10347     2200217   4500001002100000005001500021035002000036008004100056245005800097100002100155260005100176300002300227020001800250084001800268520978200286082001210068650001710080990001010097990001110107990001110118INLIS00000000000437620220705074441  a0010-0621003976220705                g          0 eng  1 aBuddha`s Doctrine Of Suffering And Salvation Volume 11 aNithiyanandam, V  aIndia :bGlobal Vision Publishing House,c2002  a285 hlm. ;c21 cm.  a81-87746-25-4  aR.294.3 NIT b  aBuddha`s Doctrine Of Suffering And Salvation Volume 1This book is a religio-philosophical analysis of Buddha,s doctrine of suffering and salvation compiled in two volumes, First volume deals with the causes of sutrering and second volume shows the path of salvation. Suffering l, or of the four Noble Truths discovered by Lord Buddha and in fact forms the comerstone of his philosophy, It is the most universal feature of life and all human beings suffer from it. If we take into account only ihe physical suffering we are awed bv its enormity. But this is not all. There are also mental and cosmic sufferings. There two latter`kinds of sufferings are felt more keenly by sensitive persons. The more sensitive a human being is the mass and the magnitude of the agonies suffered by mankind become more obvious to him. Lord Buddha was exceptionally sensitive and compassionate. He started with the prain fact of physical suffering which he saw in a sick man and in an old man and was shocked to see so much pain which is the necessary lot of man. Iile also came face to face with death when he saw a dead man. In seeing the suffering of others he immediatery realised his own lot and the lot of all whom he riked and loved as also of all human beings who are subject to old age, decay and death. It flashed across his mind that suffering in-the most universally established principre and human beings are not only subject to physical suffering but also to mental and cosmic suffering. This became apparent to him when he realised that man is born again and again to suf,fer and he is bound to the cycle of birth and death. This truth was born out of his ownimmediate, intuitive and insightful perception and does not require anything else to prove it. Sabbe sankhara dukkha it yada pannaya passati . His sadhana and yogic practices enabled him to put his finger on the cause of suffering as also on the way to remove it and thereby eradicate suffering altogether. The first encounter with physical suffering, as a matter of fact, seems to have inspired him to think deeply over it and achieve deliverance from it by completely annihilating it. He made assiduous efforts, achieved Nirvana -a state ofdesirelessness and showed the path of liberation to the suffering humanity. The aim of all systems of philosophy particularly of Indian systems of philosophy has been to achieve moksa i.e. liberation from the bondage of dukkha . The professed object of Buddhist philosophy also is to get rid of suffering and attain Nirvana . Suffering is common to both man and animal. In fact, it is the bridge that unites the human and the animal kingdom. One can, therefore, establish universal brotherhood by recognising oneself in the sufferings of others. It has been said in theDhammapada :`Sabbe tasanti dandassa sabbe bhayanti maccuno Attanan upamam katva nq haneyya na ghataye .``All beings are afraid of pain, all beings are afraid of death. Recognising (lit. comparing) oneself in this, one should neither kill nor cause to kill`.Lord Buddha was a practical philosopher and unlike other theoretical philosophers who concerned themselves with metaphysical questions concerned himself completely with knowing the cause of suffering and achieving Nirvana by ending it i.e. by extinguishing the flame of desire. For this reason that he did not try to answer metaphysical questions. He asked:`Suppose a man were wounded by an arrow, will it not be good for him, to consuit a physician?``Will it be of any advantage to him il he insisls on not having the arrow taken out until he has learnt who hit him, what caste he belonged to and whether it was a capa or a kodanda ?` Metaphysical question he does not answer, because it does not promote the higher life in all its purity, and it does not lead to disgust with the world, to annihilation of all lust, to the ceasing of the transitory, to peace, to the higher knowledge, to awakening, to Nibbana and suffering he expounded. Its realization led one to higher knowledge. To free oneself from the bondage was, according to him, the greatest concern of man and the greatest Philosophy that man will ever need for his solace. We shall not be the poorer for it if we could not answer metaphysical questions but we shall definitely be great losers if we could not understand whatsuffering is and how to get rid off it. Buddha defined suffering in the following words:`Birth is suffering, old age is suffering, disease is suffering, death is suffering, to be united to the disliked is suffering, to be separated from the liked is suffering, not to get what one desires is suffering... in short, the five groups of grasping are suffering`. Here