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

by Noah Rasheta

Liberation is experiencing reality as it is.

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

unnecessary suffering we experience has more to do with how we see things than with what we see.

Rather than trying to answer these existential questions, Buddhism urges us to look inward and ask ourselves, “Why do I feel the need to know these things?”

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

The Buddha taught that there are three universal characteristics of life, also known as the three marks of existence: dukkha (suffering), anicca (impermanence), and anattā (nonself). These three concepts form the core of what could be considered the truth in Buddhism.

Every beginning has an end, and every end gives birth to a new beginning.

So rather than focusing on life after death, we can instead choose to focus on life before death—the life we’re living now.

The Four Noble Truths are: the truth of suffering (dukkha), the truth of the cause of suffering (samudaya), the truth of the end of suffering (nirodha), and the truth of the path that leads to the end of suffering (magga).

The Four Noble Truths are meant to be an action plan for dealing with the inevitable suffering that humanity experiences.

E - Embrace the instance of suffering. L - Let go of the reactive pattern. S - See the stopping of the reactivity. A - Act skillfully.

What we learn from the Buddha about embracing suffering is that life is going to be easier for us when we truly accept that suffering is a part of life for everyone; there’s no way around it.

Acceptance is about working with reality, not against it.

You yourself must strive. The Buddhas only point the way.