Helloooo, good guys!!
As today is Buddha Purnima, let’s talk about Gautama Buddha aka Siddhartha Gautama. I don’t know much about this man. I only know him from some of the quotes I found on the Internet (some not even said by him, people just post anything with Buddha pictures), from some articles I read in past and from some stories I heard. So if I say anything wrong from my own understanding and perception, bear with me and feel free to correct me.
You see, this man is the most misunderstood fella. From what I understood, people often perceive Buddha as someone who says “leave everything”, or “don’t desire anything”. But that is not who he was. He was not a saint, not a baba and not a hermit. He was a man who didn’t want to become anything or anyone. He was there just living, being aligned with his own consciousness, still as water that is flexible but cannot be disturbed. He was a Buddha. Buddha literally means “an enlightened one”. And one doesn’t become enlightened in a minute or in a day. One gets there by experiencing things and self-reflecting on them.
When we look at the life of Siddhartha, he was born into a wealthy family, and he was the prince of his tribe. His father kept him in a palace and threw in all the pleasures, women, delicacies, music, and dance performances. He could get anything, he had many female servants, and he experienced such pleasures no man could dream of. He left all that because he became empty. That emptiness makes a place for so many things to get in.
People often think if they can get whatever they want, they will be happy. But that is not it, it is not the end, you will want more and more, then one day it just leaves you empty. Empty as in the things that used to give you pleasure, don’t excite you much anymore. That is what happened to Siddhartha.
So one day, he came out of his palace venturing out into the world with his charioteer. He saw old people, he learned about ageing, he saw unhealthy people’s suffering, he learned about the disease and he saw a corpse, he learned about death. These sightings disturbed Siddhartha, pierced his empty mind and settled in, then he saw an ascetic determined to free himself from the cycle of life and death. He got curious and thought “maybe I can do this too, maybe I should be free myself from this cycle”.
He returned to his palace, he was surrounded by pleasures but he kept on thinking about the suffering of the mortals. The night passed and in the morning, he saw his female servants sleeping. He thought about their bodies, their lives and the suffering they go through. He reflected on his own life, he developed an aversion to his life which made him leave the palace and walk the path to enlightenment. He thought he could discover a formula to end the suffering of people and he succeeded.
He became a Buddha by letting go of desires that cannot be fulfilled and were unnecessary. When some people talk about desires, they talk as if desire itself is bad but that is not the case. It so happens because we use the word desire as an umbrella term for everything like wishes, wants, cravings, fantasies, dreams and what not thus creating a lot of confusion.
If one thinks about it, the entire human existence has meaning because of desires, without desires we wouldn’t be in this world, and we wouldn’t have this technology and advancement in medicine. Without desires, there is no difference between us and amoebas (not that amoebas are any lesser, they are very efficient organisms, much more efficient than humans so if you want to become an amoeba in your next life, that is fine, there is nothing wrong with it).
The trick is differentiating between what can be fulfilled and what cannot be at a given moment. If one can’t differentiate it, it causes suffering (dukkha). That was what Buddha meant when he said, "let go of your desires". This conclusion can be drawn if one observes the people who approached Buddha in search of peace. These people asked Buddha so many questions, he observed the patterns in their questions. These people had so many expectations in life often not capable of taking a step forward to fulfil their desires hence they were suffering. And some had more of what life can offer yet they were not happy with what they had, they wanted more. So Buddha came up with a common solution, letting go of desires.
If you are happy and peaceful, do you go to someone looking for answers? Or do you just live the moment and experience happiness? Former seems highly unlikely to happen when you are happy. It is more likely to happen when you want more of something. So Buddha became quite popular in those times. Every tortured soul, broken heart and troubled mind approached him. So he shared his formula with them.
So it was never about letting go of all desires and leaving everything behind. But once you start walking on the path of Buddha, it just happens as a consequence. You will get closer to reality hence what once excited you seems very little in this greater existence.
So how to differentiate between desires that can be fulfilled and desires that lead to suffering? It all starts with your mind, only in your mind, you can find the answer to it. But before that, we must understand what is Dukha or suffering means. There are many forms of suffering in this world, physical, emotional and mental. But to simply put it, suffering is you want something but you are not getting it, you are wishing for something but it is not happening. In both cases, there is suffering because you didn’t see the result. There was no result because there was no action taken by you/can be taken by you that can get you results or take you close to it. Only when your actions align with your thoughts and you guide your thoughts by your will, then only you see results and when you see results there will be no suffering. And it only happens when you are not dwelling in past or fantasies of the future but living in the present. That is why Buddha stressed self-control as it develops willpower, the will that can push you to live and take action.
Now comes the differentiation part, now that you understood suffering and what causes suffering, you can identify which desires are causing you suffering and let go of them. When you find the balance between your thoughts and actions suffering will be automatically eliminated.
Anything that can be achieved through your will and actions in a non-violent way should be striven for. Anything that can't be achieved through your will and actions in a moral way should be plucked out from your mind. That is the only way to end your suffering.
Once you eliminate your own suffering, the next step is eliminating the suffering of others. How you do it is up to you. You don't have to do greater things to eliminate or lessen the suffering of others. Sometimes a few kind words are enough, sometimes just a show of support and sometimes just a smile. Be kind to yourself and others.
