Buddhism

Life & Teachings of Lord Buddha

Two thousand six hundred years ago a wandering monk, philosopher and teacher walked the dusty pathways of north India and taught us a humane way of life. And his teachings led to one of the greatest religions in the world, Buddhism.

Siddhartha Gautama, born a prince, gained enlightenment and became the Buddha. He asked the eternal question of life – what is the cause of human sorrow and suffering? Then through intense meditation he found an answer that has brought guidance and solace to millions of people. Today Buddhism is one of the major religions of the world and his teachings have stood the test of time.

According to the ancient Buddhist chronicle the Lalitavistara, Siddhartha Gautama of the Sakya clan was born in 623 BC in the royal family of Kapilavastu, the only son of King Suddhodana and his queen Mayadevi. When an old sage named Asita came to bless the child he predicted that one day the child would leave his family and become a wandering teacher. A perturbed Suddhodana did not want his son to choose the path of renunciation and so he tried to shield him from all the tragedies of life however inevitably one day Siddhartha was exposed to the realities of human existence.

Siddhartha saw an old man and became aware of old age. Then he saw a sick man and learnt of diseases and pain. The third encounter was with a funeral procession and he understood the inevitability of death. Finally he saw a saffron-clad ascetic walking serenely by and realised that there was another, more enlightened way of living. He realised that he had to renounce the world and seek an answer to the question – what caused sorrow or dukkha and how can we learn to overcome it?

Siddhartha left his wife Yashodhara and child Rahula and began his spiritual search that lasted five years. He first studied under two famous teachers and then tried many kinds of meditation techniques, including a regime of severe austerities where he came close to death. Then he realised that to think he had to sustain his body and took a meal and thus refreshed he returned to his meditation.

This was his final round of meditations under a peepal tree at a place called Uruvela that stood by the river Nairanjana near Gaya in Bihar. After forty nine days of concentrated thought he gained an extraordinary spiritual insight into the meaning of life. He was now the Buddha, the Awakened and Enlightened One.

The Sacred Dhamma
The Buddha decided to spread his philosophy that he called Dhamma, the sacred law, by preaching to people. He walked to Sarnath near Varanasi and here gave his first sermon to five old companions who had left him at Uruvela because they thought he had failed in his meditations. His charismatic speech and extraordinary philosophy electrified them and they became his first disciples. News spread of the arrival of a great teacher and people flocked to listen to him. It was at Sarnath that he laid the foundation of the Buddhist monastic order, the Sangha and it flourishes across the world today.

The Buddha spent the next five decades wandering around north India spreading his philosophy, a moral code based on compassion and non-violence. The Buddha’s vision promises a way of life that brings peace and happiness and it is an optimistic and life enhancing faith where he said, “Overcome your uncertainties and free yourself from dwelling on sorrow. If you delight in existence, you will become a guide to those who need you.”

In the 3rd century BC Emperor Ashoka of the Mauryan dynasty began to spread the teachings of the Buddha to other countries by sending his son Mahendra to Sri Lanka. In later centuries Buddhist monks took his teachings to Tibet, China, South-East Asia and Japan. And today it is a world religion.

The foundation of Dhamma is the Four Noble Truths and the Eight Fold Path. The Four Noble Truths say that sorrow is inevitable and the cause of sorrow is cravings. To end sorrow one has to end this craving and then follow the Eight Fold Path.

The Eight Fold Path is a way of life that brings peace, enlightenment and finally nirvana, the freedom from the cycle of birth and death. The Path is – Right Views, Right Intentions, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration.

The Buddha denied the caste system or the power of the priesthood. He said we are born equal and we are what we do and our salvation lies in our own hands. You cannot gain salvation through expensive religious rituals or sacrifices. As he said,

“One does not become a Brahmin by birth
One does not become an outcaste by birth
One becomes a Brahmin by action
One becomes an outcaste by action.”

The Buddha’s wise words, full of gentleness, tolerance, empathy and compassion inspire and bring peace. It is a simple philosophy that is also subtle and humane. It offers a way of life that is relevant today and has guided millions of followers in their journey on earth.

After the Buddha
Over the centuries the differences between the various monastic schools led to the foundation of three major streams of Buddhist thought – Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana. Today there are many other smaller cults but these three are the most important schools of Buddhism.

Theravada is the oldest and most orthodox school of thought and is followed in Sri Lanka, Thailand and Burma. It adheres strictly to the teachings of the Buddha as preserved in the ancient Pali scriptures called the Tripitaka – the Vinaya, Sutta and Abhidhamma pitakas. Theravada is a disciplined, intellectual system and rather austere in its religious practices. Some of the greatest Buddhist thinkers of ancient times came from this school and when most of the Buddhist texts were lost in India they fortunately survived in the monasteries of Sri Lanka.

The second stream of Buddhist thought was Mahayana that was carried by monks to China and Japan and compared to the strict ethical and philosophical system of Theravada it had a more relaxed attitude to devotion. This school became popular as it gave the lay devotee a greater role and allowed the worship of the Buddha. Images of the Buddha were placed in temples called chaityas and the faithful prayed to him with lamps, flowers and incense. For the Theravada school the Buddha was a great teacher while in Mahayana he was gradually transformed into a deity who was worshipped.

The last system which blends esoteric tantric practices with Mahayana thought is the Vajrayana school of Tibet that is headed by the Dalai Lama. Initially it evolved in the 7th century AD, in the Nalanda and Vikramshila monasteries in Bihar and was taken to Tibet by the monks Padmasambhava and later Atisa Dipankara. Vajrayana means the ‘vehicle of the thunderbolt’ and uses many mythical and occult practices, mysterious mantras, mudras and mandalas. It also has a pantheon of deities like Avalokiteshwara, Maitreya, Manjushri and Tara that are worshipped by devotees.