BUDDHISM I.pdf

Founder Scriptures  Early Life of Siddharta Gautama:  Siddharta (563-483 BCE) was born in the ancient kingdom of the Sakya (modern Nepal). His father was an Indian chieftain of the Sakya clan, and thus a member of the Hindu Kshatriya (warrior) caste.  Siddharta was later known as Bud...

Founder Scriptures  Early Life of Siddharta Gautama:  Siddharta (563-483 BCE) was born in the ancient kingdom of the Sakya (modern Nepal). His father was an Indian chieftain of the Sakya clan, and thus a member of the Hindu Kshatriya (warrior) caste.  Siddharta was later known as Buddha. The term Buddha (awakened one or enlightened one), is a title, rather than a name. RKUD4230 - Study of Religions II 7/20/2019 2  The traditional story of the life and teachings of Buddha was transmitted orally for over four centuries before being documented between the 1st century BCE and the 1st century CE.  Based on the traditional account of the life of Siddharta, one night before he was born his mother dreamed that a white elephant entered her womb through her side. RKUD4230 - Study of Religions II 7/20/2019 3  Hindu priests, who were called in to interpret this dream, predicted the birth of a son who would become either a universal monarch or a universal teacher.  Accounts of Siddhartha’s infancy and boyhood are fragmentary and not well documented.  It is popularly known that Siddharta was brought up in great luxury and comfort. At the age of sixteen (or according to another account, nineteen), he married a cousin of his, who was also sixteen years old. RKUD4230 - Study of Religions II 7/20/2019 4  Although the birth of a son followed this marriage, Siddharta was dissatisfied with a life limited to family and social obligations. His concerns transcended such limitations.  Four Passing Sights:  Tradition states that the turning point in Siddhartha’s life came at his late twenties, when his awareness of human suffering became the source of motivating force of his quest for truth. Four passing sights, or perceptions, are usually cited as the instigation of his spiritual crisis. RKUD4230 - Study of Religions II 7/20/2019 5 The first image associated with Siddhartha’s heightened perception was that of a decrepit old man leaning on his staff as he walked. The second image was that of the sick man, suffering in pain and soiled by incontinence brought on by his enfeebled condition. The third image was that of a human corpse being carried to a funeral pyre.  The fourth image was that of the a calm, ascetic monk with a clean shaven head, wearing a yellow robe. RKUD4230 - Study of Religions II 7/20/2019 6  All these images struck Siddharta with the force of a revelation: “all humans are subject to suffering.”  Transformed by this insight, he decided to leave his palace along with the courtly pleasures in search of a solution to the problem of human suffering.  Thus began what is known as the “great renunciation”: Siddhartha’s abdication of a princely life in favor of one of selfless denial of material possessions as a wandering ascetic. RKUD4230 - Study of Religions II 7/20/2019 7  First Sermon:  Since Buddha had been close to his five ascetic Hindu companions, though they deserted him, he decided to find them, who were now in Benares (modern Varanasi, a city halfway between Delhi and Calcutta).  When he met them, Buddha described his “awakened” state and offered to share his new-found insight into dharma with them, but to no avail. RKUD4230 - Study of Religions II 7/20/2019 8  His first sermon, now known as “Setting in Motion the Wheel of Truth.”  Substance of this sermon can be summarized as follows: Anyone searching for truth should avoid the two extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification; RKUD4230 - Study of Religions II 7/20/2019 9  Self-indulgence is degrading, sensual, vulgar, unworthy, and useless;  Self-mortification is painful, degrading, and useless. By avoiding these extremes, Buddha taught, the Tathagatha (i.e., “he who has discovered the truth” – a reference to himself) gains the enlightenment of the Middle Way, which leads to insight, to knowledge, to calmness, to awakening, and finally, to nirvana (literally, extinction). RKUD4230 - Study of Religions II 7/20/2019 10  All Buddhist traditions maintain that a council was called immediately after the death of Buddha, though many scholars have questioned whether or not such a council was ever convened.  At the first council, according to tradition, five hundred monks formulated an authorized canon and rules governing early Buddhist monasteries. RKUD4230 - Study of Religions II 7/20/2019 11  That a second council was held a century later has more or less been accepted by scholars.  This council resulted in a schism over doctrinal issues and disciplinary rules, principally between a group called the Mahasanghika (Great Sangha), which interpreted doctrine and discipline liberally, and a group called Theravadins (Adherents of the Teachings of the Elders), which represented orthodoxy and conservatism. Other groups, or schools (the traditional number is eighteen), also emerged from this council. RKUD4230 - Study of Religions II 7/20/2019 12  Tradition refers to a third council, held in the third century BCE. At this gathering, according to some accounts, the Buddhist canon, the Tripitaka, was completed and longstanding sectarian controversies led to additional splits and divisions. RKUD4230 - Study of Religions II 7/20/2019 13  A fourth council, dealing with the composition of commentaries, is believed to have been held some time during the first century CE. But the absence of several Buddhist groups from this council has led scholars to conclude that it was simply a sectarian synod, not an ecumenical council. This conclusion is partly based on subsequent events within the Buddhist community, which eventually split formally into several sects. RKUD4230 - Study of Religions II 7/20/2019 14  Of the hundreds of Buddhist texts in Pali, Sanskrit, Chinese, and Tibetan considered to be sacred, only a few can be mentioned here.  The most basic and possibly the earliest body of sacred writings is the Tripitaka (the Three Baskets), so-called because it consists of three “baskets,” or collections, of disciplines: RKUD4230 - Study of Religions II 7/20/2019 15 1. The Vinaya Pitaka, consisting of the rules of the Buddhist order. 2. The Sutta Pitaka, containing dialogues between Buddha and his disciples on Buddhist teachings. 3. The Abidhamma Pitaka, consisting of metaphysical instruction. RKUD4230 - Study of Religions II 7/20/2019 16  Besides the Tripitaka, texts written in Pali that are considered to be reliable sources of early Buddhism include the Dhammapada, the Intivuttaka, the Udana, the Sutta Nipata, the Theratherigatha, and a few others.  Sacred collections written in Sanskrit and used primarily by Mahayanists include the Mahavastu, the Lalita Vistara (in which Buddha’s divinity is emphasized), the Prajnaparamitas, the Samadhiraja, the Lankavatar, the Saddharmapundarika, and the Amita yurdhyana. RKUD4230 - Study of Religions II 7/20/2019 17  Tibetan and Chinese sources retain their independent value and are too numerous to be listed here. There is, for instance, a collection of stories, known as the Jataka (Birth Tales) that relates popular beliefs about the 550 previous births of Buddha. RKUD4230 - Study of Religions II 7/20/2019 18