Blog | Google+ | Facebook | A Buddhist monk calmly chants from a scripture book in Haeinsa Temple, South Korea. The sounds of chanting that drift from the main hall are mesmerising, and it felt such a privilege to be permitted not only to observe the pious lives of the Jewel Temple's resident monks, but also to photograph them as they went about their daily rituals.

Psalm 39:4,5 NKJV " LORD, make me to know my end, And what is the measure of my days, That I may know how frail I am. Indeed, You have made my days as handbreaths, And my age is as nothing before you; Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor."

 

Psalm 90:12 " So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom."

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Life moves fast, and we are only here for a little while. We are not promised tomorrow, or even the next hour. We must walk wisely while here on earth. Oftentimes we take our days for granted until we lose a loved one, or we have some near-death experience for ourselves. It is in those moments of self-examination that we should ask ourselves some questions.

First and most important is : Have I truly surrendered my life to Christ? Have I trusted Jesus as my Lord and savior? Does my relationship with Christ hold top priority, or do I let other things get in the way?

Then we may ask: Who or what do I let influence my thoughts and actions in a day? Do I spend more time on social media reading the world's opinion, or do I spend time reading God's word looking for wisdom? There are plenty of people willing to voice their opinion on any given topic, And we need the help of the Holy Spirit to discern the good from the bad.

Finally we ask ourselves: Who am I influencing with my thoughts and actions? We have a lot of eyes and ears on us everyday of our lives. Our actions at home will influence our spouse, children, or siblings. When at work we will influence co-workers and customers with our language, and actions. At school, we may influence staff, and our friends. When we meet perfect strangers in public, in the grocery store, or the big box stores, our behavior and our words can make an impression on anyone there. We could be viewed as angry, impatient, complaining, always finding fault in everything. Or we could be viewed as patient, compassionate, always willing to help when possible, tough, but loving, and understanding.

We don't know how much time we have on earth, But we do know it is limited.

{ James 4:14} " Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away." ------------ I say; Life is short, Walk wisely!

One reference translation with footnotes says regarding the word 'peers' "Lit., "having stooped beside." ...or you could say the 3 P's: peer, persist, perform.

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Let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily traps us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us;looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

There is none holy as the Lord: for there is none beside You: neither is there any rock like our God.

1 Samuel 2:2

 

I shot this picture of Old Faithful while at Yellowstone National Park in August of 2011, this last summer. We've been there several times, but the different kinds of pictures we get every time we visit amazes me because the pictures we end up with always seem to depend on so many factors, like the weather and the time of day and how we are feeling at the moment and etc. We went this year since my mom and my youngest son had never been there before but had always wanted to go, so we loaded up the truck and made a quick trip of it with them and his two daughters, my granddaughters. Although I've taken quite a few pictures of Old Faithful in the past, I've never taken one that had a rainbow attached to it like what had happened here in this photo. It really was breathtaking. To think I nearly missed it!

 

What had happened was that my husband was having troubles with his hip because of a kind of degenerative bone disease going on in them that was recently diagnosed, and my mom has had to slow down over the years because of various debilitating diseases that have sadly sapped her strength and zip. As a result, he and she needed to take it easy and not go on the trail but stay behind in the bleachers area in front of Old Faithful. Although Pete was normally the first to go on any kind of hike or walk in order to explore up until this year, he just couldn't this time. As a result, I pulled up my bootstraps, so to speak, and walked around the wooded pathway at the Old Faithful area with my youngest son and his two daughters, showing them everything that I had noticed before during the other times I had visited the area, taking pictures of it all over again with my new handy dandy camera.

 

Since we had spent the earlier part of the day exploring West Thumb, which is amazing also, we were a little late in getting to the Old Faithful site. Oddly, the wood-planked pathway at Old Faithful took some turns that I hadn't explored before, so we kind of took our time. When Old Faithful began to blow during the first part of us being there, we were at that time on the other side of it (about halfway up the trail) than where you see the above picture taken. When I saw it, I thought we had better get back before it gets too dark to really appreciate it and its grandeur the next time it blew.