As today is Buddha Purnima, let’s talk about Gautama Buddha aka Siddhartha Gautama. I don’t know much about this man. I only know him from some of the quotes I found on the Internet (some not even said by him, people just post anything with Buddha pictures), from some articles I read in past and from some stories I heard. So if I say anything wrong from my own understanding and perception, bear with me and feel free to correct me.
You see, this man is the most misunderstood fella. From what I understood, people often perceive Buddha as someone who says “leave everything”, or “don’t desire anything”. But that is not who he was. He was not a saint, not a baba and not a hermit. He was a man who didn’t want to become anything or anyone. He was there just living, being aligned with his own consciousness, still as water that is flexible but cannot be disturbed. He was a Buddha. Buddha literally means “an enlightened one”. And one doesn’t become enlightened in a minute or in a day. One gets there by experiencing things and self-reflecting on them.
When we look at the life of Siddhartha, he was born into a wealthy family, and he was the prince of his tribe. His father kept him in a palace and threw in all the pleasures, women, delicacies, music, and dance performances. He could get anything, he had many female servants, and he experienced such pleasures no man could dream of. He left all that because he became empty. That emptiness makes a place for so many things to get in.
People often think if they can get whatever they want, they will be happy. But that is not it, it is not the end, you will want more and more, then one day it just leaves you empty. Empty as in the things that used to give you pleasure, don’t excite you much anymore. That is what happened to Siddhartha.
So one day, he came out of his palace venturing out into the world with his charioteer. He saw old people, he learned about ageing, he saw unhealthy people’s suffering, he learned about the disease and he saw a corpse, he learned about death. These sightings disturbed Siddhartha, pierced his empty mind and settled in, then he saw an ascetic determined to free himself from the cycle of life and death. He got curious and thought “maybe I can do this too, maybe I should be free myself from this cycle”.
He returned to his palace, he was surrounded by pleasures but he kept on thinking about the suffering of the mortals. The night passed and in the morning, he saw his female servants sleeping. He thought about their bodies, their lives and the suffering they go through. He reflected on his own life, he developed an aversion to his life which made him leave the palace and walk the path to enlightenment. He thought he could discover a formula to end the suffering of people and he succeeded.
He became a Buddha by letting go of desires that cannot be fulfilled and were unnecessary. When some people talk about desires, they talk as if desire itself is bad but that is not the case. It so happens because we use the word desire as an umbrella term for everything like wishes, wants, cravings, fantasies, dreams and what not thus creating a lot of confusion.
If one thinks about it, the entire human existence has meaning because of desires, without desires we wouldn’t be in this world, and we wouldn’t have this technology and advancement in medicine. Without desires, there is no difference between us and amoebas (not that amoebas are any lesser, they are very efficient organisms, much more efficient than humans so if you want to become an amoeba in your next life, that is fine, there is nothing wrong with it).
The trick is differentiating between what can be fulfilled and what cannot be at a given moment. If one can’t differentiate it, it causes suffering (dukkha). That was what Buddha meant when he said, "let go of your desires". This conclusion can be drawn if one observes the people who approached Buddha in search of peace. These people asked Buddha so many questions, he observed the patterns in their questions. These people had so many expectations in life often not capable of taking a step forward to fulfil their desires hence they were suffering. And some had more of what life can offer yet they were not happy with what they had, they wanted more. So Buddha came up with a common solution, letting go of desires.
If you are happy and peaceful, do you go to someone looking for answers? Or do you just live the moment and experience happiness? Former seems highly unlikely to happen when you are happy. It is more likely to happen when you want more of something. So Buddha became quite popular in those times. Every tortured soul, broken heart and troubled mind approached him. So he shared his formula with them.
So it was never about letting go of all desires and leaving everything behind. But once you start walking on the path of Buddha, it just happens as a consequence. You will get closer to reality hence what once excited you seems very little in this greater existence.
So how to differentiate between desires that can be fulfilled and desires that lead to suffering? It all starts with your mind, only in your mind, you can find the answer to it. But before that, we must understand what is Dukha or suffering means. There are many forms of suffering in this world, physical, emotional and mental. But to simply put it, suffering is you want something but you are not getting it, you are wishing for something but it is not happening. In both cases, there is suffering because you didn’t see the result. There was no result because there was no action taken by you/can be taken by you that can get you results or take you close to it. Only when your actions align with your thoughts and you guide your thoughts by your will, then only you see results and when you see results there will be no suffering. And it only happens when you are not dwelling in past or fantasies of the future but living in the present. That is why Buddha stressed self-control as it develops willpower, the will that can push you to live and take action.
Now comes the differentiation part, now that you understood suffering and what causes suffering, you can identify which desires are causing you suffering and let go of them. When you find the balance between your thoughts and actions suffering will be automatically eliminated.
Anything that can be achieved through your will and actions in a non-violent way should be striven for. Anything that can't be achieved through your will and actions in a moral way should be plucked out from your mind. That is the only way to end your suffering.
Once you eliminate your own suffering, the next step is eliminating the suffering of others. How you do it is up to you. You don't have to do greater things to eliminate or lessen the suffering of others. Sometimes a few kind words are enough, sometimes just a show of support and sometimes just a smile. Be kind to yourself and others.
Buddham Saranam Gachami
