Day 1.

Today is my first day. I am going to attempt to learn and follow Buddhism as it applies to my life. I do not know much about it at this point, other than that it makes more sense to me than anything else.

"The greatest achievement is selflessness.
The greatest worth is self-mastery.
The greatest quality is seeking to serve others.
The greatest precept is continual awareness.
The greatest medicine is the emptiness of everything.
The greatest action is not conforming with the worlds ways.
The greatest magic is transmuting the passions.
The greatest generosity is non-attachment.
The greatest goodness is a peaceful mind.
The greatest patience is humility.
The greatest effort is not concerned with results.
The greatest meditation is a mind that lets go.
The greatest wisdom is seeing through appearances." Atisha.

That I think is the most brilliant thing I have ever read in all honesty, and I plan on trying to use the philosophy of Buddhism to live my life to those standards.

Life is suffering, as we all know, life is pain. We hurt and as I get older (I realize that I am young) I become more and more bitter towards humanity, and I do not believe in any way shape or form, that I am alone. We break up, we get jealous, we hate, we cry, we argue, we hide it, we fight, hide from it, etc. I want a way of breaking away from it, at least in a small part.

Suffering is caused by attachment and ignorance. If we did not care so much about the unimportant things in life, we wouldn't have all of this pain and jealousy and bitterness and hate and so on. I'm not saying we shouldn't care about anything, that we shouldn't love because we'll get hurt later, contrary to that I think loving and caring is essential to a persons life, but its only healthy for certain things. Material possessions are especially frowned upon. Like wise I'm not saying, DON'T EAT, because they are possessions, I'm saying eat until you're strong and you're healthy and treat yourself from time to time, just don't be glutinous. So on, you get the point.

It is possible, to end suffering. It is not easy like everything I read makes it seem, and in my reality it probably won't happen, but I will still aim to stop it. Why aim for something I can't fully achieve, or that I do not at this point, fully believe? Well its that I do fully believe that it will lessen suffering, because suffering originates from the mind, and I control my mind to a certain degree.

And finally there is a way to end suffering, and that is the Eightfold path.

These are the four noble truths, as understood by me.