 

From the distance, my husband saw us wandering around and thought I had gotten myself lost, as usual, again (since I have a severely bad sense of direction, lol; he usually always comes to my rescue). As a result, he walked up the other side of the trail just a little and was motioning for us to follow him. However, this time, I wasn't lost; but I thought it was sweet that he met us there, just in case… He's so thoughtful that way. Then he let me know why. He didn't want me to miss the next time Old Faithful was supposed to blow because he had seen a really cool rainbow appear in the fountain’s mist. He wasn't sure if the sun were going to hit the mist just right again, but he had wanted me there with the camera just in case. (Since then, I have read on Flickr that many rainbows can be caught on camera at Yellowstone right around sunset if the sun is behind the one taking the picture. It must be true because that is exactly what happened in this photo.)

 

Consequently, we hurried over to the bleachers and set the camera up on the tripod, which we had never tried before, taking shots of it normally while just freely holding the camera (yeah, I know, cop a clue if I at all want to be any kind of photographer at all). We had a little while to wait for it to erupt again, so we ate (though the prices for eating there were exorbitantly ridiculous to say the least) because we were going to race to the next area in Yellowstone in order to take in as much of the scenery as possible since we only had one more day to explore it, that is the next day.

 

Suddenly Old Faithful started bubblin' and abrewin', making its typically loud sputtering and spewing noises, alongside of the most awful putrid rotten egg/sulfur smell that permeates nearly the whole of the Yellowstone area. (You get used to it after the first couple of times of being there and nearly dying from it, lol.) I took several shots to make sure I was able to get the whole view of it in the pictures. There was nothing unusual at first about it except for the time of day when things start to get so pretty, just when the sun begins to settle on the horizon, saturating everything with more color and/or illuminating everything with a mysterious kind of golden glow. I did get some pretty good shots of the water bursting forth from it but nothing terribly dramatic.

 

Then, Pete said in a kind of whispered hush, "Look! The rainbow’s back. I wasn't sure it was going to happen again." There it was--bright and beautiful, majestic and spectacular as could be--a double rainbow, in fact, emerging from its mist, though my camera didn't really pick up on the double rainbow part much at all. Accordingly, I took my cue and started madly clicking shot after shot after shot after shot of it because I didn't have a wide angle lens and had to get the whole scene in little portions so that later on I could stitch them together, which is what I did. Even after all the work I put in stitching them all together in my graphics programs (because the function for it really doesn’t work), it still was so much more impressive in person because the double rainbow part didn't show up hardly at all in the photos, being mostly lost in the stitching process I think. (I know...we aren't supposed to admit that we just didn't quite get it in the picture, but truly, one has to be there to get the proper feel of it all.)

 

Meanwhile, a quiet hush had fallen over the crowd viewing this perfect moment as the loud thrashing of the water from the geyser along with its spurts and sputters were the only things to be noticed outside of this beautiful vision. It's captivating to watch people's reactions to such a natural wonder as a rainbow, which they often take for granted. It's as though, for a moment, they know they are given a glimpse into an otherworldly reality, eternity, but have to close it off quickly right afterward because I think maybe they are afraid they may seek only it in this life (as if that’s a bad thing somehow) or fear the rejection of the Creator of that and this reality...sadness...though He never would. As I looked at this photo afterward and thought of these things, I was reminded of several experiences I'd had with the Lord that, to me, are absolutely represented in this scene.

 

To explain, back in June and July of 2003, I had a mind-blowing experience with Jesus and His Love as a result of this reality and that reality in eternity touching momentarily, which lasted about 40 days (though really it'd had a 10 day lead up, bringing the total to really 50 days, and the last 10 days of the 40 days was really an easy let down period). His Love felt like the single most intense and wild pleasure waves I had ever felt and could ever possibly feel in my entire life, starting from my abdomen washing outward. The waves of love kind of reminded me of what it feels like in my abdomen when I'm in the passenger seat of a car while a motorist drives his/her vehicle quickly over an intersection that has long and wide bumps on it because of poor road renewal management, but with the feeling multiplied by like 100 times over and over and over again.

