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Page 9 of 9
BUDDHISM
Buddhism is 2500 years old and had a founder similar to Christians with
Jesus or Islam and Mohammed. In the case of Buddhism it was a rich man
called Siddhartha Gautama, known now as Buddha, who was born into a
Hindu family about 560 BC. As a rich boy he was kept inside his castle
walls by his parents where he was surrounded by intelligent healthy
people and was fortunate to marry a beautiful Hindu girl who gave him a
son. Then one day he was riding his horse far from the castle grounds
when he met a poor sick old man covered with sores and blisters clearly
not far from death. A little later he met a monk who was also old and
poor but seemed radiantly happy. These two chance meetings worried him
deeply and he began to think there might be more to life than living as
a wealthy recluse. He took one last look at his beautiful wife and son
and dressing like a poor monk, with a shaven head he left his palace
for ever. He tried all the normal routes prescribed by the Hindu
priests to find the real purpose of life like studying the scriptures
and self denial (in his case he tried fasting until he was a walking
skeleton) but all to no avail. Finally he sat under a tree and vowed to
himself that he would not move until the answers came to him, which
they did after a stay of 40 days and nights. From that moment on he was
called Buddha or Enlightened One. He preached his rules of life until
his death 45 years later.
Buddhism is like western/middle eastern religions which have strict
rules but without a God. This means that salvation or, in the case of
Buddhism, a release from the cycle of reincarnation, is achieved by
one's own efforts and without the help of any supreme deity.
THE RULES DEFINED BY GAUTAMA BUDDHA
Certain of the rules of his local faith, Hinduism he denounced
immediately:
-
The Caste system. Buddha says all men are born equal.
- Women are equal to men. The custom of widows throwing themselves on
the dead husbands funeral pyre was forbidden
- The divine scriptures of the Hindus (Vedas and Upanishads) Buddha
said were worthless.
- Buddha also said the concept of man having a soul and the concept
that all things on earth were unreal (a dream) were also wrong.
- Buddha also said that the concept of God was wrong and here we must
assume he was referring to the many Hindu gods but modern Buddhists do
not believe in a God either.
The Middle way
Buddha had experienced both extreme self denial and blatant decadent
sensuality. He said both were wrong and the right path was somewhere in
the middle. He preached the four Noble Truths.
- Look around, you see suffering everywhere, why
- Because Man is greedy, selfish and lustful.
- Man is ignorant of his faults. He must study in order to realise his
faults and control them.
- Then he must follow the middle way or eightfold path. (Eight
Commandments?)
Eight philosophies to consider and follow.
- Have the right outlook every day in your life.
- Have the right lifelong aims
- Say the right things or think before you speak.
- Behave correctly, like you don't kill or indeed loose your temper.
- Work and play with some thought of what you are doing.
- During work and play put in some real effort and for a real purpose.
- Have the right frame of mind and thoughts.
- Meditate, as in Yoga Meditation, to clear your mind, to seek the
right path and help you to achieve the right balance.
Clearly these eight rules offer a much wider interpretation than the
Ten Commandments which are the basis for western laws. Many in the west
find this wider freedom allowing an individual to make up his own mind
more helpful than dogmatic Western and Middle Eastern religions.
We have seen that 500 years after the death of Buddha his followers
were spreading his message outside India into China and finally into
Japan. Now there are more than 350 million followers. The main
countries which have significant numbers of Buddhists are: Burma,
Nepal, parts of China and some 30% of Japan, Ceylon-Sri Lanka, Bali in
Muslim Indonesia, Korea, Vietnam and Tibet, Thailand, Laos and
Kampuchea.
After the horrors of Second World War and then the Korean and Vietnam
wars many Christians and Jews looked for a new meaning for life and
many Christians have taken to Buddhism particularly Zen Buddhism which
concentrates on looking for the right way through meditation. Some of
the best known converts are the actors and artists:
Harrison Ford, Richard Gere and Tina Turner
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