Gautam Buddha: An Introduction

Photo taken on Aug 10, 2015 shows Buddha statues in one of the caves of the Yungang Grottoes, a 1,500-year-old Buddhist site in North China's Shanxi province. Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2001, the Yungang Grottoes contain more than 51,000 statues of the Buddha. (Photo: Twitter/

@zhang_heqing

)

His name was Siddhartha, also known as Gautam, and he was a contemporary of Vardhaman Mahavira. There is confusion about the exact date of his birth but historians seem to consider 563 BC as his year of birth. He was born at Kapilavastu in the Himalayan foothills of Nepal as his mother was on her way to parents’ home from her in-laws’ place in Vaishali, an emerging political seat of power in the sixth century BC North Bihar. He was born in the ruling Shakya family.

Siddhartha attained ‘knowledge’ (Bodhi, a derivate of Sanskrit word, Buddhi meaning logic-based intelligence) at Bodh Gaya in South Bihar under a peepal tree. After attaining knowledge, Siddhartha delivered his first sermon at Sarnath in Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. His first preaching is known as Dharma-chakra-parivartan (literally meaning a change in the cycle of dharma, which is difficult to translate into English) in Buddhism, the philosophy founded by Siddhartha. He was afterwards called Buddha or Lord Buddha.

He preached for forty years and passed away at Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh at the age of 80 in 483 BC.

He condemned the caste system as false and wrong.

He enunciated four truths that form the basis of Buddhism. These are:

1. Suffering (dukha) exists wherever there is life.
2. Desire is the cause of suffering leading to endless rebirths. The desire for things, existence, experience, immortality, sensual pleasure, worldly possession and power are the causes of suffering.
3. Freedom from suffering is possible. It can be achieved by abandoning desire, dumping one’s individuality and giving up the lust for worldly possessions.
4. There is a way to get rid of this cycle of suffering and rebirths. This is called the eight-fold way. It is alternatively called the middle path in Buddhism. It advocates negation of extremes, for example, the attachment to passion and worldly pleasure on one hand, and the practice of self-mortification and asceticism on the other.

The guiding principles for this liberation are enunciated in what is called the eight-fold path, the Ashtanga Marg. It leads to wisdom, calmness, knowledge, enlightenment and liberation. The eight principles are:

1. Right View
2. Right Aspiration
3. Right Speech
4. Right Conduct
5. Right Livelihood
6. Right Effort
7. Right Mindfulness
8. Right Meditation

These eight principles are grouped under three categories:

1. Prajna Skandh: Right View, Right Aspiration 
2. Sheel Skandh: Right Speech, Right Conduct, Right Livelihood
3. Samadhi Skandh: Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, Right Meditation

A devoted follower of the eight-fold path attains salvation or nirvana. The attainment of nirvana is the chief objective of Buddhism.

Buddhism (and also Jainism) is non-theistic in nature. The existence of God is irrelevant to the Buddhist doctrine. Buddhism believes that God is not the creator of the universe because if he is the creator, he would have to be responsible for the miseries of the world.

Buddha laid emphasis on self-effort or self-sufficiency. That is, “one who looks onto oneself”. In Buddhism, nothing is left for divine intervention.

Buddha also believed that a soul does not exist (after death), and that there is no transmigration of the soul. That soul dies with the death of the person. What is called soul is, in reality, a physical or mental aggregate of five impermanent conditions. These are:

1. Form (the body)
2. Feelings
3. Idea or understanding
4. Will
5. Pure consciousness

The human personality or soul is said to be bound within a process which Buddha called the Wheel of Existence or the Existence Wheel. We keep the wheel revolving through ignorance and indulge in actions that create karma. This karma leads to rebirth and successive existences, all beings inseparably bound with misery.

The question that arises is if the soul dies with he man, how does karma of a man lead to rebirth?

