The Unenlightened Buddha: A secular take on the Buddha's teachings

By Jamie Reygle

While many people consider Buddhism to be a religion, many others see the Buddha’s teachings as an excellent guide for living and appreciating life.

InStill Mindfulness executive director, Jamie Reygle, takes the latter approach in this brief secular guide to the Buddha’s key teachings, with the underlying premise that we’re all ‘unenlightened Buddhas’: people who have not yet recognized and connected with their true ‘Buddha nature’.

If you are new to mindfulness practice, interested in developing a basic understanding of the Buddha’s teachings, or simply want a fresh take on some ancient teachings, this book could be for you.

All proceeds from the sale of this title go to InStill Mindfulness, to help them cultivate a mindful world for all.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wilder Publications, Inc.
• Release date: May 14, 2021
• ISBN: 9781515447498

Book preview

The Unenlightened Buddha

by Jamie Reygle

© 2016 InStill Books

All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission except for brief quotations for review purposes only.

E-book ISBN 13: 978-1-5154-4749-8

Table of Contents

Welcome!

The Format

The Precepts

I undertake the precept to refrain from destroying living creatures.

I undertake the precept to refrain from taking that which is not given.

I undertake the precept to refrain from sexual misconduct.

I undertake the precept to refrain from incorrect speech.

I undertake the precept to refrain from intoxicating drinks and drugs which lead to carelessness.

The Four Noble Truths

The First Noble Truth

The Second Noble Truth

The Third Noble Truth

The Fourth Noble Truth

The Noble Eightfold Path

Right view

Right resolve

Right speech

Right action

Right livelihood

Right effort

Right mindfulness

Right concentration

The Five Hindrances

Loving Kindness

Welcome!

Of course you are uncertain, Kalamas. Of course you are in doubt. When there are reasons for doubt, uncertainty is born. So in this case, Kalamas, don’t go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by probability, or by the thought, ‘This contemplative is our teacher.’ When you know for yourselves that, ‘These qualities are unskillful; these qualities are blameworthy; these qualities are criticized by the wise; these qualities, when adopted and carried out, lead to harm and to suffering’ — then you should abandon them.

—Kalama Sutta

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

—Romans 12:2

Hi. You’ve just started reading a little book called The Unenlightened Buddha. You may well be asking, what on Earth is an unenlightened Buddha? Good question. 

Let’s start with the question, who was the Buddha? Born Siddhartha Gautama, he was a prince in what is now Nepal. His father wanted him to live free of suffering, so sheltered him from all the world’s miseries. This worked—for a while—but in his late 20s Siddhartha witnessed some things that would change his life forever. He saw an old man, a sick man, a corpse, and an ascetic. Inspired by the ascetic’s determination to be freed from the fear of death and suffering, he immediately left his royal existence to become an ascetic himself. He dedicated himself to this path with a number of different teachers for several years, only to determine that it could not free him from suffering itself. Upon this realization, he determined to sit under a tree and meditate until he found release from suffering. He sat there for a long time—nearly 50 days—but it worked! And he spent the rest of his life sharing what he learned under that tree with anyone who cared to listen. That turned out to be a lot of people.