Post 6

Utilizing Smith's material on Buddhism discuss the main basic Buddhist teachings/concepts and how Buddha arrived at them.

Buddhism began with a man (male human being), who was born around 563 B.C. in what is now Nepal, who woke up. Siddhartha was his given name and Gautama was his family name. At the age of sixteen he married a neighboring princess, Yasodhara and had a son, Rahula. At this point in his life he was a man who seemed to have everything anyone could want: social standing (his father ruled the petty kingdoms that comprised India), appearance, wealth, a wife, a child, and a throne he would soon inherit. In his twenties however he was discontent, which leads him to leave his life, as he knew it. He left the palace for four days and runners were told to remove any unpleasantness during his ventures. However he ended up seeing an old man broken-toothed, a body racked with disease, and a corpse. On the fourth day out he met a monk with a shaven head and learned from him a path that renounces the world. This is a summary of the legend of The Four Passing Sights that impounds the truth that it was the body’s inescapable involvement with disease, decrepitude, and death that made him despair of finding fulfillment on the physical plane. At age twenty-nine Gautama heard his calling of a truth-seeker and discarded his royal attire, shaved his head, and entered the forest to seek enlightenment. Six years followed and his journey went through three phases, which began with his seeking out two of the foremost Hindu masters and learning what he could from them. The second phase was to join a band of ascetics and give their way a try. Within each austerity he would out do his teachers and eventually grew so weak that his companions had to rescue him with warm rice gruel, otherwise he would have died. This event inspired him to come up with the principle of The Middle Way between extremes of asceticism and indulgence. The final phase of his journey was to combine thought and mystic concentration that resemble Hinduism’s raja yoga. He sat down one evening under the Bodhi tree and vowed not to move or leave until he had gained his goal of enlightenment. Mara the Evil One tried to disrupt Gautama’s concentration by parading voluptuous woman (which did not work) and assailed him with torrents of flaming rocks, which turned into blossom petals when they entered the field of his yogic concentration.
Gautama’s meditation depended until his mind pierced the world’s bubble, collapsing it to nothing; only to find it restored with the effulgence of true being. The Great Awakening had arrived and Gautama had become the Buddha. Mara tried then to tempt Buddha into entering Nirvana because he could not expect people to understand truth as profound as he had discovered. However Buddha answered, “There will be some who will understand,” and Mara was vanquished forever. Buddha then founded an order of monks and accepted in return the resentment, queries, and bewilderment his stance provoked. He saved himself from burning out under these pressures by going through a pattern of withdrawal and return. Each year was divided between nine months of teaching and three months in retreat with his monks within the rainy season. Also he would meditate three times a day. After a forty-five year ministry at the age of eighty (within the year 483 B.C.), Buddha died after eating some poisoned mushrooms that were put into a dish by accident. Buddhism has earned a subtitle “a religion of infinite compassion” from Buddha’s his combination of a cool head and warm heart. He would respond to every problem cool, dispassionate analysis. Because he had experience a royal lifestyle and a pour poppers lifestyle he moved easily among kings and potentates. There was constant pressure during his life to turn him into a god however he rebutted insisting he was human in every respect. He was also known as a rebellious saint. He preached a religion devoid of authority, devoid of ritual, that skirted speculation, devoid of tradition, and devoid of the supernatural. Buddhism is based on The Four Noble Truths. The First Noble Truth is that life is dukkha, or suffering because life as it is typically lived is out of joint. This has earned the religion as being pessimistic. What causes life’s suffering is answered in The Second Noble Truth. Tanha is commonly translated as desire, the desire for private fulfillment. The Third Noble Truth gives a cur to our suffering that is overcoming tanha. The Forth Noble Truth describes how the cure can be accomplished which is through the Eightfold Path.
Right knowledge which says we need to have some an idea of where we are and in which direction to proceed which the Four Noble Truths provide the idea of where we are.
Right aspiration, which counsels us to decide what we really want (true enlightenment).
Right speech that basically means to speck the truth.
Right behavior: Do not kill (strict Buddhists are vegetarians), Do not steal, Do not lie, Do not be unchaste, and Do not take drugs or drink intoxicants.
Right livelihood prescribes joining the monastic order and following its discipline.
Right effort that can be explained as moral exertion.
Right mindfulness, which is liberation from unconscious, mechanical existence.
Right absorption whose techniques are similar to that of Hinduism’s raja yoga.

There is also some basic Buddhist concepts like nirvana that is used to name life’s goal. This is the state in which the bundles of private desire have been consumed and everything that restricts the boundless life is exhausted. Buddha also had denied anatta (no soul). It signified a spiritual substance that in keeping with the dualistic position in Hinduism retains its separate identity forever. Buddhism believes that the body houses no ghostly wraith that animates and outlasts it. They also believe in impermanence. Buddha believed that we would stop clutching for permanence only if we believed in its non-existence. Buddhism has split into two main groups one being considered a fulltime job where one should become a monk and was called Hinayana however was changed to Theravada meaning the Way of the Elders. This way claims to represent original Buddhism as Gautama himself taught it. And then the Mahayana, meaning the Big Raft and maha meaning great, this version of Buddhism was for laypersons and claimed to be “Buddhism for the people.”




In what way is it similar to Hinduism and in what way very different?

Gautama’s final phase of his journey he met his goal of enlightenment by a technique that is resembles Hinduism’s raja yoga. Combining thought and mystic concentration while meditating under the Bodhi tree. Within the Eight Fold Path the Eighth Path (Right absorption) has the techniques we have already encountered in Hinduism’s raja yoga and leads to basically the same goal.

Unlike Hinduism (which came slowly over time), Buddhism appeared overnight. Buddhism denies anatta (no soul). It signified a spiritual substance, which in keeping with the dualistic position in Hinduism retains its separate identity forever. Buddhism rejects these ideas however believes that the body houses no ghostly wraith that animates and outlasts it. Buddhism disagrees with Hinduisms view of reincarnation where some sort of soul migrates from body to body. Buddhists believe that nothing in the next incarnation will be identical with what is in the current reincarnation but it will still be that same person. Hinduism believes in a creator of life namely God however Buddhism has a more atheistic view and does not believe in a creator.

Smith believes that Buddhism was not necessarily defeated by Hinduism however accommodated with it. By the year 1000 A.D. the differences between the two softened to the point where separate institutions seemed unnecessary.