MAJOR RELIGION // LESSON – 4 // BUDDHISM //

 

LESSON – 4

BUDDHISM

I. Introduction

Buddhism is Buddha Dharma, that is, the teachings of Buddha, the “enlightened one”. It is a religion, a practical philosophy and ethical way of life. Buddhism continues to attract followers all over the world and it is considered one of the major world religions. According to an estimate there are about 350 million Buddhists in the world and considered to be the fifth largest religion in the world. Buddhism claims to be a reasonable religion teaching about faith and conduct designed to meet human need and to solve human’s spiritual problems through self-effort. Buddhism puts salvation or Nirvana within human’s control. Buddha claimed that human beings are responsible for their own salvation and pointed to an ideal of the holy life.

II. The Founder: Gautama Buddha

Gautama (563-483 BCE) was born into a royal family belonging to the Sakya clan at Kapilavastu, Bihar, India. His parents were Shuddodhana and Maya. He was the ruler of Sakya clan, related to Iksvaku of Kosala. He was named Siddhartha by his parents. According to Buddhist traditions many miracles were seen at the time of his birth. It seems that before his birth it was known that the queen will give birth to either a great king or a great saint. From his childhood it was clear that the boy was intelligent and possessed extraordinary wisdom. He was serious and instead to playing he loved meditation. After his enlightenment, he came to be known as the Buddha (which means, the “enlightened one”). His life can be divided into three parts: 1. Early Life, 2.Period of Quest and 3. Period of Enlightenment and Preaching Dhamma.

1. Early Life

He was brought up in princely luxury. He was married to princess Yashodhara and to them a son was born named Rahula. He was the only son to his doting parents. His father took precautions so that nothing will cause him any pain or displeasure. However, he went out of the palace and saw three scenes that disturbed him very much: (1) a very old man; (2) a very sick man and (3) a corpse. These sights convinced him that life is full of misery, sorrow and suffering and so he decided to find a solution to this problem. Then he saw a sage or hermit who seemed to live a life of peace in the midst of unrest around him. He wanted to find out the secret for this kind of life.

2. Period of Quest

One day, when he was 29 years old, he took a last look at his wife Yashodhara and his baby son Rahula sleeping and he left the palace. He went into a forest, shaved his head and donned on a robe of a hermit. For six years he went around becoming a wandering monk wearing a practiced asceticism but to no avail. He went to two teachers Alara and Uddaka. Alara taught him the doctrine and necessity for enlightenment according to Sankhya philosophy. But mere intellectual teaching did not give him enlightenment. So he went to Uddaka who taught him the necessity to tapas and bodily mortification. So he practiced the path of bodily mortification till he became too weak even to walk. He realized that self mortification is not the answer to his quest and started to eat food and slowly regained his strength.

 

3. Period of Enlightenment and Preaching Dhamma

He went and sat under a peepul tree at Bodh Gaya and meditated for 49 days. He was tempted by Maya, the tempter by threatening him with storms, rains, and lightening but Gautama did not succumb. Finally, after forty nine days of meditation, on a full moon night in the month of May, he attained enlightenment. He was 35 years old at that time. After this experience, he was called the Buddha, which means the “Enlightenment One”. He achieved a unique experience that is described as enlightenment. Bodh Gaya, the place of his enlightenment is the most important place of pilgrimage for the Buddhists. They have built a big temple called Mahabodhi Temple there.

            After enlightenment, he travelled up and down all over North India, preaching and teaching his message of hope and happiness and making many converts. His message came to be known as Buddhism. He died at the age of 80, probably because of food poisoning.

III. Scriptures of Buddhism

There is no single book that is the equivalent of the Bible in Christianity or the Qur’an in Islam, in Buddhism. The main teachings as compiled after the death of the Buddha are contained in a collection of scriptures called the Traipitaka—“The Three Scriptures”.

