Introducing Buddha: A Graphic Guide (Graphic Guides)

by Borin Van Loon

we create goals towards which we are travelling. We hope to achieve ultimate everlasting security and this keeps us continually preoccupied. We are constantly swimming towards what we think is the shore, what we think will be the answer to the problem, whether it be a new love affair, the cure for an illness, a way to stay young or the reward of heaven.

Enlightenment is the total sense of freedom that comes from letting go of the concept of being an individual “self”.

The glimpses of enlightened mind provides the motivation to find a way out of confusion. The Buddha told of a path that ordinary people could travel on to find their own liberation.

We are preoccupied with the past, which has already happened, and we are pre-occupied about the future, which does not yet exist. We worry about what will happen and we think about various things that make us feel anxious, frustrated, passionate, angry, resentful, afraid. While we are so preoccupied, our awareness of the here-and-now slips by and we hardly notice its passing.

Meditation practice is not concerned with perfecting concentration, or getting rid of thoughts, or trying to be peaceful. The practice merely provides a space in which we can relate simply with our body, our breath and the environment.

Karma literally means “action” – it is the law of cause and effect. Karma is both the power latent within action and the results our actions bring. Each action, even the smallest, will have consequences. To a Buddhist, therefore, every action, thought or word is important and has consequences.

Our present circumstances depend on the result of actions in the past, and our future circumstances depend on actions in the present.

anger can be transformed into sharp intelligence, ignorance into calm equanimity and passion into the warmth of compassion.

This submission is not done from a position of dependence, but is a clear decision based on immense trust.

Trust

There are countless lineage stories of encounters with women which led to a man’s enlightenment, but the emphasis is always on the man’s story. They give us a tantalizing glimpse of extraordinary women who had overcome the limitations of society; but because history was in the hands of men, their stories are largely unknown.

According to Buddhism, the only source of energy that is useful is compassion, because it is safe. When you have compassion, your energy is born from insight, it is not blind anger.

Buddhist ideas had soaked into all aspects of society in the East - being a practising Buddhist in those cultures was a way of life. The majority of people did not meditate or study but just lived a Buddhist life, practising kindness and trying to cause no harm to others.

The heart of the teaching remains–the Four Noble Truths, the fact of suffering, its origin, cessation and the path of meditation which puts it all into practice, again and again.