Brian Mix
English 9
April 4, 1996
Buddhism
In India, in the mid-ninteen hundreds a lawyer and politician named Dr. B.R. Ambedkar got some groups of untouchables, the lowest stratum of Indian society, to renounce their former faith and return to Buddhism after a period of 750 years. By doing this he started a huge bang in the Buddhist population of India. What kind of religion could consume so many people so fully? Buddhism is a religion that is five hundred years older than Christianity, and a thousand years older than Islam. Why has it worked so well and why has it remained popular, even in the new western culture? Many people are Buddhists, many people also know of Buddhism, but few non-buddhists know of the cultural beliefs or how it works.
Basically Buddhism started with a bunch of religious movements that responded to the demands of the times. These movements were derived from the Brahmanic Tradition of Hinduism, but were also reactions against it. In laymen's terms a lot of people were unsatisfied with the Hindu god Brahma and broke off to form many different sects, Buddhism was the one that stuck. It spread throughout India and Asia and now even to the new western culture. I, for one, believe it was so successful because Buddhism offers a path of salvation that requires no belief in the supernatural, only observing that where remarkable men have followed, it is only manifestly responsible to attempt to follow. The time of Buddha was a time of social and religious changes; it was marked by the development of the Aryan civilization. Buddhism is divided into two branches, the Theravada (way of the elders), and the Mahayana (great vehicle). The Theravada the is more conservative of the two and is dominant in Sri Lanka, Burma, and Thailand. While the Mahayana is mare diverse and liberal, found in Taiwan, Korea, Japan, and Tibet. It is distinguished by it's emphasis o the Buddhist Tantras.
Buddhism was founded by a man named Sidhartha Gautama referred to as the Buddha, which means "Enlighten One". Sidhartha Gautama was born in a small village in Northern India named Lumbini which is now Southern Nepal, in approximately 563 BC. He was the son of what would be the equivalent of a tribal chief , so he was the next in line for succession. He had it easy; everything was handed to him by servants. He lived in the lap of luxury. But he did not feel complete in some way. Even though he had a beautiful wife and children and was extremely rich, he felt his soul was not complete. It came to the point at which he couldn't stand it. So he put on a yellow robe, these were worn by very poor people or beggars, and went to study philosophy and practiced meditation with some of the most popular scholars. He decided, in despair, that none of this would help him. He decided to experiment with a life of extreme ascetifism. He did such a good job at this, in fact he reduced his body so much that he was basically just a breathing skeleton, and all of his hair fell out! That's why most Buddhas are bald. At last he decided that self mortification was not the answer, greatly disappointing some deciples of his, so greatly in fact that they left him because they thought he was a quitter. Quite frankly, he thought starving was of little or no use to him in his quest for truth. He concluded that extreme intelligence and extreme abstinence were equally futile and he had to follow some sort of middle way. In search of this he sat down and meditated for an extremely long time, legends say things anywhere from two days to two months, and this is when he experienced complete enlightenment. Sidhartha had transcended the apparent limitations of human perception and had become the Buddha. He had become aware of the truth of all things.
Theravada preserves the Buddha's teachings exactly as he wrote them after his enlightenment. They also preserve the oldest version of the Hinayana Sutras. They consider them to be the actual words of the Buddha and his unadulterated teaching. The biggest part or component in the Theravada is the Four Noble Truths. These words are the Buddha's but they are translated by Bhikku Bodhi.
"What now is the Noble Truth of suffering? Birth is suffering decay is suffering; sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair are suffering. Not to get what one wants is suffering; in short the five aggregate of clinging are suffering." - The Buddha
Basically the Buddha says that everything is suffering, even just existing is suffering or in the real text it is called duhkha, which means suffering. Buddha's have to realize this as the first part of their road to enlightenment. This also follows into the second noble truth which is suffering's origin.
