On his path to enlightenment, Siddhartha came across five Shramanas after leaving his kingdom and life as prince in search for the truth. He lived amongst them for seven years. They lived off a few grains of rice a day, little water, little sleep and meditated constantly, all for the sake of enlightenment. Siddhartha felt like this was not the way to live life, so one day he split off and sat under a Bodhi tree. He vowed to sit under the Bodhi tree until he attained enlightenment. Thus this is how Siddhartha became The Buddha. The Buddha met with his friends, the five Shramanas, once again and shared with them the four noble truths that he had realized during his time under the Bodhi tree. Even in Buddhism, The Buddha is not considered a God, he is just a guy; a guy who figured it out. Despite your religion or beliefs, Buddha is a great guy to take some tips from especially as a college student.
The Four Noble Truths
- Dukkha - Universal Suffering
- Samudaya - Attachment
- Nirvana - The essential oneness of all beings
- Madhya Margha – The Middle Path
Under the Bodhi tree Buddha realized that all of humanity has dukkha, AKA universal suffering. Anxiety, stress, discomfort, fear, sadness this is a part of human reality. Buddha said it was important to recognize these feelings and then to transcend them. We are the cause of our own suffering and we can also be the change. As a college student anxiety becomes our constant companion. Will I have enough for rent and groceries? Am I going to pass this class? What am I going to do after I graduate? The Buddha claimed that it was important to acknowledge our suffering. By acknowledging our suffering we are able to begin to take the steps to change it. We can set time aside time for homework, we can begin to look for a job, we can begin to explore internships and job opportunities and we can begin to take action to reduce the suffering in our lives.
Buddha realized a big part of our suffering was the Samudaya or attachment we had to people and material aspects in this world. Often we get an idea of how we want something to go in our lives then we are disappointed when things turn out differently. As college students we are attached to the grade we want in a class, the career path we want to go down or the dream job we just can’t live without. How many people do you know that have found themselves devastated in college or after college when things haven’t gone the way they wanted? If we removed these initial expectations and let life unfold before us, we would remove the majority of our suffering as college students. Life will turn out how it’s supposed to and we can still be ambitious and hard working without being attached to the results.
A big aspect of Buddhism and the third noble truth is Nirvana, or the essential oneness of all beings. We ALL suffer and we ALL form attachments; they are universal realities. We all play a part in each other’s realities on a small scale and on a big scale. We cannot exist without each other, therefore by alleviating our personal suffering and attachment we alleviate the world’s suffering and attachment as well. As college students it’s easy to become invested in our realities and act for individual motives instead of thinking about others. So, buy someone a coffee, smile at a stranger, help other students out if they seem to be having hard day. We are all college students and we all need the kindness and compassion from a friend or stranger every once and a while.
After living such an extreme lifestyle for seven years as a Shramana, Buddha figured out that depravity wasn’t the way. As his time as prince he learned that excess was not the answer either. Therefore Buddha realized, The Middle Path. Today we would understand The Middle Path as “everything in moderation” or “finding balance”. In college we need to find balance in our own lives. Too much studying, too much partying, too much time at work, too much pizza, too much time with our friends; it can make any college student lose their mind! As students we usually try to find time to do everything we want to do. By the end of the week we’ve usually had too much fast food, too little sleep, and not enough time to catch our breath. That’s why it’s important to make time in our week for activities that help us stay balanced. For me that’s taking some time to write in my journal and do some yoga. For other people it’s getting on Pinterest and going to the gym. Finding balance in life is not only a concept key to Buddhism but key to a successful semester and any college student’s well-being.
The Buddha was just a cool guy with a great outlook on life and any college student could benefit by incorporating The Four Noble Truths into their own life.
