Gautam Buddha
In the month of Vaishakh the birthday of Gautam Buddha
is celebrated. He is considered the ninth avatar of Vishnu.
Gautam Buddha "lived and died in about the fifth century
before the Christian era." The number of Buddhists in
the world ranges "from less than two hundred million,
to more than five hundred million, with the lower number
closer to reality."
Buddhism was originally a sect within the Hindu way of
life. Its originator had the personal name of Siddharta,
and the surname Gautama. He belonged to the Sakya clan
of the Kshatriya or warrior caste. He married and had
a son, Rahula. But after some years he left his parents,
wife and child. The king, his father, had three palaces
built for him, and at the age of sixteen gave him forty
thousand dancing girls. Yet thirteen years later Gautama
left everything to find, in his own words, "the incomparable
security of a 'Nirvana' free from birth and endless reincarnation."
One day, as he sat in meditation under a bodhi
tree, he became the "enlightened one". The "enlightenment"
took place in Gautama's thirty-sixth year. His death
occurred around the age of eighty. His day was divided
between itinerant preaching in the morning and receiving
visitors for discussion at night, with the afternoons
reserved for private meditation. He gathered a number
of followers. He was strongly opposed by the Brahmins
for teaching that gifts to the Buddhist order were of
more merit than the sacrifices, which Hindus practiced.
"Nirvana"
Shortly before his death, Gautama assembled the members
of his order, and gave final instructions.
"Be lamps to yourselves," he bade them. "Betake
yourselves to no external refuge. Hold fast to the truth
as a lamp. Hold fast as a refuge to the truth. Look
not for refuge to anyone besides yourselves."
"In the Dharma or teaching, the master did not discard
the substructure of primitive Hinduism, but rather built
upon it. He seems not to have doubted the existence
of gods and of evil spirits. His concern was uniquely
with deliverance."2
To obtain liberation the disciple must put into practice
the "Four Noble Truths".
"They are, in sequence, that existence involves suffering,
that the cause-of suffering is desire and the clinging
to existence, that the way to escape from suffering
and existence is to be rid of these desires, and to
be delivered one must follow the eightfold path mapped
out by the enlightened one."
"Buddha preached a religion devoid of speculation, and
it is only on this premise that his accent on suffering
can be understood." 4Buddha denied there was a soul.
"The self-denial he advocated was literal, a denial
of self-hood with its mirage of an individual and personal
soul."5
"The founder of Buddhism postulated that life is a stream
of becoming. There is nothing permanent in the empirical
self."
"Throughout life all his sermons, exhortations, and
counseling had only one theme, Nirvana. Yet the important
question for him was not, 'What is Nirvana?' but, 'How
is Nirvana attained?' "2
"The way that leads to the extinction of suffering is
the holy eightfold path, namely right understanding,
right-mindedness, right speech, right action, right
living, right effort, right attentiveness, and right
concentration."
"Original or 'authentic' Buddhism is accurately called
atheistic, not as though the gods of Hinduism or Brahman
were explicitly denied, but because nowhere in his 'religion'
did Gautama provide that a transcendent deity should
be invoked or even that his existence should be formally
acknowledged."
Buddhism in India
Buddhism flourished during the reign of King Ashoka
(274 - 232 B.C.).
"In the 2nd cent. before Christ King Kanishka sponsored
a fourth religious council at Kashmir, at which the
Sanskrit canon of the scriptures is said to have been
fixed. This fixation was demanded by the new schism
that broke between two radically different concepts
of Buddhism, to become known as Mahayana (great vehicle)
and Hinayana (small vehicle)."
"Kanishka promoted other changes. The relics of Buddhist
saints came to be worshipped, images of Buddha were
made objects of popular veneration, monasteries were
opened to temporary residents and students who were
taught secular subjects, and, in general, Buddhism was
further transformed from an exotic cult to a religion
of the many.
"Until the rise of the Gupta dynasty aroi~ind 320 A.D.,
Buddhism fairly held its own in India. But under the
Guptas Hinduism became dominant. In spite of several
brilliant representatives, the Buddhist religion declined
on Indian soil -partly by absorption into the Hindu
tradition which made Buddha an incarnation of its god
Vishnu, partly by the Moslem invasion which was intolerant
of Buddhist anthropocentrism, and partly by the exportation
of the valid Buddhist spirit into Tibet, Mongolia, China,
Java, and Japan."
"Two types of Buddhism are easily recognized: the Mahayana
in China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Tibet, and Nepal; the
Hinayana in Thailand, Burma, Ceylon, Cambodia, India
and Indonesia."2
Mahayana
"Mahayana introduced the idea of a deity into the religion,
both on a speculative level which belongs more to philosophy,
and in a popular way that was more like the polytheism
of the masses."
"For the purposes of popular religion, Buddha became
the supreme deity, much as Krishna was for the average
Hindu...
There are many 'bodhisatvas" ('bodhi' enlightenment)
or noble persons in past ages who trod the path of the
Buddha1 and became eligible to attain to Buddhahood.
But they stopped at the bodhisatva stage and did not
take the final step out of compassion for a suffering
humanity." They are compassionate celestial beings.
"If the suffering of many is brought to an end by the
suffering of one, the one should foster this suffering
in himself by means of compassion. Have one passion
only: the good of others. All who are unhappy, are unhappy
from having sought their own happiness. All who are
happy, are happy from 'having sought the happiness of
others. You must exchange your well-being for the miseries
of others."
"Gradually the historical Buddha faded away, leaving
the Buddha as an expression of Dharma (the ultimate
void) as the only reality." "Without denying the historical
Buddha, not only Mahayana, but all forms of Buddhism
see in him only the manifestation of a type, and one
of a series of Buddhas who appear on earth throughout
the ages."
"With the help of numerous bodhisatvas and Buddhas,
polytheism, belief in demons, and other alien ideas
could be readily assimilated to Buddhism. The gods and
demons of other peoples were declared to be incarnations
or duplicates of the Buddhist pantheon."1
Hinayana
"Hinayana professes to follow the basic principles of
the Pali canon and, by this standard, may be identified
with primitive Buddhism. Certainly its emphasis on the
four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path places it nearer
to the original teachings of Gautama than Mahayana whose
express purpose was to reinterpret the Buddha's esoteric
doctrine in order to make it universally acceptable."
"The issue between the two systems runs deeper than
the familiar difference between the active and contemplative
life in Western religious thought. It implies a radical
dichotomy between two contradictory moral philosophies:
Mahayana admits a personal deity (or deities) and therefore
allows for the concept of social justice and charity
under obedience to a higher power. Hinayana denies any
god outside and above man and so logically concerns
itself only with self, which it seeks to spare the trial
of continuous rebirth by Nirvana annihilation."
Man seeks liberation, freedom, and salvation, "Nirvana".
Whether one believes in rebirth, or purgatory, or hell
or in some form of suffering here or hereafter, to escape
from suffering is a universal aspiration. Buddhism while
avoiding speculation provides a practical discipline. |
