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buddhism

a philosophy and way of life for cultivating inner peace

Buddhism doesn't really feel like a "religion" per se, but it is technically considered one of the world's major religions. That said, it is more of a philosophy, a method of training the mind.

The main goal of the practice of Buddhism is to achieve freedom from suffering in life by seeing the world and reality as it truly is, abandoning the distortions of the world around us that our minds create.

The goal of achieving enlightenment (nirvana) is done by extinguishing the "three fires" in our minds: greed, aversion, and ignorance. The process in which we achieve enlightenment is explained in Buddhism's core frameworks, the four noble truths and the noble eightfold path.

~ the four noble truths

The Four Noble Truths are the core foundations of the Buddhist way of viewing the world.

dukkha (suffering): Life is unstable and suffering is inevitable at some points in life. In life, all beings experience pain, in this transient existence.
samudaya (origin): We often experience a desire for this instability and experience an attachment to it.
nirodha (ending): Attachment to the instability and suffering of the world can be severed by learning to let go of it.
marga (path): By following the Noble Eightfold Path, we can confine our desires, and cut off our attachment to dukkha.

~ the noble eightfold path

The Noble Eightfold Path, also known as the Eight Right Paths, can be seen as a path to follow of practices for achieving nirvana, enlightenment. There are eight prescriptions in the Path, separated into three categories:

Wisdom

Right view: Understand the Four Noble Truths and the laws of karma. Recognize that all phenomena in the world are interconnected and impermanent.
Right resolve: Live life with ethical intent. Renounce harmful actions, and practice goodwill and compassion toward all living things.
Right speech: Refrain from false, divisive, and harsh speech. We should use our voices and our words to foster peace and harmony amongst one another.

Ethics

Right action: We should conduct ourselves ethically and morally in life. Refrain from stealing, killing, injuring, sexual misconduct, and so on.
Right livelihood: Engage in work that aligns with an ethical, moral way of living. We should not tie our livelihoods, as an example, to professions that involve harming or deceiving others.
Right effort: Consistently work on cultivating wholesome qualities in life, and sever ourselves from unwholesome qualities. We should do the same with how we think: Abandoning negative thoughts and fostering positive mindsets.

Mental fortitude

Right mindfulness: We should be aware and fully in the present. This means knowing and observing our bodies, states of mind, and the things around us with clarity and awareness.
Right concentration: We should focus on developing a focused mind. Achieved through meditation, we allow ourselves to concentrate on a single object, leading to internal insight and tranquility.

~ karma

In short, karma is the idea that actions have consequences. The word itself means "action", and in practice in Buddhism, it means intentional action. Our karma provide fruits, the effects of our actions. Good karma brings with it positive fruits, while conversely, bad karma ripens into negative fruits.

Intention, or cetana in Sanskrit and Pali, is a factor of every decision we make and every action we take. Intentions shape karma, and we should strive to make our intentions pure.

relevant links

Buddhism - Wikipedia

Introduction to Buddhism - Stanford University