Up@dawn 2.0

Tuesday, September 29, 2015


Buddha and Philosophy:

(12)

Jeri Radford

Alexis Arriaga

Lucas Rogers

Siddhartha Gautama was a very wealthy prince. He saw sufferings from around his kingdom, which made him question why suffering happened. He was so interested by the suffering he decided. To leave his wealthy life, to search for an answer to his question. The learnings from process of finding the answer to his question, is how Buddha came to be.

Buddha’s metaphysics include a few teachings. Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that deals with first principles of things; it is the abstract concepts about a topic or idea. There are a few teachings involved in Buddhism. The most popular include The Four Noble Truths and the Three Marks of Existence. Buddhism also focuses more on a person’s state of mind and not his or her actions. When people practice Buddhism, they usually are very aware of their mind and soul. They do this in many ways, but one way is by meditation. This way, they become one with his or herself.


The Buddha did not want people to believe his metaphysics out of pure faith, instead he wanted for people to verify his teachings for themselves. The core of the Buddha's teachings are contained in the Noble Eightfold Path, which are Right View, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration. The Noble Eightfold Path can be further divided into 3 groups of Buddhist practices which are ethical conduct, mental discipline, and wisdom. The ultimate end goal of all of this was to achieve Nirvana (or enlightenment) which is a transcendent state in which there is no suffering, desire, or sense of self and one is released from the effects of karma and the cycle of death and rebirth.

3 comments:

  1. Alexis Arriaga2:43 AM CDT

    EXTRA CREDIT - What's your idea of "the good life"? Do you consider other people's well-being to be any concern of yours?

    My idea of the good life is a life free of stress, full of adventures and plenty of family time. When I envision the good life I think of bills being paid on time and in full, frequent and spontaneous vacation trips, and learning new things like flying an airplane, playing the violin, and rock climbing. My day would consist of waking up after a good night's sleep to some hot breakfast, discussing our dreams from that night, searching for new places to explore, and building stuff. In my good life I will have no need to work all thanks to owning a thriving concrete construction company, a plethora of rental properties, and plenty of stocks bringing in a consistent cash flow. If by other people you are referring to those outside of my family and friends then no, I am not necessarily concerned with their well-being. Although their well-being is not a concern of mine, that doesn't mean I wish the worst upon them. The reason behind my response is that I believe we all have the potential to make of ourselves what we want to be in life, whatever that may be. If I'm determined to living the good life by the age of 30 then that means i'm going to have some obstacles to go through and sacrifices to make and if other people are being complacent and lack the ambition to strive for their dreams and goals then why should their well-being be of any concern to me if it's clearly not any of theirs?

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  2. EXTRA CREDIT
    Joseph Sasraku

    Now one of my friends at work who always challenges me with question about almost anything arguable asked me this question a couple of days ago. He asked me “is the earth really a sphere or is it flat.” Now the questions he usually I defend my claim with the bible, but this one stopped me dead in my tracks. Then said well it’s a sphere because that’s what I and everybody else sees when we look at the pictures, and he replied well what if that’s what they wanted me to see. Are our lives and the way we live it solely depend on what someone says happened a long time ago and what someone just as human as us tells us we can and cannot do? Because if for example you’ve never been to Africa and I told you that in Africa all the people walk around half naked and with bones in their noses you would have no choice but to believe me. One because you have never been to Africa so if an African told you something like that it must be true. And two you can disprove what I told you simply because of your ignorance to the matter. So really the question is, what is wisdom? Maybe what you are told is, really isn’t. How could you know any different when many others just like maybe following blindly as well? Then that might me there is a higher power. Something that knows and understands all and the only way to find out what is to meet up with this being.

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  3. Extra Credit (12) "Don't believe everything you think" Good Advice? What should you believe? How should you decide what to believe?

    I think that is good advice because just because something comes to mind doesn't mean it's the truth. You can learn something is false and you understand that it's not truth. You should believe what your morals and science tell you to be true. Anything that can be proven is something you should take to be true. But when it comes to what you believe it is a harder decision because not everything can be proven exact. You have to go based upon what you feel in your heart is true. Often what one person finds truth another person will not. Beliefs are a very individualized process ; no two people have the exact same belief. Even your friends and family have different beliefs often to different degrees. You have to make your own decisions and then decide within your own mind what is true.

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