Four Noble Truths... Eightfold Path... Five Precepts... Main Branches of Buddhism
The Four Noble Truths
- The truth of suffering: All beings experience suffering or dissatisfaction in life.
- The truth of the cause of suffering: Suffering is caused by craving or attachment to pleasure and aversion to pain.
- The truth of the end of suffering: Suffering can be ended by eliminating craving and attachment.
- The truth of the path that leads to the end of suffering: The path to end suffering is the Eightfold Path, which consists of ethical conduct, mental discipline, and wisdom.
The Eightfold Path
The Buddha is often described as a great physician or healer, and the eightfold path (also called the noble eightfold path, “noble” because following it can make us better people, like the Buddha) can be viewed as his prescription for relief. Suffering is the disease, and the eight steps are a course of treatment that can lead us to health and well-being; we avoid the extremes of self-indulgence on the one hand and total self-denial on the other. For this reason the Buddha called the path “the middle way.” The eight steps are:
- Right view
- Right intention
- Right speech
- Right action
- Right livelihood
- Right effort
- Right mindfulness
- Right concentration
The Five Precepts
Right speech, action and livelihood constitute the training in virtue or morality. For a practicing lay Buddhist, it consists of maintaining the five Buddhist precepts, which are to refrain from
- Deliberately killing any living being;
- Stealing;
- Sexual misconduct, in particular adultery;
- Lying;
- Taking alcohol and taking non-medicinal drugs which lead to a weakening of mindfulness and moral judgement.
Main Branches of Buddhism
Theravada Buddhism
Mahayana Buddhism
Vajrayana (or Tantric) Buddhism
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