Buddhism

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Siddhartha Gautama is believed by Buddhists to have been born in Lumbini, Nepal and raised in Kapilavastu near the present-day Indian-Nepalese border. The traditional story of his life is as follows; little of this can be regarded as established historical fact. Born a prince, his father, King Suddhodana, was supposedly visited by a wise man shortly after Siddhartha was born and told that Siddhartha would either become a great king (chakravartin) or a holy man (Sadhu). Determined to make Siddhartha a king, the father tried to shield his son from the unpleasant realities of daily life. Despite his father's efforts, at the age of 29, he discovered the suffering of his people, first through an encounter with an elderly man. On subsequent trips outside the palace, he encountered various sufferings such as a diseased man, a decaying corpse, and an ascetic. These are often termed 'The Four Sights.'

Gautama, deeply depressed by these sights, sought to overcome old age, illness, and death by living the life of an ascetic. Gautama escaped his palace, leaving behind this royal life to become a mendicant. For a time on his spiritual quest, Buddha "experimented with extreme asceticism, which at that time was seen as a powerful spiritual practice...such as fasting, holding the breath, and exposure of the body to pain...he found, however, that these ascetic practices brought no genuine spiritual benefits and in fact, being based on self-hatred, that they were counterproductive."

After abandoning asceticism and concentrating instead upon meditation and Anapanasati (awareness of breathing in and out), Gautama is said to have discovered what Buddhists call the Middle Way—a path of moderation that lies mid-way between the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification. He accepted a little milk and rice pudding from a village girl and then, sitting under a pipal tree or Sacred fig, now known as the Bodhi tree in Bodh Gaya, or he vowed never to arise until he had found the Truth. His five companions, believing that he had abandoned his search and become undisciplined, left. After 49 days meditating, at the age of 35, he attained bodhi, also known as "Awakening" or "Enlightenment" in the West. After his attainment of bodhi he was known as BuddhaGautama Buddha and spent the rest of his life teaching his insights (Dharma). According to scholars, he lived around the fifth century BCE, but his more exact birthdate is open to debate. He died around the age of 80 in Kushinagara India.

Basics

The Buddha was human. It is however important to note that in the Pali Canons Gautama Buddha is known as being a "teacher of the gods and humans", superior to both the gods and humans in the sense of having nirvana or the greatest bliss (whereas the devas or gods of the Vedic era were still subject to anger, fear, sorrow, etc.

Doctrine

In Theravada Buddhism, any person who has awakened from the "sleep of ignorance" (by directly realizing the true nature of reality), without instruction, and teaches it to others is called a Buddha, while those who achieve realisations but do not teach others are called Pratyekabuddhas. All traditional Buddhists agree that Shakyamuni or Gotama Buddha was not the only Buddha: it is generally taught that there have been many past Buddhas and that there will be future Buddhas too. If a person achieves this awakening, he or she is called an arahant. Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, is thus only one among other buddhas before or after him. His teachings are oriented toward the attainment of this kind of awakening, also called liberation, or Nirvana.

Part of the teachings ascribed to the Buddha regarding the holy life and the goal of liberation is constituted by the "The Four Noble Truths", which focus on dukkha, a term that refers to suffering or the unhappiness ultimately characteristic of unawakened, worldly life. The Four Noble Truths regarding suffering state what is its nature, its cause, its cessation, and the way leading to its cessation.^[25] This way to the cessation of suffering is called "The Noble Eightfold Path", which is one of the fundamentals of Buddhist virtuous or moral life.

Silas (Five Precepts)

The five precepts are not given in the form of commands such as "thou shalt not ...", but are training rules in order to live a better life in which one is happy, without worries, and can meditate well.

To refrain from taking life.
To refrain from taking that which is not freely given (stealing).
To refrain from sexual misconduct (improper sexual behavior).
To refrain from lying.
To refrain from intoxicants which lead to loss of mindfulness.

