Download Buddhism:

Buddhism:
How did Buddhism get started and who was the Buddha?
There’s information, there’s knowledge, and then there is wisdom. Information is what you find on the internet,
information is blared at you 24 hours a day from the television. But you take that information and turn it into
knowledge…then you must go on and apply that knowledge on how to live your life in such a way that you leave the
world a better place…that shows wisdom.
Buddhism is the fourth largest religion in the world (400+ million), being exceeded in numbers only by Christianity, Islam
and Hinduism. It was founded in Northeastern India (today part is present day Nepal) by the first known Buddha, a man
named Siddhartha Gautama. In 535 BCE, the tradition says he attained enlightenment and assumed the title Lord Buddha
(one who has awakened).
In the sixth century BCE, India was politically fragmented into over a dozen major regional powers. The vast majority of
the population practiced forms of the Hindu tradition under the leadership of a strong Brahmin priesthood. Ritual and
belief centered mostly on this-worldly concerns, such as managing the weather to insure a good harvest or curing disease
and illness. But some were beginning to question this tradition and small groups raised issues about life after death,
including the idea of rebirth into other modes of existence. Within the Hindu tradition, this questioning gave rise to
scriptures called the Upanishads, which focused on the nature of the self and greater spiritual realities. Buddhism grew
out of this age of political and spiritual ferment, offering seekers another religious option.
Little is known of Guatama’s early life. It is believed that he was born around 543BCE, the son of a Kshatriya raja (a
wealthy prince) from the ruling elite. When his mother (named Mahamaya) was pregnant, she had a dream where an
elephant with a lotus flower entered her side. The court astrologer interpreted the dream to mean that the child would be
a son who would either be a Universal Emperor or a Universal Teacher (if the boy ever saw misery). When the child was
born, his father consulted the priests to see what they foresaw as his destiny. Again, they told him that the child was
destined to become either a great king, a “wheel-turner” (an expression roughly equal to a mover-and-shaker), who
would rule the world, or a world-renouncer (one who would withdraw from the trappings of wealth and power), be a
religious teacher and live as a monk.
Guatama’s father was resolved that his son would take the path of power and influence, so he had his son sheltered from
any experience that might lead him another way. If the young Siddhartha ever left the palace, servants went out ahead
to make sure he never saw anything that might make him question his wonderful life.
So Guatama led a life of ease and luxury in his father’s palace, surrounded by wealth and beauty and the trappings of
authority. He received a normal education for a prince of the era, studying the arts, philosophy, and warfare. At 19, he
married his beautiful and accomplished cousin (named Yashodhara) and eventually had a son and by all accounts, led a
happy life.
According to legend, as he neared his 30th birthday, the gods wanted to awaken the future Buddha from the wasteful life
he was leading, so they broke through the walls of youth and beauty that had been erected around him. Guatama began
to leave the confines of the palace more often to see what “real life” was like outside the palace walls. Even though his
father had instructed the servants to make sure Guatama did not see reminders of human frailty by clearing the road of
any unsightly reminders, he often saw such things. One by one, he began to see the things his father had forbidden.
Guatama would then ask the hard questions, for he was unfulfilled by all the wealth and power and he wondered why
there was so much suffering in the world.
One day outside the palace, he saw someone wrinkled, bent and struggling to walk. Old age, he was told, is a hardship
many people must eventually face. Another time he spotted a leper lying along the road in pain. He was told illness or
disease happens to many people. Another day he came across a funeral procession. Death, he was told, comes to us
all. These were all representations of pain and misery. Finally, according to tradition, Guatama saw by the road a young
monk who obviously had nothing yet seemed happy, content, and at peace with the world. This was the “worldrenouncer” Guatama’s father so badly didn’t want his son to see. These four different experiences are known as the “four
passing sights,” and the tradition holds that these four events were the result of divine intervention, the gods assuming
the roles of suffering human beings so that Guatama would be moved to take the next critical steps in ensuring the
possibility of enlightenment for humankind. The Four Passing Sights would sum up the key issues that would create
the foundation of Buddhism.
Guatama reflected deeply upon the suffering brought about by old age, illness and death. At the age of 30, tradition
says, Guatama made the “great renunciation” of comfort and security after he entered his harem room, where the most
beautiful young women of in the kingdom lived, and he received a vision of these beautiful young women as old,
wrinkled, gray, and stooped.
This revelation made it impossible for the young prince to continue to live in his palace, surrounded by ease and plenty.
So one night he decided to leave his wife, child, luxurious lifestyle, and future role as a leader of his people in order to
seek truth by finding a spiritual solution to the problems brought about by human suffering. It is said that he mounted
his favorite horse and together they jumped over the palace walls. After riding for a while, he cut off his princely locks
and beard, and sent his horse back to the palace. He came upon a beggar and exchanged his beautiful clothes with
those of the beggar and began a period of searching for the answers to life’s miseries. (His son and wife reappear in the
tradition later as one of the early monks and the first nun).
