it's the religion some question is even a religion at all for thousands of years
Buddhists have strived to achieve bliss and detachment you see a faith which
ranges from celebrities in America to genocidal monks in Myanmar it's one
of the five largest religions on earth and not gonna lie really really
complicated consider this the Coles Notes version of Buddhist thought it's a
quick primer on what Buddhism is how it was founded and what are some of the
core ideas within it this is a large and widespread religion with I kid you not
over 10,000 canonical texts so let's just get the gist I know it's a tad
sacrilegious but I'm gonna try and avoid many of the ancient terms I sense
they're responsible for how confusing the religion sounds to outsiders not
knocking it it's supposed to be mysterious and mystical that's part of
Buddhism I want to teach and let's get down to brass tacks let's begin with the
religions founder Siddhartha Gautama many refer to him as the Buddha but
Buddha is a title it means the enlightened one or the one who has
attained Nirvana or enlightenment Siddhartha was a prince in what would be
modern-day Nepal according to legend his father kept Siddhartha from experiencing
even the smallest amounts of suffering dad fulfilled every need and the boy
wanted for nothing Siddhartha was an adult before he discovered the concept
of suffering leaving the castle walls one day he saw the funeral of an old man
again according to legend Siddhartha didn't even have the concept of death
this revelation set the prince on a lifelong quest to discover the root of
suffering he would go on a spiritual journey and abandon all he had all to
find the answer to this one fundamental problem of existence why do we suffer
and how can we escape it so what is existence in the spiritual world of
Siddhartha Buddhism like Jainism in some forms of Hinduism believes in something
called wandering or samsara it's a concept of life but also of the universe
they see it as a cyclical never-ending journey of birth life
and reincarnation Indian religions are no stranger to the concept of
reincarnation Buddhists see this wandering as not necessarily desirable
the cycle is a constant story of drifting and mundanity Siddhartha came
to know this wandering as the source of suffering in the world to Siddhartha the
way to escape suffering would be complete ego death we must embrace
non-existence and break the cycle of death and rebirth Buddhists also believe
as your soul wanders the endless cycle of life and death they accumulate
consequences for their actions these consequences carry over lifetime to
lifetime they can even result in reincarnation a higher or lower plane of
existence or order of life you likely know that is the concept of karma it's
something they also share with other Indian religions however Buddhist karma
is not a strict up and down system but they do believe intentional acts words
and thoughts contribute to your soul's journey this is where we find a
divergence between your average Buddhists and those who aspire to
Buddhahood to a lay Buddhist doing good deeds thinking good thoughts and saying
kind words are all part of influencing your reincarnations that's fine for
the casuals but those true gamers on the path to enlightenment seek complete
detachment from the cycle of rebirth altogether
this means detachment from all desire even the desire to improve one's karma
part of this path is doing all the good deeds but ceremonially transferring
one's karma to others the idea is to understand the lack of distinction
between individuals and to comprehend the nature of non-existence karma then
is just one more thing that fools the soul into continuing this path of
wandering to achieve true Buddhahood it has to be overcome and there's one piece
we really do need to discuss how does one overcome existence how does one
achieve Buddhahood at the time of the religions founding there was a burning
theological question in India about asceticism asceticism is the abstaining
from pleasures of the senses to focus on spiritual enlightenment
there's some evidence early Buddhist practice ascetic lifestyles but as of
modern day most Buddhists reject it its even baked into the religions origin
story Siddhartha in an attempt to reach enlightenment practice an extreme form
asceticism but key in the Buddhist narrative is he needed to reject it to
achieve enlightenment this is a huge deal in the context of India in Indian
spirituality ascetics are common near major holy sites it's not uncommon to
see a naked person living only off food offered to them India even has stories
of gods who gained special abilities after practicing centuries of
self-denial so it's not surprising to say this is murky and Buddhist practice
some monks still practice asceticism today this controversy sets Buddhism
apart from Hindus who see asceticism positively and Jains who take it to its
extremes so then what did work what did Siddhartha use to ascend to Buddhahood
what wisdom does he have to pass down to humanity how do you break the cycle
siddhartha came to one key conclusion which is the core of buddhism suffering
comes from desire there are Noble Truths and path to
knowledge but to distill it to its essence we desire which causes
attachment and then suffering it's the attachment which keeps our soul
trapped in samsara and to ascend past it we need to let go this not only includes
objects but people and even our attachment to existence the ultimate
liberation from desire and suffering is to cease to exist as an entity the path
to Buddhahood is a process of breaking down distinctions between individuals
I'm sure you have lingering questions I talked about Buddhist fundamental
principles but what about all the different Buddhist sects what is even in
those ten thousand texts I mentioned I will mention those as well as the story
of Buddhism's impact on the world in a part two that I'm releasing in the summer
I know I know I want to show you the big ideas before I went into the actual
story of Buddhism in the meantime though I did this video as a collaboration with
Andrew Mark Henry who runs the amazing channel of religion for breakfast it's a
channel which studies religion from an academic secular point of view and it's
really really cool he's posted a video at the same time as this one about the
Dalai Lama China's invasion of Tibet and how the Dalai Lama is considering
choosing to not reincarnate you should go and check it out it's pretty cool
also you should definitely like and share and subscribe here to watch more
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