"What now is the Noble truth of the origin of suffering? It is craving which gives rise to repeated existence. It is craving that is bound up with pleasure ad lust, and always seeks fresh enjoyment there and there; that is sensual craving, craving for existence and craving for nonexistence." - The Buddha
It is suffering's origin, craving, that causes the cycle of repeated existence known as Samsara or even reincarnation, it also causes many human misery such as greed, ambition, hatred, anger, and selfishness. As long as craving and ignorance preside in the farthest reaches of the mind, samsara will continue. Also Karma contributes to the factor of rebirth. Karma is the actions on takes in each life they have, if you act, talk, and think good in your life helping people and such, you will come back as something better. And the opposite if you do bad things. Any one can be good but only by following the Four Noble Truths can one rid them selves of suffering and craving. The Third Noble Truth explains how to rid yourself of suffering.
"What now is the noble truth of the cessation of suffering? It is the complete fading away and cessation of craving, it's forsaking and abandonment, liberation and detachment from it." - The Buddha
The cessation of suffering is caused by craving, if you eliminate craving, suffering must cease as well. The state in which one feels no suffering, the very goal of all striving for Buddhists, is called Nirvana. Nirvana is unconditioned, deathless, imperishable peace beyond the round of birth and death. Attaining Nirvana happens in two stages the first is "the Nirvana element with a residue remaining." This is the liberation of mind, which is achieved by ridding it if all defilements. But the mind and body combination, brought into being at birth, still lives until the end of your life span, this could be considered being enlightened. The second part of Nirvana is "the Nirvana element with no residue remaining." This is when you die and you are in nirvana; remember it's not a place or a thing it is an existence of conciousness. The first part of your mind is there but your mind/body combination, which has formed into one, is still on earth until you die. This was stated in the first part of Nirvana. So you essentially exist in two places at once, until your body dies, then you have beaten suffering and the cycle of samsara. The third Noble Truth is realizing this and the Fourth is how to achieve it.
The path is called the eightfold path and is indeed the middle way the Buddha was looking for. Bhikki Bodhi divided the eightfold path into three parts; shila, samadhi, and prajina. He translates these to "mortality", "concentration", and "wisdom". They have also been translated to discipline, meditation, and knowledge. The path begins with a small degree of the right understanding and right thought needed to take up the training. Now unfolds a systematic strategy designed to uproot the defilements that generate suffering. Mortality restrains defilements in their coarsest form. Concentration then removes their more refined manifestations as distractive and restless thoughts, and wisdom destroys their latent tendencies by using direct insight, this being the three basic facts of existence summed up by Buddha as impermance, suffering, and egolessness. In the path each part is divided into two or three parts. Wisdom is divided into Right Understanding and Right Thought. Mortality is divided into Right Speech, Right Action, and Right Livelihood. Lastly Concentration is divided into Right Efforts, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration. If you follow this path the Buddha says that you will surly achieve Nirvana.
The Buddha assigned each of the Four Noble Truths a function, a task to be mastered by the disciple in training. The truth of suffering is to be fully understood. Craving is to be abandoned, Nirvana is to be realized. And the Nobel Eightfold Path that leads to deliverance is to be developed. The deciple who completes these tasks is the ideal figure of Theravada Buddhism or Arhat, meaning "The liberated one", They have vanquished all bonds binding them to the round of rebirth and lives in the experienced freedom of Nirvana.
Because of these beliefs many people have become Buddhists. The future of Buddhism is looking bright . Hope for the Buddhist religion is mainly supplied by the Tibetans who have disregarded all of things of the twentieth century, including the pressure put on them by the Chinese government lately to stop practicing Zen Buddhism.
Works Cited
Bercholz, Samuel., et al. Entering the Stream. Shambhala, 1993.
Buddhism. Multimedia Encyclopedia. New York. Grolier's inc, 1992. C-D ROM
Mitchell, Robert Allen. The Buddha His Life Retold. Paragon House, 1989.
Powell, Andrew. Living Buddhism. Harmony Books, 1989.