What is the aim of Buddhism?
The aim of Buddhism is to reach Nirvana, a state of enlightenment that is free from suffering. The enlightenment that entails Nirvana is simply an emotion, or feeling that one is free from all suffering, which is the goal that Buddhism tries to achieve (Matthews, 113-114). In order to achieve Nirvana, one should accept the Four Noble Truths, and live by the Eightfold Path in order to reach their state of enlightenment.
In explaining please state what the Four Noble Truths are and what the Eightfold Path is in relation to the Four Noble Truths.
The Four Noble Truths are the four major ideas that Buddhists follow in order to achieve Nirvana. The first and second truth state that, “all life is suffering” and “the
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By understanding one’s own emotions, one can also take control of it. According to Maria Heim’s chapter in John Corrigan’s, “The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Emotion,” controlling one’s emotions through mediation can remove many of the negative emotions and thoughts that cause suffering (Heim, pg 25). These emotions are known as experiences in the Abhidhamma , a text which has outlined the meanings of emotions that humans experience in their lifetime. The Abhidhamma acts as a guide to what these experiences mean, and how they can either help, or impede one’s journey to achieving Nirvana. Mainly the Abhidhamma categorizes these human emotions as “good” and “bad” roots. These roots are listed as: greed, hatred, delusion, non-greed, non-hatred, and non-delusion (Heim, pg 22). Each of these roots entail an emotion, and an outcome of these emotions. For example, the root of greed claims that a person has this emotion because they are in a state of “grasping, or clinging to things of this world (Heim, 22).” This greed would be the cause of one’s own suffering, and by acknowledging this emotion, the practitioner will be able to control it, and eventually make it