BuddhismOverview- Buddha experiences a great enlightenment at the age of 35.- He spent 45 years of his life teaching that all worldy phenomena are transient, caught up in a cycle of arising and passing away.- Dharma-teaching.- Sangha- community of disciples Buddha set up.- Buddhism is found in nearly every country but is most common is East, Southand Southeast Asia.- Three main traditions:1. Theravada-Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia2. Mahayana-East Asia3. Vajrayana- HimalayansOriginsReligious Life in Ancient India- In the Ganges region there was tension between Hinduism and other beliefs about 2500 years ago.- Brahmin priests were allowed to marry and often conducted animal sacrifices.- Ascetic masters like the Jaina master Mahavira and Shakyamuni Buddha were celibate and denounced the practice of sacrifice.- Brahmin and ascetic traditions also varied in the role of deities.- Brahmin deities required regular praise and ritual offerings and in return would be the devotees’ request for assistance.- For ascetic tradition, deities played a small role. There was no asking of the gods for assistance.- Liberation could only be achieved through ones own efforts without supernatural assistance.- Meditative persons who follow their own paths will overcome the bonds of mara (death).- Buddhism arose from this ascetic tradition.- It had a concept of the impermanence of the human self or soul.- Kara and successive incarnation, withdrawal from the world, and the belief that gods, demons and spirits played an active role in human life were common in not only Buddhism but in all regions of the Ganges.- Siddhartha Guatama was a prince of Shakya (Nepal) became the first Shakyamuni and the Buddha of the current age.The First Gem: The BuddhaThe Bodhisattva Vow and Previous Lives Our current universe was already in the declining phase of its life cycle when Shakyamuni, the Buddha of the present age, was born. Every era, when the inevitable decline in morality and truth becomes severe, a highly developed being is born to become the Buddha for that era. No mighty god is needed to mastermind the arrival of a new Buddha: highly developed being that is aware of the state of the world and knows when the time has come. Believed to be one enlightened one of every era. Slightly enlightened are called:1. pratyeka buddhas who are hermits in society, they live in isolation from the world and do not teach.2. Arhats are ‘worthy’ ones.3. Bodhisattvas are those who have dedicated themselves to achieving Buddhahood. It is important that Shakyamuni achieves enlightenment through his own reflective and meditative efforts. The Buddha is not a god on earth, but a spiritually enlightened human. Story of Buddha: o A young man goes to a crown of people filling mud holes in the road. When the Buddha arrives before an unfilled hole, the young man presents himself as a stepping-stone.o The Buddha proclaims that young man will be a Buddha in the future.o The young man solemnly promises to work towards Buddhahood- bodhisattva vow.o When the young man dies, his karma complex gives rise to a new being. o Each new life of his makes progress of purifying his inner nature.o These lives are in a collection called the Jataka- ‘birth’ stories.o The most famous jataka story is the last rebirth before he becomes the Buddha.o Reborn as prince Vessantra, known for his generosity. o His generosity does not cause problems until he becomes king and gives the kingdom’s lucky white elephant to citizens of a rival kingdom.o The people demands he is exile and even in exile he continues to give away everything including his family.o His father, the king, finally intervenes and the prince is reunited with his family and we learn that the gods have been guiding events so as to give him the opportunity to test his resolve.o His strict adherence to his vow serves as a model for Buddhist self-discipline.Siddhartha’s Birth and Childhood Vessantra in not reborn right after his death. Reborn into the ruling family of a kingdom (Nepal today(. The queen of the Shakya people, Mahamaya, is keeping a vow of sexual abstinence in observance of a festival. During a nap she dreams the four world protectors take her to a groveof trees. At the trees a sacred white elephant descends from the heavens and enters her. Her pregnancy is marked with supernatural signs (ex: she can see her baby through her womb). On her way home the baby is born on the side of the road with the help of a magical tree. The Theravada tradition says that the birth takes place on the full-moon day of the month, which is called Vaishakha. This baby is presented to King Shuddhodana who calls a naming festival. Brahmins predict that he will become a great emperor unless he departs the world and then he will achieve the highest possibly goal for a monk by becoming a fully enlightened Buddha. The king wants him to become an emperor so he orders that no death,sickness etc. comes near the baby. He lived a life of a pampered prince. The story that stands out the most of the bodhisattva’s childhood is when the boy is sitting in the shade of a rose-apple tree watching his father perform a spring ground-breaking ritual when he enters a meditational trance and the shadows of the tree miraculously stands still even though the suns move. This plays a role in his achievement of enlightenment. The Four Sights and the Great Departure Siddhartha learns the truth of life’s sorrows around his thirtieth birthday. He is married to Yasodhara and has a son Rahula. He sees the four sights while out. The first three are a sick man, a suffering old man, and a dead man. The final is a monk, whose aura of tranquil detachment from the world suggests that there is a way to overcome the suffering of life after all. That night the bodhisattva flees the palace, which is later called the Great Departure. He changes his royal life and luxuries and becomes a poor hunter seeking spiritual truth along the banks of the Ganges. After mastering the 6th levels of classical yoga he is unable to find someone to teach him the 7th at the level of enlightenment that he wants to reach. He embarks on an independent program of rigorous ascetic discipline. Living on nothing but a palm of water and one of food per day he losesconsciousness and preserves by the four world protectors. Enlightenment Now at a town called Bodh Gaya.
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