Savannah Evanski

January 26, 2020

The Buddha lived in the 6th century B.C. yet his teachings are still prevalent today. One

of the Buddha’s teachings is the freedom of individual thought. The Buddha says no one should

look for refuge in others and to have their own individual beliefs. I believe this is very important

for our society to encourage because we are constantly being bombarded with new ideas through

the news, the internet, and our peers. The Buddha says not to be led by the authority of texts and

opinions of others, but to trust yourself. I find that what is meant by this is if you think

something is true, then stick with it until you have actual facts. Everyone is biased to their own

religion or political party nowadays. People just believe what their news source projects to them

because they are biased to it and if the news source is biased and putting out incorrect and

incomplete information, they will never know the truth. We as a society should encourage

individual thought and freedom of thought.

Relating back to Buddha’s teaching of freedom of thought, he says that no one should

condemn another’s freedom of thought and religion. I believe this is another idea that we as a

society should encourage. The world is very diverse and this generation is helping to be more

inclusive to other nationalities and religions. If only everyone respected each other’s religions

and races, the world would be more peaceful. Some religions have racist, homophobic, and/or

misogynistic passages or ideas which leads to discrimination. If people saw through those ideas

that were written thousands of years ago and accepted humanity and every part of it, cross

cultural relationships would be easier to form and maintain. That goes back to freedom of

thought and not believing religious texts, but making your own observations and opinions. I
believe everyone would be better off and feel better about themselves if they accepted every

race, sexuality, gender, and religion and learned to coexist with each other.

The third teaching that I believe can be applied to modern life is the Buddha’s teaching

on metaphysical questions and the accompanying poisoned arrow metaphor. Everyone wonders

why we exist and if there is a divine spirit somewhere at some point. The Buddha says that this is

a waste of time because we will never know the answers. I believe that this should be encouraged

in our society too. It should be encouraged not to spend time worrying about these things, as they

can distract us from the issues that we encounter on a daily basis. Avoiding burdening ourselves

with these questions can allow us to devote more mental energy to issues that really matter.