Download Sutra World History Name: E. Napp Date: The Life of the Buddha

Sutra
World History
E. Napp
Name: __________________
Date: __________________
The Life of the Buddha:
“The teacher known as the Buddha lived in northern India sometime between the
mid-6th and the mid-4th centuries before the Common Era. In ancient India the
title Buddha referred to an enlightened being who has awakened from the sleep of
ignorance and achieved freedom from suffering. According to the various traditions
of Buddhism, Buddhas have existed in the past and will exist in the future. Some
Buddhists believe that there is only one Buddha for each historical age, others that
all beings will become Buddhas because they possess the Buddha nature
(tathagatagarbha).
The historical figure referred to as the Buddha (whose life is known largely
through legend) was born on the northern edge of the Ganges River basin, an area
on the periphery of the ancient civilization of North India, in what is today southern
Nepal. He is said to have lived for 80 years. His family name was Gautama (in
Sanskrit) or Gotama (in Pali), and his given name was Siddhartha (Sanskrit: ‘he
who achieves his aim’) or Siddhatta (in Pali). He is frequently called Shakyamuni,
‘the sage of the Shakya clan.’ In Buddhist texts he is most commonly addressed as
Bhagavat (often translated as ‘Lord’), and he refers to himself as the Tathagata,
which can mean both ‘one who has thus come’ and ‘one who has thus gone.’
…According to the traditional accounts, however, the Buddha was born into the
ruling Shakya clan and was a member of the Kshatriya, or warrior, caste. His
mother, Maha Maya, dreamt one night that an elephant entered her womb, and 10
lunar months later, while she was strolling in the garden of Lumbini, her son
emerged from under her right arm. His early life was one of luxury and comfort,
and his father protected him from exposure to the ills of the world, including old
age, sickness, and death. At age 16 he married the princess Yashodhara, who would
eventually bear him a son. At 29, however, the prince had a profound experience
when he first observed the suffering of the world while on chariot rides outside the
palace. He resolved then to renounce his wealth and family and live the life of an
ascetic. During the next six years, he practiced meditation with several teachers and
then, with five companions, undertook a life of extreme self-mortification. One day,
while bathing in a river, he fainted from weakness and therefore concluded that
mortification was not the path to liberation from suffering. Abandoning the life of
extreme asceticism, the prince sat in meditation under a tree and received
enlightenment, sometimes identified with understanding the Four Noble Truths.
For the next 45 years, the Buddha spread his message throughout northeastern
India, established orders of monks and nuns, and received the patronage of kings
and merchants. At the age of 80, he became seriously ill. He then met with his
disciples for the last time to impart his final instructions and passed into nirvana.
His body was then cremated and the relics distributed and enshrined in stupas
(funerary monuments that usually contained relics), where they would be venerated.
The Buddha’s place within the tradition, however, cannot be understood by
focusing exclusively on the events of his life and time (even to the extent that they
are known). Instead, he must be viewed within the context of Buddhist theories of
time and history. Among these theories is the belief that the universe is the product
of karma, the law of the cause and effect of actions. The beings of the universe are
reborn without beginning in six realms as gods, demigods, humans, animals, ghosts,
and hell beings. The cycle of rebirth, called samsara (literally ‘wandering’), is
regarded as a domain of suffering, and the Buddhist’s ultimate goal is to escape
from that suffering. The means of escape remains unknown until, over the course of
millions of lifetimes, a person perfects himself, ultimately gaining the power to
discover the path out of samsara and then revealing that path to the world.
A person who has set out to discover the path to freedom from suffering and then
to teach it to others is called a bodhisattva. A person who has discovered that path,
followed it to its end, and taught it to the world is called a Buddha. Buddhas are not
reborn after they die but enter a state beyond suffering called nirvana (literally
‘passing away’). Because Buddhas appear so rarely over the course of time and
because only they reveal the path to liberation from suffering, the appearance of a
buddha in the world is considered a momentous event.”
~ Britannica
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12345678910Historical Context:
“Buddhism arose in northeastern India sometime between the late 6th century and
the early 4th century B.C.E., a period of great social change and intense religious
activity. There is disagreement among scholars about the dates of the Buddha’s
birth and death. Many modern scholars believe that the historical Buddha lived
from about 563 to about 483 B.C.E. Many others believe that he lived about 100
years later (from about 448 to 368 B.C.E.). At this time in India, there was much
discontent with Brahmanic (Hindu high-caste) sacrifice and ritual. In northwestern
India there were ascetics who tried to create a more personal and spiritual religious
experience than that found in the Vedas (Hindu sacred scriptures). In the literature
that grew out of this movement, the Upanishads, a new emphasis on renunciation
and transcendental knowledge can be found. Northeastern India, which was less
influenced by the Aryans who had developed the main tenets and practices of the
Vedic Hindu faith, became the breeding ground of many new sects. Society in this
area was troubled by the breakdown of tribal unity and the expansion of several
petty kingdoms. Religiously, this was a time of doubt, turmoil, and experimentation.
…Despite the bewildering variety of religious communities, many shared the same
vocabulary – nirvana (transcendent freedom), atman (‘self’ or ‘soul’), yoga (‘union’),
karma (‘causality’), Tathagata (‘one who has come’ or ‘one who has thus gone’),
buddha (‘enlightened one’), samsara (‘eternal recurrence’ or ‘becoming’), and
dhamma (‘rule’ or ‘law’) – and most involved the practice of yoga. According to
tradition, the Buddha himself was a yogi – that is, a miracle-working ascetic.
Buddhism, like many of the sects that developed in northeastern India at the time,
was constituted by the presence of a charismatic teacher, by the teachings this
leader promulgated, and by a community of adherents that was often made up of
renunciant members and lay supporters. In the case of Buddhism, this pattern is
reflected in the Triratna – i.e., the ‘Three Jewels’ of Buddha (the teacher), dharma
(the teaching), and sangha (the community).
In the centuries following the founder’s death, Buddhism developed in two
directions represented by two different groups. One was called the Hinayana
(Sanskrit: “Lesser Vehicle”), a term given to it by its Buddhist opponents. This
more conservative group, which included what is now called the Theravada (Pali:
‘Way of the Elders’) community, compiled versions of the Buddha’s teachings that
had been preserved in collections called the Sutta Pitaka and the Vinaya Pitaka and
retained them as normative. The other major group, which calls itself the Mahayana
(Sanskrit: “Greater Vehicle”), recognized the authority of other teachings that,
from the group’s point of view, made salvation available to a greater number of
people. These supposedly more advanced teachings were expressed in sutras that the
Buddha purportedly made available only to his more advanced disciples.”
~Britannica
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12345678910The Theological Context:
“The Buddha based his entire teaching on the fact of human suffering and the
ultimately dissatisfying character of human life. Existence is painful. The conditions
that make an individual are precisely those that also give rise to dissatisfaction and
suffering. Individuality implies limitation; limitation gives rise to desire; and,
inevitably, desire causes suffering, since what is desired is transitory.
Living amid the impermanence of everything and being themselves impermanent,
human beings search for the way of deliverance, for that which shines beyond the
transitoriness of human existence – in short, for enlightenment. The Buddha’s
doctrine offered a way to avoid despair. By following the ‘path’ taught by the
Buddha, the individual can dispel the ‘ignorance’ that perpetuates this suffering…
The Four Noble Truths:
Awareness of these fundamental realities led the Buddha to formulate the Four
Noble Truths: the truth of misery (dukkha), the truth that misery originates within
us from the craving for pleasure and for being or nonbeing (samudaya), the truth
that this craving can be eliminated (nirodhu), and the truth that this elimination is
the result of following a methodical way or path (magga).
