Buddha and Buddhism

• Buddha as an icon of socio-cultural awakening.

• This socio-cultural milieu shocked the conscience of the Gautama Buddha.
• Gautama - a Kshyatria Shakya prince renounced his family, royal position and his life to search for a solution to the problem of universal human suffering.
• After his enlightenment, he announced a belief system which proclaimed that individuals could gain salvation to themselves without the mediation of priests or reference to Gods.

• Buddha portrayed his respect and faith in human nature to achieve salvation.
• His liberal ideas of kindness. compassion, humanity, equality and reason brought about a wave of socio-cultural awakening.

• The Buddha's ideas and vision captured the hearts and feelings of a huge cross-section of the society of his time and eventually spread all over Asia.
• The Buddha addressed the royalty. Brahmins, caste system, judiciary, culture and lifestyles of the wealthy and the poor.
• He questioned the ways of life and attitudes influencing the rich, the powerful, religious authorities, householders, yogis and seekers of truth.
• He outlined radical changes motivated by a determination to create a harmonious society between
• people, animals and environment.
• He sought an end to war and unhealthy social divisions.
• He offered clear and direct teachings to end greed, violence and fear in society.
• He offered the Noble Eightfold Path as the basis for a life of collective wisdom.
• He expressed doubt about unprovable religious beliefs.

The Buddha: His life and teachings

 

Siddhartha Gautama (c. 563 - c. 483 BCE) who later came to be known as the 'Gautama Buddha' was a Hindu prince who renounced his position and wealth to seek enlightenment as a spiritual ascetic. He attained his goal and preached his path to others, in the process, founding a belief system called Buddhism in India during the 6^th to 5^th century BCE. The events of his life are largely legendary; however, he is considered an actual historical figure.

The Gautama's Birth and Youth

Gautama Buddha was born in c. 563 BCE to King Suddhodhana, a Sakhya ruler of Kapilavastu and his queen Mahamaya. Kapilavastu was a small kingdom in the Himalayan foothills or Terai region of present-day Nepal.

 According to Buddhist texts, a prophecy was given at Siddhartha's birth that if he succeeded his father, he would conquer the world and become a Universal Monarch, but if he renounced the world he would become an Enlightened Spiritual Teacher - a Cakravartin - turner of the wheel of Dharma (law).

He lost his mother seven days after his birth, and Siddhartha was brought up by Queen Mahaprajapati, the younger sister of Mahamaya and the King's second wife. King Suddhodana wanted his son to succeed him to

the throne and become a Universal Monarch as was prophesized. Therefore, the King spared no effort to keep his son on the course of the path he thought his son should take.

Buddha's luxurious youth at the royal palace and pleasure gardens

Siddhartha was isolated from the real world by the over-protective and apprehensive father who feared that his son would forsake the world and he would lose his son and heir.

He was confined to the luxurious apartment of the royal palace. Women musicians and dancers were kept solely to entertain him and he was allowed excursions only to pleasure gardens created for him.

At the age of sixteen, to bind the young prince tighter to his royal destiny, Siddhartha was married to Princess Yasodhara, who later bore him a son, Rahula.

 The Gautama's Great Renunciation

Siddhartha lived thirteen years of family life but neither wealth nor happiness of family life attracted him. Despite all kinds of luxury and attention, the young prince was never really happy. His sensitive, intelligent and probing mind remained restless.

He was deeply moved by the misery of the people around him. The King had removed afflicted or distressed people from the pleasure gardens whenever Siddhartha made excursions, yet it was these very gardens that later encounters with suffering and death that would precipitate his leaving.

The four sights (An old, a sick, a corpse and an ascetic)

It is believed that on one such excursion in his chariot, he saw an old man with a wrinkled body, a sick man suffering from a disease, and finally a dead man. These encounters disturbed and saddened him. He then saw a religious ascetic who looked serene, composed and blissful. This made him realize that only by abandoning material wealth can one remain contented. These events are known as The Four Sight.

  

Buddha's renunciation

These individual instances of suffering were to him illustrations of a universal problem. He realized the inevitability of pain and death, the futility of worldly pleasures and was consumed by the desire to discover remedy to the universal human suffering. Therefore, at the age of twenty-nine, turning his back on family, comfort and social position, leaving behind all that his society valued, he set out as an ascetic into the wilderness, intent upon finding the truth of existence. This event is referred to as the Great Renunciation.

 The Gautama's Enlightenment

Three-phase journey – mastering the art of meditation, self-mortification or asceticism, and the middle path.

 Gautama's search for the truth of existence can be seen as a three-phase journey.

