" According to tradition, the Buddha emphasized ethics and correct understanding. He questioned the average person's notions of divinity and salvation. He stated that gods are subjected to karma themselves; and the Buddha is solely a guide and teacher for the sentient beings who must tread the path of Nirvana themselves to attain the spiritual awakening called bodhi and see truth and reality as it is. The Buddhist system of insight and meditation practice is not believed to have been revealed divinely, but by the understanding of the true nature of the mind, which must be discovered by personally treading a spiritual path guided by the Buddha's teachings. The following points are a few of the fundamentals of the teaching attributed to Gautama Buddha--suffering is an inherent part of existence; that the origin of suffering is ignorance and the main symptoms of that ignorance are attachment and craving; that attachment and craving can be ceased; and that following the Nobble Eightfold Path (right understanding, thought, speech, action, livelyhood, effort, mindfulness, and concentration)  will lead to the cessation of attachment and craving and therefore suffering. "