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The Buddhist Path by Algela DeRico (editor@groundscore.org) [read comments] [post your comments]

Buddhism begins with a man who decided to look beyond the veil of ordinary human consciousness; a person who woke up. The name Buddha is from the Sanskrit root budh, which means "to wake up and to know," which is the given name of Siddhartha Guatama; a man whose perception transcended beyond the shroud of ordinary existence.

It seemed to have begun with an unsettling insight into the transience of life. The simple facts that unveiled this realization to him existed everywhere in the never-ending cycle of disease, decrepitude, and death. This caused him to question how fruitful one's search for satisfaction could possibly be if it is executed through the physical plane. He then began his search for something more through intense meditation and quiet reflection.

Buddha took the direction of a soaring bird gliding through the wind. He transcended all earthly boundaries and let the wind carry him to understanding. He then brought himself back to the earthly plane with the concept of nirvana. The Buddha had an innate understanding that what cannot be conceptually perceived is the only true vehicle to clear perception.

Nirvana is a word that vaguely attempts to describe the state of being that is left after the boundaries of everything finite is transcended. To reach nirvana, the Buddha claimed that one must truly see that everything lacks substance. What we believe to be true is a shield separating us from what is. He then set out with the task of bringing these concepts to all of humanity. He did this with his deep understanding of character. He knew that to deliver his message to others he had to construct the insights into a workable format that the typical, reasonable human could comprehend. He laid out the path and simultaneously pointed the way.

The highest goal of life as the Buddha saw it is nirvana. Nirvana is defined as "to blow out" of "to extinguish", the boundaries of self. Self is made up of skandas, which are all of the bodily sensations, thoughts, feelings, and consciousness as a whole that occupies human beings.

Buddha described this concept with the preliminary explanation of The Four Noble Truths, the first being that life is a storm of insecurity, yearning, and chaos. Simply stated, the first noble truth is "life is suffering" or dukkha. This suffering is caused by the state of human beings who can sense that there is more to reality below the surface of the self. The suffering is manifested because people attempt to use the mind and senses to understand the true state that lingers just beyond reach. This only causes agony and frustration, which in turn thwarts even more the ability to penetrate the depths of life. This fuels a vicious circle of confusion with earthly distractions used as a meager attempt to divert oneself entirely from the teasing truth. This suffering will always exist as long as the skandas are used as nothing more than a vehicle of torturous denial.

The cause of this suffering is tanha, the desire for personal fulfillment. It is the selfishness used to protect oneself from the shocking truth that everything tangible is irrelevant. The self doesn't want to be insignificant and it certainly doesn't want to cease to exist, so it absorbs itself in the maze of human skandas. The fear that the finite self possesses is so overpowering it completely isolates itself from spiritual freedom. People get so caught up in trying to understand reality that they construct a cage that prevents any genuine realizations, which in turn causes intense suffering. To cope, one then absorbs the self in a labyrinth of distractions. Pretty curtains that hide the bars of the cage which give the appearance of comfort. The underlying fact however is that no matter how deeply concealed a cage is, it is still a cage. We all sense this deep down inside and it causes inner turmoil.

Buddha took it upon himself to inform others that what they believed to be true were only bars tying them to all suffering. He made it harder and harder for those around him to live in illusion. He taught that the cage is man made. If one tears down the components of self that constructed the boundaries there will be no more boundaries. Nirvana is then achieved. Extinguish everything you thought yourself to be and you will finally be. A state of being void of everything finite and tangible is the supreme goal of humanity. This is a concept Buddha himself could not describe "for after we eliminate every aspect of the only consciousness we have known, how can we speak of what is left." The only thing we can conceptualize is that beyond all of the limitations of the mind and body there is a state that simply exists and it is our final destiny.

Nirvana is a state of being that underlies everything else. To reach nirvana is to understand that there is no real substance to anything. Buddha declared that the human self has no real soul or true substance. This is his doctrine of anatta, or "no soul". He claimed that everything finite perishes and the only realization left is that there is nothing left. Buddha spoke of Three Marks of Existence of Life. The first in anicca, meaning everything is temporary. The suffering involved in the impermanence of life, or dukkha, is the second, and the idea of anatta or the absence of the soul is the third. The self is made up of skandas and has no true substance. Buddha believed that when a person begins to see through the web of their human skandas, they will then begin to experience freedom from the suffering that it brings. The next step is to see that everything in the world is as trivial as the composition of self. The realization of anatta is the necessary predecessor to nirvana.

Buddha had cleared himself of all deception and with that came an intense drive to assist others in unveiling the illusions and denials of the world for themselves. He set up a workable outline to assist others in eliminating tanha and ending dukkha. His main concepts are described in the Four Noble Truths and the course of treatment, which leads to the state of nirvana, is broken down into specific steps in the Eightfold Path

He claimed with determination that he had presented the path to end all suffering and it should be followed. Buddha himself pointed the way through Buddha's own example. Buddhism began and gained momentum because it was obvious to anyone who saw him that he understood. His step by step plan combined with his blazing personal example gave life to the Buddhist religion.

The goal of Buddhism is nirvana. Nirvana was never truly explained but the steps were clear and people became equipped with sheer faith of the wisdom that radiated from Buddha. I believe it is this faith that the Buddha instilled through his actions that is the backbone of the Buddhist religion. I believe that nirvana is true freedom. It is freedom from everything the world has to offer. Life is suffering because it is fleeting. I think everybody can sense, at some level, that nothing really matters. Human beings are drowning in thoughts, objects, and emotions wandering lost, like rats in a maze. The Buddhist path offers freedom from this silly game. It is a way to break through the narrow tunnel vision of consciousness. I think that it starts with the realization of anatta.

To understand anatta, one has to put life into a broader context while refusing to view life through the self once life is no longer over processed by the ego it is seen for what it really is. It is then understood that there is nothing that really matters. The attainment of nirvana is a process of desensitizing oneself from everything that is believed. It is letting go of the self because it does not matter.

This final destiny requires the gradual cutting of all ties. It is an evolutionary process. A person is first completely overpowered by the self. This prevents even a hint of awareness that there is something more. The next step is the frustration a person feels with life. This then leads to feelings of complete disgust for the affairs of the world, which then leads to a period of withdrawal from the world. After the period of withdrawal, the person then begins to see that the things that once seemed horrible are now merely humorous. This leads to the next level where it is easy to grasp that nothing really matters. It is then that the person has broken free. The world has no hold and everything is revealed. The self is extinguished and nirvana is all that is left.

This is a road everyone must travel by themselves. The Eightfold path offers a helpful blueprint. It presents the necessary processes one must take to rise above the ego, however it seems to me that, the Eightfold path is so specific that the act of following it would hinder the intended process. I think that the concepts are correct but the actual growth simply flows from within. The steps are actually subtle and shouldn't be defined. Nirvana is one place that cannot be reached by using a map. One will arrive there when one is ready. I do however understand that Buddha was trying to help people reach this goal by devising specific steps, but I think that anyone who truly reached nirvana did it intuitively.

The goal of Buddhism is freedom. A Buddhist refuses to accept the world as he knows it. It is a path that shines light on everything, even the things that are hard to face. It spares nothing to get at the truth. Nirvana is the very last step in life. A step that most people will not take. The thing is that the concept may seem unsettling to those who are not there, but it really is not disturbing. It just IS. There are no words or thoughts about it because it is void of everything conscious. It is as bright as the blazing sun and as clear as a crystal. It is everything simple and pure; the final destiny.

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