Abbygail Maxwell

Philosophy 1000-020
Individual Creative Paper

Buddha
Throughout the semester, as we studied and learned about different philosophers, Siddhartha's
story became a interest of mine and I wanted to learn more. Siddhartha was born in 560 B.C. in Nepal
as the son of king Rajah. Growing up Siddhartha lived a glorified life, his parents surrounded him with
wealth, education, athletics. The King and Queen wanted to shield Siddhartha from all the sufferings of
the world, he had no idea what was happening outside the his own little bubble. As the prince grew up
would sneak out as an act of rebelling his parents. While he was out the things he saw he never knew
existed. He witnessed death, poverty, sufferings all at once and it did not sit well with Siddhartha. He
began to question the meaning of life, he struggled and it got to the point where his parents hired a
Guru to teach Siddhartha what he wanted to know, but Siddhartha never found the answer he was
looking for. The question of the purpose of life stuck with him. As time went on Siddhartha's parents
arranged for him to be married. He married his cousin and they had one beautiful child. Despite the
happy things that went on in his life he still would question why he was there, how he could be living
such a glorious life when there was so much bad in the world.
This question Siddhartha had about the purpose of life ate at him. It became a huge problem in
his life, until one night when he pick up and left everything he had in the middle of the night. He left
his family and all of his wealth to expose himself to real life, to the suffering. Siddhartha traveled in
search of his answer but that did not seem to help. He came to the conclusion that he needed to become
a astetic, he needed to give up all the pleasures of the world and focus. He spent his days fasting and
praying and still nothing. Then he went on a 40 day fast, he fasted to the point that he was on his death
bed, when all of a sudden a beautiful young women brought the dying man bowl of rice milk. With this
experience Siddhartha found what he was looking for, he found the truth. Which later becomes the

teachings of buddhism. At this point he had to decide what he wanted to do. He was to become a
exclusive monk dedicating the rest of his days to meditation and praying, or he was to take what he
learned and give himself up to his community. After the journey that he had been through he knew he
needed to share what he learned with is community, and thats what he did. Siddhartha went on with his
life as a spiritual teacher to his community. His students gave him the well known nickname of
Buddha, which means the enlightened one.
The Journey that Buddha undertook taught him a lot about life, it gave him a new perspective
on life. Buddha's journey is what shaped his philosophy. His philosophy has been broken down into
four main groups; Dharma, Vipashyana, Karma and Nirvana. Lets start from the beginning, Dharma
means the revealing truth. This is the truth the Buddha set on his journey to find. He calls them the four
noble truths. The first noble truth was the question what is the meaning of life? Buddha responds to
this with the word Dukkha, which means suffering. Buddha says that the meaning of life is suffering,
we come to this earth to suffer. He goes on to describe what he means when he says suffering, he
describes it as fighting to overcome obstacles, hardships, tensions and conflicts. When you think about
life and the things we do here on earth, the way Buddha describes the meaning of life as suffering
makes complete sense. The only way we can learn and grow in our lives is through the things we go
through. The way we handle hard situations shape us and make us into the people we are. We come
onto this earth as little children and our purpose is to live and experience all that life has to offer and
take that a form who we are. This gives us our own personal purpose and fulfillment. I also believe that
Buddha found such joy by teaching and serving his community. I personally think that suffering and
service go hand in hand in giving us a purpose to our lives.
The Second noble truth is why do we inflict upon ourselves additional suffering? Buddha
response to this question stating that we as human beings are greedy and selfish people, we have this
need for things that are pleasurable. We have this weakness for things we enjoy whether they are good
for you or not. I see this all the time in my life. For example, that tempting chocolate doughnut that is

