Basic Principals of Buddha

(Told right after attaining enlightment)

After observing that those who wish to lead a religious life should avoid the two extremes of self-indulgence and selfmortification and follow the middle way, he enunciates the four truths about sorrow, the cause of sorrow, the removal of sorrow, and the way leading to it. For the removal of ignorance a strict morality is essential. Simple goodness in spirit and deed is the basis of his religion. The noble eightfold path represents a ladder of perfection. Right views, right aspirations, right speech, right action, right living, right effort, right mindfulness, right contemplation. The eightfold path is more than a code of morality. It is a way of life. The Budhha gave a workable system for monks and lay people. He laid down five moral rules binding on all people, which are: refraining from taking what is not given, from wrongful indulgence in the passions, from lying and from intoxicants. It is not abstention from work that he demanded. A Jain layman asked him if he taught the doctrine of inaction, and the Buddha replied: "How might one rightly say of me that the ascetic Gautama holds the principle of inaction? I proclaim the nondoing of evil conduct of body, speech and thought. I proclaim the nondoing of various kinds of wicked and evil things... I proclaim the doing of good conduct of the body, speech and thought. I proclaim the doing of various kinds of good things." In the Buddha's scheme of ethics, the spirit of love was more important than good works. "All good works whatever are not worth one-sixteenth part of love which sets free the heart. Love which sets free the heart comprises them. It shines, gives light and radiance." "As a mother, at the risk of her life watches over her only child, so let every one cultivate a boundless love towards all beings." Respect for animal life is an integral part of morality. A good

Buddhist does not kill animals for pleasure or eat flesh. They are his humble brethren and not lower creatures over whom he has dominion by divine right. He does not speak of sin but only of ignorance and foolishness which could be cured by enlightenment and sympathy. When the individual overcomes ignorance, breaks the power of his own deeds to drag him back into expiation, ceases to desire and to regret and attains enlightenment, he passes into the world of being as distinct from that of existence, being which is free from form and formlessness, from pain and delight, though that state is not humanly conceivable. It is deliverance, freedom from rebirth, Nirvana.