 

The two main branches of Buddhism are called Mahayana (“the greater vehicle”) and Hinayana (“the lesser vehicle”). The former claims enlightenment is available to all and the latter to only a few of the committed. Being aware of the negative connotation of the term, Hinayana Buddhists began to call themselves Theravada (“the teaching of the elders”).  Theravada Buddhist scriptures are written in Pali, the language that was spoken in Northern India at the time the Buddha lived. It is a large collection of discourses, teachings and commentaries that are highly regarded by the Buddhists. Mahayana Buddhist scriptures are written in Sanskrit, India's language of learned discourse.

 

IV. Teachings of Buddhism

1. The Four Noble Truths

 

(1). According to Buddha the first noble truth is that the world is full of suffering and sorrow and this is which should never be forgotten. Suffering (dukkha) is a universal fact. The word dukkha has deep philosophical meaning and is difficult to define. It can mean misery, distress, despair, agony, suffering of body and mind. It also means change, emptiness, imperfection and conflict. He stated that which is unpleasant and does not give pleasure can be called as sorrow. He said that contact with unpleasant always brings sorrow. Every separation and unfulfilled desire is bound to result in sorrow.

 

(2). The second noble truth is that there is always reason or cause for suffering. The cause of suffering is desire. It is hungering, desiring and craving for self-satisfaction. It is ceaseless striving for pleasures and sensations which give temporary satisfaction, they only arouse more desire. Attachment leads to ignorance, ignorance leads to desire and desire leads to suffering.

 

(3). Then third noble truth is that these sorrows and sufferings can be averted by completely stopping the desire so that no passion remains and that there is no place for that. There is a state in which there is complete freedom from suffering and bondage. It is a state of unspeakable joy, happiness and peace. This state is known as nirvana.

 

(4). The fourth noble truth is the remedy for sorrow and suffering lies in the noble eightfold path. According to him all those who follow this path always get nirvana. It is also referred to as the middle path between the extremes of self-indulgence and self-torture, both of which are profitless.

 

2. The Eight-fold Path  

 

(1). Right Speech―abstaining from untruthfulness, tale-bearing, harsh language and useless talk.

(2.) Right Action―abstaining from killing, stealing and sexual misconduct.

(3). Right Livelihood―earning a living in ways not harmful to any living thing.

(4). Right Effort―avoiding evil thoughts and overcoming them, arousing good thoughts and maintaining them.

(5.) Right Mindfulness―paying careful and vigilant attention to every state of the body, feeling and mind.

(6). Right Concentration―concentrating on a single object so as to include certain special states of consciousness in deep meditation.

(7). Right Understanding―understanding the four noble truths.

(8). Right Thought―freedom from ill will, lust, cruelty and untruthfulness.

            Buddha claimed only to be a guide, teacher of the way but not a saviour. Human being must work out his/her own salvation by his/her own efforts to achieve nirvana, which is to gain spiritual emancipation. It is not a gift of divine grace but a conquest won by human’s intellect and will on his/her own responsibility.

3. The Doctrine of Anatta

Buddhism does not teach that human has an eternal, indestructible soul. Instead Buddhism teaches that there is ‘no-soul’ (anatta). This doctrine of no-soul is implicit in the Buddha’s teaching about suffering. Since all things are subject to dukkha, pain, decay, and death, there can be nothing permanent; all things change and are impermanent. Hence, there cannot be anything which is not subject to the law of change.

            It was by thinking about life that the Buddha arrived at the conclusion that there is no soul or self. The so-called ‘I’, said the Buddha, is only a combination of ever changing forces which together make up a being. These forces include the sensations of sight, hearing, and touch, the activities of the mind, and the qualities of things as they are, such as solidity, heat, and movement. Where these forces act together there is a ‘being’ which takes a certain form and is given a name. Because the forces which combine to make this ‘being’ are changing from moment to moment, this ‘being’ also continually changing. It is like a cinema picture, which is made up of thousands of individual drawings, each separate and distinct, but which follow one another on the screen with such rapidly that it appears to be continuous. Thus the combination of physical and mental forces creates an illusion that there is a ‘person’ when in fact there is no permanent self.

