Buddha

Essay by Anonymous UserHigh School, 11th gradeA+, October 1996

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If Buddha were alive today, how would he answer the question How

should one live?

What is right? Who is to say what is right? How do we know what we are doing is right?

These are all questions that allude to how should one live? Different people have different

opinions on this area. Buddha's theory is one way to answer the question.

Buddha has four noble truths. These four noble truths are suffering, the origin of

suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the way of practice leading to the cessation of suffering.

If you go through all four of these truths, you will live a 'right' life.

Suffering, according to Buddha, is anything that doesn't cause pleasure. Anytime you do

not get what you want, it is suffering. Being born is suffering. In Buddha's theory, isn't practically

everthing we do then suffering? Buddha defines suffering with the five aggregates of grasping.

They are the aggreagates of grasping that is form, feeling, perception, mental formaitons, and

consciousness. I don't agree with Buddha in any of this. I don't think suffering is caused by any

of

this. This is all life. I don't think that we are suffering all of this time. My definition of suffering

would be anything that causes any pain, not anything that doesn't cause pleasure. There is a

huge difference between the two. With Buddha, you are either suffering or in pleasure. I think

that there is a middle ground. There are many times when people are not suffering and also not

feeling pleasure.

The origin of suffering, according to Buddha, is craving. Craving comes from anything

that is agreeable and pleasurable. Sights, sounds, mental pictures, etc. are all agreeable and

pleasurable therefore they all cause craving. Whenever we think of any...