Buddhism Is One of the World\'s Major

Buddhism is one of the world's major religions -- yet many dispute whether it should be called a religion at all. Buddhism has been called a 'philosophy' as much as a faith, because of its non-theocratic nature. Although the Buddha is revered as a historical figure, and many Buddhist traditions invest his persona with a kind of miraculous power, it is not necessary to believe in a god or gods to be a Buddhist. Buddhism could be defined as a way of coping with some of the perplexing problems that all religions grapple with to some degree: injustice and suffering. In contrast to the caste system of India, which stressed how karma could determine the cycle of one's birth or rebirth, Buddhism stressed the adherent's need to escape from the endless karmic cycle and to find a sense of peace and detachment called Nirvana.

The first noble truth of Buddhism is the idea that there is suffering in the world. Because of this stress upon suffering, many have criticized Buddhism as a depressing religion. Buddhism, however, does not deny that there is joy in the world. In fact, the founder Siddhartha Gautama was born to very privileged circumstances. However, Buddhism holds that both joy and sorrow subjects humans to an endless rollercoaster of death and rebirth. Living at the extremes of pleasure and pain both cause people misery, because all joy is inevitably curtailed with a loss, given life's impermanence. By clinging to the notion of a stable, unchanging self and the need to remain in a state of happiness, all of us suffer. This is delusion because even the happiest person will meet with sickness, old age, and death. Nothing is permanent; particularly what we humans call happiness.

The second noble truth is that all of human suffering is rooted in desire. Because of the delusion of the ego, human beings constantly strive to fulfill their perceived unmet needs. This striving creates the illusion of progress, but really only mires us deeper in misery. Some of these desires are for things; other desires are to get rid of things. This grasping can even occur in religious practice, in which the believer feels he or she is never good enough, and constantly tries to seek new ways to attain spiritual perfection: "Our suffering comes from the attachment that we have to ideals, and the complexities we create about the way things are. We are never what we should be according to our highest ideals" (Sumedho, 2012, The Four Noble Truths: Accomplishment).

The third noble truth is that suffering has an end. By stopping the cycle of endless desire, suffering can cease. By making the wheel of Samsara cease to turn, we enter Nirvana and the ignorant sense of having an ego is ended. The mind stops asking 'why' and begins to simply let things be. When we think: "whatever we see, hear, touch, taste, think or feel is mortal - death-bound," rather than feeling fear or depression (like critics of Buddhism might state), there is only acceptance (Sumedho, 2012, The Four Noble Truths: Mortality and cessation).

The fourth noble truth explains how the adherent may arrive at Nirvana and the loss of ego: this is by following the Noble Eightfold Path. This is practicing: right understanding, right thought, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. The practices of the Noble Eightfold Path are both physical and mental and are designed to extinguish the ego. They are grouped into three categories of wisdom, mortality, and concentration which must all be perfected (Sumedho, 2012, The Four Noble Truths: The fourth noble truths).