Note this;
Buddha’s 4NT-8FP -A Life Problem Solving Technique
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‘To get Buddhism’, one need to cut through its forms to understand its fundamentals, i.e.
Buddha’s 4NT-8FP -A Life Problem Solving Technique
The fundamental of Buddhism is basic like a doctor’s approach in diagnosing a patient’s medical problems.
In the case of Buddhism, it a self-diagnostic technique to deal with one’s existential issues and its related sufferings.
The core existential issues are reflected in the Buddha’s Story [a myth] as the inherent anxieties and Angst by every human being on the issue of sickness, old age and inevitable mortality.
In the Buddha Story, Gautama the prince was prevented by the palace to be exposed to the realities of life. Somehow he got out of the palace and saw sick and old people who were suffering and a corpse signifying inevitable mortality which stirred anxieties and Angst in Gautama. Therefrom he left the palace to seek solutions of all the sufferings arising from the above existential issues.
The essence of the story is every human being is in the same shoe as Gautama the generic human being with the above inherent existential issue and its related existential sufferings.
The Buddhism’s 4NT-8FP -A Life Problem Solving Technique provide a self-analysis of the existential issue and solutions to deal with the inherent existential anxieties and Angst.
It is not easy for the majority to accept Buddhism-proper [not pseudo Buddhism] because it require some mental effort on the part of the believer to help him/herself.
The Buddhism-proper program is like the program to cure alcoholism, addictions, obesity, where the participants need to do the necessary mental and physical exercises in alignment with the principles within the Noble-8-Fold-Paths.
Examples of effort require are consistent meditations [samartha], mindfulness [vispasanna] reading the Sutra, Right Thinking, Right Actions, etc.
For those who are not inclined to put in the spiritual effort it would be more effective for them to accept any of the Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity, Islam where upon mere declaration of belief in God, viola! one is saved. How this approach has its cons beside the immediate pros.
There are some Buddhist schools that promise some sort of salvation upon acceptance beliefs, but they are pseudo-Buddhism. Such approach also has its pros and cons. There are the usual scandals associated with organizational pseudo-Buddhism.
Buddhism-proper also has its pros and cons, but being self-diagnostic, it will strive to resolve whatever negatives that result via its iterative mechanisms.
The essence of Buddhism-proper is to provide one with a self-managing Life Problem Solving Technique to deal with one’s existential issues.