There are stories of people coming to the Buddha and saying, "I am leaving your teaching because you have not told me whether there is a life after death or whether there is another world."
The Buddha says, "Did I ever say I would give you the answer to these things?"
His follower responds, "No Lord you didn't."
The Buddha says, "Why do you think that I never said that I would give you the answers to these things? Because these are not the things you need to know. The thing that you need to know is how to deal with suffering. Because at this very moment what made you ask that question was suffering."
Buddhism is interesting because it is so similar in its teachings to Christianity. For instance, Christianity has the Devil/Lucifer/Satan. You can see him consistently tempting people throughout scripture. He has almost a direct correlation to Lord Mara (The God of Desire) in the Buddhist scriptures. Buddhism teaches that desire, cravings, attachments, and resisting 'what is' leads to suffering. This is also evident in Christianity with one of the earliest and most recognizable scriptures in the Bible...
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
It was then that the Lord made childbearing painful, food scarce, and banished them both from the Garden of Eden. Buddhism is a little more direct (less story telling) with its teachings on the subject. The concept is decently explained in this clip:
Dan Millman said, "Pain is a relatively objective, physical phenomenon; suffering is our psychological resistance to what happens. Events may create physical pain, but they do not in themselves create suffering. Resistance creates suffering. Stress happens when your mind resists what is. The only problem in your life is your mind's resistance to life as it unfolds."
The scene below is from the movie The Peaceful Warrior which is based on Dan Millmans book "Way of the Peaceful Warrior", and is modern spin on how cravings and resisting 'what is' leads to suffering:
Resistance to that which is causes stress. What causes that habitual resistance? Lack of self. The pain and suffering we feel merely dictates that we are insecure, we need to grow, and that we have problems that need to be addressed. If you break your arm it becomes instantly apparent that you have a problem that needs to be addressed. Emotional pain is no different... we just tend to ignore the obvious signs, or place blame on other people or things instead of facing reality. One common way we do this is by constructing our present reality with overlays of another moment in time which has already passed or has yet to come.
They say living the past will doom you to repeat it. Why is this? Because we relegate our current weaknesses and insecurities to the past instead of dealing with them in the here and now. Anything that you're worried might happen in the future is merely a projection of your current state based on past experiences. Simply put, your view of the future is a prediction based on past experiences you have not yet come to terms with. The future and the past are one and the same, and focusing on them will only serve as a crutch to you. It is the basis for why the things we fear tend to become reality; Why thinking about screwing up usually causes just that.
I've never cared much for the dogma that is pervasive in religions. I feel that it ultimately distances us from the true message. To me that message is loud and clear. My purpose in this world is growth. Like all living things, if I am not growing them I am dieing. That growth only comes from embracing change and most importantly having faith in yourself. If there is one thing that I and so many other people in this world lack, it is faith in ourselves. Fear of loss, fear of change, and fear of what is to come, can only be conquered by believing in yourself first. The only true courage is having faith in one's self. In fact, I'll be bold and assert that finding faith in yourself is much harder than finding it in God, or a God. This isn't dictated in the message as much as it is dictated by the message itself. A student makes his teacher proud by embodying the lessons they've been taught, not by praising the master.
"Believe in what He tried to teach without the rigmarole. Piety is not what the lesson bring to people, it's the mistakes they bring to the lessons." - (John Oldman: The Man from Earth)
The best things in life never come easy.
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