Logo

Buddhism as a religion of salvation is not so much concerned with the question of heaven and hell as much as with the existential question of suffering. It is, thus, the text of human suffering that has determined the soteriological goal of Buddhism, which is characterized as to how to obtain release from human suffering itself. Since suffering is a fact of life, so the aim has been to search for such ways and means by the application of which suffering may be overcome. It is this concern of Buddhism with suffering that is the focus of this book, that is, what basically suffering means to a Buddhist. It is on the basis of this insight of the Buddha that the Buddhist thinkers have attempted to find such a practical framework that would serve that purpose of reaching the transcendent goal of salvation. Whatever the Buddhists have spoken about suffering, it must be seen as a practical devise of reaching the goal of salvation.