LEXICON
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BUDDHISM
The fundamental purpose and practice of Buddhism is the achievement of
the state of Enlightenment.
This usually involves the practice of meditation, the purpose of which is to
train the mind in the discipline of non-activity, such as the suspension of
visualization and thinking, in combination with a deliberate exercise of deep breathing. The activities and self-absorbtion of the mind divert the individual from a more pure and intense experience of perceptual reality. The state of Enlightenment could be said to be true or pure experience, wherein the individual can fully experience and wholly appreciate the reality of perception. This experience may also include the experience of an integration of the
individual self with the totality of reality in genera, in which there seems to
be no distinction. Intellectually this can be described. All singular elements
are aspects of one single unified whole, such that one does not perceive
oneself as a separate and individual part. This experiential state may be accompanied by intense feelings of the wonder of the sensory world and
the perfection of existence.
From a belief in the knowledge produced by the experience of Enlightenment,
may be derived the fundamental tenants that Buddhism may advocate. The
first goal of Buddhism may be to relieve the human individual from the
condition of suffering. Ordinary consciousness or what can be called
Mundane Consciousness, may be considered in comparison to enlightened
states, as misery and suffering, and certainly for many persons, the mean consciousness of things like guilt, lack of self-esteem, hatred, jealousy and
the many petty emotions may be an agony and torment. Compassion is as essential ethic of Buddhism. The emphasis on Compassion may derive from the realization that all separate entities, as living organism and inanimate objects, are various elements of a single unified whole, and thus there should exist no antagonism between the individual and any aspect of reality. The individual as another of the multitude
of aspects of the natural world, can consider themselves as perhaps not all that different from any other, and may be able to empathize with other attributes of that same whole.
BUDDHISM (1 of 3)
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