we find that suffering has been most precisely defined by Lord Buddha. It has been viewed as not only physical and mental but also as cosmic. It is true that birth, decay and death are obvious symptoms of physical suffering, but to a sensitive and thinking being they become objects of mental suffering. We at once realise that we will meet the same fate when we grow old and all of us will die. This reflection brings mental suffering. We go one step further and do not take long to realise that birth, decay and death are the symbols of the essential laws of individual life to which we bind ourselves. This realization that the `suffering of bondage is really, comic suffering` is in fact born of a higher state of consciousness. Lord Buddha came to the conclusion that desire (trsna or tanha ) is at the root of all suffering. And the irony is the more we try to satiate our desires, the more insatiable they become. By virtue of his heavenly insight and on the strength of his peculiarly original experience, he discovered the cause of our bondage. It has been nicely put into the formula of dependent origination called Paticca-samuppada . This constitutes the second Noble Truth of dukkha samudaya i.e. arising of dukkha. Had Buddha stopped here? No, he met the challenge put up by suffering. He reflected fuither in his meditational practices and he realised that whatever arises, ceases i.e. if the cause of dukkha is cause of dukkha is removed, dukkha itself ceases to be. This realisation constitutes the third Noble Truth called dukkha nirodha . But how to remove the cause of suffering and achieved Nibbana - the summum bonum of life according to Buddha by annihilating desires constitutes the fourth Noble Truth (dukkha nirodha gamini patipada ). The way of liberation, according to Buddha, is the eightfold path called Atthangiko moggo in Pali canonical literature and combines in itself sila samadhi and panna . Sila is Practical ethics, samadhi i.e. concentration of mind is practical yoga and panna which develops out of the sincere practice of these two helps one realise the true nature of worldly objects. Lord Buddha said that the world is in a constant state of flux and the objects of the world are characterised by anicca (impermanence), dukkha (pain) and anatta (soullessness). A desire for these objects is bound to cause suffering. In order to quench our desire we must have to tread on the eightfold path. Out of its eight constituents Right speech (samma vaca ), Right livelihood (samma ajiva ) and Right action (samma kammant ) together come under sila Right concentration (samma samadhi ), Right mindfulness (samma sati ) and Right effort (samma vayamo ), come under samadhi and Right view (sammaditthi ) and Right resolve (samma samkappo ), constitute panna . All these constituents help strengthen one another and thus a Bhikkhu or a Yogavocara goes unhindered on the path of spiritural evolution and ultimately ends his suffering by finally destroying the bondage that binds him to the cycle of birth and death. Buddha looked upon our bondage as the creation of our own lust and longing for the objects of the world. The fulfilment of our desires is pleasure but if our volutions are impeded, suffering is caused. So the only way to free ourselves from the cycle of birth and death is to root out our desire (tanha ). Suffering and the cause of suffering form the basic theme of his philosophy, and the way to put an end to suffering and achieve a calm, untroubled and peaceful state of mind and finally liberation from the cycle of birth and death forms the basic theme of his ethics. It is around this fundamental theme of suffering that Buddha`s views of ethics and philosophy centre. In the Atthangiko maggo, he mapped out a path of liberation for us and asked us to tread on it and work out our salvation. By treading on this path one can purify, oneself, extinguish all desires and free oneself from the bondage. This eightfold path is the royal road to Nibbana (Nirvana). Lord Buddha put searching questions concerning the arising of suffering, How does it arise? Does it come from outside? Is there any extemal agency responsible for it? He came to the conclusion that it is caused by our own desire. It is no longer felt as coming from outside, from hostile world but as coming from within. It is no longer something foreign or accidental, but a part of one`s own self-created being`. This realisation makes us understand that it is in our own hands to overcome this suffering by removing its causes and stopping the inflow of tanha. Thus, Lord Buddha did not take a resigned attitude as the stoics did or did not develop a pessimistic attitude as those pessimists who in their efforts could not reconcile the good and the evil in the world or did not find in suffering something glorious as the christians did, but showed clearly that we can liberate ourselves from the cycle of birth and death. We ourselves create the good and theevil and we do not have to depend upon any god or any other external agency to help remove the causes of our suffering. by:of  aR.294.3 4aAjaran Budha  a07277  a027692  a027693