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

by Noah Rasheta

In our day-to-day lives, we’re continually making meaning and creating stories about everything that happens. A thought arises, we create a story about it, the story evokes an emotion, we create another story about that, and on and on until, before we know it, we’re hardly paying attention to our lived reality at all, trapped in a habitual reactivity to our own thoughts.

But there is great freedom in releasing ourselves from the stories that cloud our perceptions and starting to feel okay with not always understanding the situation we’re in.

Buddhism teaches that there’s reality as it is, and then there’s reality as we humans perceive or understand it. Our perception of reality is influenced by how our minds are conditioned; in other words, our ideas, cultural beliefs, concepts, and opinions all directly affect how we see reality.

it’s far more important to live ethically than it is to worship anything.

Instead of determining whether these teachings are true or not, we are encouraged to verify if they work or not. In other words, do these teachings really lead to the reduction, and ultimately the cessation, of suffering?

Thich Nhat Hanh, a Zen Buddhist monk, says that “the secret of Buddhism is to remove all ideas, all concepts, in order for the truth to have a chance to penetrate, to reveal itself.”

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. We tend

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.

Buddhist teachings are not something you’re meant to believe; they’re something you do—you put them into practice.

To be enlightened is to be liberated from our habitual reactivity, freed from our perceptions and ideas in order to see reality as it is without wanting it to be different.

I think of moments like these as moments of awareness. From a Buddhist perspective, these moments allow us to make contact, even if only briefly, with reality as it is, as opposed to the stories and chatter in our heads that we’re usually tuned into.

That kind of suffering is self-inflicted, based on a belief or concept, not on circumstances themselves. If we didn’t hold the false belief, the suffering wouldn’t exist. This all-pervasive suffering is difficult for us to detect because it requires us to scrutinize our deeply held views, ideas, and beliefs. But when we are able to do that, we gain insight and wisdom into the nature of our own self-inflicted suffering. That’s the first step in releasing its hold on us.

This is emptiness. It’s the understanding that as life unfolds, it doesn’t mean anything. It is neither positive nor negative. All things simply are as they are.

Death is simply the culmination of a phase that started with birth, but the overall process of life started long before our individual births and deaths, and it will continue long after.

meaning isn’t out there waiting to be found—it’s in you, waiting to be created.

The central teaching of karma is that we can pause and break the cycle of reactivity. In that mindful pause, we have the freedom to choose a more skillful action to contribute to the never-ending web of causes and effects going on all around us.

We’re usually far more interested in what we already think we know than in learning something new.

In a similar way, our beliefs—whether they’re theist or atheistic—can blind us from seeing reality as it really is.

In that sense, Buddhism is not really at odds with other religions, because it doesn’t present a set of answers that conflict with the answers other religions give.

Buddhism holds that good and evil are found within and that the mind is the source of it all.

“Do not try to use what you learn from Buddhism to be a Buddhist; use it to be a better whatever-you-already-are.”

The next time you experience suffering or distress, instead of saying, “Life’s not fair” or, “Why is this happening to me?” tell yourself, “I was aware that this could happen. I’m not alone. Others are also experiencing this same thing.” Once you know that suffering is an unavoidable part of the experience, you can embrace the fact that it will happen at some point, worry less about it, and be prepared to recover more quickly when it comes.

Bonito

Acceptance is about working with reality, not against it.

Ceasing reactivity doesn’t mean we need to let go of the discomfort that makes us feel like punching the wall. (That’s not really possible, in any case.) Letting go of reactivity is about avoiding the second arrow. It’s more an act of liberation than a sacrifice we have to make. Eventually we come to understand that letting go of pain is no sacrifice at all.

The wisdom of understanding is not about acquiring more knowledge. In fact, it’s the opposite: It’s about trying to unlearn the concepts and ideas that prevent us from seeing reality as it is.

When we’re sensing, we’re actually engaging with the object being sensed on an emotional level.

This precept is meant to encourage practitioners to be cautious about the things that distract us from having a direct experience of life.

Some people drink as a form of escaping their reality rather than confronting it, understanding it, and accepting it. From the Buddhist perspective, that’s an unskillful approach to life that can cause unnecessary suffering to oneself and others.

A good friend helps us see the unskillful actions that we may not see in ourselves.