Borobudur at sunrise · Justine Hong · CC BY 2.0

Buddhism

Tradition·Founded c. 480 BCE·est. ~500 million worldwide

Vedic Religion → Buddhism → 3 branches

Branch
Core tenet of Buddhism

Suffering has a cause, and therefore an end.

Craving conditions dukkha; the eightfold path is the treatment plan.

Understanding it — context, not catechism: how this passage is held

Truths two and three. The cause is tanha — craving, literally "thirst": not desire itself but the clutch in it. Because the unease is produced by a cause, it is not a cosmic sentence; remove the cause and the effect ends. This is the engineering claim at the center of Buddhism — suffering has a mechanism, and mechanisms can be stopped.

From the sources — the passages this rests on; concise renderings, cited

It is this thirst — craving bound up with delight, seeking pleasure now here, now there — that leads to renewed becoming.

Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta — SN 56.11

With the complete fading away and cessation of that very craving — its abandonment, its release — suffering ceases.

SN 56.11, the third truth

The same ground, other faiths

claims that share this one's ideas
Every soul is already omniscient. Jainism Go deeper →
Knowledge liberates. Advaita Vedānta Go deeper →
The arhat completes the path. Theravāda Go deeper →
The twenty-two years were a classroom. Heaven's Gate · story Read it in full →
Liberation can be engineered. Aum Shinrikyo Go deeper →

The conversation

argument stays attached to the claim it is about All discussion →

Sign in to open the first thread. Everything here is attributed.

Built on Hatchable