There are many things that can be found in a religion. The idea of a religion is to give hope for life after death and to give peace of mind during life and a reason to live in a morally “ right” way.
There are so many religions in the world and so many questions that are answered within each religion. Buddha was born a prince but he continuously looked at many things that were going on outside of the palace and the lives that the commoners lived.
While doing this he decided to start changing how he lived his own life. During this time he began practicing meditation in an attempt to find a reason for his behaviors. Later he changed his name to Buddha and then he began to minister and speak to the people. Buddha spoke about a continual peace and interconnection with those who were around them (Palmer, Cooper, and Corcoran 2001, pp 1-4). One of the main foundations in the religion of Buddhism is the idea of the four noble truths.
There are four noble truths in the practice of Buddhism. The four noble truths are the qualification of life.
These truths are that there is life that is “ qualified by suffering, that suffering has a cause, that there is a state beyond suffering, and that there is a path to the state” (Lopez 2001, p. 15). In the Dali Lama’s teachings on the four noble truths he talks about the general desire for all to have happiness and for them to not have suffering. He also talks about how these truths are “ all encompassing” (1981 p. 1).
The first noble truth is the truth that there will be suffering in life. In his talks on the noble truths, the Dali Lama states that all people experience various types of suffering. He also divides suffering into three categories.
These categories are “ the suffering of suffering, the suffering of change, and the all-pervasive suffering.” The suffering of suffering can be described as something like a headache. Some type of thing that inflicts suffering on someone and that there is no reason for the suffering and there is nothing to come from the suffering so the suffering is purely suffering.
This type of suffering is not only experienced in humans but also in animals and this type of suffering is also troublesome in animals as it is in humans and they too wish to be freed from this type of suffering.
Since there is a fear of these types of suffering and a desire to eliminate the suffering there is a strong desire to find ways to end this suffering and there are many different ways that individuals can choose to end this type of suffering.
This type of suffering can also be described in the types of suffering that occurs when people are found to be living in poverty or having to suffer in this way. The Dali Lama reminds that everyone is able to tell that this type of suffering is suffering and that a relief of some sort is needed (1981, p. 1).
The second type of suffering can only be described s the suffering of change. This type of suffering is something that is experienced when someone becomes “ restless” and wants some type of change. There are so many things that can occur as well.
The way that the Dali Lama describes this type of suffering is that “ we are sitting comfortably relaxed and at first, everything seems all right, but after a while we lose that feeling and get restless and uncomfortable.” Unlike the suffering of suffering when someone experiences the suffering of change it can ultimately come in the form of something that could have previously been thought of as great or wonderful.
For instance if someone is able to begin earning money and seemingly get out of the situation of poverty as described in the previous paragraph then they might believe that life is going to be better. The disappointment that money is unable to buy happiness through things that could now be owned is what could be known as the disappointment of change (1981, p. 1).
The third type of suffering is all pervasive suffering. This type of suffering is the basis of the first two types of suffering. The Dali Lama speaks about this type of suffering as the type of suffering that contains the main principles of things like karma. This type of suffering is that there is simply suffering in life because there is suffering in human life.
This is the type of suffering that causes some people to take their own lives and commit suicide and is the all pervasive suffering that these people do not feel they will ever be able to escape from.
This is also what is behind the “ disturbing minds” that are part of the human existence. With this type of suffering there are many things that the follower of Buddhism can learn and learning about this type of suffering can only cause there to be a more intense and better life.
The Dali Lama encourages that “ killing yourself isn’t going to solve your problems” and therefore works with the followers and those for whom he is speaking to be able to better manage their feelings and not feel that the act of suicide is necessary. This is the final type of suffering for which the Dali Lama speaks about and the final type of suffering in the first noble truth which is the truth of suffering (1981, pp. 1-2).