4. Nirvana

The literal meaning of the word nirvana is ‘dying out’ or ‘extinction’, as of a fire. Buddha used this illustration to make his point; the world is in flames, kindled by the fire of desire. The process of rebirth is a rekindling of this fire from one flame to another flame, and this keeps the fires of birth, decay, death, pain, anxiety etc, constantly burning. Nirvana is the extinguishing of this flame, the flame of desire. In a sense this is not the annihilation of the self because according to the doctrine of anatta, there is no self to annihilate. It is rather annihilation of the illusion of the self. With this, all that clusters around or supports this illusion, the thirst for life, lust, greed, selfishness, desires and all forms of suffering are annihilate. Nirvana is not just nothing, it is called the harbor of refuge, the cool cave, the island in the midst of the floods, the place of bliss, liberation, safety, the home of ease, the end of suffering, and the supreme joy. Nirvana is an experience of bliss, which can be attained in this life in this world, and not a state that can be attained only in the distant future. Nirvana is a permanent state of bliss beyond the world of birth, death and rebirth.

4. The Five Precepts

Lord Buddha preached that everyone should try to lead a virtuous life and that one should be pure in thoughts, words and actions. He taught that one should be kind to living beings, speak the truth, should not steal anything and avoid vices. He desired that his followers sincerely live according to his code of conduct. A lay Buddhist should cultivate good conduct by training in what are known as the five precepts. The five precepts are training rules.

(1). To avoid killing other beings. This precept applies to all living beings not just humans. All beings have a right to their lives and that right should be respected.

(2). Do not steal or avoid taking things that are not given. This precept goes further than mere stealing. One should avoid taking anything unless one can be sure that is intended that it is for you.

(3). Avoid overindulgence such as sexual misconduct. This precept covers any overindulgence in any sensual pleasure such as gluttony as well as misconduct of a sexual nature.

(4). Abstaining from false speech, lying and deceiving. This precept covers slander as well as speech which are not beneficial to the welfare of others.

(5). Abstaining from intoxication and rashness. This precept is in a special category as it does not infer any intrinsic evil in, say, alcohol itself but indulgence in such a substance could be the cause of breaking the other four precepts.

V. Buddhist Festivals and Ceremonies

1. Buddhist New Year

In Theravada Buddhist countries, Thailand, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Cambodia and Lao, the New Year is celebrated for three days from the first full moon day in April. In Mahayana Buddhist countries, China, Korea, Japan, Tibet and Nepal, the New Year starts on the first full moon day in January. However, the Buddhist New Year depends upon the country of origin or ethnic background of the people. As for example, Chinese, Koreans and Vietnamese celebrate late January or early February according to the lunar calendar, while the Tibetans usually celebrate it about one month later.

2. Vesak ( The Buddha Day)

Buddha’s birthday is known as Vesak or Visakah Puja (Buddha’s Birthday Celebrations). Vesak is the major Buddhist festival of the year as it celebrates the birth, enlightenment and death of the Buddha on one day, the first full moon day in May, except in a leap year when the festival is held in June. This celebration is called Vesak being the name of the month in the Indian calendar.

3. Abhidhamma Day

In the Burmese tradition, they celebrate on this day the occasion when the Buddha is said to have gone to the Tushita (heaven) to teach his mother the Abhidhamma. It is held on the full moon of the seventh month of the Burmese lunar year starting in April which corresponds to the full moon day in October.

4. The Elephant Festival

The Buddha used the example of a wild elephant which, when it is caught, is harnessed to a tame one to train. In the same way, he said, a person new to Buddhism should have a special friendship of an older Buddhist. To mark this saying, Thais hold an elephant festival on the third Saturday in November.