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Explain why the four noble truths are important for Buddhists
Four noble truths of buddhism essay
The four noble truths and ethics of Buddhism
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To start off, convincing yourself the absurd situation is your fate will make one happy and less miserable. The Four Noble Truths, which was outlined by Buddha, expands and expresses the notion on the four truths about suffering. This noble truth relates to convincing yourself that any situation is fate because if one has the right mind set, right act, and right outlook on the absurd situation, one will make the most of the condition and become less despondent and more optimistic about the situation. If Sisyphus can partake this act, he too, will become hopeful about his outlook of his absurd situation. Another philosopher that relates to this act is Soren Kierkegaard who touched on may topics such as life, region, politics, ethics and many
Richard Taylor, an American philosopher and author of, “The Meaning of Life” believes you can live a meaningful life as long as you realize your will and are completely involved in it and enjoy it, then you are no longer needed and your life was a successful one. “This is surely the way to look at all of life- at one’s own life, and each day and moment it contains; of the life of a nation; of the species; of the life of the world; and of everything that breathes” (Taylor p 27). He proves this through the ancient myth of Sisyphus. Sisyphus was sentenced by the Gods to spend an eternity rolling a stone repeatedly to the top of a hill and once it reached the top, it would roll right back down once again. Taylor calls Sisyphus’ life as an “endless pointlessness.” Taylor relates human life to Sisyphus’ life. He believes that both of our lives can have meaning. Taylor asks us to look at Sisyphus’ story in a different way. For example, while the Gods sentenced him to rolling this stone up a hill for an eternity, what if they gave him a “strange and irrational impulse” to roll the stone repeatedly. Now, according to Richard Taylor, Sisyphus’ life would now have meaning and if we were to be as invested as Sisyphus in rolling the stone, then our lives have meaning as well.
Truth is an objective in a person’s life in which a journey is taken to find the answer to their question or an identity of themselves or others. In Plato’s allegory of the cave The Republic VII, Plato discusses the steps that is needed to taken to find the real truth to one’s self. These theory created by the world famous philosopher can be related to many text and life on how truth is formed. Plato relates the Republic VII to a cave and how a man must step out the darkness of the cave and its many obstacles to find real truth. Plato’s steps in Republic VII are a part of Othello by William Shakespeare in which the main character Othello face obstacles finding the truth of his wife and his friend’s loyalty. These obstacles also include stereotypes which are discussed in “Don’t Let Your Stereotypes Warp Your Judgment” by Robert Heilbroner in which studies and are given about how stereotypes affect the image of others. In Othello to form the truth in which it follows the steps of Plato’s allegory of the cave to find the truth which is manipulation, stereotyping, breaking the bonds of manipulation/stereotypes and realizing real truth.
Socrates once said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” He questioned the very nature of why things were the way they were, while never settling for simple, mundane answers. Socrates would rather die searching for the truth than live accepting what he considered a blatant lie. I like to think of myself the same way. I too would rather examine the wonders of life rather than accept what I am just told. The truth is some can’t handle the truth. I on the other hand welcome it with earnest anticipation and fervent enthusiasm.
Thinkers and philosophers have been pondering misery since the dawn of civilization. At the dawn of humanity, humans existed to survive and reproduce; every day was a struggle. However, with the advent of civilization, humanity has moved further and further away from its original evolutionary drives, and it can be argued by secular thinkers that humans exist now to find happiness. Therefore, misery can be seen as the biggest obstacle to human happiness, yet misery itself is a mystery to many. Karl Marx’s The Communist Manifesto and Sigmund Freud’s Civilization and its Discontents put forth the authors’ opinions on the origins of mortal misery, and suggest methods to solve the problem of misery. Although the two have differing views, both see
The mindsets of people in society are often heavily influenced by the conflicts and circumstances that are common within the time-span in which these people lived. In times of war, people may be more patriotic; in times of pestilence, people may be more pious. Whether cynical or optimistic, the understandings of these mindsets allow for a better insight into how theses people lived their lives and the philosophies that guided them. In the case of the philosophers Plato and Epictetus, their philosophies sprang up amidst collapsing cities and exile. Plato and Epictetus’ philosophies differed due to their individual experiences in that Plato believed that all is not what it seemed, while Epictetus believed that what was presented should only matter if they are within an individual’s concern.
Taylor is careful to identify exactly which features of Sisyphus predicament account for the lack of meaning. He argues that the facts that Sisyphus task is both difficult and endless are irrelevant to its meaninglessness. What explains the meaninglessness of Sisyphus’s life is that all of his work amounts to nothing. One way that Sisyphus’s life could have meaning, Taylor proposes, is if something was produced of his struggles. For example, if the stone that he rolls were used to create something that would last forever then Sisyphus would have a meaningful life. Another separate way in which meaning might be made present is if Sisyphus had a strong compulsion for rolling the stone up the hill. Taylor points out, though, that even given this last option, Sisyphus’s life has not acquired an objectives meaning of life; there is still nothing gained besides the fact he just ...
"The Futile Pursuit of Happiness" by Jon Gertner was published in September of 2003. It is an essay that discusses the difference between how happy we believe we will be with a particular outcome or decision, and how happy we actually are with the outcome. The essay is based on experiments done by two professors: Daniel Gilbert and George Loewenstein. The experiments show that humans are never as happy as we think we will be with an outcome because affective forecasting and miswanting cause false excitement and disappointment in our search for true happiness.