For the next 14 years Guatama tried to solve the riddle of human misery. At first, he thought the answers to the
questions that troubled him were to be found in the various schools of philosophy of the day. So he attached himself to a
guru and studied with him for a time, but remained unsatisfied, realizing that knowledge and self-discipline did not offer a
solution that would end human suffering. He then joined and studied with five Hindu Brahmin priests searching for
answers. He subjected himself to six years of dire austerity, seeking anything that was unpleasant, painful, or
disagreeable as a means by which he might find release. Legend has it that he practiced fasting until he reached the
point of living on a single grain of rice per day. He wore irritating cloth, and sat in awkward and painful positions for
hours. He sat on thorns and for a time slept in a graveyard among rotting corpses. In the tradition of many ascetics, he
allowed filth and vermin to accumulate on his body. It was said that he became so thin, his ribs nearly poked out of his
skin and once when he grasped at his stomach, he touched his backbone. Despite these heroic efforts at asceticism, he
did not find the enlightenment he was searching for.
His turning point came one day while he was walking by a stream. He was so weak from his ordeals, he collapsed and
fell into the stream. The cold water revived him and after nearly dying, he realized that such extremes were not the way
to achieve enlightenment. He arose, walked to a nearby food stand and ate a meal (another tradition is that a woman
from the local village found him practically unconscious and nursed him back with milk and rice. This tradition continues
to influence many Buddhist societies where women take a leading role in supporting Buddhist monks by supplying them
with food and other necessities). The five Brahmin priests happened to walk by and when they saw him eating and
drinking and enjoying himself, they were so disappointed in his human weakness that they abandoned Guatama and
called him a traitor.
Legend has it that when he finished his meal, he went to sit beneath the shade of a fig tree on the banks of the river
Gaya. Since he found enlightenment (or bodhi) underneath this tree, it has become known as a Bo or Bodhi tree.
Guatama meditated, for seven weeks (49 days), determined to find the truth. While his mind was deep in meditation, he
had a vision of the endless cycle of birth and death (samsara) and the lot of humankind. It was reveled to him that
people were bound to this cycle because of desire, thirst, and craving. He faced temptation by evil spirits and demons
that were determined to break his contemplation and his ability to achieve enlightenment. The efforts of the evil spirits
failed and Guatama finally achieved the enlightenment he was looking for. He had become the Gautama Buddha, or “the
enlightened one.” He understood that desire was what caused karma. He had wanted enlightenment and tried to
achieve it through knowledge and asceticism, but it had eluded him. When he ceased to desire it, he found
enlightenment.
Overcoming all inclination to selfishness, the 44 year old Buddha dedicated himself to teaching others the way to freedom
from attachment that is the cause of all suffering.
Soon after the Buddha had attained enlightenment, he gave his first sermon in the Deer Park at Sarnath (near Benares).
According to tradition, this set in motion the Wheel of Law and the Doctrine of Righteousness. The five Brahmin priests
who had previously thought him weak and had abandoned him listened to his words and were so moved by his sermon,
they became the first converts to Buddhism and Buddhism’s first monks. Buddha had become the “mover and shaker,”
but not the one his father had envisioned.
The first monks shaved their heads and wore coarse yellow robes. Their only possession was a bowl they carried when
they begged for food.
In a break from Hinduism, the Buddha taught that any person of any caste or sex could find the same enlightenment he
found. Therefore, his followers included a wide variety of people. When women first asked to join, the Buddha was
reluctant, but he eventually relented and allowed them to form an order of nuns. According to legend, the Buddha’s wife
and step-mother were the first nuns.
Buddha spent the next thirty-five years spreading his message in a territory the size of Pennsylvania, speaking to anyone
who would listen. His death, at the age of 80 (463 BCE), was believed to be the result of accidentally eating poisoned
mushrooms that were in a dish of pork curry (the tradition says he ate the mushrooms prepared by a poor farmer,
knowing they were poisonous, but he didn’t want to embarrass the farmer who gave the Buddha all he had to eat). He
assumed the lotus position, and said his final words to his closest disciples which were “Subject to decay are all
component things. Strive earnestly to work out your own salvation.” He then laid on his right side, entered a deep
meditation, and died.
PS. The plump, laughing figures found in Chinese restaurants and gift shops is not the historical Buddha. Those are
actually Chinese kitchen gods.
