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Basic Buddhist Teachings

Table of Contents

Buddhism ’s teaching, called dharma, is not treated as a divined revelation, but as an instrument for mental training.

1. Dependent Arising

Eternalism is a view that everything is reducible to a common ground, some sort of self-substance; while annihilationism is a view that the whole of existence is resolvable into a concatenation of discrete entities. The doctrine of dependent arising rejects both extremes.

The theory of dependent arising explains the conditionality, or dependent nature, of all the manifold mental and physical phenomena of existence.

The implications of the theory are:

  1. Everything in this world is interdependent, therefore, nothing is permanent.
  2. Everything in this world is interrelated, therefore, nothing is independent.
  3. Everything in this world is relative, therefore, nothing is absolute.

Therefore, the case is that multiple causes lead to multiple effects.

Implications to life. According to this theory, life is a becoming, a flux of psychological and physiological changes, a conflux of mind and body. The process of life is further explained into twelve factors with an aim to illustrate the human bondage and freedom. It’s expounded in 2 ways: by way of origination to explain the arising of suffering; and by way of cessation to explain the ending of suffering.

Twelve Factors. The dependent arising with its twelve factors forms a circle. There’s no beginning and no end to it. These factors may rise together.

2. Four Noble Truths

The four noble truths are Buddhist philosophy of life. Each assumes significance in relation to the other three.

  1. dukkha, suffering or unsatisfactoriness
  2. the arising or origin of dukkha
  3. the cessation of dukkha
  4. the way leading to the cessation of dukkha

2.1. Five Aggregates

Although suffering has many forms, Buddhism mainly focuses on the grasping or attachment to the five aggregates.

What is “five aggregates”? According to Buddhist analysis, a person consists of five aggregates which are a combination of the ever-changing physical and mental forces or energies:

  • aggregate of matter. Body, physical stuff.
  • aggregate of sensations or feelings
  • aggregate of apperceptions
  • aggregate of mental formations
  • aggregate of consciousness

These 5 aggregates are impermanent, no-self and suffering. Each of five is impermanent and their combination is also impermanent. This implies:

  • As all five are impermanent, there’s no unchanging substance in this process of human life. Thus, no permanent self.
  • The impermanence nature means that, they cannot be made the basis of permanent happiness.

Buddhism emphasizes that, although these 5 aggregates themselves are not suffering, they become the source of suffering when they become objects of grasping. As long as we grasp the five aggregates, we have problems. Then, the so-called “individual” can be reduced a casually conditioned process of grasping. Therefore, in Buddhist theory, life is characterized by suffering in essence.

Human take ever-changing five aggregates as “this is mine” (through craving), “this I am” (through conceit), and “this is myself” (through mistaken belief in a self-entity), and thus brings suffering.

2.2. Causes of Suffering

One of the major causes of suffering is the self-centred desire which manifests itself in many forms. According the theory of 12 factors, ignorance => craving + hatred + delusion, because ignorance means lack of understanding of the four noble truths and dependent arising => treat impermanence as permanence => suffering.

3. Nirvana

Nirvana is the third of the four noble truths, i.e., the complete elimination and cessation of the main causes of dukkha, which are craving, hatred and ignorance.

We can understand nirvana in 5 ways.

  1. From the moral point of view, nirvana is the highest level of moral perfection, because it’s the highest form of cultivation of morality. Emancipation from lust, hatred, delusion apply to practical habits.
  2. From the experiential point of view, nirvana is the highest level of happiness, because all suffering are eliminated. Happiness is spiritual, free from worries and troubles. Liberated people may still suffer from physical pain, but no emotional reaction to physical pain or psychological discomfort resulting from pain.
  3. From the point of knowledge, nirvana is the highest level of wisdom. “It is only through full comprehension of the five aggregates that one is cable of destroying suffering”. This wisdom is a change in our perspective of the nature of reality.
  4. From a psychological point of view, nirvana is the highest level of mental emancipation.
  5. From the point of ultimate reality, nirvana is the highest truth (of life). One understands truth of life, things they truly are, three characters of life.

3.1. Nirvana in This Life

Nirvana is realizable in this world and in this life if it’s mature; can be attained in this world now and here.

4. The Noble Eightfold Path

The fourth of the four noble truths.

Indulgence in sense pleasure => source of suffering -> The noble eightfold path avoids the extreme of sensual indulgence by its recognition of the futility of desire and its stress on renunciation.

The Buddhist renunciation does not mean physical renunciation, but psychological one. Because the causes of human suffering is within the human mind not outside.

What constitute our craving is the lustful intention, lustful desire within us, not things themselves, but lustful desire towards them.

True renunciation is cultivation of particular attitude of mind within us, not withdrawn from the world.

The noble eightfold path consists of eight factors

  • Wisdom
    • Right understanding or view
    • Right intention or thought
  • Ethical conduct
    • Right speech
    • Right action
    • Right livelihood
  • Meditation
    • Right effort
    • Right mindfulness
    • Right concentration

They are not step by step, and should be practiced simultaneously, as they are interdependent and interrelated. The Buddhist concept of wisdom is the perfection in both morality and intelligence.

4.1. Significance of the Noble Eightfold Path

  • No mention of faith; No mention of rebirth; No prayer, ritual formalism or worship => can be accepted and practiced by al people; it’s the practice itself is meaningful.
  • emphasize on human effort for liberation.
  • The Noble Eightfold Path is to be followed by all those who work for their happiness, it is a way of life to be followed, practiced, and developed by each and every individual.
  • is both a means as well as an end, as it starts with moral training and ends up with moral perfection.
  • begins with right view1
  • Dogmatic attachment to any view is wrong. Although right view is good, but attachment to right view is also condemned by the Buddha, because dogmatic attachment to any view may lead one to suffering.

5. Theory of Karma

  • Karma is volitional action. Volition constitute karma, which is performed in 3 ways, by mind, speech and body.
  • The Buddhist theory of Karma is the theory of cause and effect, action and reaction. The nature of karma is determined by motives. Good motives => positive karma.
  • Karma itself is a law, without intervention of any external, independent ruling agency or power.
  • Karma embraces both past and present deeds. And present > past
  • Mind is the most important factor, as all our words and deeds are colored by the mind or consciousness we experience at such particular moments.

5.1. Vipaka

Which means fruit in Buddhism, consequence or result. Same as karma, vipaka is also mental.

Rebirth is the most important fruit of karma. The accumulation of good karma in life ensures a good rebirth.

As there’s no eternal beings, there’s only combination of five aggregates, the volition or will is itself the performer, feeling is itself the reaper of the fruits of action. Apart from these mental states, there’s none to sow and none to reap, as life itself is an ever-changing flux, and behind the flux, there’s nothing serving as an agent.

Karma and vipaka is not accountable or storable “concurrency”.

6. Take-Away

  1. Suffering stems from ever-changing five aggregates of grasping. It’s the action of grasping that causes suffering.

Footnotes:

1

What is the right view? Sariputta explains in the Sammaditthi Sutta: “When, friends, a noble disciple understands the unwholesome, the root of the unwholesome, the wholesome, and the root of the wholesome, in that way he is one of right view, whose view is straight, who has perfect confidence in the Dhamma, and has arrived at this true Dhamma.” Here the wholesome refers to the Ten Kusala Dhamma (the ten virtues) and the unwholesome refers to the opposite, while the root of unwholesome is greed, hatred and delusion, the root of wholesome is non-greed, non-hatred and non-delusion.

Date: 2026-07-01 Wed