ersonal God or divine being, it does not have worship, praying, or praising of a divine being. It offers no form of redemption, forgiveness, heavenly hope, or final judgment. The Buddha would say that craving salvation is a selfish desire. Enlightenment as I understand it, can be described as a complete separation from all worldly ties or attatchments, but it's much more than that. It's the elimination of suffering itself and is also referred to as Nirvana. It is a state of perfection where the mind has completely transcended the body and the self. It is the point in which one is no longer susceptable to suffering. Only when the candle of suffering has been blown out can one truly reach enlightenment. In order to help lead us toward enlightenment, Buddha created a set of guidelines which he called the Four Noble Truths.. The first Noble Truth is perhaps the simplest one to comprehend. It is the truth of misery, also known as dukkha. In essence it is merely the realization that suffering exists and that we are all experiencing it nearly every moment of our lives. Physical pain is a part of life, but mental pain is self inflicted. This helps us by identifying the problem which affects every human being. It also allows us to understand the significance of what we face. After we have realized that we do indeed suffer and understand at least some of the extent of this misery, then we can begin to look at the causes of it. Dukkha is broken down then into three categories. The first, is not getting what you want. When your boyfriend of 5 years asks you to dinner for a special talk, you are ready for the ring. When his idea of a special talk is letting you know that he's leaving you for a stripper, you experience some heavy duty dukkha. This is a fabulous example of how dukkha is a lot like dookie. There are lots of times in life when we don't get what we want. We probably dwell on these times a lot more than we should, in fac...
