Overview of Buddhism

Based on logic and reason, Buddhism is differentiated from other philosophies and religions by its four unique teachings of ‘Existence is suffering’, ‘Impermanence’, ‘No-self’ and ‘Nirvana’.

Taking the central concept of “self or no-self”, for the last 3,000 years people have asked “How did I arise, what am I, and what will become of me?”

Theistic religions say “God created us”, and most believe in only one life, this one. Some accept the concepts of both a creator God and karma or the law of causality and believe in multiple lives.

Non-theistic religions reject a creator God and say everything arises due to causes and conditions; that there is no beginning or end and everything arises due to karma. Except for Buddhism, they mostly say the “self” is unchanging from life to life and is independent of the body and the mind.

The scientific view agrees with classical India’s Materialist school which also rejects a creator God saying “we and the cosmos arose spontaneously and return to nothing.”

Buddhism alone says the “self” is merely designated on the continuum of a body and a mind. The Buddhist concept of “no-self” merely means there is no “self” that exists independently of a body and a mind. One branch of Buddhism says that the “self” can “end” with the attainment of nirvana, defined as the true peace that comes with the complete removal of all ignorance through the cultivation of perfect wisdom. Another branch of Buddhism says the “self” continues even past nirvana, but now designated merely on the basis of the continuum of the subtlest mind and its subtlest energy.

All religions have two aspects, practical teachings to tame the mind and heart and a metaphysical rationale to validate these practices. In Buddhism we aim to cultivate the wish to realise wisdom and advance the practices to attain their logical conclusion and effect.

Some say Buddhism is a form of atheism, but it is not anti-God. Theistic religions, however, are said to come from God, while Buddhism comes from the human level of Buddha, a man who reached his full potential. Buddhist theory arises from the existing scientific reality of the Four Noble Truths and no-“self”.

Without making moral distinctions, Buddhist science investigates reality in an objective and unbiased manner. Scepticism, raising doubts and logical examination of reality are essential. Buddhists should only rely on scriptures when it comes to obscure subjects, but only when information about them in these scriptures has come from a reliable authority, such as Buddha, based on his thorough investigation. Nevertheless, if scriptural assertions are clearly contradicted by science, they may be put aside as having been valid only in the context of a certain culture during a certain period of time.

Buddha explained the facts of the Four Noble Truths in terms of cause and effect. Suffering, its cause and that our suffering can cease are the first three truths and the fourth encompasses the whole of Buddhist practice, called the “path”. The “path” entails how we can stop our suffering by studying and understanding causality, interdependence and the unique Buddhist philosophical idea of dependent arising.

Dependent arising explains existence in terms of “due to this, that arises and due to that, something else arises” and so on. Suffering, its cessation and everything else arise from causes and conditions which are to be analysed and understood. Without exception, all causes arise from other causes and have the potential to produce their own results. Moreover, the characteristics of the effects are attributable to the characteristics of the potentialities of their causes. “Whoever sees Dependent Arising sees the Path”.

This Overview is based on a discourse given by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Nottingham, UK, on 26th May 2008.

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