A Brief History Of Buddhism
Posted by Owen Jones in Uncategorized, tags: buddhism, happiness, history, holidays, India, knowledge, mahabarata, other, philosophy, religion, society, spirituality, Thailand, Uncategorized, vishnuBuddhism was started by the followers of Siddhartha Gautama (circa 563-483 BC). He was born into a Hindu family of the kshatriya caste in what is now known as Nepal. At the age of 29, he abandoned his wife and young son and went in search of enlightenment.
He gained enlightenment some time later whilst sitting under a bodhi tree near Patna. After 49 days of rapture and resisting temptations (Mara), He, now called Buddha, created a group of monks and went forth to teach the word. After 45 years of preaching their philosophy of enlightenment Buddha died and reached Nirvana, the state in which ‘ideas and consciousness cease to be’.
One of the most important concepts to Buddhists is the Tipitaka (the ‘Three Baskets’), which is a record of the Buddha’s doctrines as set down by His early followers after his death. The writings in these ‘three baskets’ tell the story of Buddha’s life (Buddha); record his laws (Dharma); and his guidelines for establishing and maintaining a monastic order (Sangha).
Buddhists believe in reincarnation and the wheel of life in a comparable fashion to Hindus. They also believe that this cycle of life, death and rebirth can be broken by achieving enlightenment. Enlightenment can be attained by devotion to the Four Noble Truths.
Life is impermanent despite the cycle of life, death and rebirth and can only create suffering (dukka) because of the pursuit of mortal desires. Suffering and desire can just be conquered by achieving Nirvana, which can be achieved by following the Eightfold Path, otherwise known as the ‘Middle Way’.
The Middle Way consists of: correct belief, thought, speech, action, livelihood, work, mindfulness and concentration. These form the nucleus of Buddhist ethics.
A hallmark of Buddhism is the monastic order. Men can become monks for a few years or for life. There is also a female monastic order. In some sects, boys go into a monastery for a period of between a couple of weeks and a couple of months as part of their passage into adulthood. Boys in Thailand are expected to become monks for a number of weeks before they eventually get married.
Monks live an austere life in monasteries or temples. Each village has a temple in much the same manner as western villages have a church, but each temple tries to uphold a population of at least nine monks, which is thought to be the perfect number for some of their duties like blessing a house or carrying out a wedding ceremony.
Buddhist monks live on alms given by the local villagers. In Thailand the young monks walk the streets in the early morning collecting donations of food, which has to be consumed before midday, after which they may not eat. Monks are not permitted any contact with women at all. They may not even sit next to them on a bus or give the fare to a female bus conductress.
Buddhist temples are mainly for personal contemplation and meditation. They are open to anyone twenty-four hours a day and people use them to gain respite from the hustle and bustle of daily life. Group prayer meetings are far less common a feature of Buddhism than they are in Judaism, Christianity, Islam or even Hinduism.
Owen Jones, the writer of this article writes on many subjects but is currently involved with Easter.If you would like to read more, please go over to our website entitled Celebrating Easter
Entries (RSS)