 

Just for the sake of argument, I should mention it wasn't an emotional response to anything; but the waves had a distinctly physically palpable sense to them. Also, I had been doing nothing that I was even remotely emotional about before it occurred. All that had gone on before it was that I had been sleeping and dreaming. However, the night before during my devotional time with Jesus had been somewhat of a puzzle to me. Although, again, I hadn’t been “feeling” particularly emotional, cerebral instead really, I felt what seemed like to me His physically attaching Himself to my abdomen like with an umbilical cord, after He pulled back what physically felt like a thick piece of skin and removing it. My belly had actually jiggled afterward like Jello, though I was by no means fat at the time. It was the strangest sensation, almost like a painless circumcision had taken place. The waves the next day were nearly constant and continued to be for the next couple of days unless I was sleeping. Then I'd wake up, and it would start all over again. It was spectacularly wonderful beyond all descriptive words.

 

By the third day, the waves started to wane a bit which scared me because I thought it was all just going to go away, and I'd be left alone without the Lord's massively wonderful Love again. As a result, I just sobbed and prayed…and sobbed and prayed…because I thought maybe something was wrong; and if it wasn’t, I just needed more time. Suddenly, I began to feel a kind of bubbling feeling in my lower abdomen where the waves had been, like water in a Jacuzzi feels on skin but in me, not on the surface of me. It can also be described as how one's hand feels under a bathtub faucet with the water flowing full force on it, kind of like a fountain or a geyser as shown above in this picture. This bubbling physical sensation rushed outward, like a geyser or a fountain it seemed, not as though it were coming into me but out from me. Thus when the waves of love weren't flowing, what can only be described as, this Living Water was.

 

Then it was as though the Lord began quietly comforting my heart by letting me know that this Fountain of Living Water was part of the whole 40 Day Love Experience but was just a different part of it and that, when I wasn't feeling His Love, I would be feeling His Presence in this way. To me, the above picture with the rainbow coming off from the fountain depicts His Presence, His Glory, perfectly as it radiates off a person when He is filling one with Himself in this VERY real way.

 

In case anyone thinks I am just going off half-cocked about some kind of weirdo new age experience, I thought I should point out how very grounded in Scripture this loving experience along with the Living Water is, which is partly why I attached some passages to the above picture. Though I'm very partial to the New International Version, the King James Version more adequately seems to capture the essence of this experience. I can only assume it captures it this way because people in "religious" circles of today haven't even remotely been seeking the Lord in these ways though they did in yesteryear, for not everyone had been deceived yet through all of the media and propaganda set up against the Lord. I mean to say that people who translate the Bible, nowadays, haven't actually been having an intimate and personal relationship with Him where there is more than just words in an ancient book spouting off some principles and yada yada to live by or there is more than this book depicting a far away someone who can magically answer one's prayers for needs to be met. That's all well and good and everything, but there is so much more than ONLY that. He can be more real to a person than even one's own children or spouse or parents if one will step out and believe Him for it. These passages have to do with the waves of love part of the 40 Day Love Experience I physically seemed to feel from Him: “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” (1 John 3:1, NIV). “If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing” (1 Corinthians13:3, NIV). Paul was talking about how we should not be martyred for the sake of the Lord upon choice if we have not had this love experience with Jesus, first. Obviously from this passage, we can see that this kind of love is not something we can conjure up ourselves with being good or with what some have mistakenly called “charity.”

 

Here is another passage that has to do with this 40 Day Love Experience:

 

When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”…

 

…Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you TRULY love me?”…

 

…“Simon son of John, do you [even] love me?” (John 21:18, NIV)

 

There have been many “interpretations” as to what Jesus meant in that passage. However I truly believe that what He was trying to say here was for all of us who “think” we have the love of God. He was saying that we don’t really love Him unless we TRULY experience His Love in the way I shared above. Note how this conversation went on between the two of them DURING that 50 days before the Holy Spirit baptized them all. Thus, this drilling was not JUST for Peter but for all us Peters out here who live in Ideology Land, seeing through a glass darkly, of what love is. There is no way we can love Him unless we first allow Him to love on us this way. Remember, ALL of the apostles ran away in fear when the Lord was arrested and crucified until they received His Love and the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. (Yeah, I know some say John didn’t run away but was present while Jesus was being crucified, but I think they are wrong; I believe it was Lazarus who didn’t, not John because Lazarus is stated in John as the “disciple” Jesus loved and could have been the only one who upon his own resurrection had felt God’s Real Love in this way.) But wait; there’s more…to substantiate this take on His Love:

 

“This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us…” (1 John 4:10).

