Buddhism is a religion and philosophy founded in ancient India and based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, who is known as the Buddha. It is a nontheistic tradition that emphasizes the cultivation of mindfulness, wisdom, and compassion through the practice of meditation and the adoption of ethical principles.
The central teachings of Buddhism are known as the Four Noble Truths, which state that suffering is an inherent part of life, that the cause of suffering is craving and attachment to impermanent things, that suffering can be overcome through the cessation of craving and attachment, and that the path to the cessation of suffering is the noble Eightfold Path. The noble Eightfold Path consists of right understanding, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. Buddhists believe that following the noble Eightfold Path leads to the attainment of nirvana, a state of perfect peace and enlightenment.
In addition to the Four Noble Truths and the noble Eightfold Path, Buddhism also teaches the concepts of reincarnation and karma. It is a way of life that encourages individuals to cultivate inner peace and overcome suffering through ethical living and the cultivation of wisdom and compassion.
Thich Nhat Hanh explains, that our suffering comes from our wrong perceptions, from our misunderstanding. The practice of meditation, the practice of looking deeply has the purpose of removing wrong perceptions from us. If we are able to remove our wrong perceptions we will be able to be free from the afflictions and the sufferings that always arise from wrong perceptions.
Man cannot live fully until he has considered the great questions of life. The approach of psychology and psychotherapy is based on "statistical normality," or the behaviour of the greatest number. In an effort to conform, we focus on our problems rather than our possibilities. Oriental thought, and Zen thought in particular, seeks to activate the true potential of men and women, to transform our lives, and thereby enable us to shed our problems and suffering.
Considering the literature and time available to him, Nietzsche created a remarkable and mature interpretation of Buddhism. But his discussion shows once more that some things cannot be understood without an intellectual-historical context and that one should always meet secondary literature critically. The persistent misinterpretation of nothingness as absolute nothingness and of Buddhism as nihilism is clearly connected with this problem.
If we rely on the assumptions that there is one reality and that this reality is understandable – and those seem to be the assumptions Buddhism relies on - then the most advanced climbers will have the same in front of them when they reach the summit. Although this is true, they will describe their view with different languages, terms and concepts. The authors at the root of the Pali Canon and the Platform Sutra seem to have reached the same position what we assume to be the summit of human existence.
The highest goal is for Eckhart and Hui-Neng a state of highest bliss. In both cases, this is a breakthrough in which consciousness is fundamentally changed. If one considers these elementary parallels, one can only come to one conclusion: Eckhart and Hui-Neng have independently arrived at an extremely similar solution to the human problem: seclusion and non-attachment as the path to peace of mind.