Milinda Panha has explained this aspect of Buddhist philosophy in terms of a wave which rises in water, gives birth to another and then disappears itself. Karma through consciousness becomes the cause for rebirth.

Like Mahavira, Buddha too laid down several sheelas (rules of conduct) for his followers. In general, sheelas prohibit destruction of life and causing of pain or injury to any living being. Ahimsa is fundamental to Buddhism.

Stealing, falsehood, use of intoxicants, coveting the property of others, telling lies and indulging in corrupt practices are prohibited.

Some sheelas prohibit magic, prophesy, astrology, religious rituals or worship in any form.

In society, Buddhism took the form of the Sangha, a Buddhist order of monks and laymen.

Sometimes after his death, a credo was formalised for the Buddhis discipline: Keep my faith in Buddha, Dharma and the Sangha. This Buddhist credo is referred to as the Tri-ratna, three jewels.

Buddha started viharas (monasteries), which were places where monks lived and spent their lives praying and preaching Buddhism. The viharas were also used as schools open to people of all strata of society. Some of the more famous were at Nalanda, Vikramshila (in Bihar) and Vallabhi (in Gujarat).

After Buddha, Ashvaghosh and Nagarjuna were great teachers of Buddhism and played significant role in the spread of Buddhism.

After the death of Buddha, four general councils of the Buddhist church (Sangha) were held.

1. First great Sangha was held at Rajagriha in 483 BC, soon after the death of Buddha. The discourses of Buddha were collected, compiled and embodied in the Pali canon. This literature is known as Tri-Pitaka after the conclusion of the third great Sangha, where the third Pitak was compiled.
• Vinaya Pitaka: This deals with the rules of the Buddhist order. It was versed by Buddha’s favourite disciple, Ananda.
• Sutta Pitaka: This is a collection of Buddha’s sermons. It was versed by Buddha’s another great disciple, Upali. The famous Jatakas (or the Jataka Kathas), dealing with the stories from previous births of Buddha, are contained in the Sutta Pitaka. They give us a graphic description of the contemporary society, and make clear references to various regions and geographic divisions.
• Abhidhamma Pitaka: It was compiled at the third great Sangha, held at Patliputra. It is a treatise on metaphysics. It tells us about the preachers, princes, rich, poor, towns and villages of the period. It was versed by Mogaliput Tissa.
2. Second general council was held at Vaishali in 383 BC, a hundred years after the death of Buddha. It was at this convention that sharp divisions within the Buddhist order crept up – the Theravadi (Mayakachchayan) verus Mahasanghika (Mahakassapa) debate began at this Sangha. Interestingly, the bhikshukas (monks) of Vaishali boycotted this assembly, held in their own city.
3. Third general council was held at Patliputra in 250 BC, during the reign of Maurya emperor Ashoka. It was at this session, it was decided to send missionaries to various parts of the Indian subcontinent and beyond, and to make Buddhism an actively proselytising religion.
4. Fourth general council was held in Kashmir in the first century AD. Here, the schism in Buddhism was recognised officially. One branch was called Hinayana or the followers of the lesser vehicle, and the other, Mahayana or the followers of the greater vehicle.

Eventually, Hinayana Buddhism found its stronghold din Ceylon (Sri Lanaka), Burma (Myanmar) and the countries of South-East Asia. Mahayana Buddhism became the dominant sect in India, Central Asia, Tibet, China and Japan.

In Mahayana Buddhism, the belief in deification of Buddha, and image or idol worship (first century AD onwards) with its usual accompaniments, elaborate rituals, religious formulae, charms etc replaced the simpler tenets to place a follower’s faith in Buddha.

It also believed in Bodhisattava, the previous incarnations of Buddha, as essential part of the sect to attain salvation. It adopted Sanskrit as the language for its religious literature, and a new canon developed in as a result.

Hinayana Buddhism, however, continued to practice self-culture and believe that good deeds led to salvation.

(Tell the blogger in the comment box if you liked the content.)