What is the essence of the Buddha's teachings?

Simply speaking, it is to avoid harming others and to help them as much as possible. Another way of expressing this is,
"Abandon negative action; create perfect virtue; subdue your mind. This is the teaching of the Buddha." By abandoning negative
actions, such as hurting others, and destructive motivations, such as anger, attachment and closed-mindedness, we stop harming
ourselves and others. By creating perfect virtue, we develop beneficial attitudes, such as impartial love and compassion, and act
constr uctively. By subduing our minds and understanding reality, we leave behind all false projections, thus making ourselves
calm and peaceful.
The essence of the Buddh'a teachings is also contained in the three principles of the path: the determination to be free, the
altruistic intention and the wisdom realizing the lack of fantasized ways of existence. Initially, we must have the determination to
be free from the confusion of our problems and their causes. Then we'll see that other people also have problems, and with love
and compassion we'll develop an altruistic intention to become a Buddha so that we will be capable of helping others effect
ively. To do this, we must develop the wisdom which understands the real nature of ourselves and other phenomena and thus
eliminates all false projections.

The Three Jewels are the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. A Buddha is one who has purified all the defilements of the mind--the
disturbing attitudes, the imprints of the actions motivated by them, and the stains of these disturbing attitudes. A Buddha has
also developed all good qualities, such as impartial love and compassion, profound wisdom and skillful means of guiding others.
The Dharma is the preventive measures that keep us from problems and suffering. This includes the teachings of the Buddha
and the be neficial mental states that practicing the teachings leads to. The Sangha are those beings who have direct
nonconceptual understanding of the lack of fantasized ways of existence. Sangha can also refer to the community of ordained
people who practice Bud dha's teachings.

It is to discover a state of lasting happiness for both ourselves and others by freeing ourselves from cyclic existence, the cycle of
constantly recurring problems that we experience at present. Under the influence of ignorance, disturbing attitudes and actions,
we are born and die, experiencing various problems during our lives. Although all of us want to be happy and we try hard to get
the things that will make us happy, on one is totally satisfied with his or her life. And although we all want to be f ree from
difficulties, problems come our way without even trying. People may have good things going for them in their lives, but when we
talk with them for more than five minutes, they start telling us their problems. Those of us who are in this situation , who aren't
yet Buddhas, are called "sentient beings."
The root cause of cyclic existence is ignorance: we don't understand who we are, how we exist or how other phenomena exist.
Unaware of our own ignorance, we project fantasized ways of existing onto ourselves and others, thinking that everyone and
everythi ng has some inherent nature and exists independently, in and of itself. This gives rise to attachment, an attitude that
exaggerates the good qualities of people and things or superimposes good qualities that aren't there and then clings to those
people or things, thinking they will bring us real happiness. When things do not work out as we expected or wished they would,
or when something interferes with our happiness, we become angry. These three basic disturbing attitude ignorance, attachment
and anger-- give rise to a host of other ones, such as jealousy, pride and resentment. These attitudes then motivate us to act,
speak or think. Such actions (karma) leave imprints on our mindstreams and these imprints then influence what we'll experience
in the futur e.