Meditation

Meditation describes a state of concentrated attention on some object of thought or awareness. It usually involves turning the attention inward to a single point of reference. Meditation is often recognized as a component of eastern religions, where it has been practiced for over 5,000 years. Different meditative disciplines encompass a wide range of spiritual and/or psychophysical practices which can emphasize development of either a high degree of mental concentration, or the apparent converse, mental quiescence.

The word meditation comes from the Latin meditatio, which originally indicated every type of physical or intellectual exercise, then later evolved into the more specific meaning "contemplation."

Schools of Buddhism

Buddhism is classified in various ways. The normal English-language usage, as given in dictionaries, divides it into Theravada (also known by the derogatory name Hinayana) and Mahayana. The commonest classification among scholars is threefold, with Mahayana split into East Asian and Tibetan traditions.

Theravada

"The Way of the Elders") is the oldest surviving Buddhist school,The Theravada school upholds the Pali Canon or Tipitaka as the most authoritative collection of texts on the teachings of Gautama Buddha. The Tipitaka is the oldest historical collection of texts on Buddhism, having its roots in the First Buddhist Council of the 5th century BCE. The Sutta and Vinaya portion of the Tipitaka shows considerable overlap in content to the Agamas, the parallel collections used by non-Theravada schools in India which are preserved in Chinese and partially in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and Tibetan, and the various non-Theravada Vinayas.

On this basis, both these sets of texts are generally believed to be the oldest and most authoritative texts on Buddhism by scholars. It is also believed that the Pali Canon, which is still used by Theravāda communities, was transmitted to Sri Lanka during the reign of Asoka. After being orally transmitted (as was the custom in those days for religious texts) for about 4 centuries, were finally committed to writing between 35 and 32 BCE, at what the Theravada reckons as the fourth council, in Matale, Sri Lanka. Theravada is one of the first Buddhist school to commit the whole complete set of it
Buddhist canon into writing.

Mahayana

Mahayana, "Great Vehicle" is a vast religious and philosophical structure. It constitutes an inclusive faith characterized by the adoption of new Mahayana sutras, in addition to the traditional Pali canon or Agama texts, and a shift in the basic purpose and concepts of Buddhism. Mahayana sees itself as penetrating further and more profoundly into the Buddha's Dharma. In the Mahaparinirvana Sutra, for instance, the Buddha tells of how his initial teachings on suffering, impermanence and non-Self were given to those who were still like "small children", unable to digest the full "meal" of Truth, whereas when those spiritual students "grow up" and are no longer satisfied by the preliminary ingredients of the Dharmic meal fed to them and require fuller sustenance, they are then ready to assimilate the full and balanced fare of the Mahayana teachings

Vajrayana

Tibetan Buddhism is a Mahayana Buddhist tradition, meaning that the goal of all practice is to achieve enlightenment (or Buddhahood), as opposed to mere personal liberation, in order to help all other sentient beings attain this state. The motivation for Mahayana practice is the Bodhichitta (a Sanskrit word meaning 'mind of enlightenment').

Tibetan Mahayana Buddhism encompasses Vajrayana (a Sanskrit word that is a conjunction of vajra which may be translated as diamond, thunder or indestructible and yana or vehicle). It is said that Vajrayana practice is the fastest method for attaining Buddhahood, however this is only the case for advanced practitioners who have a grounding in the preliminary practices (which may be categorised as renunciation, Bodhichitta and wisdom - specifically, the wisdom perceiving emptiness). For practitioners who are not qualified, Vajrayana practise is in fact dangerous, and will only lead to suffering if it is not practised with the pure motivation of Bodhichitta. For this reason also, Vajrayana should only ever be practised after receiving an appropriate initiation (also known as an empowerment) from a qualified lama.

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Buddhism

Basics

Doctrine

Silas (Five Precepts)

Meditation

Schools of Buddhism

Theravada

Mahayana

Vajrayana

Further Reading