1.

Introduction

a. Background information

‘What the Buddha Taught’ was written by Walpola Rahula in 1959 and published

by Oxford: Oneworld Publications which has revised the book in 1974. The

history and development of Buddhism have been briefly introduced in the book

as well as the basic but complex Buddhism concepts. For instance, it has

introduced the four noble truth with different references and explanations and

also clarified the concept of meditation in Buddhism. In this essay, I will

introduce some key concepts of Buddhism with

b. The Buddhism attitude of mind and truth

Believing in Buddhism teaching is never just about keeping the faith in Gods

of their super-natural power, it is about how we attain freedom of thoughts.

A Buddha is someone who claimed himself as an ordinary human with the

experience of doubts and sufferings. However, through seeking and acquiring

the truth, he has eliminated the sufferings. As quoted in the book, “Every

man has within himself the potentiality of becoming a Buddha, if he so wills it

and endeavours.”, everyone can enjoy freedom of thoughts and become a

Buddha by practicing his teaching to understand the truth and to be his own

master.
Doubts are everywhere. We all have our own doubts. They can come from

our daily life, from our friends to our family, from our relationships to our

works, from even more the modern society in reality to the society online.

The get rid of sufferings, freedom of thoughts have to be attained, which is

never an easy task when we do not put efforts to change our mind, our ways

to think, the ways to look at the world. In Buddhism, freedom of thoughts

means one’s emancipation is without any merciful grace from any super-

natural power or from Gods but to realize the truth by himself. However,

there always are obstacles waiting for us in the way to understand Truth and

the spiritual progress. According to the book, doubt (vicikicchā), which is

commonly found on the public, is one of the five Hindrances (nīvaraṇa) to the

progress. To understand the thing by seeing it, we need to have a clear mind

without doubts. However, doubts should never be solved by ignoring or by

having false views. Spoken words can help one’s to proceed while only our

own mind by truly resolving the doubt can. Ignorance (avijjā) and false views

(micchā diṭṭhi) are the fundamental source of evil (Walpola,1974;3). To see

and understand the truth of one thing should never be forced, which is not

spiritual and is political. As a matter of fact that when there is doubt, a man

can neither understand, nor see clearly. Wanted to proceed, one must see

clearly by learning from the Four Noble Truth to have the right concepts and

ways to deal with the doubts, ignorance, and false views.

The first noble truth is ‘Dukkha’, which is also named as ‘The Noble Truth of

Suffering’. In Buddhism, ‘Dukkha’ does not simply means suffering, sorrow,

pain, and ease but it also has a deeper meaning as imperfection,

impermanence, emptiness, insubstantiality. Although we have to suffer, it

does not mean we cannot enjoy happiness. There are different forms of

happiness, in both spiritual and materials way. However, happiness does not

last forever while suffering does. ‘Dukkha’ has been classified into three

aspects: ordinary suffering (dukkha-dukkha), produced by change

(vipariṇāma-dukkha) and conditioned states (saṃkhāra-dukkha). For

ordinary sufferings, it simply means every sufferings in the forms in both

physical and mental. For produced by change (vipariṇāma-dukkha), it means

that our emotion can be changed and affected easily. One’s happiness does

not forever. When it changes to suffer, unhappiness and pain, we are

suffering by the change. For conditioned states (saṃkhāra-dukkha), it is the

philosophy aspect in Buddhism. As our physical and mental pain are over-

changing, they can be divided into five aggregate, which are dukkha. The Five

Aggregates are ‘Aggregate of Matter’, ‘Aggregate of Sensations’, ‘Aggregate

of Perceptions’, ‘Aggregate of Mental Formations’, and ‘Aggregate of

Consciousness’. The combination of the five aggregates have been labelled by

an ‘individual’ and ‘being’. In the concept of cause and effect, everything that

can be changed constantly and impermanent are dukkha.

The second noble truth is the ‘Origin of Dukkha’. It is introduced that dukka,

all of our sufferings, can be caused immediately by thirst, which is the sense -
pleasures, for existence, and nob-existence. More than that, people are also

thirst for the intangible power, ideas and beliefs, and the tangible money,

which have led to a rise of suffer to people. It is universal knowledge that our

selfish desire has produced all the evils in the world. To discuss in a deeper

way, ‘karma’ and ‘rebirth’ can be discussed philosophically. ‘Karma’ means

neither “moral justice” nor “reward and punishment” as there is no God to sit

judgements. It means either “cause and effect” or “action and reaction”. It is

a continuity cycle which multiple causes will lead to multiple effects and

literally nothing is able to cease the cycle even death. Putting the idea of

‘karma’ and ‘rebirth’ together, all our desire, thirst, and volition will not

disappear even after death but to be expressed and manifested in other

ways.

