The Relashenship between Suffering and Nirvana in Early Buddhism with special veiw on the Eightfold Path

Buddha was an ascetic belonging to the ancient world of India whose words should be understood in accord to that Brahmanic- Upanishadic background. Although some super-natutral powers have reported about Buddha but his main faculty was his meditative abilities which are acssessebale for very person who wants to follow his path. Suffering in the Buddha’s words is man’s being in endless cycle of samsara and its main cause is thirsty for being in this world, and since human thirst is due to ignorance of the real essence of this world, the main cause of suffering is ignorance. This ignorance disappears by acting in the Eighfold Path and attaining direct knowledge. The Eighfold Path has three parts: wisdom, ethics, and concentration. Ethics and virtue are, of course, intrinsic value in Buddhism, but they also provide the basis for right meditation that is the main mean to direct knowledge and Nirvana. Meditaion has two main purposes: deep relaxation (samatha) and insight (vipassnanā). In other words, Buddhist meditation seeks to penetrate the deep layers of the inner spiriytual journey to achieve a kind of mystical discovery and intuition to understand the reality of the world. Buddha talks about opening one’s eye of heart and seeing the truth of the universe, which is a very mystical and intuitive event. The Buddha’s teachings were also based on his spiritual experiences and observations of the inner world. Nirvana, therefore, is not only extinguishing the fire of passion, aversion and ignoranc but also is gaining real knowledge. This knowledge leads to salvation and breaks the chains of “dependent origination” and defeats ignorance.