No-Nonsense Buddhism for Beginners: Clear Answers to Burning Questions About Core Buddhist Teachings

by Noah Rasheta

The Buddha taught that we are essentially prisoners of our own minds, bound by our beliefs, perceptions, and ideas. We see an inaccurate version of reality—a version, not coincidentally, that causes us unnecessary suffering.

The Buddha’s teachings help us alter that perspective and learn that the unnecessary suffering we experience has more to do with how we see things than with what we see.

How many realities are we blind to simply because we already hold an idea, concept, or belief that prevents us from seeing reality as it is?

The Buddha responds by comparing him to a man wounded with a poisoned arrow who, absurdly, won’t accept treatment until he knows who shot him, what clan the archer was from, what the archer looked like, what materials the arrow was made of, and so on. “The man would die,” the Buddha concludes, “and those things would still remain unknown to him”

The Buddha taught that the wise thing to do is not to spend time and energy focusing on irrelevant details but to remove the arrow.