 

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

 

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us. (1 John 4:16-19, NIV)

 

Note that this was the “perfection” in 1 Corinthians many theologians mistake for what they think was the Bible’s canon that was to come. Thus, we can in no way really love Him, or for that matter anyone else, unless He loves us first in this very real way. In addition, this next passage gives great weight to all of what I just said:

 

After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. (Acts 1:3, NIV)

 

Remember, everything that is written was not meant as an exception to the rule, as the media and our false religious leaders have taught us, but was written to show us the standard with which we can measure what is of the Lord because “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8, NIV).

 

This love was, of course, nothing new. It’s all over in Psalms, written especially by David who became King of Israel. It was just completely opened up to everyone through Jesus’ appearance on the world scene and through His shedding His Blood for us, not only for the prophets of the Old Testament but now also for us everyday people in fulfillment of Moses’ heart’s desire (Exodus 11:23-30). Did anyone actually think God wouldn’t answer Moses’ heart’s desire, the one man God chose to use to deliver Israel from slavery and spoke to him face to face? Seriously, this unbelief was thought even after, upon Moses’ request, God opened up the Red Sea and even after God made water burst forth from the rock in the desert/wilderness. Come on!!!! Here are some passages relating to this love mentioned all over Psalms: “Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love / that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days” (Psalm 90:14, NIV). I know this applies because in the morning and at night is when I mostly feel it now.

 

Also, note all of Matthew 22:1-14 about the Wedding Banquet. This is His Table of Love set before us. Some, however, refuse to come in either because of fear (the fear mentioned in 1 John above) or viewing it as a waste of time, not important enough to them, or because of jealousy and feelings of inadequacy. Nonetheless, there are so many more passages about this kind of love, especially in Song of Solomon; but for the sake of brevity, I’ll stop here.

 

As for the Living Water part of the Love Experience, here are some passages that relate to it, which are also the ones I placed above in the picture because what they depict is what I felt bursting forth out of me from within me: “He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38, KJV). “A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed...A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon” (Song of Solomon 4:12-15, KJV). “For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes” (Revelation 7:17, KJV). “And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely” (Revelation 21:6, KJV).

 

Interestingly enough, since we moved into the house we currently live at, rainbows appear often in the field out from in back of our house. During the summers, we literally see dozens of double rainbows. Oddly, they seem to appear now wherever we go during these months. I have tons of pictures to prove it, taking pictures of some of them because of various reasons. In fact, I think the first time Pete and I went to Yellowstone together (though we both had been there in our youth apart from each other, my first and only time when I was 12), a humongous double rainbow appeared over Yellowstone Lake while we were at West Thumb. (I hope to put that one up here on Flickr sometime, too, lol.) These rainbows also having to do with Scripture: In Revelation 4:3, we are told that one completely encircles God’s Throne, changing from color to color depending on what part of His Spiritual blessings are present at the time though emerald is the color caught by the Apostle John at the time when he was present. The rainbow in this setting of Heaven is the resultant glory of His Presence that appears where He is. That it was set in our skies as a reminder of His Presence in certain situations in life doesn’t seem to me too hard to figure out allegorically and thus not a huge stretch.

 

It never fails that every time I see these rainbows, I wonder what kind of a lovingly spectacular display of affection wrapped up in an awesomely marvelous experience with the Lord is next. In the meantime, these rainbows, like the one above, give me a sweet kind of comfort, knowing that even more of the Lord's Presence is yet to come...for anyone who seeks Him wholeheartedly and in faith through Jesus and by the Holy Spirit. In a kind of quiet way, I am reassured by it through its wide spectrum of color that whatever last loving experience I have had will not be the final one since He has been and is and always will be Old Faithful in sharing the rainbow of Himself with us in all of His wonderful displays of Love through His Presence.

 

© 9-28-2011 Victoria Tribby

 

The tomb of Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox

 

She was born on 8th October 1515 at Harbottle Castle in Northumberland. Her mother was Margaret Tudor (1489-1541), daughter of Henry VII and widow of James IV of Scotland, who had married Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus in 1514 (they divorced in 1527). The young Margaret, who was very beautiful, lived for a time with her aunt Princess Mary and then became a lady-in-waiting to Anne Boleyn and led an eventful life, being imprisoned in the Tower of London on several occasions.

On 6th July 1544 at St James' Palace in London she married Matthew Stewart, 13th Earl of Lennox, who was a descendant of James I of Scotland. