Buddhism is the practice of Buddha’s teachings, also called ‘Dharma’, which means ‘protection’. By practicing Buddha’s teachings, living beings are permanently protected from suffering.

The founder of Buddhism is Buddha Shakyamuni, who showed how to accomplish the ultimate goal of living beings, the attainment of enlightenment, at Bodh Gaya in India in 589 BC.

Buddha then began to give his profound teachings. He gave 84,000 different teachings, and from these precious teachings Buddhism developed in this world.

Buddha’s teachings are scientific methods to sole the problems of all living beings permanently. By putting his teachings into practice we will be able to control our desire and because of this we will be permanently free from all suffering and problems.

From this alone we can understand how precious and important his teachings, the Dharma, are for everyone.

Buddha gave clear and detailed explanations about the mind, as follows …

Buddha gave clear and detailed explanations about the mind. The mind is something whose nature is empty like space, which has never possessed form, shape or colour, and whose function is to perceive and undestand objects. There are three different levels of mind: gross, subtle and very subtle mind.

We should know that although we want to be happy all the time we do not know how to do this, and we are always destroying our own happiness by developing anger, negative views and negative intentions.

We are always trying to escape from problems, even in our dreams, but we do not know how to free ourself from suffering and problems. Because we don’t understand the real nature of things, we are always creating our own suffering and problems by performing inappropriate or non-virtuous actions. We need to practise Buddha’s teachings because there is no other real method to solve human problems.

For example, because modern technology often causes more suffering and dangers, it cannot be a real method to solve human problems.

The source of all our daily problems and suffering is our uncontrolled desire, also known as ‘attachment’. Since beginingless time, because we have had uncontrolled desire for the fulfillment of our own wishes, we have performed various kinds of non-virtuous actions: actions that harm others.

As a result, we continually experience various kinds of suffering and miserable conditions in life after life without end. When our wishes are not fulfilled we usually experience unpleasant feelings, such as unhappiness or depression.

We should understand that our problems do not exist outside of ourself, but are part of our mind that experiences unpleasant feelings. When our computer, for example, has a problem we usually say ‘I have a problem’, but in reality it is the computer’s problem and not our problem. The computer’s problem is an outer problem and our problem, which is our own unpleasant feeling, is an inner problem.

These two problems are completely different. We need to solve the computer’s problem by repairing it, and we need to solve our own problem by controlling our desire for the computer. Even if we keep solving the computer’s problems, if we are unable to control our desire for the computer we will continually experience new problems related to the computer.

It is the same with our house, our money, our friendships and so forth. Because of mistakenly believing that outer problems are their own problems, most people seek ultimate refuge in the wrong objects. As a result, their suffering and problems never end.

Because all our problems come from uncontrolled desire, and because there is no method to control our desire other than Dharma it is clear that Dharma is the actual method to solve our daily problems.

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