The Buddha and His perspective of detachment

by Rupa Banduwardena

Sakyamuni Siddhartha Gauthama emerged for the happiness and emancipation of humanity. His ultimate aim was “May all beings be happy and safe and relieved from evils of life and sufferings of Samsara and attain Nibbana”. The universal truth that He discovered was a meaningful message to the mankind. His most sincere wish was the well-being of all living beings alive. He saw life in reality. In his last life he was born in a Sakyan family amidst luxurious comfort and excessive extravagance.

Though he spent his childhood in great comfort, life’s impermanency could not be concealed from Him. He left all his belongings, his precious wife and the new-born son and roamed in the serene surroundings of the forests and mountains to seek a solution to his burning problem – attachment to life. He went to all his previous religious teachers to seek their assistance, but nothing to his satisfaction. Then he followed self-mortification and extremes of what he felt were correct. Having soon realised that it was not the correct path he walked along the banks of the river Neranjana and on the Vesak full moon day, seated under the Asatu tree at Bodh Gaya He attained Enlightenment and he was blessed with the gem of truth. Now He is the Buddha, the Thathagatha, the Perfect One, The noblest being born to the earth.

The summit of bliss

It was not something revealed by a divine being. It was a discovery through his own effort. It was the development of the solitary state of the mind to find relief from the miseries of existence. He realised the real truth, the supreme truth – the truth underlying human existence. In short the true facts revealing birth and death. His discovery was centered on the reality of human suffering and liberation from all woes and finally a way of lasting relief from all bonds of attachment. His system was based on the law of impermanence that will lead one to realise the exact truth of life.

He realised that life is sorrow and that sorrow is due to craving – the root cause of suffering that never ends till life lasts. Suffering could be annihilated by putting an end to craving which is achieved by attaining Enlightenment. The gist of the teachings of the Buddha revolves round the Four Noble Truths mentioned above. The bliss of Enlightenment is the lasting result of following the Noble Eightfold Path enumerated in his teachings.

The path to end all suffering is called the middle way avoiding the two extremes. This is the hard and sure way and this is embodied in the Noble Eightfold Path which The Buddha had so successfully experimented. The essence of The Buddha’s teachings lies in this noble path which he tried and revealed from Dukkha to the attainment of Nibbana.

Essence of truth

The Buddha clearly realised and explained Dukkha which ceaselessly confronts everyone of us in life. His ultimate aim was to put his followers across Samsara through conviction of the nature of existence and the realities of life. Buddhism deals with the facts of life. According to the doctrine of Dhamma, all living beings in the universe are subject to birth and death after a certain period of life (living). Nobody is exempt from this law of nature mentioned in the Dhamma. The Buddha attributes the death to birth. One comes to this world with death earmarked. Someday, once born one has to die. The only solution to avoid death is not to be born as indicated by the Great Master in Majjima Nikaya (Sutta 43) which says that it is only by cessation of craving that one could cease to exist.

There will be no rebirth, no craving, no suffering and no death which one always fears to face. This process with all its sufferings was the target and the gist of his teachings. The Noble Eightfold Path is also called the path of righteousness. It consists of eight virtues, but in the absence of these very virtues no one can expect peace of mind, happiness and the Nibbana. Every meaningful word of the Buddha, uttered with pure love and compassion, creates inner peace and serene joy full of Metta for the liberation of the humanity.

Noble Mission

Throughout his 45 years of service he relieved the humanity from miseries of existence. He discovered the truth of life and enlightened the others “Live a good life for the destruction of suffering”. The unsatisfactory nature of life with its impermanence and inherent suffering in Samsara - the cycle of births and deaths formed the basis of his teachings.

He saw impermanency of not only life, everything in the globe. Even the globe in its entirety is subject to this rule “Sabbe Sancara Anicca” – All component things are transient. This is the revolutionary message the Buddha has proclaimed to the world – that everything is changing and impermanent in the human universe. This is the truth of suffering for which the Buddha has shown us the path of liberation – This is clearly given in his doctrine of Dhamma – The most practical teaching that leads the humanity to final deliverance.