Thread: The essence of Buddhism

Although Gotama became an enlightened being he was also blessed with the ability to teach others the path to enlightenment. At the heart of the Buddha's teachings is the doctrine of Interdependent Co-Arising. This is a very important principle and if it can be grasped entirely then you'll fully understand the Buddha's teachings.

Lets begin with a simple example of conditional existence:

if it rains then there must be clouds outside.
You can never have this:
no clouds -> rain

The condition that clouds are present must be true for there to be rain:
clouds -> rain

Therefore, the existence of rain depends on the presence of clouds. Without clouds it won't rain. Okay, that was easy.

The interesting thing is that everything existing in this world has a conditional existence. A chair cannot exist unless certain conditions are met. For instance, pieces of wood must be placed in a certain way and held together. The existence of the chair depends on this. Therefore, technically anything can be destroyed if we can remove the conditions that allowed it to come into existence. If I smashed the chair with a hammer it would no longer exist. If I could somehow make clouds not form in the sky it would no longer rain.

What's the one thing all humans seem to be seeking? Happiness. The highest order of happiness is a total liberation from suffering. Is this possible? Before I said that everything has a conditional existence... this includes suffering. Therefore, we can also eliminate suffering by removing the conditions that allow it to exist. The Buddha's teachings show us how to remove these conditions.

Here is how the Buddha put it:

"This being, that is; from the arising of this, that arises. That is: with ignorance as condition, volitional activities come to be; with volitional activities as condition, consciousness comes to be; with consciousness as condition, name-and-form comes to be; with name-and-form as condition, the sixfold base comes to be; with the sixfold base as condition, contact comes to be; with contact as condition, feeling comes to be; with feeling as condition, craving comes to be; with craving as condition, grasping comes to be; with grasping as condition, being comes to be; with being as condition, birth comes to be; with birth as condition, aging-and-death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair come to be. This is the origin of this whole mass of suffering."

Then, on realizing its significance, the Lord uttered on that occasion this inspired utterance:

When things become manifest
To the ardent meditating Brahman,
All his doubts then vanish since he understands
Each thing along with its cause.


The Buddha goes on to explain the ceasing of suffering:


"This not being, that is not; from the cessation of this, that ceases. That is: from the cessation of ignorance, volitional activities cease; from the cessation of volitional activities, consciousness ceases; from the cessation of consciousness, name-and-form ceases; from the cessation of name-and-form, the sixfold base ceases; from the cessation of the sixfold base, contact ceases; from the cessation of contact, feeling ceases; from the cessation of feeling, craving ceases; from the cessation of craving, grasping ceases; from the cessation of grasping, being ceases; from the cessation of being, birth ceases; from the cessation of birth, aging-and-death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair cease. This is the ceasing of this whole mass of suffering."

Then, on realizing its significance, the Lord uttered on that occasion this inspired utterance:

When things become manifest
To the ardent meditating Brahman,
All his doubts then vanish since he has known
The utter destruction of conditions.


In Buddhism, liberation means totally extinguishing ourselves, which means a total letting go of grasping and seeing reality/nature for what it is. According to Buddhism all unenlightened beings are in a state of ignorance concerning the reality of things. Therefore, the path to enlightenment is really a path to Truth.

Although Buddhism speaks about other realms of existence, karma and rebirth (among other things) the very essence of the Buddha's teachings is this concept of conditional existence and how it leads to freedom from suffering.