The third noble truth means the cession of Dukkha. The cessation of dukkha

means the desire and craving for the Five Aggregates of Attachment have

been abandoned and destructed, which also mean the realization of

“Nirvana”. Nirvana can be interpreted as Truth briefly. Realizing all our

emotions, include both positive and negative, are instant feeling, not

everlasting and take them as an illustration, which would finally fade out, we

will no longer bounded by all the emotions.

The fourth noble truth means the ‘Noble Eightfold Path’, which is to escape

from the two extreme. The two extreme is to search for happiness by sense-

pleasure and self-mortification through accepting the Middle Path. The

progress to cession of Dukkha is through the ‘Noble Eightfold Path’, which the

eight rights have been divided into three aspects: Ethical Conduct, Mental
 Discipline, Wisdom. Following the guidelines provided by the Noble Eightfold

Path to people, we could realize Nirvana while it is never a easy process as it

may takes a more than a decades or even our lifetime to develop our mind to

be free from all impurities.

2. Reflection

a. Meditation

Balancing our mind can help to keep my mind calm by the mediation as

mentioned in Buddhism. After reading the book, I have tried meditation at

home. Through one-pointedness, I have focused on my breathing. Focusing

on my breath to calm myself down, I can feel my mind is a mess. I could not

stop thinking. I believed that this is a form of Dukkha. Suffering from the

change, the imperfection in our daily life. Through mediation, I can learnt to

tidy up my mind to not to be disturbed or affected by the outer environment.

Especially in Hong Kong, under this hustle and bustle environment, we

seldomly allow ourselves to slow down our pace. We are so sacred to be left

behind, scared to lose. Therefore, we are trying so hard to fit in the world, to

fulfil others expectations, which has made our mind can never get rest even

when we try to. We have a lot imperfection, impermanent things to deal with

every day. With the uncontrollable nature of the reality, we have much to

worry. For instance, our study, personal relationship, working status. Our

mood and mind have been affected by these impermeant factors for so long,

which have become an obstacle for us to stay focus. Suffering, Dukkha, is

everywhere. To end the Dukkha, we have to understand the Noble Truth as

well as the ways to apply the Buddhist concepts in our mind and daily life.
b. To do good deed

Buddhism concept of cause and effect’ has taught us that what we have done

now will cause another effect in future. Multiple cause with multiple effects.

This reminds me to do good deed as always. This concept is not about

punishment or rewards by any super natural power, is about suffering from

what we have done. As life does not ends, it is a cycle. What we have done

may bring to our next ‘life’. Not wanted to suffer, we have to do good deed.

Having this concept in my mind, I have been wondering if we did not do good

deed with a genuine heart or is with purpose, is just I don’t want to suffer,

does that action count as a good deed? After thinking for a thousand times, i

remember once my tutor has asked a question that is your outcome a good

deed? This question reminds me that maybe your heart is not that willing to

do but your action is indeed helping someone, then that’s a good deed. As

we all said, practice makes perfect. Doing good deed can become our habit if

we have done more. With the concept of ‘no soul’, we have no idea where

will we go after die. In Christian, they believed that no matter what have they

done, God will eventually forgive them if they believe in God and have a

genuine heart. However, to me, I believe this is an irresponsible action and

belief. I agree with the concept of soul that will eventually leads us to

suffering. Actions have to been taken to eliminate our pain and suffer. Good

deeds with good result. Everyone has their chance and right to change their

life and fate. Exist, arise, continue and end of life is a cycle that no one can

avoid. However, with actions, we can try to suffer less.

To realize ‘Nirvana’ and to suffer less, we have to understand the truth of

things. Suffering in our daily life is usually come from our emotions. All our

actions can be easily affected by our mood of the day, while our emotions are

triggered by different surroundings. All the pain that we suffer are mostly

caused by our emotions. However, we have to realize and remind ourselves

that emotions are illusion. The feelings do not last forever. They will someday

be faded out, be forgotten. Our life should not be controlled or led by

emotions. Therefore, it is important of us to understand the truth of our

feelings. By that time, we can suffer less.

3. Conclusion

The Buddhism concept has been introduced comprehensively in the book. For

instance The Four Noble Truth, the Five Aggregates of Attachment, and also

meditation. This book has also clarified some of the concept that are usually being

misunderstand. Using the words spoken by the Buddha have facilitate the

understanding of Buddhist concept and history. After reading the book, the teaching

has provided a guideline for us to eliminate our pain and suffer less and also to reach

the Ultimate Truth. It is never a easy work to break the cycle of pain. However, with

time and a proper mind, we can understand our distinct oath and to conquer

different difficulties. With the help of meditation, which can be done daily, there is

hope for us to reach ‘Nirvana’ and to get rid of Dukkha. More than that, the book has

also taught us how to do good deed. With the mind set of wanted to be good, the

good will eventually come to you.