BUDDHISM IS A LIFE STYLE

The amount of love and feedback I got from the last post was amazing. Thank you so much to everyone that read my story.

The truth is I am no expert, but just like "non expert" blogs and youtube channels taught me, I would love to pass on what I know. Through time I will update on my journey.

Having established a semi introduction to why I am the way I am, and the background behind the beginning of my journey with Buddhism. I wanted to take this opportunity to communicate what I know, or at the very least what has helped me. When I was first started out I remember being overwhelmed by the amount of information. It was like opening pandoras box, so many words in a language I clearly did not speak, and so many books to read. WHERE DO YOU EVEN START?

"I THOUGHT FAITH WOULD SAY, 'I'LL TAKE AWAY THE PAIN AND DISCOMFORT,' BUT WHAT IT ENDED UP SAYING WAS, 'I'LL SIT WITH YOU IN IT." - BRENÉ BROWN

Where ever you look online and research Buddhism, the first thing that comes up is the FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS. At first glance these four sentences or teachings might make no sense to you, or look pretty straight forward. The truth is that once you dig deep into them, and you start to apply them to the way you view or go about your every day life, they end up meaning way more. The Four Noble Truths were the teachings given by the Buddha in his first sermon after his enlightenment.

• First Noble Truth: " Life is suffering"

Often viewed by people as being pessimistic, the misconception is that the first noble truth is expressed as Dukkha sacca (Sanskrit/Pali) meaning the truth of Dukkha. Dukkha in Pali translates to "suffering". The first noble truth though is all about dukkha, but you should be opened minded that The Buddha had more than one meaning to it. It can also mean stress or discomfort.

The way I interpret this and make it work in my every day life is reminding myself that we are going to have bad days. There will be days or weeks that we feel like the whole world is against us. We go through losses, heart breaks and financial situations as well as many more situations through out our life time. It may be hard to see the bright side of things when these things seem like they take over your life but that is life, we cannot appreciate the good if we do not go through the bad. We can always get through things, we are strong enough. Over all we will suffer.

Second Noble Truth: " Suffering (dukkha) is caused by desire"

It is a little bit more than just desire, the Pali word translated as "craving" is tanha, which might also mean thirst. To crave not only all types of physical pleasures but also the craving of becoming, the craving of having. As human beings, specially in the 21st century we are tempted with all kinds of desires and material things that we might feel we NEED in our life. The Buddha believed that the attachment to these desires was the cause of suffering. He taught that it was not so much what you craved that was the problem but the actual action of craving. The second noble truth does not tell us we have to give up the things we love, it just wants us to understand is the attachment to it that is causing the suffering. This applies to all the things that cause us suffering like people, material items, careers as well as many more.

I am still working on this one myself. It is harder than you think to detach yourself from the things that cause us the most suffering. You will be surprised it is actually easier to detox yourself from cellphone and computer use, or limit unproductive hobbies. Where as when you are asked to stop hanging out with that toxic friend or leave that job that is causing you stress, we tend to cling to those things to extremes with out realizing it. I encourage anyone to just start small and you will feel the instant gratification for self love and choosing yourself.

Third Noble Truth: "To end suffering you have to end attachments"

" If you let go a little bit you will have a little happiness, if you let go a lot you will have a lot of happiness... if you let go completely you will be completely happy." - Achaan Cha

Essentially the solution to dukkha is to stop clinging or the attachments according to The Buddha. Piggy backing from the second noble truth that taught us that we cling to things that we think will make us happy. The Third Noble truth tells us we have to detach ourselves, but let's be honest we do not have the will power to just do it on command. The truth is that if you start small and realize that these things that give you that initial satisfaction are really temporary. Once you realize that it is easier to let go of them.

I started realizing that keeping bad friendships just because of temporary fun were not enough to make me happy anymore. As well as certain items that I thought were sentimental, were only bringing bad memories and moments back into my mind. So what was the reason of keeping them I started asking myself. Slowly I started applying this more and more into everything in my life from applications on my phone to the moment of asking myself whether a certain person was good for me or not. I encourage everyone to start somewhere, trust me it is not easy, but the end results are so worth it.

The Fourth Noble Truth: "The Noble Eightfold Path"

The Buddha after his enlightenment spent the next 45 years of life teaching and explaining The Four Noble Truths. Being that it was not easy what he had done, he figured the last noble truth would be the "How" or which path to take.

Right view, Right intention, Right speech, Right action, Right livelihood, Right effort, Right mindfulness, Right concentration

"Right" is not a commandment. It is not telling you " Do this or you are wrong".

In order to explain these a little more I would have to go through them one by one. I can definitely do that in another blog post. I am absolutely not an expert in everything with Buddhism and like I said before this is just my understanding of it and the way that I have interpreted and applied it to my every day life. This is just the beginning and I hope that not only do you learn something new that maybe you had no idea about but so will I.

This by no means is me trying to push my beliefs on anyone or to try to convince you to practice Buddhism. This is simply a life style that as I mentioned in my previous post literally changed my life. I really hope I did not make it too complicated and that you were able to understand The Four Noble Truths a little more. If this was your first time hearing about them, do not get overwhelmed you can always come back to it and there are so many articles and books that can probably explain them a little better than I can. It takes time, and it is not meant for you to feel any pressure in applying them or understanding them.

Buddhism is peace, love and understanding. See you on the Next Post!

"ALL CONDITIONED THINGS ARE IMPERMANENT- WHEN ONE SEES THIS WITH WISDOM, ONE TURNS AWAY FROM SUFFERING." - THE BUDDHA

- NAMASTE

( Daisy Gonzalez)