Hist Notes 5 6 Upanishads rep one of the imp reform movements that tookplace in S Asia Are imp to religious and social structures of Indian Society Mahavira s birth Mah was a rel reformer and he looked at Indian society and organization and came to the conclusion that it was somewhat problematic in the 6th C he created a reform that was associated with Jainism Jainism was very extreme lifestyle of renunciation extreme rejection of the physical world in order to break from the cycle of re birth and death and escape to heaven he practiced that the basic way to avoid process of b and d was the physical denial of material world by the body this explains his philosophical principles ahimsa means non injury and this is one of their central values they believe that they should not injur anyone or anything they are strict vegetarians so they do not harm other life this idea became one of the great ideas of S Asian religion this is one of Ghandi s imp values related to ahimsa is th practice of self denial 2 orders of monks that develop in the Jain tradition the one group is known as the white clad monks bc they dress in white and they gave up all they own no material possessions and they go around preaching and begging they also have a broom so that when they are walking they don t step on anything and kill it they also where a mask so they don t breathe in any bugs and kill them the other monastic order are the sky clad monks as an act of rejection of social values they go around preaching naked and they continued this practice as an ultimate demonstration rejection of worldly values prayer meditation study and denial characterized Jain teaching in the ultimate act of self denial Mahavira sat down one day under a shady tree and stopped eating and prayed himself to death as a way of renouncing the physical world and in hopes of his soul escaping the cycle despite power of Mah traditions Jains remained as a minority group in India perhaps the most imp of the religious reformers in this period was the Buddha and the Buddha statue in Japan is imp bc Buddhism was born in India and it would have influence in s Asian society Buddhims was felt more outside of India Buddhism was felt strongly in Japan but it grew up in India and was shaped by Indian and s Asian societies Buddha died in 483 his real name is Siddhartha Gautama the Buddha is a title which means the enlightened one he was the son of a himalayian prince and grew up in the lap of luxury and eventually he marries and has a son but at the age of 29 he takes a trip outside the palace and along the way he meets a series of new experiences new kinds of ppl a poor man a sick man a dead man it becomes apparent to Siddhartha that the world is he meets a holy man that helps him come to grips with the greater question of life upon returning to his palace he realizes he needs to dedicate his life to finding the true meaning of life and so he takes up a life of denial denies his fam and wealth he lives on a simple diet he lived on one pee a day then when he is practically dead he realizes this excessive self denial is not that great of an idea so one day he sits down under the Boghi Tree and he began to meditate on the meaning of life universe and everything and as he is doing this a demon came up to tempt him who offered him food wine and music and other earthly temptations and the Buddha rejected them all finallyt he demon challenged he Buddha to having the righ to sit on the very spot that which he is then God confirms Buddha s right and Siddhartha begins to meditate and it is at this moment that he gained enlightenment and became the Buddha he was enlightened with the 4 Noble Truths which were the key 1 The truth of Pain pain and suffering are universal and all are affected by them 2 The truth of cause of pain caused by desire for worldly wealth and experiences these things lead to pain and suffereing 3 The truth of seccession of pain 4 Truth that leads to the end of pain which is the Truth of the Middle Way way to to avoid pain is the middle way and it is identified in the 8 fold path which is defined by right ideas right thought right meditation etc 8 fold path was an ethical moral way of living and this is something you have to always and constantly strive for and it was a way of restoring moral values of religious systems of his day when he discovered this stuff he preached his first sermon at the Deer Park he adopted a life of poverty begging and preaching he attracted like minded figures and the goal of the 8 fold path was to reach Nirvana means to extinguish but what is Nirvana Buddha leaves this topic open ended but for him Nirvana was the end of the cycle of death and rebirth his first followers work some of these details out Buddha s 4 truths and 8 fold path define Buddhism The Buddha taught eeveryone and here we see why Buddhims became more imp to outside of India than India itself bc Buddha rejected the Indian social system he met with ppl of all social classes and preached to them regardless of their class main path of broader dev of S Asian soscitery and religion will see a close interconnection between rel and social organization Buddha preached to everyone and was friend to all at the end of his life he was invited to dinner by a Blacksmith Blacksmith served Buddha mushrooms and or pork and forgot to cook the pork well so here the Buddha lies down and dies and perhaps goes to Nirvana upon his death his followers cremated him and stored the Ashes in a Stupa where Buddha and his relics were preserved here we see imp est to Indian religion eventually Biddhists will divide into 2 major groups The Mahayana and Theravada traditions both offering diff approaches to Biddhims Theravada concerned with personal matters and personal salvations whereas Mahayana is a more mystical tradition and a more deply tradition which defines Buddha as being a divine being the idea of the Buddhisatva tradition is associated with Mahyana and these are ppl who have attained enlightenement but delay their entry into Nirvana so they can help other ppl come to Nirvana this is very compassionate we too see the ongoing evolution of the Hindu tradition we see books of S Asia with these ideas routed within them and within the ongoing culture and this leads to an increasing spiritual religion which has notions of lots of duty to religion in the overall social structure of society …