Buddhism

Origins

• Founder Siddhartha Gautama

  • Indian Prince (Hindu)

  • High Caste

• Traveled and met an old man, sick man and a holy man

  • Conclusion: Suffering is a part of life

• Becomes monk + becomes enlightenment (wisdom/understanding)

  • Earns title of “Buddha” → “The Enlightened One”

• Born into a noble family that levied in Kapilavastu → it was on the foothills of Himalayas in Nepal

  • The baby exhibited marks of a great man

• Prophecy (a prediction)

  • Stayed Home → world leader

  • Left home → universal spiritual leader

• Father wanted him to become a world leader → kept at home

  • Married and had a son completely separate from the world

• Always wondered about the world around him

  • At 29 he left the palace 4 times

    • Saw an old man

    • Saw a sick man

    • Saw a corpse (dead body)

    • Saw a holy man, who seemed at peace with himself

  • Drew from this experience and understood that every living thing experiences old age, sickness and death

    • Only religion can offer refuge from the inevitable suffering

      • Suffering is part of life

• Decided to spend his life searching for religious truth and end of lives suffering

• Wandered through the forests of India for six years seeking enlightenment (wisdom)

  • Debated with other religious seekers

  • Fasted → only ate six grains of rice a day

    • None of these brought him the truth and he continued to suffer

  • Meditation → 49 days of meditation, he understood the cause of suffering in the world 

    • From then on know as the Buddha → meaning the enlightened one

    • After his discovery was set out to spread what he had learned to other people → basic teachings of Buddhism

• Buddha’s Teaching

  • Reject caste system

  • Goal: Nirvana → Enlightenment

  (“Extinguished” or “Quenched”)

  • Nireva = End of suffering + release from Samsara

  • Karma + Dharma still important

    • Determine place in next life

  • Tripitaka → Holy Text

  • Place of worship: temples or at home

  • Accepted the idea of reincarnation

    • Cyclical, repetitive, view of history

      • World is created and destroyed over and over again

  • Rejected gods of Hinduism → instead taught a way of enlightenment

    • Rejected privileges of Brahmin priest → thus reject caste system

  • Reject the caste system → built on the belief that all men are created equal

    • Believer of the qualities people had to offer and not their caste

  • Nireva → The end of suffering breaking that cycle 

  • Karma and Dharma (Remind me what these mean)

    • Still super important as they determine place in next life

  • Holy text was called Tripitaka, written down shortly after his death

    • Includes commentaries, rules of monastic life, manuals on how to mediate and legends of previous reincarnations 

      • Written down first century BC

  • Worshiped at home or in temples

  • Similarities → the end goal, breaking the chain of reincarnation

    • Moksha for Hinduism

    • Nirvana for Buddhism

    • How to Achieve Nirvana

      • follow four noble truths

        1. Four main ideas to get to enlightenment → Four Noble Truths

           • 1st Noble Truth → Life is filled with suffering and sorrow

             • The truth of suffering

           • 2nd Noble Truth → The cause of all suffering is people’s selfish desire for the temporary pleasures of this world

             • The truth of the cause of suffering

           • 3rd Noble Truth → The way to end all suffering is to end all desires

             • The truth of the end of suffering

           • 4th Noble Truth → The way to overcome such desire and attain enlightenment is to follow the Eightfold Path, which is called the middle way between desires and self-denial

             • The truth of the path that leads to the end of suffering

        2. The Eightfold Path

           • A guide to behavior → like a staircase

             • For a Buddha seeking enlightenment master one step at a time

               • Mastery would occur over lifetimes

             • Following the path anyone could reach Nirvana → Buddha’s word for release from selfishness and pain

        3. The Middle Way

           • Also known as the Eightfold Path

             • Series of steps that Buddhists believe leads to enlightenment and salvation
               

• Buddhism
  Three main traditions formed

  • Theravada, Mahayana and Tibetan 

• Theravada Buddhism

  • “Doctrine of the Elders”

  • Draws its scriptural inspiration from the Tipitaka 

  • Earliest surviving record of the Buddha’s teaching

  • Meditation 

  • Monastic (monks, nuns and other living under religious poems) lifestyle

    • Way to reach nirvana is to become a monk or non and spend all of one’s time in meditation

  • No gods → what would that be considered

    • Individual religion

• Mahayana Buddhism

  • Less emphasis on nirvana and more on knowledge or wisdom

    • People can help each other find enlightenment

    • Don’t need to be a monk of nun to reach Nirvana

  • Help is provided by people who have found enlightenment but not yet passed on to Nirvana → remain on earth so others can find the way

• Difference between Theravada and Mahayana

  • Theravada : gain freedom from the cycle of samsara

  • Mahayana: stay in the cycle of samsara out of compassion for others

Cultural Diffusion: Hinduism and Buddhism

• Theories about what happened to buddhism

  • Hinduism simply absorbed Buddhism

    • Constantly influenced each other

    • Buddhism identified by Hinduism as one of 10 incarnations (reappearances on Earth) of the god Vishnu

      • Vishnu → one of the three avatars of Brahma

  • Important place for pilgrimage in India

    • Visit spots associated with Buddha’s life

      • Birthplace at Kapilavastu

      • Fig tree near Gaya

      • Site of his first Sermon

      • Moved clockwise in direction around the sanctuaries