ABSTRACT
The nature, origin, and liberation from suffering stand at the very centre of the Buddha's teachings. Soon after his enlightenment at the age of thirty five, he set in motion the Wheel of Dharma and spent the rest of his life, some forty-five years, teaching his followers about suffering and the way of becoming free from it. After his demise, the Buddha's disciples continued to uphold his message in India, and eventually carried the torch of Dharma to other countries of Asia, and in the modern times to the West. During the course of some two and a half millennia, the teachings of the Buddha received a number of discordant doctrinal interpretations. The Abhidharma doctrines and practices of the early Buddhist schools, and the doctrines and practices introduced by the Mahayana and Vajrayana adepts disagree between themselves, and often contradict the Buddha's primitive teaching as recorded in the Pali Canon. However, despite all such disagreements and contradictions, the ultimate goal of all schools of Buddhism remains the same: liberation from suffering.