just sitting there on the counter with no one to eat it, you know it's not the healthiest thing for you to eat
but we eat it anyways because its good and we can. As humans I believe one of the greatest personal
qualities you can have is self control, where you can say no I do not need that and walk away. What a
beautiful world it would be if we could all say no to the things we knew were wrong. Buddha once said
if you give you have if you don't give you lose. What if we took all that time we spend being selfish
and spend it on other. Forming relationships with our families, helping the ones that have less then us
and building a life based on relationships and service rather then a life of worldly things. Buddha
defines the phrase to have as family, friends and NOT objects.
The third noble truth explains what to do to refrain from inflicting additional suffering upon
ourselves. Buddha says that we need to be abstinent. Be strong enough to resist the temptations of
pleasure. I believe that everyone has some type of moral standard for themselves, we know what we
believe so why not stand up for it. Just say no! Be an example for your peers. Serve others and refrain
from those things we know are wrong.
The forth and final noble truth is What is our goal? Buddha believe that our goal is annica or
liberation. Our goal is to be that person who has complete self discipline. complete liberation from
the slavery of our pleasures. Buddha refers to us as being slaves to pleasure and I think that is true and
natural for every human being, but the ultimate goal is to rise above addictions and pleasures, those
things that are enslaving us, and to have a greater purpose. These things are exactly what Buddha knew
when he was saved by that beautiful young lady. I believe that Buddha saw his life and saw what was
important in the end, and those pleasures we are enslaved in are just standing in the way of the
important, long lasting things of our life.
The next part of Buddha's philosophy is named Vipashyana. The question is how do we
liberate ourselves from our own pleasures? Buddha explains this with the eight fold noble path. The
truths have been broken up into 3 groups; Intention, Conduct and contemplation. The first way to
overcome pleasure is to know our intentions. We need to deeply understand the 4 noble truths, and use

that understanding as a way to motivate ourselves, give ourselves a purpose. I think a lot of people
struggle with being motivated and I think when you have a reason for doing something it makes it
easier to do things you dont necessarily want to do. For example, right now in my life I have a lot of
homework and sometimes I really just dont want to do it. But when I sit down and understand that if I
do my homework and I do it well I can get a college degree, which will allow me to get a better job
then I could without one. Doing my homework will result in a better life style and a better way of
living. Personally I think doing the simple things that I dont want to to do is worth it because it pays
off in the end.
The next section is how we conduct ourselves. The way we speak, behave and live our lives all
have an impact on our ability to overcome our pleasures. A wise man once said take what you say very
seriously because it is very serious what you say. I also think that is does not just depend on the what
context you say things but also how clean you keep you language. In my own life I have noticed that
people who say a swear word every other word is for less respected then someone with cleaner
language. Not that those people are bad people or that they have a reason not to be respected but speech
is something that is judged everyday by everyone you talk to. There is a time and place to use language
like that and it is not in every day conversation. The way we behave says a lot about who we are as
people. The ten commandments are widely known around the world and are a source or a lot of peoples
moral standard. Buddha breaks down his own list, the five moral rules; do not kill, do not steal, do not
commit adultery, do not use drugs and do not spread rumors. This list of moral rules is a good way to
live your life. These morals are the structure of a honest and true life. Not only should we want to live
this honest and true life but we should live it everyday, wherever you are, and whoever you are with.
When your lifestyle is consistent with your values where ever you are that is when you are living a
good life. In my opinion in order to have that good honest life you need too keep excelling forward,
everyday. Do what is good and do even better the next day.
The last section in the eight fold noble path is contemplation. You need to accomplish a lot in