In the Buddhist tradition, “enlightenment” means the simple, clear realization of the most basic truths about life. It is the
realization that the headlong pursuit of pleasure (hedonism) and the dogged avoidance of pleasure (asceticism) both yield
the same results: suffering. Hope fuels the one, fear the other. Both are a flight from the realty. So to attain
Enlightenment in the Buddhist tradition, one must grasp the fundamental realities summed up in the Buddha’s “Four
Noble Truths.” They are:
1. All human life is suffering and pain. Life is difficult. Look around. The human condition includes some hard
inescapable realities. This is the ultimate in realism. If humans had the power to change the basic realities we
experience, we would have done so long ago. But we can change the ways we respond to the experience. This is
called dukka.
2. Human suffering is born of desire. Unfulfilled desire leads to rebirth (samsara). Whatever I must either have or
avoid will make me suffer. If I get what I want, it will soon disappoint. If I manage to avoid what I fear,
something else, another fear, will replace it. This is called samodaya.
3. The third truth says that in order to end one’s suffering, one must end desire. Under ordinary circumstances, no
human can stop desire altogether. The Buddha almost killed himself from starvation before he realized the futility
of such an approach. So what is the appropriate behavior? This is called nirodha.
4. The fourth truth simply says that when desire stops, rebirth stops, and one attains Nirvana. To end desire and to
reach Nirvana, one must pursue what are known as the 10 injunctions and follow the Eightfold Path or the way
of the Buddha. This is called magga.
To win passage to Nirvana (in the Buddhist sense means spiritual peace), the Buddha believed the 10 injunctions
and the eight steps he outlined would lead someone out of pain, suffering, and desire to goodness and wisdom. Nirvana
in Sanskrit means “to extinguish.” It is not a place like Heaven, it is an abstract realm of peace and joy where ignorance,
hatred, and all forms of earthly suffering have been extinguished.
The 10 injunctions are: Do not kill, or steal, or commit adultery; do not lie, or speak ill of other people; do not indulge in
finding faults in others or in using profane language; abstain from covetousness and hatred, and to avoid ignorance.
The eight steps of the Path are divided into three categories: on wisdom, ethics/morality, and meditation/concentration.
Buddhists call this teaching the Middle Path because it aims at balance and propriety. Eat only what you need and use
only whatever is necessary for a modest style of living.
They are:
1. Have the “right views.” Have a positive attitude about yourself and others.
2. Have the “right thoughts.” Have sympathy and understanding for everyone which means that one performs
all acts out of compassion rather than out of selfish motives.
3. Say the “right words.” Never say anything hurtful or tell lies.
4. Have the “right action.” Always practice good conduct and non-violence. Do not kill, maim or steal and do
not have an inappropriate sexual relationship.
5. Work at the “right occupation.” Do not take a job that could cause injury to anyone or anything (like dealing
in slavery or weapons) or one that might cheat someone.
6. Have the “right effort.” Live as the Buddha intended.
7. Have the “right mind.” Be aware of the consequences of your actions.
8. Have the “right concentration.” This is the equilibrium between pursuing goals and running into fears.
Everything depends on carefully measured responses. This is the tranquility you’ll experience following the
eight fold path.
The Five Precepts
The Buddha also created a simple code or plan for living a disciplined and worthwhile life. This code, called the Five
Precepts, reflected several elements of the 10 injunctions and the Eight Fold Path.
1. Be compassionate to all living things and never harm or kill other people or animals. (Why Buddhists are
usually vegetarian)
2. Never steal or take what has not been given. Always be generous to those in need. (Why Buddhists are known
for compassion and generosity)
3. Do not take alcohol or drugs because they cloud and weaken the mind. (Buddhists do not drink caffeine,
alcohol, or take drugs)
4. Never lie or say bad things about others.
5. Respect others and abstain from sexual immorality. (be faithful)
How does the Buddhist tradition describe existence?
Buddhist teaching focuses on three fundamental qualities in all things. Two are fairly obvious and are at the heart of the
experience of enlightenment. The first is hardship or suffering, the second impermanence. Nobody is immune to
sadness and disappointment. No one has a lock on success and genuine contentment. And everything comes to an end
at some point. Everything. The third quality is much less obvious. This is the idea that there is no permanent,
indestructible core or “soul” at the center of any being. Hindu tradition taught the Buddha that at the center of every
individual being was a “self” or soul, the atman, which survived physical death to be reincarnated into another life. The
Buddha reinterpreted Hindu tradition and on this point was extremely radical. Take away the soul and what remains?
Apparently, nothing. But the Buddha was not attempting to empty life of its meaning…he wanted people to change their
minds about what mattered most. Look hard at what motivates you, what can make you nearly desperate to achieve this
good or avoid that evil. Look carefully, the Buddha argued, and you will see that the qualities that attract or repel you
are deceptions. Probe deeply into your choices and you will see that what you are really looking for you cannot get from
this possession or that person. Each being is simply what it is and it is a serious mistake to treat your world as though it
existed for you, as if what you value in each thing is its value. In a sense, the Buddha argued, all things are “empty” in
that they simply do not possess the “soul” that a grasping, craving person invests them with. Pile your hopes and
expectations onto some person or object as though you truly expect it will deliver what you want, and you are making a
fundamental mistake. The notion on non-soul (anatman) is difficult to understand, but it is one of the Buddha’s most
provocative teachings.