There are many ways to describe who the Buddha is. These various perspectives have the sources in the Buddha's teachings.
One is the historical Buddha, a human being who lived 2,500 years ago and who cleansed his mind of all defilements and
developed all of his potential. Any being who does likewise is also considered a Buddha, for there are many Buddhas, not just
one. Another way is to understand a particular Buddha or Buddhist deity as the enlightened minds manifesting in a certain
physical aspect in or der to communicate with us. Yet another way is to see the Buddha or any of the enlightened Buddhist
deities as the appearance of the future Buddha that we will become once we have completely cleansed our minds of defilements
and developed all of our pote ntial.
The Historical Buddha
The historical Buddha Shakyamuni was born as Prince Siddhartha Gautama in an area near the present border between India
and Nepal. He had all that life could offer: material possessions, a loving family, fame, reputation and power. However, he
gradually c ame to understand that although those things bring temporary, worldly happiness, they are incapable of bringing
lasting happiness. Thus he left the princely environment and became an ascetic searching for truth. After six years of severe
physical austerit y, he realized that extreme self-denial was not the path to ultimate happiness. At this point, he sat under the
bodhi tree, and in deep meditation completely purified all of his potential and good qualities. He then proceeded with great
compassion, wisdom and skill to give teachings, thus enabling others to gradually purify their minds, develop their potential, and
attain the same realizations and state of happiness that he had. Thus, the word Buddha means "the awakened one," one who
has purified a nd develop his or her mind completely.
How can such a person save us from our problems and pain? The Buddha can't pull the disturbing attitudes of ignorance, anger
and attachment from our minds in the same way as a thorn can be extracted from our foot. Nor can the Buddha wash away our
defileme nts with water, or pour realizations into our minds. The Buddha has impartial compassion for all sentient beings and
cherishes us more than himself, so if our suffering could have been eliminated by his action, the Buddha would have done so.
However, our experience of happiness and pain depends on our minds. It depends on whether or not we assume the
responsibility to subdue our disturbing attitudes and contaminated actions (karma). The Buddha showed the method to do this,
the method that he himself used to go from the state of an ordinary confused being, the way we are now, to the state of total
purification and growth, or Buddhahood. It's up to us to practice this method and transform our own minds.
The Buddha As manifestations
The second way to think of the Buddha is as manifestation of enlightened minds in physical forms, that is, as Buddhist deities.
Buddhas are omniscient in that they perceive all existent phenomena as clearly as we can see the palm of our hand. They
achieve d this ability by fully developing their wisdom and compassion, thus eliminating all obscurations. But we can't
communicate directly with the Buddha's omniscient minds because our minds are obscured. For the Buddhas to fulfill their most
heartfelt wish to lead all beings to enlightenment, they must communicate with us, and to do so, they assume physical forms. In
this way, we can think of Shakyamuni Buddha as a being who was already enlightened, and who appeared in the aspect of a
prince in order to teac h us.
But if Shakyamuni was already enlightened, how can he take rebirth? He didnt take rebirth under the control of disturbing
attitudes and contaminated actions (karma) as ordinary beings do, because he had already eliminated these defilements from his
mind. However, he was able to appear on this earth by the power of compassion. Similarly, high-level bodhisattvas--beings
who have the constant and intense wish to become a Buddha in order to benefit others--can voluntarily take rebirth, not out of
ignorance a s ordinary beings do, but out of compassion.
When thinking of the Buddha as a manifestation, don't emphasize the Buddha as a personality. Rather, concentrate on the
qualities of the omniscient minds appearing in the form of a person. This is a more abstract way of understanding the Buddha,
so it ta kes more effort on our part to think in this way and to understand.
In the same way, the various enlightened Buddhist deities can be seen as manifestations of the qualities of omniscient minds.
Why are there so many deities if all the beings who have attained enlightenment have the same realizations? This is because
each physical appearance emphasizes and communicates with different aspects of our personality. This demonstrates the
Buddhas' skillful means, their ability to guide others according to their disposition.
The Buddha That we Will Become
The third way to understand the Buddha is as the appearance of our own Buddha nature in its fully developed form. All Beings
have the potential to become Buddhas, for all of our minds are innately pure. At the present they are clouded by disturbing
attitu des (klesa) and contaminated actions (karma). Through constant practice, we can remove these defilements from our
mind streams and nourish the seeds of the beautiful potentials we have. Thus each of us can become a Buddha when this
process of purification and growth is completed. This is a unique feature of Buddhism, for most other religions other religions
say there is an unbridgeable gap between the devine being and the human being. However, the Buddha said that each being has
the potential to become fu lly enlightened. It is only a matter of practicing the path and creating the causes to reach
enlightenment. Thus there are many beings who have already become Buddhas, and we can become one as well.

If there are people alive today who have attained Buddhahood, why don't they tell us who they are and demonstrate
their clairvoyant powers to generate faith in others? Why do the great masters all deny having spiritual
realizations?

One of the principal qualities of an enlightened being is humility. It would be out of character for Buddhas to boast about their
attainments and to egotistically gather disciples. By their genuine respect for all beings and their willingness to learn fro m
everyone, great spiritual masters set a good example for us. We ordinary beings tend to show off our qualities and even brag
about talents and achievement that aren't ours. Advanced practioners are the opposite: they remain humble.
The Buddha forbade his followers to display their clairvoyant or miraculous powers unless it was absolutely necessary, and they
are not allowed to talk about them. There are several reasons for this. If one has clairvoyant powers and displays them, one's
pride could increase and this would be detrimental to one's practice. Also, others might get superstitious and think that
clairvoyant powers are the goal of the path. In fact, they are a side effect and are useful only if one has the proper motivation of
impartial loving-kindness for all. In addition, if a Buddha, with a body made of radiant light, suddenly appeared on the street,
people would be so shocked that they couldn't pay attention to the Buddha's teachings. It's more skillful for those who have
attained high levels of the path to appear in ordinary form. We may notice that they have exceptional qualities, but the fact that
they look just like us allows us to feel closer to them. It gives us the confidence that we too can develop enlightened qual ities.