Category Archives: Philosophy

The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism

Philosophy, Religion, , ,

Buddha taught that there were four noble truths.

Buddha's appearance, AUG 17, 2014 220px-Gandhara_Buddha_(tnm) And they posted this exact same photograph, next to which was the additional information that it was from Afghanistan (100 -200 CE, which is the same as AD.

As they were so nicely summarized by BBC under their category of “Religions” on 2009-11-17, the four truths are, and I quote,:

  1. The truth of suffering
  2. The truth of the origin of suffering
  3. The truth of the cessation of suffering
  4. The truth of the path to the cessation of suffering

The BBC article goes on to say that the first two are concerned with the “diagnosis” of suffering.

By implication the last two are related to the treatment and cure of suffering.

And here fits the “Hippocratic Oath”,

  •  First of all, do no harm.

Surprisingly, this oath is nearly contemporary with Buddha’s teaching life.

I would love to wave a wand and remove all suffering of everybody and every creature.  As well aware of suffering as I am, there is lots of room for improvement on helpful skills to do so.

 

 

 

What Did Buddha Look Like?

Philosophy, Religion,

We see images of the Buddha represented in various places, and when we think of him, we may call to mind an image.

DSC03898 Perhaps of a kindly, rotund man, such as this one inch tall statue which I probably received in my stocking at Christmas.  I love it.

This kind of image evolved from this earlier imagery which I found in Wikipedia when I google

Buddha's appearance, AUG 17, 2014 220px-Gandhara_Buddha_(tnm) This image was from about the year 200 CE (=AD).

Very interesting, is that Buddha is considered to have been born in the 5th century BCE, which stands for before common era (=BC).  Images were not initially made of him because that was apparently considered to be improper, until about  100 or 200 CE (=AD).

You can read a list of 32 major physical characteristics of Buddha, and 80 minor physical characteristics of Buddha if you google “the physical characteristics of Buddha”.   Then you will get a  Wikipedia article on the subject.  They are all complimentary.

The truth is that we have no way of knowing what Buddha looked like.