The Buddha taught that we should seek to stop being reborn, ensuring that we never again experience suffering.
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If you want to learn about the Buddha's teachings, let's start with the bare bones.
The Buddha taught that we should seek to stop being reborn, ensuring that we never again experience suffering.
Achieving the end of rebirth is exceptionally difficult, so he also taught an easier path which can ensure that we are reborn in relatively pleasant states of existence.
In the meantime, following the Buddha's teachings brings benefits in the present life, here-and-now.
If you want to know more, let's put a little meat on those bones.
TO GO BEYOND SUFFERING, WE MUST STOP BEING REBORN.
Roughly 2,500 years ago, a man named Gautama - now known as the Buddha - realized that we are stuck in a cycle of birth and death.
“Oh, this world has fallen into trouble; it is born, it grows old, it dies; it passes away and is reborn, yet no escape from this suffering, aging, and dying is known…” — The Gotama Sutta (SN 12.10)
This cycle of rebirth is called “samsāra,” a word which suggests aimless wandering.
“A beginning to samsāra is inconceivable, monks. Some first point at which living beings—blinded by ignorance, bound by craving—began running through samsāra cannot be known.” — The Tinakattha Sutta (SN 15.1)
“Monks, in the time you’ve spent running through samsāra, the depth of the blood you’ve shed from being beheaded is greater than the water in the four oceans. For a long time, you’ve lived as buffalo… rams… goats… deer…chickens… and pigs. The depth of the blood you’ve shed from being beheaded is greater than the water in the four oceans. For a long time, you’ve lived as thieves, arrested for raiding villages… being highwaymen… and committing adultery. The depth of the blood you’ve shed from being beheaded as a thief is greater than the water in the four oceans.” — The Timsamatta Sutta (SN 15.13)
Existing in samsāra sucks…
“Just as, monks, even a small piece of feces still smells foul, I likewise do not celebrate even a small duration of existence: not even for the length of a finger-snap.” — The Tatiyavagga (AN 1.328)
…because as long as we are stuck in the cycle of birth and death, we will experience “dukkha.”
"One who exists experiences dukkha." — The Dvayatānupassanā Sutta (Snp 3.1)
“Dukkha” is usually translated as “suffering,” but I prefer “pain” because it’s more flexible. It includes a wide range of experiences, from the subtle to the severe. The Buddha broke the term down into three kinds (SN 38.14):
> Dukkhadukkhatā : The Pain of Pain(ful Feeling)
This is "pain" in the most basic sense of the word: the sensation felt when something hurts us.
> Sankhāradukkhatā : The Pain of Conditioned Things
This is a more subtle type of pain, caused by the fact that all conditioned things are impermanent, unstable, and unreliable (SN 15.20). Whatever arises as a result of being caused by other factors is considered a “conditioned thing” (sankhārā). To put it simply: this world and everything in it are "conditioned things." They come into existence as a result of the phenomena that caused them to arise, they change throughout their existence, and eventually, they pass away. Their very nature makes them incapable of providing us with true happiness, or sheltering us from the pains of existence in samsāra. We seek satisfaction in careers, belongings, lovers, friends, and all kinds of different “conditioned things,” but any relief they provide is fleeting.
> Viparināmadukkhatā: The Pain of Decline
This form of dukkha is the pain caused by the natural tendency of things to change for the worse. The body grows old, the mind becomes clouded, structures fall apart, food spoils…
The reality of dukkha is the central idea which Buddhism deals with, the basis for its entire philosophy. This is why The Four Noble Truths—described by the Buddha’s wisest disciple as the supreme expression of all the various teachings (MN 28)—begin with “The Truth of Dukkha,” where the Buddha identified eight things as dukkha (SN 56.11).
The first seven are: 1) birth 2) old age 3) sickness 4) death 5) interaction with what is disliked 6) separation from what is liked 7) not getting what you want.
The eighth is actually a group called “the five aggregates of clinging”: form, feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness. "Form" includes one’s own physical body, as well as the external world, while the remaining aggregates represent our various mental processes. A detailed explanation of the five aggregates would get complicated; in the interest of keeping things "dead simple," let it suffice to say that they are the physical elements and mental processes that constantly work together to construct our subjective experience of reality, and further function as the means through which we interpret and engage with that experience.
