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and Queen Maya, lived in a small kingdom, Sakya, which lay on the border between the present-day states of Nepal and India. Shortly after his birth a wandering ascetic prophesied to King Suddhodana that the young prince would either be a world-conquering king or a liberator of living beings from suffering. The King took various precautions to ensure that his son would never have cause to follow a spiritual path. However, the young prince grew restless and during various excursions from his palace Siddhartha Gautama saw various examples of suffering that inspired him to escape from his palace life.

After fleeing the palace, Siddhartha became a wandering ascetic, fasting and meditating. Finally at Bodha Gaya in Bihar, India, Siddhartha began meditating beneath a bo (papal) tree, declaring that he would not stop until he had achieved enlightenment. He had realised there must be a middle path between the extremes of his former life in the palace and the ascetic practices he had been taught. As dawn broke on the morning of his third night of meditation Siddhartha became a buddha (an awakened one).

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BUDDHIST CONCEPTS

Shortly after gaining enlightenment, the Buddha gave his first public teaching in the Deer Park at Sarnath. For the remainder of his life, the Buddha continued to give teachings and established the early Buddhist monastic community. These early teachings by the Buddha, who is known in Bhutan as Sakyamuni Buddha or Sakya Thukpa, are collected in the sutras and form the basis for all later Buddhist thought. The Mahayana school, which developed later, diverged from these earlier teachings in some respects, but not fundamentally.

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TASHI TAGYE

Many homes and temples are decorated with tashi tagye, the eight auspicious signs of Himalayan Buddhism. Each has a deep symbolic meaning and represents an object used in religious observances.

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The Buddha started his teachings by explaining that there was a middle way that steered a course between sensual indulgence and ascetic self-torment. The Middle Way can be followed by taking the Eight Fold Noble Path, underpinned by the Four Noble Truths. The Four Noble Truths set out the laws of cause and effect. These basic concepts are the core of early Buddhist thought. In Bhutan, these are contained in a series of meditations that lamas and religious teachers view as the foundation for spiritual growth leading to enlightenment: the Four Mind Turnings.

Four Noble Truths

The Four Noble Truths underpin Buddhist philosophy and are the basic facts about ignorance and enlightenment, suffering and freedom set forth by the Buddha in his first formal discourse in Sarnath, following his attainment of enlightenment at Bodha Gaya.

The first Noble Truth is that life is suffering, the Truth of Suffering. This suffering is the misery of an unenlightened life and the constant process of rebirth in the different realms of existence. At its root is the inherent imperfection of life – the inability to find true satisfaction in samsara. The suffering of life is inherent in the pain of birth, ageing, sickness and death, in having to associate with the unpleasant things of life and to lose that which brings us pleasure.

The reason for this dissatisfaction and suffering is contained in the Second Noble Truth, True Origins. This refers to our desire for things to be other than they actually are. The Buddha taught that in order to gain liberation from suffering, we need to abandon our delusions and selfish actions which are the cause for our rebirth in samsara. Due to our ignorance, we create the causes for our rebirth and maintain the cycle.

The third Noble Truth was described by the Buddha as True Cessation. True Cessation is the stopping of all delusions, our desires and attachment to samsara. With the cessation of desire and attachment, we are able to break the cycle of rebirth and suffering and reach the state of nirvana, the ultimate goal of Buddhism. The final Noble Truth is the truth of the path leading to cessation.

The doctrine of the