Several philosophers have made differing viewpoints regarding the outlook of life. Richard Taylor and Albert Camus are notably known for presenting their thoughts on whether life is meaningless or not through the use of the Greek myth of Sisyphus. The two philosopher’s underlying statement on the meaning of life is understood through the myth. The myth discusses the eternal punishment of Sisyphus who was condemned by the Gods to take a large boulder up a hill, only to have it roll back down, forcing him to repeat this task endlessly. Each conceive the myth in their own way and ultimately end with a conclusion that differs from each other. Taylor’s ideals and his take on the meaning of life contrast with what Camus presents in his argument. While Taylor suggests that there is a subjective meaning to life, Camus states that life is ultimately meaningless.
Philosophers have been intrigued by the natural phenomenon of happiness since the beginning of recorded time. Buddha, Socrates, Zhuangzi, and Abraham Maslow all have their own take on it. Buddha taught his followers to find happiness through the Four Noble Truths. The first truth is that life is suffering. Suffering comes from want. Want can be destroyed, and the Eightfold Path is the way to eliminate it. The Eightfold Path is cut into three steps. Step One, Wisdom, includes the right view and intention. Step Two, Ethical Conduct, includes right speech, behavior, and livelihood. Step Three, Mental Cultivation, includes right effort, conscientiousness, and concentration (www.pursuit-of-happiness.org, Buddha). According to Buddha, the way to find happiness is to eliminate dissatisfaction with one’s life. To do that, one needs to practice self-discipline and
“Because one believes in oneself, one doesn't try to convince others. Because one is content with oneself, one doesn't need others' approval. Because one accepts oneself, the whole world accepts him or her.” —Lao Tzu. Lao Tzu, the author of Tao Te Ching, tells the importance of contentment, which changes the way people look toward the world, and happiness comes upon with satisfaction. Dictionary explains that contentment means satisfaction. The verb tense of contentment, content, tells that this word means “mentally or emotionally satisfied with things as they are” (Dictionary.com). All lives go through low ebb, no one roses all the way, and all have to accept and look forward to tomorrow, but not entangling with what happened yesterday. Thinking about what you have, but not what you do not have, and take pleasure about it, means contentment. No matter what
theory of happiness. When I find the need for the illusion of happiness, I attempt to
The concept of the noble lie begins with Plato in the Republic, where in search of an ideal state he told of a magnificent myth^1.The society that Plato imagined was separated into a three tier class structure- the Rulers, Auxiliaries, and the labor or working class. The Rulers, he said, would be selected from the military elite (called Guardians).The rulers would be those Guardians that showed the most promise, natural skill, and had proven that they cared only about the community’s best interests. The Auxiliaries were the guardians in training, and were subject to years of methodical preparation for rule. The lower class would be comprised of the workers and tradesmen, who being the most governed by their appetites, were best fit for labor. The introduction of the "noble lie" comes near the end of book three (414b-c)* Where Plato writes "we want one single, grand lie," he says, "which will be believed by everybody- including the rulers, ideally, but failing that the rest of the city".* The hypothical myth, or "grand lie" that Plato suggests is one in which, the Gods created the people of the city from the land beneath their feet, and that when the Gods made their spirit the precious metals from the ground got mixed into their souls. As a result some people were born with gold in their souls others with silver, and others with bronze, copper,or more even common metals like iron and brass. It was from this falsehood that the first phylosophical society’s social hierarchy was established. The myth goes as follows: Those the Gods made with gold in the souls were the most governed by reason, and who had a predisposition to contemplation which made them most suitable for rule. Those with silver in their souls where the most governed b...
This brings a further objection to Schopenhauer’s claim that all happiness stems from a suffering from a lack of something. This premise does not hold true in two scenarios. The first is when we feel happiness from something we did not expect to happen. For example, bumping into an old friend unexpectedly. We could not have been urging for it in the moment, therefore that happiness must be positive. Second, when we receive happiness in places where we only expected bad things. For example, when someone does not study for a test but does well anyway they receive unexpected
We all live in the world, which is full of sadness and disappointing. We see people dying, poverty, unemployment, etc. However, there are a lot of positive things in the world: children, who are born every day, people, who get new life opportunities, happy marriages, etc. The greatest gift is to see the positive sides of life, without concentrating our attention on negative. According to Winston Churchill, a pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. In my opinion, it is really true, because the positive or negative attitude towards life can highly influence our chances to success, feelings and even health. Positive thinking can be the best treatment for those, who don’t know what to do, in a problematic life situation. Optimistic attitude can help the person to live longer, recover faster from the mortal diseases like cancer and coronary heart disease, and avoid alcoholism and psychological problems(like depression).
Human life is absurd and there is no universal meaning, but humanity suffers from this inevitable fact so they try to find meaning through various created purposes to feel significant in their life. The absurdity of life is one of the biggest issues of philosophy because of the consequences it can cause in peoples lives. As human beings we desire purpose, meaning and order in life. Without the content of a meaningful life we feel lost and strive to find something that gives us meaning. We are all suffering from this unattainable goal to find a meaningful life. Albert Camus and Thomas Nagel agree with the fact that life is absurd but disagree on the right approach to life after realizing that life is without meaning.