THE FOUNDATION OF BUDDAISM
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Clickhere to go to the store The Cultural Context Buddhism originated in northeastern India circa the late 6th century to the early 4th century BC, a period of great social change and intense religious activity. Most scholars in Europe, the United States, and India believe that the historical Buddha lived from about 563 to about 483 BC. Many others, especially in Japan, believe that he lived about 100 years later (from about 448 to 368 BC). When Buddhism was nascent many in India were no longer content with the external formalities of Brahmanic (Hindu high-caste) sacrifice and ritual. In northwestern India there were ascetics who tried to go beyond the Vedas In the literature that grew out of this movement, the Upanishads there was a new emphasis on renunciation and transcendental knowledge. But northeastern India, which was less influenced by the Aryans, became the breeding ground of many heterodox sects. Society in this area was troubled by the breakdown of tribal unity and the expansion of several petty kingdoms. For the religious, this was a time of doubt, turmoil, and experimentation. Among the most important sects to arise at the time of the Buddha were the Ajivikas (Ajivakas), who emphasized the rule of fate (niyati), and the Jainas, an ascetic movement stressing the need to free the soul from matter. Though the Jainas, like the Buddhists, have often been regarded as atheists, their beliefs are actually more complicated. Unlike early Buddhists, both the Ajivikas and Jainas believed in the permanence of the elements that constitute the universe, as well as the existence of the soul. Despite the bewildering variety of religious communities, many shared the same vocabulary-nirvana (transcendent freedom), atman("self," or "soul"), yoga ("union"), karma ("causality"), Tathagata ("Thus-Gone," or "He Who Has Thus Attained"), Buddha ("enlightened one"), samsara ("eternal recurrence," "becoming"), and dhamma ("rule," or "law"). Most based their practice on the practice of yoga. According to tradition, the Buddha himself was a yogi-that is, a miracle-working ascetic. Buddhism was constituted by the presence of a charismatic teacher. Also, by the teachings this leader promulgated. In addition, a community of adherents that was made up of renunciant members and lay supporters. In the case of Buddhism this pattern became the basis for the Triratna-the "Three Jewels" of Buddha (the teacher), dharma (the teaching), and sangha (the community). To this day Buddhists have traditionally taken refuge in the Triratna... Following the founder's death, Buddhism developed in two directions. One, usually called Theravada by its present-day adherents, remained relatively faithful to what it considered to be the true tradition of the Buddha's teachings. The other is called Mahayana, "the means of salvation available to a larger number of people," by its followers, who call the first Hinayana, "the means of salvation restricted to a smaller number of people" (or simply the greater and lesser vehicles. In its expansion over the centuries, Buddhism influenced the currents of thought and religion in other countries. Various Buddhist communities modified the strict law of karma to accommodate new emphases on the efficacy of ritual actions and various forms of devotional practice. Finally there developed in India a movement called Vajrayana, or Esoteric Buddhism, the aim of which was to obtain liberation more speedily. This movement was influenced by Gnostic and magical currents pervasive at that time. For all the discussion on the two paths of salvation-the gradual and the instant- the ethics remain fundamentally the same. The monastic organizations have suffered the influence of diverse historical situations, but the basic structure remains intact. The Buddha, the original teacher, is always recognized as the revealer of Buddhist truth. In the later doctrines, his preaching is not just that given to his first disciples: he multiplies himself in numberless epiphanies-all manifestations of a single immutable reality-and he emphasizes the certainty of the void and the relativity of all appearances. Buddhism has suffered great turmoil and periods of decline. Still it did not negate its basic principles. Instead they were reinterpreted, rethought, and reformulated, bringing to life an immense literature. This literature, three collections of the Buddha's teaching was preserved by adherents of the Theravada tradition. It also includes many sutras and tantras that have been recognized by the followers of the Mahayana and Tantric Buddhist traditions as Buddhavaana , "the word of the Buddha," along with commentaries on these texts. In consequence of this evolution from the first sermon of the Buddha at Sarnath to the most recent derivations, there is an indisputable continuity-a development or metamorphosis around a central nucleus - by virtue of which Buddhism is differentiated from other religions. The Buddha's MessageThe teachings attributed to the Buddha were transmitted orally by his disciples, prefaced by the phrase "eva? me suta?" ("thus have I heard") given the nature of human memories it is difficult to say whether or not his discourses were related as they were spoken. They usually allude, however, to the place, time, and community where he preached; and there is concordance between various versions. An attempt was made by Buddhist councils in the first centuries after the Buddha's death to establish his true and original teachings. Suffering, Impermanence, and No-SelfThe Buddha based his entire teaching on the fact of human suffering. Existence is painful. The conditions that make an individual are precisely those that also give rise to suffering. Individuality implies limitation; limitation gives rise to desire; and, inevitably, desire causes suffering, since what is desired is transitory, changing, and perishable. It is the impermanence of the object craved that causes disappointment and sorrow. By following the "path" taught by the Buddha, the individual can dispel the "ignorance" that perpetuates this suffering. The Buddha's doctrine was not one of despair. Living amid the impermanence of everything and being themselves impermanent, human beings search for the way of deliverance, for that which shines beyond the transitory nature of human existence-in short, for enlightenment. According to the Buddha, reality, whether of external things or the psychophysical totality of human individuals, consists in a succession and concatenation of microseconds called dhammas (these "components" of reality are not to be confused with dhamma meaning "law" or "teaching"). The Buddha departed from the main lines of traditional Indian thought in not asserting an essential or ultimate reality in things. Contrary to the theories of the Hindu Upanishads, the Buddha did not want to assume the existence of the soul as a metaphysical substance though he admitted the existence of the self as the subject of action in a practical and