Is there a distinctively Buddhist ethic?
Compassion for all living things is the overriding principle of Buddhist ethics. It was compassion that caused the
Buddha to share his message of enlightenment. Life’s greatest challenge is to act out of genuine altruism, to be and do
for others without hoping for reward. One needs to work for the alleviation of suffering purely because that is
humanity’s greatest calling.
What do Buddhists believe about ultimate spiritual reality or God?
As a Hindu, Buddha learned the traditional Hindu stories of the divinities. However he never speculated on the existence
or significance of gods. The Buddha did not deny the existence of God (or gods), he merely insisted that whatever power
the gods might possess it could not solve the fundamental human dilemma. Buddha believed the individual was
responsible for himself, not dependent on gods. Classical Buddhist teaching does not refer to an Ultimate Reality in
personal terms. Gods of ancient Hindu mythology retained a place in the Buddhist spiritual cosmos, but they remained
very much in the background.
As Buddhism spread throughout Asia and evolved through time, Buddha himself assumed divine proportions (especially in
China, Korea, and Japan) and this idea eventually replaced him as a historical human teacher.
Do Buddhists believe in an afterlife?
Although the Buddha himself emphasized the need to focus on this-worldly concerns, his followers soon developed a
complex understanding of the spiritual structure of the universe. All Buddhist reality is divided into three realms. The
Realm of Desire encompasses everything from innumerable hells through the dwelling places of animals, humans, and
lesser gods. There are various paradises that good people can expect to enjoy the fruits of a good life. Each level of hell
is suited to a particular kind of selfishness and evil. The heavens are similarly graded for the enjoyment of the just. A
certain sexist attitude is built into the notion of paradise, since in order to gain entry into the highest level of heaven
women must be reborn as men.
Those reborn into the next major level up, the Realm of Form, leave behind the senses of taste, touch, and smell.
Through hearing, sight, and mental impressions they continue the ongoing process of spiritual refinement and education.
People in this realm’s multiple heavens (there are between 16 & 18) progress through various stages of contemplative
discipline arriving finally at the cosmic realm, that of Non-Form. Shedding sight and hearing, dwellers in this realm
progress through four additional heavens through meditation, arriving at last at Nirvana.
Buddhism had established a number of institutions, rituals, and symbols before the rise of Christianity that Christians
adopted. These included the halo (technically the nimbus) used in the artistic representations of the saints, the very idea
of saints, monasteries, holy water, the five-chained censer to burn incense, and the hand blessing.
For several centuries after his death, Buddhism expanded across Asia. Buddhism enjoyed the patronage of two powerful
and influential Indian rulers. The first, Ashoka (r 270-230 BCE) is credited with the first dramatic expansion of Buddhism
across much of India. He declared Buddhism the state religion and sent missionaries westward across what is today
Afghanistan and south to Sri Lanka. A later king named Kanishka (r 120-162CE) picked up where Ashoka left off.
Kanishka sent missionaries into China, Tibet, and Burma. But by about 1150 CE, Buddhism would be nearly defunct in
India because it had been absorbed by Hinduism since by this time, Hindus believed that the Buddha was an incarnation
of Vishnu. By then Buddhism had evolved into two main forms, which evolved largely independently from each other:
Theravada Buddhism (means “Wisdom or Faith of the Elders” they are sometimes called Southern Buddhists;
occasionally spelled Therevada) and are mostly found in Thailand, Burma, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. This form tends
to be more conservative and teaches that Buddha was a historical human being who counseled others to pursue their
own path to enlightenment. In Theravada Buddhism, people must achieve enlightenment for themselves without relying
on the gods or on any force beyond themselves. They tend to be more rigid in their interpretation of Buddhism.
Mahayana Buddhism (means “Great Vehicle” they are sometimes called Northern Buddhism) is largely found in China,
Japan, Korea, Tibet and Mongolia. This form emphasized the larger-than-life qualities of the Buddha. More than a mere
mortal, the Buddha was a saving figure for humanity, whose compassion filled the universe and whose grace was
available to all who asked. In the Mahayana tradition, a person of great merit called a bodhisattva postpones going to
Nirvana so that they can “save” others.
This form has the most followers. In Tibet, comes the succession of the most famous holy men called the Dalai Lamas.
A favorite story of the Mahayana is, as the Buddha was teaching, he took a handful of leaves from the forest floor and
explained that as the handful of leaves was less than all those on the forest floor, so was the knowledge he wanted his
disciples to have as they searched for the truth. In other words, it was possible and important to seek the truth from
many places.