The other day, I was eating at an Indian restaurant. Right in front of me, there was a statue of Buddha, looking down with a half smile and a peaceful air. As I looked at him, I thought: “This is how I would like to feel at all times: happy and at peace”.
Nobody knows exactly when Buddha was born. According to historians, it is somewhere between 600 BC and 400BC. He lived until the age of 80. As many religious leaders, many miraculous events surround his birth. It is said that he was born from his mother’s side without causing her any pain. When he was born, he took seven steps and declared he was going to be the chief of the world and that he was living his last reincarnation.
He was born into royalty and was given the name Siddhartha: "he who achieves his aim". Astrologers predicted that the newborn would either become a great king or a great holy man. To prevent his son from becoming a holy man, Siddhartha’s father sheltered him from the harsh realities of life: death, old age and poverty.
At the age of twenty-nine, despite his father’s efforts to keep him away from these sufferings, Buddha saw an old man, a diseased man, a decaying corpse, and an ascetic, a man who had renounced all worldly pleasures, with the aim of pursuing spiritual goals. He decided to become an ascetic himself.
As he traveled around the countryside, he encountered and learned from many spiritual teachers. He deprived himself of all worldly pleasures, including food, in search for the Truth. When he almost drowned in a river from weakness, he decided that he was on the wrong path. He began eating again.
After his near death experience, he sat under a Bodhi tree and vowed that he would not leave that spot until he had found the Truth. After 49 days of meditation, he achieved Enlightenment. For the next 45 years, he went on to preach his findings throughout the countryside. He had many followers, and is said to have performed miracles and have had superhuman powers. (Sounds familiar?)
Buddha never viewed himself as a divinity, but he did ask his disciples to go on and preach his teachings (Dharma). Buddhism is said to lead to true happiness. It is based on four Noble Truths.
First Noble Truth
The First Noble Truth stipulates that it is an irrefutable fact that life can cause suffering, through death, disease, loneliness, etc.
Second Noble Truth
Suffering is caused by cravings and attachment. We have such high expectations of life, we crave and desire so much that when we don’t get what we want or we lose what we had, we suffer.
Third Noble Truth
Happiness is attainable. It is possible to overcome suffering by giving up useless cravings and by living each day at a time, forgetting the past and any imagined future. We can then become happy and free.
Fourth Noble Truth
The fourth truth is that the Noble 8-fold Path is the path that leads to the end of suffering.
The Noble 8-Fold Path
In summary, the Noble 8-fold Path is morality and virtue (didn’t Aristotle also think that?), meditation and mindfulness, and developing wisdom by understanding the Four Noble Truths and by developing compassion for others.
There are many other beliefs in Buddhism. But the map to happiness generally follows that direction. It requires rigorous discipline, devotion and conviction to develop mind control and detachment. And one might not have the strength or desire to follow all the precepts of Buddhism. However, it is undeniable that Buddha’s teachings are valuable and empowering and that by applying just a tiny part of these spiritual guidelines, one can find ways to appease the pain inherent to life’s journey.
“All that we are is the result of what we have thought. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him. If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him.” Buddha
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