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Buddhism

Buddhism

Sept 13, 2021

Introduction

  • Siddhartha Gautama was born a prince, the son of a ruler of a small kingdom in northern India, at Lumbini in the Himalayan foothills around 560 BCE. At the age of 29 he left his wealthy privileged life to seek an answer to the problem of human suffering, wandering around as a beggar. He tried fasting and meditation, but rejected extreme solutions. He pursued the ‘Middle Way’ - a life without luxury but also without poverty
  • Proverbs 30:8 - Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread.
  • According to the famous tradition Siddhartha sat down in the shade of a banyan tree and after a night of meditation he began to understand the meaning of things and became enlightened, achieving nirvana. Sculptures of the Buddha, as he became known, often show him seated in meditation recalling the occasion under the banyan tree. The Buddha died at the age of 80 having influenced many by his teachings and sermons. 
  • After the Buddha’s death the new teachings spread first through northern India and over the following centuries were carried north into central Asia, southwards towards Sri Lanka and South East Asia and eastwards towards China and Japan. 
  • Some Buddhists, especially of the Tibetan tradition, refer to Siddhartha Gautama as the Buddha Shakyamuni, which means “the sage of the Sakya clan” (denoting the area of Nepal where the Buddha was born).
  • A familiar symbol of Buddhism is the eight-spoked wheel which reminds people of the eightfold path of the Buddha’s teaching. Another common symbol is the lotus flower. The roots of the lotus are in the mud at the bottom of the pond, which represents human life, while the flower itself represents enlightenment.

3 Universal Truths

  • everything is impermanent and changing
  • impermanence leads to suffering, making life imperfect
  • the self is not personal and unchanging

4 Noble Truths

  • Dukkha (truth of suffering) - all life involves suffering
  • Samudaya (truth of the origin of suffering) - suffering is caused by desire and attachment
  • Nirodha (truth of the cessation of suffering) - desire and attachment can be overcome
  • Magga (truth of the path to the cessation of suffering) - the way to overcome them is by the middle way or eightfold path

Sects/Denominations

  • Theravada Buddhism
  • Mahayana Buddhism
  • Nichiren Buddhism

majority of the sects don't proselytise (preach and convert), except Nichiren Buddhism. However, all schools aid followers

Five Precepts

  • Theravada tradition has 5, other sects have hundreds
  • guidelines to accumulate good karma and to come closer to achieving enlightenment
    1. to abstain from taking life
    2. to abstain from taking what is not given
    3. to abstain from sensuous misconduct
    4. to abstain from false speech
    5. to abstain from intoxicants as tending to cloud the mind

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