The very shape of the monument of Borobudur resembles the philosophy of Buddhism. How so? Built in ten terraces with a small room on top, it depicts the Buddhist concept of gradual transfer of the human being into the ultimate destiny of Buddha nirvana. This is represented by the central upper chamber. There are no clearly marked entrances. But on all four sides are flight steps and gateways leading to the upper chamber of the step pyramid.

Evolution is part of Buddhist philosophy. All life is thought to have its origin in the rocks. The rock is said to become sand, sand becomes plants, plants change into insects, insects into wild animals, wild animals into domestic animals, and domestic animals are thought by Buddhists to become humans.

No links are required as in Darwinism, as the Buddhist-type evolution is thought to be achieved through reincarnation. Thus Buddhists believe that Gautama Buddha himself lived before becoming a human, once as a rabbit, another time as a turtle, then as a monkey. Next, he became a man, according to Buddhist philosophy, later a spirit, and finally entered nirvana.

Then did Buddha really succeed in freeing humans from suffering?

After spending seven weeks under the shade of a bo tree, he came to the conclusion one night that charity and renunciation are the keys to nirvana. His argument was that if a person is in no way affected by what he sees, hears, smells, feels, tastes and thinks, he becomes free, uninvolved, unconscious of life, death, old age and sickness. He enters what is called nirvana, which is described, not as a place somewhere, but as a condition, the end of all suffering.