What does Buddhism say about the origin of evil?
Many Buddhists believe that the negative actions and beliefs of human beings such as greed, anger and ignorance give rise to evil. The belief is that these three things stop Buddhists from reaching enlightenmentThe realisation of the truth about life. In Buddhism it releases a person from the cycle of rebirth..
Many Buddhists do not believe that human beings are evil, but they generally accept that humans create suffering through their greed, anger and ignorance.
What does Buddhism teach about suffering?
Buddhism teaches that suffering is a natural part of life. When Siddhartha GautamaThe name of the person who became the Buddha. left the palace in which he lived, the three people he saw were an old man, an ill man and a dead person. This taught him that people suffer in life.
The Four Noble TruthsThe truths discovered by the Buddha during his enlightenment. are a summary of the BuddhaThe founder of Buddhism, Siddhartha Gautama, after his enlightenment. It is a title which means the enlightened or awakened one. teachings. It is these truths that the Buddha taught to his first disciples after he was enlightened.
- Dukkha - the truth of suffering.
- Samudaya - the truth of the origin of suffering.
- Nirodha - the truth of the cessation (end) of suffering.
- Magga - the truth of the path to the cessation (end) of suffering.
Suffering (dukkha)
Suffering comes in many forms. In Buddhism there are three main types of suffering:
- The first is linked to the first three sights the Buddha saw on his first journey outside his palace: old age, sickness and death. This is the suffering of painful experiences, including unsatisfied desires.
- The Buddha also taught that suffering goes much deeper than these three things. Suffering is also caused by constant change. People constantly lose the things and situations to which they become attached.
- Thirdly, even when people are not immediately suffering, they are unsatisfied because they are not enlightened. This is the truth of suffering.
Origin of suffering (samudaya)
The Buddha taught that the immediate root of all suffering is desire.
The three ultimate causes of suffering are:
- greed, represented in art by a rooster
- ignorance, represented by a pig
- hatred, represented by a snake
The cessation of suffering (nirodha)
In the third truth the Buddha asserts that it is possible to bring an end to suffering. The belief is that the Buddha was a living example that this is possible in a human lifetime and this is what all Buddhists strive for. Someone who reaches enlightenment is filled with compassion for all living things.
This Truth that I have realised is profound, hard to see, hard to realize, harmless, sophisticated, more than just speculation, subtle, only really understood by the wise. But this present generation takes delight in attachment, is excited by it, enjoys it. For a generation like this, it’s really hard to understand how things arise in dependence on each other. It’s also really hard to understand the calming of all fabrications, the rejection of all attachments to rebirth, the destruction of craving, dispassion, cessation, nirvana.