The law of dependent origination:
The Buddha, according to the early texts, also discovered the law of dependent
origination (paticca-samuppada), whereby one condition arises out of another, which
in turn arises out of prior conditions. Every mode of being presupposes another
immediately preceding mode from which the subsequent mode derives, in a chain of
causes. According to the classical rendering, the 12 links in the chain are: ignorance
(avijja), karmic predispositions (sankharas), consciousness (vinnana), form and body
(nama-rupa), the five sense organs and the mind (salayatana), contact (phassa),
feeling-response (vedana), craving (tanha), grasping for an object (upadana), action
toward life (bhava), birth (jati), and old age and death (jaramarana). According to
this law, the misery that is bound with sensate existence is accounted for by a
methodical chain of causation. Despite a diversity of interpretations, the law of
dependent origination of the various aspects of becoming remains fundamentally the
same in all schools of Buddhism.
The Eightfold Path:
The law of dependent origination, however, raises the question of how one may
escape the continually renewed cycle of birth, suffering, and death. It is not enough
to know that misery pervades all existence and to know the way in which life
evolves; there must also be a means to overcome this process. The means to this end
is found in the Eightfold Path, which is constituted by right views, right aspirations,
right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and
right meditational attainment.
Nirvana:
The aim of Buddhist practice is to be rid of the delusion of ego and thus free
oneself from the fetters of this mundane world. One who is successful in doing so is
said to have overcome the round of rebirths and to have achieved enlightenment.
This is the final goal in most Buddhist traditions, though in some cases
(particularly though not exclusively in some Pure Land schools in China and Japan)
the attainment of an ultimate paradise or a heavenly abode is not clearly
distinguished from the attainment of release.
The living process is again likened to a fire. Its remedy is the extinction of the fire
of illusion, passions, and cravings. The Buddha, the Enlightened One, is one who is
no longer kindled or inflamed. Many poetic terms are used to describe the state of
the enlightened human being – the harbour of refuge, the cool cave, the place of
bliss, the farther shore. The term that has become famous in the West is nirvana,
translated as passing away or dying out – that is, the dying out in the heart of the
fierce fires of lust, anger, and delusion. But nirvana is not extinction, and indeed the
craving for annihilation or nonexistence was expressly repudiated by the Buddha.
Buddhists search for salvation, not just nonbeing. Although nirvana is often
presented negatively as ‘release from suffering,’ it is more accurate to describe it in
a more positive fashion: as an ultimate goal to be sought and cherished.
In some early texts the Buddha left unanswered certain questions regarding the
destiny of persons who have reached this ultimate goal. He even refused to speculate
as to whether fully purified saints, after death, continued to exist or ceased to exist.
Such questions, he maintained, were not relevant to the practice of the path and
could not in any event be answered from within the confines of ordinary human
existence. Indeed, he asserted that any discussion of the nature of nirvana would
only distort or misrepresent it. But he also asserted with even more insistence that
nirvana can be experienced – and experienced in the present existence – by those
who, knowing the Buddhist truth, practice the Buddhist path.”
~ Britannica
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Source: SMOKEY THE BEAR SUTRA; BY GARY SNYDER
“Once in the Jurassic about 150 million years ago, the Great Sun Buddha in this
corner of the Infinite Void gave a discourse to all the assembled elements and
energies: to the standing beings, the walking beings, the flying beings, and the sitting
beings – even the grasses, to the number of thirteen billion, each one born from a
seed, assembled there: a Discourse concerning Enlightenment on the planet Earth.
“In some future time, there will be a continent called America. It will have great
centers of power called such as Pyramid Lake, Walden Pond, Mt. Rainier, Big Sur,
Everglades, and so forth; and powerful nerves and channels such as Columbia
River, Mississippi River, and Grand Canyon. The human race in that era will get
into troubles all over its head, and practically wreck everything in spite of its own
strong intelligent Buddha-nature.”
“The twisting strata of the great mountains and the pulsings of volcanoes are my
love burning deep in the earth. My obstinate compassion is schist and basalt and
granite, to be mountains, to bring down the rain. In that future American Era I
shall enter a new form; to cure the world of loveless knowledge that seeks with blind
hunger: and mindless rage eating food that will not fill it.”
And he showed himself in his true form of
SMOKEY THE BEAR
A handsome smokey-colored brown bear standing on his hind legs, showing that he
is aroused and watchful.
