The Religions Book

133

lifestyle was incompatible with his
growing awareness of life’s hardships
and the certainty of death. In
addition, material comforts offered
no protection from these harsh
realities of life. So he embarked on
a religious quest to find the origin
of suffering, and the answer to it.
For seven years he practiced
severe asceticism, depriving
himself of all but the minimum
sustenance, but he found that this
did not help him find the knowledge
he sought. He therefore abandoned
the ascetic life, while remaining
determined to discover the cause
of suffering. He is said to have
gained enlightenment (becoming
aware of the true nature of reality)
during an all-night session of
meditation, and this gave him an
answer to the problems of suffering,
aging, and death. From that point
his followers were to refer to him as
Buddha, an honorary title meaning
one who is fully awake or the
enlightened one.

The Middle Way
Buddha’s teaching is known as
the Middle Way. At the most
obvious level, this suggests a
middle way between the two types
of existence that he rejected: the
life of luxury, attempting to obtain
protection from suffering with
material comforts, and that of
extreme austerity, denying himself
almost everything in pursuit of
spiritual growth. The approach or
way he found involved a moderate
amount of discipline in order to live
an ethical life, free from indulgence
in either sensual pleasures or self-
mortification. But Buddha’s Middle
Way is also set between two other
extremes: eternalism (where a
person’s spirit has purpose and

lives forever) and nihilism (extreme

skepticism in which the value or

meaningfulness of everything in

life is denied).

Eternalism and nihilism

The Vedic religion, particularly as

it was developed in the texts

known as the Upanishads (p.105),

argued that the true self of every

person is the atman, which is

eternal and is reincarnated from life

to life. The atman is linked to the

physical body only temporarily, and

is essentially independent of it.

Crucially, the Vedic religion

identified this atman with

Brahman, the fundamental divine

reality that underlies everything.

Ordinary things in the world (such

as trees, animals, and rocks) are an

illusion, known as maya; truth and

reality are to be found beyond these

physical things. When Buddha

rejected the eternal nature of the

self, he was rejecting a key feature

of Hindu thought and religion.

Buddha also rejected the other

extreme—nihilism, which holds

that ultimately nothing matters

or has any value. Nihilism can

be expressed in two ways, both

of which were practiced during

Buddha’s lifetime. One way is

the path of asceticism: purifying

the body by the harshest austerity

possible, and rejecting everything

that the worldly consider to be

of value. This was the path that

Buddha had attempted and found

wanting. The other way of living

out nihilistic beliefs was that taken

up in India by followers of the

unorthodox Lokayata school of ❯❯

See also: Aligning the self with the dao 66–67 ■ Self-denial leads to spiritual liberation 68–71 ■ Wisdom lies with the
superior man 72–77 ■ A rational world 92–99 ■ A faith open to all beliefs 321

BUDDHISM

However many material comforts I bring into my life, they

cannot protect me from the pain of suffering.

The total denial of material comforts and a life of asceticism

does not protect me from suffering either.

Each person needs to find a balanced, moderately disciplined

lifestyle that takes account of their individual circumstances.

Find the Middle Way.