The reality of dukkha, then, is that existence in samsāra is painful. Human birth begins with blood and tears; if the infant survives, it endures sickness throughout its entire life, aging all the while, until the body succumbs to inevitable death. Whatever joy is found between birth and death is fleeting, failing to provide shelter from the existential pain of the cycle. This, in and of itself, is a kind of pain, more subtle and insidious than agony, sickness, or death. The concluding statement that the five aggregates are dukkha drives home a salient point: our subjective experience of reality is fundamentally painful. Dukkha isn’t just a thing that happens to us as we exist. Every mechanism involved in our existence is flawed: they are all impermanent, they are all incapable of providing real satisfaction.
Because of dukkha, even the greatest states of rebirth are, ultimately, painful.
"No state of existence is eternal, not even in heaven; what is there to say of hollow sense-pleasures, which bring no satisfaction, but cause much trouble? …Even Mandhātā, ruler of the four continents, who enjoyed the greatest of sense-pleasures, died dissatisfied, unable to fulfill his wishes. If seven sorts of gems rained from the skies, filling the ten directions, one’s sense-desires would still be unsatisfied; people die discontented." — the Sumedhā Therigāthā (Thig 16.1)
"Even a king who has conquered the world, reigning over the mighty earth, would still be unsatisfied with the near shore, longing for the shore on the other side of the ocean. It is not only the king, but many men who will come to death not yet freed from craving. They will leave corpses behind, wanting all the while, for the sense-pleasures of this world do not satisfy… One who enters a womb, who proceeds to another world, will wander through samsāra lifetime after lifetime." — The Ratthapāla Sutta (MN 82)
Seeing this, Gautama resolved to find an escape from the cycle of birth and death.
"What, monks, is the noble quest? It’s when someone, subject to rebirth, understanding the perils of being subject to rebirth, seeks the unborn, unsurpassed sanctuary from bondage: Nibbāna." — The Ariya Pariyesana Sutta (MN 26)
That word... Nibbāna... stick a pin in that. We'll come back to it later.
The Buddha taught that, just as the physical body is fueled by food, the mind is fueled by various mental activities and processes. Crucially, the process called “consciousness” (viññāna) can continue functioning after death, as long as it has “fuel” to sustain it; this is why the Buddha said that these “fuels” sustain living beings as well as “those about to be reborn” (SN 12.11).
During life, consciousness serves as an awareness which arises, temporarily, when one of our senses is engaged by a sense-object. It does not exist independently. It can only be considered with reference to the “fuel” that enables it.
"…without a cause, consciousness does not come into being… whatever condition causes consciousness to arise, that consciousness must be defined by that very thing… just like fire, which must be defined by whatever condition it depends on to burn." — The Mahā Tanhā Sankhaya Sutta (MN 38)
When we see trash burning, the flames only exist because they were caused by an initial spark, and they can only persist as long as some garbage is still there to feed the fire. As such, it should be called a “trash fire.” If the flames happen to catch a nearby tree on fire, we could no longer call that a “trash fire.”
Consciousness functions in much the same way. A visible object meets the eye, visual consciousness arises, and this simple awareness makes the experience available to the mind, which is treated as a mundane sixth sense in Buddhism. From here, a number of more sophisticated mental processes take place: we “feel” the experience as pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral; we “perceive” the “signs” of the sense-object, allowing us to identify it and associate it with past experiences; and “volitional formations” influence us to behave one way or another in response to the experience.
These subsequent processes are “sensed” by the mind as “mental objects,” which keeps the “stream of consciousness” flowing onward, uninterrupted, with all of these conscious moments occurring in such rapid succession that we tend to imagine them as occurring with some enduring, essential “self” at the helm, behind the wheel; in truth, no such self can be found, as there is only a sequence of consciousness arising and passing, carried forward by the momentum of the ever-present fuels which keep it going.
"...that which is called 'mind,' 'intellect,' and 'consciousness' arises as one thing and fades as another, all throughout the day and night." - The Assutavā Sutta (SN 12.61)
Death does not stop this process. We have already seen that "the mind," as a sense, can take abstract mental activities and processes as its objects. When the body perishes, subtle mental forces are able to serve as the "objects" which fuel the arising of consciousness.
"Just as a fire burns with fuel, and not without fuel, likewise I teach that there is rebirth for one who has fuel, and not for one who has no fuel… when one has cast this body aside, but has not yet arisen in another body, I say that ‘craving’ is their fuel." - The Kutūhalasālā Sutta (SN 44.9)
"Craving" (tanhā) is the most commonly-referenced fuel for rebirth, though many such fuels are referenced in different contexts. One of the Buddha’s sermons seems to have served, essentially, as a catalogue for the various forces which can be contemplated as the fuel for rebirth.