             1.      The first part was his mastering the art of meditation.

             2.      The second was his years of asceticism and self-mortification,

             3.      The final was the pursuance of the middle path to transcend the darkness of human negativity and move into a state of clarity and wisdom in complete serenity.

 

Siddhartha Gautama

The Gautama's First Sermon (Teachings of Lord Buddha)

 

Buddha's First Sermon and the teachings on Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. The universal truth that the Buddha realized in Buddhist terminology is known as Dharma. For seven weeks immediately following the enlightenment, the Buddha remained in the vicinity of the Banyan tree (Bodhi tree in Buddhist terms) in Bodhgaya, reflecting on the truth he had discovered.

To whom did he teach and where?

At the close of this period, he decided to proclaim the Dharma, he had realized, to those five ascetics who were once struggling with him for enlightenment. Knowing that they were living at Isipatana (modern-day Sarnath), still following extreme asceticism, the Buddha left for Sarnath. There at the Deer Park, he rejoined them and delivered his first sermon, which came to be known as Dharma.

 What did he teach?

During the first sermon, the Buddha taught about the Four Nobel Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path.

The Four Nobel Truths

 

The first sermon that the Buddha preached after his enlightenment was about the Four Noble Truths. The Four Noble Truths explain the fundamentals of Buddhism. They are the truths realized by the Buddha- the Enlightened One. The four truths are:

 

1. Dukkha, the suffering (the truth of suffering).
2. Samudaya, the origin of dukkha (the causes of suffering).
3. Nirodha, the stopping of dukkha (the end of suffering).
4. Marga, the path leading to the stopping of dukkha (the path to freedom from suffering).

They are called "Noble Truths" because, as the Buddha says, "they are real, infallible and do not change."

 

The First Nobel Truth: The Truth of Suffering (Dukkha)

 

All humans experience surprises, frustrations, betrayals, etc., which lead to unhappiness and suffering.

Acknowledging or accepting that we will encounter difficulties in daily life as an unavoidable and universal part of life as a human being is the first truth. Within this, there are two types of suffering:

 a) natural suffering disasters, wars, infections, etc.; 

 b) self-inflicted suffering - habitual reacting and unnecessary anxiety and regret.

 

The Second Nobel Truth: The Causes of Suffering (Samudaya)

 

All suffering lies not in external events or circumstances but in the way, we react to and deal with them, our perceptions and interpretations. Suffering emerges from craving for life to be other than it is, which derives from the THREE poisons: Ignorance (Delusion) of the fact that everything including the self, is impermanent and interdependent: Desire (Greed) of objects and people who will help us to avoid suffering; Aversion (Anger) to the things we do not want, thinking we can avoid suffering. We can learn to look at each experience as it happens and be prepared for the next.

 

The Third Nobel Truth: The End of Suffering (Nirodha)

 

Nirodha means to control. Control of the craving or thirst of attachment is the Third Nobel Truth. The suffering will end if the fires of craving and thirst are extinguished by rooting out attachment.

 
The Fourth Nobel Truth: The Path that frees us from Suffering (Marga)

 

This is known as the "Middle Path" and avoids the two extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification.

The most rational methods of eliminating the causes of suffering are through understanding, adopting and following the Middle Path.

This Truth contains the Eightfold Path outlining the eight categories through which purity of mind, calmness

and insight can be achieved, freeing us from suffering and leading to enlightenment. Of the eight, the first two are grouped under Wisdom, the following three under Morality and the last three under Meditation.

The Nobel Eightfold Path

Wisdom:

1. Right Understanding - acceptance of the fundamental Buddhist teachings;

2. Right intention - adopting a positive outlook and a mind free from lust, ill-will, and cruelty;

Morality

3. Right Speech - using positive and productive speech as opposed to lying, frivolous or harsh speech;

4. Right Action - keeping the five precepts (refraining from killing, stealing, misconduct, false speech and taking intoxicants);

5. Right Livelihood-avoiding professions which harm others such as slavery, trading of arms and intoxicating substances, prostitution, and killing of animals;

Meditation

6. Right Effort - directing the mind towards wholesome goals;

7. Right Concentration - being aware of what one is thinking, doing, and feeling at all times;

8. Right Mindfulness - focusing attention to enter meditational states.

The Gautama's Mahaparinirvana (The passing away of the Buddha)

(Buddha's last meal and his final moment.)

• The Buddha worked hard to enlighten the people by helping them understand the truth.
• He corrected many wrongs in the society and established a beliéf system that attracted people from all spheres of life and became a worldwide spiritual force.
• He established four assemblies of devotees: monks, nuns, male lay devotees, and female lay devotees, who would carry on the mission of spreading dharma that he initiated.
• After many years of hard work and sacrifice, in his eightieth year, the Buddha was struck by serious illness.