order to fully break away from your slavery. First you need to put in the effort to accomplish total and
complete mental and emotional self control. You have to be the one in complete control of all your
emotions. I believe that emotions are a huge part of how people live their lives. When you are
completely in control of your emotions you are in control of your life. To go along with control of your
emotions you also need to be mindful. Buddha says that being mindful is to have complete intellectual
control. Last is the hardest thing to accomplish, it is called dhayana, it is absolute self control of mind
body and emotions. This is almost unachievable and it is said that Buddha was the only one able to
achieve this. Dhayana is you, life is in your own hands, you are in control of your whole self and you
can not be persuaded by anything. This goal of the four noble truths is to make it to this point.
Karma is the spiritual driving force of my life. My predestined mission in life to be fulfilled.
Buddha names three different types of karma: birth karma, social life karma and death bed karma. Birth
karma is what you are born with, it is the blind knowledge of your life before this one. Social karma is
what happens in your day to day life and deathbed karma is at the end of your life all the things you
cannot change and you will be judged by. Buddha also lays out the structure of all human personality. It
starts with ajiva which means my mortal physical body. Next we have jiva which is my mortal
soul. Buddha believes in reincarnation. This is described by the jump of jiva from one physical body
to another. He believes that we had a life before this that shapes our lives. We had a life before that we
know nothing about but plays a huge part in the life we live today. Buddha also believes that we do not
have a blind fate. We have free will and we can make our own choices in life. Although we have a past
life it does not take away our choices in this life.
The Final section of Buddha's philosophy is the concept of nirvana. Nirvana takes place after
death of the physical body, instead of your soul (jiva) jumping to a new body, it will continue to exists
as a pure spirit that is without a physical body. To achieve nirvana you have to complete and total
control of yourself, your body and your emotions. It is something you have to devote your whole life to
doing. It is said that Buddha was the only one ever to achieve nirvana at the time. It is a state where

your desires and sufferings are no longer a factor and you are experiencing spiritual bliss. I believe
to obtain nirvana would be one of the greatest accomplishments. In a world of so much evil it would be
a blessing to stay away from all the bad and become a product of all the good things in the world.
The Philosophy of Buddha has become and inspiration to me. Not only his philosophy but his
dedication, faith, hope and determination to find out the truth, to understand why he is here and create
a purpose for his life. He was a great teacher to all he was around. It is incredible that this man's
philosophy has become a religion. Even now that he is gone, he is still a leader to so many people.
Buddha taught the truth, he taught about the suffering of the world. He told people that this life is not
easy and it is not all happy because there is so much suffering all around us. And it is all because a
prince could not get over the images he saw in his head of death, poverty and sufferings.
I am very inspired by Buddha's bravery and faith, to leave his family and all of his wealth in the
middle of the night. I think that I would really struggle to leave my family in any circumstance, but
Buddha knew what he believed to be the right path and he followed his instincts. Not only would it be
hard to leave my family but it would be hard to completely involve myself in praying and fasting.
Buddha did those things without blinking an eye. I love learning about people who are determined,
people who know what they want and they will do anything to achieve it. Buddha is one of those
people, not to mention he was also very intelligent and handsome.
I believe that there are a lot of people in today's society who would benefit from the teachings
of Buddha. Its not just his teachings, if society would take example of Buddha's self control and self
discipline I believe there would be far less problems with adultery, pornography, drug addictions,
obesity and so much more. Buddha is a great example of a man with good character. He knows right
from wrong and he was absolutely not going to let the slavery of sin take over and ruin his life. In the
world today there are so many people who are slaves to sin. There are so many who do not have a
direction for their lives and they are stuck at a stand still. I believe a lot of the suffering Buddha talks
about are things that we have complete control over. Yes there are things that happen in life that we

have no control over and with those things you just have to take it as it is. I think the majority of the
suffering is self inflicted. I believe that Buddha can be a great inspirational teacher to everyone. We all
have suffering and we all could be happier if we were in complete emotional and intellectual control.
Not saying we have to all accomplish nirvana, but why not work for that goal? It is a good thing to
work towards. We are not perfect people but we have the potential for perfection. It has to be a work in
progress.
In conclusion, Buddha was a great man with a great purpose. He accomplished more in his life time
then most. He was hard working, smart, determined and dedicated, those are the reasons he has such a
legacy. His teachings are true and that is why we have the religion of Buddhism. He was born a prince
but he ruled in the way of his beliefs and actions. He never became a king but he touched the lives of
many and he is still touching lives today with his teachings. He is a great example of service,
knowledge and character. Buddha is a great philosopher.