Bearing in his right paw the Shovel that digs to the truth beneath appearances;
cuts the roots of useless attachments, and flings damp sand on the fires of greed and
war;
His left paw in the mudra of Comradely Display – indicating that all creatures
have the full right to live to their limits and that of deer, rabbits, chipmunks, snakes,
dandelions, and lizards all grow in the realm of the Dharma;
Wearing the blue work overalls symbolic of slaves and laborers, the countless men
oppressed by a civilization that claims to save but often destroys;
Wearing the broad-brimmed hat of the west, symbolic of the forces that guard the
wilderness, which is the Natural State of the Dharma and the true path of man on
Earth:
all true paths lead through mountains—
With a halo of smoke and flame behind, the forest fires of the kali-yuga, fires
caused by the stupidity of those who think things can be gained and lost whereas in
truth all is contained vast and free in the Blue Sky and Green Earth of One Mind;
Round-bellied to show his kind nature and that the great earth has food enough for
everyone who loves her and trusts her;
Trampling underfoot wasteful freeways and needless suburbs, smashing the worms
of capitalism and totalitarianism;
Indicating the task: his followers, becoming free of cars, houses, canned foods,
universities, and shoes, master the Three Mysteries of their own Body, Speech, and
Mind; and fearlessly chop down the rotten trees and prune out the sick limbs of this
country America and then burn the leftover trash.
Wrathful but calm. Austere but Comic. Smokey the Bear will Illuminate those who
would help him; but for those who would hinder or slander him...
HE WILL PUT THEM OUT.
Thus his great Mantra:
Namah samanta vajranam chanda maharoshana Sphataya hum traka ham mam
“I DEDICATE MYSELF TO THE UNIVERSAL DIAMOND BE THIS RAGING
FURY BE DESTROYED”
And he will protect those who love the woods and rivers, Gods and animals, hobos
and madmen, prisoners and sick people, musicians, playful women, and hopeful
children:
And if anyone is threatened by advertising, air pollution, television, or the police,
they should chant SMOKEY THE BEAR'S WAR SPELL:
DROWN THEIR BUTTS
CRUSH THEIR BUTTS
DROWN THEIR BUTTS
CRUSH THEIR BUTTS
And SMOKEY THE BEAR will surely appear to put the enemy out with his vajrashovel.
Now those who recite this Sutra and then try to put it in practice will accumulate
merit as countless as the sands of Arizona and Nevada.
Will help save the planet Earth from total oil slick.
Will enter the age of harmony of man and nature.
Will win the tender love and caresses of men, women, and beasts.
Will always have ripened blackberries to eat and a sunny spot under a pine tree to
sit at.
AND IN THE END WILL WIN HIGHEST PERFECT ENLIGHTENMENT
...thus we have heard...
(may be reproduced free forever)
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12345678910Who is Gary Snyder?
Snyder was educated at Reed College (B.A., 1951) in Portland, Ore., where he
became friends with Philip Whalen, a classmate and future Beat poet. Snyder
studied anthropology at Indiana University (1951–52) before moving to San
Francisco, where he lived with Whalen and became friends with Allen Ginsberg and
Jack Kerouac. In 1955 Snyder was among the poets who participated in the historic
reading at the Six Gallery at which Ginsberg introduced his poem Howl. The
following year Snyder traveled to Japan to study Zen Buddhism. In 1986 he began
teaching at the University of California, Davis; he retired as professor emeritus in
2002.
Snyder’s poetry draws on the mythic and religious experience of his own daily life
in his verse. His free verse style exhibits a variety of influences from Walt Whitman
to Ezra Pound to Japanese haiku. Prominent in his first two books of poems, Riprap
(1959) and Myths and Texts (1960), are images and experiences drawn from his work
as a logger and ranger in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. In The Back Country (1967)
and Regarding Wave (1969), the fusion of religion into everyday life reflects Snyder’s
increasing interest in Eastern philosophies. Later volumes include Turtle Island
(1974), for which he won the Pulitzer Prize, and Axe Handles (1983). His alternatives
to routinized city life are presented in Earth House Hold (1969), a book of journal
fragments and essays, and The Real Work: Interviews and Talks 1964–1979 (1980).
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