Buddhism Essays (3162 words) - Gautama Buddha, Buddhism In Japan

Buddhism In Life there is suffering. This spurs on the unending search for universal truth and meaning. Jodo Shinsu is an answer to this search. The "practice" of Jodo Shinshu is the recitation of the Nembutsu with self-reflection. It involves hearing the call of Amida Buddha, the Buddha of Eternal Life and Infinite Light, Compassion and Wisdom, within others' or ours recitation of the Name. Which calls us to raise our spiritual perspectives beyond immediate ego interests to universal concerns for compassion, justice in the human community and concern for the life of nature. The hole of life is Nembutsu. A life lived in awareness, that we ourselves are the expressions, the manifestations, of interdependence and compassion and dedicated to bringing that reality to others as we have experienced it. The Nembutsu is a spiritual shrine, which can be transported and reverenced wherever one may be. Time or space does not bind religious practice. Rather, from within the deep recesses of one's spirit the call of Amida Buddha can be heard, bringing our attention back to the very source of life itself, and evidencing its presence in the very act of living itself. http://www.mew.com/shin/doc/txt/pax.html Buddhism is one of the world's great religions. The religion is based on the teaching of Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as The Buddha, who lived approximately 557 BC to 477 BC. The word "Buddha" means a Supremely Enlightened One or Fully Awakened One (also a Tathagata) who has won the realization of the True Permanent Absolute Reality, the ultimate truth. Buddhism is built on a framework that consists of the Four Noble Truths, four fundamental principles of nature (Dhamma) that emerged from the Buddha's honest and penetrating assessment of the human condition and that serve to define the entire scope of Buddhist practice. These truths are not fixed dogmatic principles, but living experiences to be explored individually in the heart of the sincere spiritual seeker: To each of these Noble Truths the Buddha assigned a specific task, which the practitioner is to carry out. The first Noble Truth is to be comprehended dukkha (suffering, unsatisfactoriness, and stress): life is fundamentally fraught with unsatisfactoriness and disappointment of every description. The second is the cause of dukkha: the cause of this dissatisfaction is tanha (craving) in all its forms. The third is the cessation of dukkha: an end to all that unsatisfactoriness can be found through the relinquishment and abandonment of the cravings. The full realization of the third Noble Truth paves the way for the direct penetration of Nirvana, the transcendent freedom that stands as the final goal of all the Buddha's teachings. The last of the Noble Truths (the Noble Eight fold Path), contains a prescription for the relief of our unhappiness and for our eventual release once and for all from the painful and wearisome cycle of birth and death (samsara) to which through our own ignorance (avijja) of the Four Noble Truths we have been bound for countless aeons. The Noble Eight fold Path offers a comprehensive practical guide to the development of those wholesome qualities and skills in the human heart that must be cultivated in order to bring the practitioner to the final goal, the supreme freedom and happiness of Nirvana. The eight qualities to be developed are Right View, Right Resolve, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration. The Quality of Right View is to aspire to attain realization of perfect wisdom, the ultimate true permanent reality. Abstain from all evil acts of thought, to attain the total destruction of all cravings. The Quality Of Right Resolve is to renounce all manifesting, all constructions, all that is "created" make-believe, to develop dispassion, total detachment, absolute renunciation, self-surrender. To bring about the cessation of all "created" realities. To self-realize is the incomparable awakening of self. To win the freedom of mind, the freedom through perfect intuitive wisdom, the sane and immune emancipation of will. Right Speech is to abstain from all lying speech, all perjurious speech, all evil abusive speech and all frivolous speech. To engage in speech and discussion that pertains to and leads to Nirvana, to what's actually permanent and real. Right Action is to abstain from all killing of all creatures, abstain from all stealing, abstain from all sensual and sexual misconduct, abstain from all evil acts, and abstain from all forms of intoxication. Right Living is to abstain from all evil methods of livelihood. Right Effort is to destroy all evil states of mind that has already arisen. To keep new evil states of mind