Buddhism - The Basics

Buddhism is a method for reducing or eliminating suffering for humans. There are no Gods to believe in, or leaps of faith to make, it is really just a set of recommended practices. In very current language, it is an algorithm - a set of steps one takes to achieve a result. The result in this case is the ending of suffering for humans.

The Four Noble Truths of the Buddha outline the basic concepts. First, there is suffering. Second, people suffer because they take things too seriously. Third, there is a solution for this suffering. Fourth, there is a Noble Eightfold path that outlines the solution for suffering.

So humans exist. They don't have much information about how they came to be, but they feel conscious and alive. A human could be born wealthy, and choose to take no name, have no opinions, and live completely isolated. So all their needs are met, and they do not get involved in any dramatic situations, no love affairs, no friendships - they only live by concentrating on and contemplating their consciousness, studying what it feels like to just exist and be alive. Anything but the pure and most basic feeling of existence does not interest them, for everything else is temporary and changing. 

This human is avoiding the situations and circumstances that would cause them suffering. They choose not to develop and play a character in the game of humans. They are not walking around pretending to be someone with a story, they are not protecting a set of opinions and ideas that are important to them. They are not reliant on the actions of others to feel contented as a being. They just simply exist, they focus on that feeling of existing, and investigate what it feels like. 

What almost all humans do is not what the human in this example does. They do take on names, create stories they tell about themselves, have family and friends and lovers. They get involved in situations all the time with other humans who are similarly involved in being a character in the game of life. They get in discussions and arguments, they have fights and get angry, sad, and experience all the array emotions available to humans. Life can be joyful, and fun, and full of laughter, of course, but it can also be full of suffering. For so many things great and small humans suffer. For things that are seen and not seen. For thoughts that they think, for things that are said to them, humans playing this game of life suffer, and sometimers the suffering can become so consistent and overwhelming that a human will take their own life to end the suffering.

So here is the option for not suffering, or at least suffering less. Recognize that you are a being that exists, and that the being is playing the role of a specific person. The being that exists does not have to play that role, they choose to play that role, and they choose to take that role and what happens to their character seriously. Their being suffers for what happens to their character in the game of life, but playing the role and taking it seriously, and suffering because of the circumstances is a choice. The human does not need to play the game at all, or if they do, they don't have to take it so seriously. They chose to play the role they are playing, but they did not choose to be born and exist - at least they don't have a memory of choosing existence. 

Avoiding suffering is realizing that what you really are is a spot of consciousness in a physical body. You can concentrate only on this reality and feeling whenever you would like to. This means you can ignore or at least take less seriously all the situations that arise from the being you are taking on a character and role and getting involved in the game of life. You are voluntarily taking on all these situations, and play the game as much as it suits you, but if the suffering becomes unbearable, or you want a break from it, then take a break from it. Remind yourself of what your most basic situation of awareness and consciousness is, and that the rest is a game you choose to play. 

A calm, quiet, untroubled place is always an option when you realize that playing your character is a choice. Your natural state of existence, of consciousness, is one of contentment, love, and bliss. Relax into the most basic feeling of what it is to be you, unencumbered by the details, situations, and complications of the role you are playing; and you will begin to experience this.