing? How can Buddha point in the same way Zarathustra is pointing?
The person who seeks knowledge from these indications in the scriptures, in words, in statues is a fool. The search has to be withinwards - because they are all pointing that the kingdom of God is within you.
And unless you go inwards, unless you close your eyes and relax your mind; unless your heart, your mind, your body all become a synchronicity, a harmony, a deep accord - you will not be able to hear the still small voice within you.
And that voice is nobody else′s voice, it is your own. And remember, only the truth that is your own, liberates. Anybody else′s truth always becomes a bondage.

(Osho - Zarathustra: A God That Can Dance #17)

source: http://www.satrakshita.com/the_finger_and_the_moon.htm   

[Haveunique]

Nice one. Ira, what does this text mean to you? Is there a particular point you're making? Thanks   

[Gra-ach]

You know how it happens... I read your post first just out of idle curiosity. And in a few minutes time I was looking for a picture of the moon (which had actually nothing to do with this topic) and found this text. And it clicked It's sometimes a little bit frightening when things like this happen... I'm pretty sure that if I saw this text before I read your article I wouldn't have paid attention to it.

Talking about what it means... If we move aside from religious discussion and see what's deeply ingrained in this article, I'd say that the main idea is to focus on your goal and not be distracted by minor things - like method of achieving it, or obstacles

Unfortunately, it happens a lot when people have a goal in life (if they are lucky enough to have it) but they get distracted by things along the way which are for the most part inconsequential and they lose their focus and start mulling over something which should be left untouched because it's not important or relevant at the moment. We have to listen to ourselves, deep in our soul and decide what's important, what exactly we should pursue.

And my point is probably just to remind myself (at the very least) that somewhere deep inside I know what I want and that I know how to get it. I just have to listen to my heart and discard all the "good advice" others are giving me, trying to tear me apart and lead me where they want me to go.   

[Иван]

Budda says: "All, what you do in this moment, shoud be exactly what you do".
I like this expression :)

[Procyona]

This Buddhic concept of anatman reminds me of the way I used to cathegorise everything I did for particularly no reason. I felt really bad when I didn't fit any of these cathegories properly and didn't find that so called 'my own' cathegory. At some point I realised this did me no good, got frustrated and decided that there is no 'me' to cathegorize in the begin with. Even if I knew how ridigulous and unlocigal that decicion sounded then, I felt really relieved, as i didn't have to think about the matter anymore.

No that I think about it, there may be something else unnessessary I take for granted. Maybe the religional concepts can teach us more tahn we know if we give them a chance. ;)

I also have read of Buddhisims before, and tried zazen (sitting meditation of zenbuddhism) a coule of times. Zazen has, for my point of view, very much the same aspects as does Wing Chun; it's really like dynamic meditation itself.

[Fanda]

“Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful." -Buddha   

[Haveunique]

Good one, Fanda As long as we breathe, we have all the chances.