Buddhism Teachings

In the teachings of Buddhism, there is a concept, the ways of practice, that states “for those who seek Enlightenment there are three ways of practice that must be understood and followed: First, disciplines for practical behavior; second, right concentration of mind; and third, wisdom” (Conze, p.49). This last concept, that of will Wisdom will be the focus of this paper. In this book, Buddhist Wisdom Books, the author Edward Conze states that Wisdom is the “ability to perfectly understand and to patiently accept the Fourfold Noble Truth, to know the fact of suffering and its nature; to know the source of suffering, to know what constitutes the end of suffering, and to know the Noble Path that leads to the end of suffering” (Conze, p.49). Without Wisdom man will not be able to reach the path of Enlightenment. Thus, Wisdom is perceived as being a very important factor of man’s ability to attain Enlightenment for the followers of Buddha.

“Buddhism, though often described as a religion for rationalists and intellectuals, plainly developed not only along the line of wisdom, prajna, but also along that of compassion, karuna” (Ross, p.122). Buddhism is a way of life for some people. In order to truly understand what that means, a little background will be discussed. First to be explained will be the definition of the word Buddha. It is “a person enlightened to the ultimate reality of life” (Riis and Woodhead, p.54). Buddha understands that all existence, life, and all occurrences are the expression of one mystic entity that permeates every realm of existence without any time restriction. This entity is exactly the same as Buddha’s life itself and thus it can be the same as our life. Therefore, the aim of Buddhism is to allow every person, despite one’s position in life to be able to unite our lives together with the life of the Buddha.

Also, of note, “Bodhi, Wisdom, acquired by the faculty of Buddhi, the intuition, the power of direct dynamic spiritual awareness,...