moral sense. Life is a stream of becoming, a series of manifestations and extinctions. The concept of the individual ego is a popular delusion. The objects by which people identify themselves-fortune, social position, family, body, and even mind - are not their true selves. There is nothing permanent, and, if only the permanent deserved to be called the self, or atman, then nothing is self. There can be no individuality without a putting together of the components. This is the process of becoming different, and there can be no way of becoming different without dissolution, a passing away of that which was. To clarify the concept of no-self ( anatman), Buddhists set forth the theory of the five aggregates or constituents ( khandha s) of human existence: KarmaThe belief in rebirth, or samsara, as a potentially endless series of worldly existences in which every being is caught up was already associated with the doctrine of karma (Sanskrit: karma; literally "act," or "deed") in pre-Buddhist India. It was generally accepted by both the Theravada and the Mahayana traditions. According to the doctrine of karma, good conduct brings a pleasant and happy result and creates a tendency toward similar good acts, while bad conduct brings an evil result and creates a tendency toward repeated evil actions. This mode of action furnishes the basic context for the moral life of the individual. Some karmas bear fruit during the same life in which they are committed. Others bear their fruit in the immediately succeeding one. While with some others the karma is acted out in future lives that are more remote. The acceptance by Buddhists of the belief in karma and rebirth while holding to the doctrine of no-self gave rise to a difficult metaphysical problem: how can rebirth take place without a permanent subject to be reborn? Indian non-Buddhist philosophers attacked this vulnerable point in Buddhist thought. Many modern scholars have also considered it to be an insoluble question. The relation between existences in rebirth has been explained by the analogy of fire, which maintains itself unchanged in appearance and yet is different in every moment-thus we visualize what may be called the continuity of an ever-changing identity. The Four Noble TruthsAwareness of these fundamental realities led the Buddha to formulate the Four Noble Truths: the truth of misery, the truth that misery originates within us from the craving for pleasure and for being or non-being; the truth that this craving can be eliminated; , and, finally, the truth that this elimination is the result of a methodical way or path that must be followed. Thus, there must be an understanding of the mechanism by which a human being's psychophysical being evolves; otherwise, human beings would remain indefinitely in samsara, in the continual flow of transitory existence. The Law of Dependent OriginationThe Buddha formulated the law of dependent origination (pa?icca-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 (viñña?a); form and body (nama-rupa); the five sense organs and the mind (sa?ayatana); contact (phassa); feeling-response (vedana); craving (ta?ha); grasping for an object (upadana); action toward life (bhava); birth (jati); and old age and death (jaramara?a). Thus, the misery that is bound up with all sensate existence is accounted for by this methodical chain of causation. The law of dependent origination of the various aspects of becoming remains inviolate and fundamental in all schools of Buddhism. There are, however, diverse semantic differences and interpretations . The Eightfold PathGiven the awareness of the law of dependent origination , the profound question arises as to how one may escape the continually renewed cycle of birth, suffering, and death. Enter - ethical conduct. 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 purification that leads to the overcoming of this process. Such a
liberating purification is effected by following the Noble Eightfold Path
constituted by: NirvanaThe aim of religious practice is to be rid of the delusion of ego, thus freeing 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, here, on Earth . This is the final goal-not a paradise or a heavenly world. The living process is likened to a burning by 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 enflamed. Many poetic terms are used to describe the state of the enlightened human being such as the harbor 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 dying out-that is, the dying out in the heart of the fierce fires of lust, anger, and delusion. But nirvana,, of course, is not extinction, and indeed the craving for annihilation or nonexistence was expressly repudiated by the Buddha. Buddhists search not for mere cessation but for salvation. Though 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 that is to be sought and cherished as good and right.. The Buddha left indeterminate questions regarding the destiny of persons who have reached this ultimate goal. He even refused to speculate as to whether such 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. Though it is true that the Buddha avoided discussion of the ultimate condition that lay beyond the categories of the phenomenal world, he often affirmed the reality of the religious goal. For example, he is reported to have said: "There are an unborn, an unoriginated, an unmade, and an uncompounded; were there not, there would be no escape from the world of the born, the originated, the made, and the compounded." In his teaching, the Buddha strongly asserted that the ontological status and character of the unconditional nirvana cannot be delineated in a way that does not distort or misrepresent it. More importantly, the Buddha asserted with even more insistence that nirvana can be experienced-and experienced in this present existence-by those who, knowing the Buddhist truth, practice the Buddhist path among the living.. Recommended Websites: www.tricycle.com Interactive version of a popular magazine References and links to Zen Buddhist Centers www.dharmathecat.com A good Way unlike the usual approach to Buddhism www.Buddha.net Australian way to nirvana http://tibet.com; www.tibet.com/Buddhism/gelug.html http://apollo.virtual-pc.com/buddha/buddhayana.html - Dutch Buddhist monks and nuns a school, meditation center, and publishing house Acknowledgment:This compilation was prepared from the article-Buddhism, Encyclopedia Britannica, Ultimate Reference Suite 2005, and many other sources Recommended Readings: Armstrong, Karen, Buddha, (Viking Penguin) Penguin Group, New York, 2001 Lama Surya Das,Awakening the Buddha Within Eight Steps to Enlightenment,Tibetan Wisdom for the Western World, Broadway Books, Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing, 1997. Thurman, Robert, Essential Tibetan Buddhism, Harper-Collins, New York, NY, 1996 Hagen, Steve, Buddhism plain and simple, Tuttle Publishing, Periplus Editions, Boston, Mass. 19997. Osho, The Buddha Said. . . Meeting the Challenges of Life's Difficulties, Watkins Publishing, London U.K. 2007. |