"All dukkha arises dependent on attachment (upadhi)… ignorance (avijjā)… volitional function (sankhāra)… craving (tanhā)… grasping (upādāna)… misguided initiative (ārambha)… mental disturbance (iñjita)… when [these forces have] completely faded away, there is no arising of dukkha." — The Dvayatānupassanā Sutta (Snp 3.12)
Here, we need not worry about the differences between these overlapping terms, because what they share in common is more important: they are all rooted in a fundamental ignorance of the truths discovered by the Buddha. Under the influence of these forces, the mind continues operating even after the death of the body, causing the stream of consciousness to become established in another existence.
"For the fool, this body has arisen from their being blinded by ignorance and chained by craving. The fool has not abandoned that ignorance, nor extinguished that craving. What is the reason? Because that fool has not lived the holy life for the complete extinction of dukkha. That is why, when the fool’s body dies, they will be reborn in another body. Being reborn in another body, they will not be freed from birth, old age & death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, sadness, and despair." - The Bālapandita Sutta (SN 12.19)
Gautama spent six long years trying to discover the key to freedom from dukkha. Eventually, while meditating beneath a tree, he achieved enlightenment, liberating his mind once and for all from the forces which had kept him trapped in samsāra.
"With my mind centered in this way—purified, shining, flawless, uncorrupted; made supple, ready to be applied, stabilized, unshakeable—I directed it to the knowledge of eradicating the mental defilements… When it was liberated, I knew it was liberated. I understood: rebirth has been worn away. The holy lihfe has been lived. What needed to be done has been done. This state goes no further… Ignorance was destroyed, and knowledge arose; darkness was destroyed, and light arose. This can be experienced by anyone who is vigilant, determined, and resolved." — The Bhayabherava Sutta (MN 4)
He spent the rest of his life teaching people how to achieve this for themselves by progressing through a system of practices he called “the gradual training” (anupubbasikkhā).
"Monks, I do not teach that ultimate knowledge is attained swiftly. Instead, ultimate knowledge comes from gradual training, gradual action, and gradual progress." – The Kītāgiri Sutta (MN 70)
His instructions can be categorized into three broad stages: ethics (sīla), meditative concentration (samādhi), and liberating wisdom (paññā).
"The Blessed One praised three categories [of religious practice] with which he encouraged people, in which he established and rooted them… the categories of Noble Ethics, Noble Concentration, and Noble Wisdom." — The Subha Sutta (DN 10)
"...when concentration is fortified by ethics… [and] when wisdom is fortified by concentration, it is of great fruit, of great benefit. When the mind is fortified by wisdom, it is perfectly liberated from the defilements… — The Mahā Parinibbāna Sutta (DN 16)"
Before practicing meditation, we are told to root ourselves in ethical conduct. This primarily involves observing "training rules" or "precepts" (sikkhāpadā), vows to abstain from certain actions that are either immoral or unconducive to enlightenment. All Buddhists are encouraged to follow five basic precepts (DN 5): abstinence from...
1- killing living beings (including bugs!); 2- stealing; 3- sexual misconduct; 4- lying; 5- drinking alcohol.
Especially devout lay followers are encouraged to take extra precepts during "uposatha," a holy day observed during the full-moon and new-moon periods of the lunar calendar. For uposatha, one may follow minor monastic rules, changing the third precept from "no sexual misconduct" to a temporary vow of celibacy, as well as adding three additional precepts, for a total of eight - abstinence from...
6- eating more than one meal, and eating any time past noon; 7- attending entertainment shows and wearing decorative accessories, cosmetics, & fragrances; 8- sleeping in luxurious beds.
While the five precepts are meant to prevent us from engaging in truly immoral behaviors, most of the monastic precepts are more practically concerned with giving up distractions that might keep us from progressing towards enlightenment. Uposatha is meant to give regular men and women an opportunity to emulate a small part of the monastic experience without neglecting their worldly responsibilities (AN 8.41).
Fully-ordained monks and nuns are expected to follow a long list of precepts; there's no need to go into further detail here, because if you need to know them, you shouldn't be learning them from a slime!
The Buddha's instructions begin with ethical training for an important, practical reason: moral discipline assists the mind in achieving meditative concentration (SN 55.1). Ethical conduct gives rise to what the Buddha called "blameless happiness" (DN 10) and various other spiritually wholesome feelings produced by the confidence of being guilt-free with no regrets (AN 10.1). These feelings are pleasant, but more importantly, they help ease the mind into a state of tranquility, readying us for the next stage of practice.