According to this Buddhism outline the liberated or enlightened person sees himself, the Universe and his relationship with the Universe in a radically different way as compared to you and me. This is explained in this article.

This article will cover some of its messages as to the 4 Noble Truths, what is meant by Nirvana and how we can (intellectually at any rate) see what a liberated person sees.

The enlightened person does not see himself as a self, separate from the rest of existence. He sees himself as the whole works; the entire Universe is contained within him. He sees himself in terms of relationships and his interdependence with the Universe is realized by him.

This view of whether we have a self and the relationship of the self with the rest of existence is covered in this Buddhism outline.

The Chinese have considered the Universe to be an organic whole since ancient times, influenced by the philosophy of Taoism. This view is now corroborated by Modern Science.

In Hinduism too it is preached that the Body-Mind-Intellect-Feeling bundle is not the Self and that the ego is a convenient fiction that we take so seriously that we are unable to look at the other side of the picture described in this Buddhism outline.

Any Buddhism outline would stress on the fact of suffering. This fact of suffering is emphasized in the 4 Noble Truths. This suffering is in the form of chronic frustration as to the unsatisfactory nature of our lives and the Universe. Men and women, animal and even angels - if you believe in them - are subject to suffering.

According to the Second Noble Truth the cause of suffering is ignorance (avidya) and desire (trishna).

This suffering arises because of ignorance. It is ignorance of the true nature of ourselves and our relationship with the universe. We are caught up in the delusion that we have or are a self, separate from the rest of existence.

However not just mystics but also the science of Quantum Physics informs us that the Universe is one organic whole. If this is true than our sense of a separate self is certainly a delusion and a very harmful one at that.

For we are continually pre-occupied with the comfort and survival of our body. We are filled with fears and anxiety because we know that we cannot avoid death. We crave things that we think we need to survive and live comfortably.

This fear and anxiety, this feeling of alienation from ourselves and the outside world makes life a burden and sometimes is so painful that life is hardly worth living. We fill our lives with frantic activity concerned as we are with our own survival and well-being.

Seeing the view from the other side (that we are the Universe) changes the way we look of life dramatically since we do not take the delusion or the fiction of a separate self seriously. We are not caught up in the struggle for its survival and well-being. We are free then to let go of craving and also fear since we understand that they are not necessary.

Life then loses its seriousness. We are in a position to treat it as a game to be played. We do not need to renounce the world. We continue to enjoy our dinners, our creature comforts, the company of our friends and our family. But we can also let go of them - there is no clinging or craving.

Alan Watts says that the problem of mankind is that we take seriously that which the gods made for fun.

Living our lives without clinging, craving or attachment is also stressed in Hinduism. In the Bhagavad Gita, the doctrine of Nishkama Karma is preached. Here is desireless or passionless action. It is action without attachment and without a craving for a favorable or good result.

According to the Hindus there are 4 main paths to attaining God. These are Raja Yoga (the path of meditation), Karma Yoga (the path of action), Bhakti Yoga (the path of prayer or devotion) and Jnana Yoga (the path of knowledge). Buddhism for most path stresses meditation that is Raja Yoga. And through meditation we can transform our understanding of ourselves and of our relationship with the Universe.

How then are we to gain this understanding (that we are not a separate self; that the universe is are organic whole; that we are the universe)?

Well to gain a complete and experiential understanding of it you will need to become enlightened. This is something that I cannot help you with and is beyond the scope of this short Buddhism outline as I am not enlightened myself and am in the same boat as you.

But I can help you gain an intellectual understanding. The experience of emptiness is stressed in this Buddhism outline. We are empty of a self, separate from the rest of existence. I recommend the following way:

Contemplating our relationship with the universe - This second method is described by Osho Rajneesh in his book And the Flowers Showered available at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/8172610025/ref=nosim/eastephiloand-20 Basically it examines the question of whether we have or are a self, separate from our relationships with the rest of the universe. At various times we play the role of a son or daughter, a business man, an employee, husband or wife, customer, commuter, meditator and so on. Is there a self within us independent of these various relationships.

Any Buddhism outline would say that there is not.

This meditation technique is described in the opening chapter of the above book. Osho says that if we do this meditation we will ourselves come to realize that there is in fact no self, separate from our relationships. In fact the concept of an ego separate from the rest of the world is a fiction. So this is a second way of understanding intellectually our relationship with the world.

Then we will understand the point of view of any Buddhism outline.

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