This week in class we started learning about Buddhism. We read about the story of how Siddhartha Guatama became the Buddha. We also learned about the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path.

My favorite thing we learned this week was the legend of how Siddhartha became the Buddha. I found it very interesting how Siddhartha’s quest for enlightenment started. Something about seeing suffering for the first time was what ignited a passion inside of him to be the one to search for the answer. He decided to become a monk and begin his spiritual journey for enlightenment.

One thing that caught my attention about the text was the amount of description. It enables the reader to visualize and understand the novelty of the events in the text. Also it gives the story a heroic tone that I enjoyed. Here are some of my favorite lines from the text:

“… Guatama devoted the final phase of his quest to a combination of rigorous thought and mystic concentration.” (Page 45)

“…assailed the future Buddha with torrents of flaming rocks… turned into blossom petals when they entered the field of his yogic concentration.” (Page 46)

“… his mind pierced the world’s bubble, collapsing it to nothing… restored with the effulgence of true being.” (Page 46)

I liked how Siddhartha decided to take it upon himself to find his enlightenment instead of waiting for someone else to tell it to him. He was determined to search for the answer to the question of suffering, and he was successful. The enlightenment Siddhartha received was the Four Noble Truths.

To summarize the Four Noble Truths, life is suffering. Suffering is caused by “desire for personal fulfillment.” One can overcome suffering by overcoming desire, and the way to overcome desire is by following the Eightfold Path.

Without going into much detail about the Eightfold Path, I do like how the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path are related. The text points out that the Fourth Noble Truth is to follow the Eightfold Path. The first part of the Eightfold Path is to have knowledge of the Four Noble Truths. This connects the two processes and shows that becoming a successful Buddhist requires both.

Lastly, in class we briefly talked about pain versus suffering and how they are not the same. We learned the saying, “Pain is mandatory, but suffering is optional.” This didn’t make a lot of sense to me at first, but I could understand its meaning when I thought about how it relates to the Four Noble Truths. It seems like suffering is caused by desire when what a person desires is not what happens in real life. Since desire is an emotional feeling, suffering must also be an emotional feeling since it directly correlates to desire. This leaves pain to be a physical feeling that is therefore unrelated to desire.

Based on this, if someone gets a paper cut, he or she has physical pain that is largely unavoidable. However, like we said in class, someone can have pain without suffering. If the person who has the paper cut realizes that it will soon heal, he or she does not have to suffer emotionally because of the paper cut. Additionally, without the desire to not have a paper cut, having a paper cut will not cause a person to suffer.

In conclusion, Siddhartha Guatama was exposed to suffering and went on a journey to find enlightenment. When he was enlightened, he became the Buddha and taught about the Four Noble Truths of life.