The Buddha Dharma is one of the “three treasures” (sanbõ 三宝) - namely the Buddha, the Buddha Dharma (hõ 法), and the sangha (sõ 僧) (the community of practitioners) - which collectively comprise the essence of Buddhism.

The Buddha’s teachings are an all-inclusive way of thought and mode of life. At the heart of Buddhism are the basic elements that formed the Buddha’s own experience of enlightenment, The Four Truths of The Noble One (Shitai 四諦) and The Eightfold Path of the Noble One (hasshõdõ 八正道).

Buddhism is not a belief system. About gods, worship, prayers, rituals, superstition and magic, the Buddha claimed no special knowledge, he offered merely heightened insight, not divine revelation. It was later followers in the generations to come who elevated the Buddha into a deity, in an attempt to bring Buddhism into the fold of Hinduism.

Buddhism represents a life-view that is to be embodied and articulated in everyday living. This is the Buddhist view of the essential oneness of human physical-mental self-hood and of the dynamic unity of the human person with his environment.

Buddhism is a way of life in society that includes the fulfilment of ethical and social obligations as a form of the expression of the transcendent religious values and ultimate realities.

“The Buddha Dharma is not different from the Way of the world,
and the Way of the world is not different from the Buddha Dharma.
Any and every occupation is Buddhist practice.
It is on the basis of our actual work that enlightenment is to be attained.
No work can be anything other than Buddhist practice.”
- Suzuki Shõsan Rõshi

True Buddhist practice is fully involved in and expressible in the world of ordinary activity. Esoteric practices are of no use to society. If Buddhist practice cannot be utilised in the world, it is not Buddhist practice at all. Buddhism is not an abstruse abstract system removed from real life. It is a religion of practical action and behaviour closely tied to our everyday lives.

Buddhist practice is a course of action. The Four Truths of The Noble One are not to be simply believed, they are challenges to act. The Dharma is the teaching of reality, without resorting to ideals and hopes and dreams about how the world “should be.” The Dharma as taught by the Buddha encourages us to act in accordance with reality. Buddhism venerates action in the real world, here and now, just as it is, an acceptance of things as they are free from imagined longings and desires, from dreams and cravings.

Practising Buddhism means committing yourself to learn for yourself the truth. From the intellectual and philosophical content of Buddhism rose the freedom of thought and inquiry unparalleled by any other established world religion or philosophy. Though the Buddha urges us to consider his teachings, there is no obligation or compulsion whatsoever to believe or accept any Buddhist teaching.

Mukyõhõ is a way to liberation: internally and externally. The desire to know based on actual personal and perfect insight (hannya 般若), rather than blind religious faith.

In a nutshell, Buddhism rests on the idea of “knowing and regarding reality as it is.” Buddhists strive to know the true facts about this earthly life, without glossing it over with supernatural tales or mystical stories. The teachings of the Buddha have but one goal — the elimination of suffering, grief, misery, pain and anguish. The path which he taught and the methods of meditation he explained were designed to train the mind to become detached from craving and desire and to penetrate into our illusions about the nature of reality.

In this present life there are both pleasures and hardships. It would be shallow to try to regard life as either entirely pleasurable or entirely full of hardship. What one regards as pleasure will cause suffering when it ceases to exist, and hardships can turn around and become pleasurable. We must not be discouraged when hardship comes, or loose ourselves in joyous rapture when pleasure comes.

Buddhism is an affirmation of the real world, a deep acceptance of the world “as it is.” The most fundamental teachings of the Buddha show a deep and positive acceptance of being right at home in this world, in this life, here and now. This world, this life, is just what it is, not to be avoided and not to be escaped from.

“Deluded people don’t realise that their own mind is Buddha.
They keep searching outside. They never stop invoking the Buddha’s name,
or worshipping Buddha and wondering where is the Buddha?
Don’t indulge in such illusions. Just know your mind.
Your mind is the Buddha, Buddha is your mind.”
- Bloodstream sermon, Bodhidharma

Instead of metaphysics or theology, Buddhism focuses on the training of human character in terms of moral conduct, mental culture, and wisdom.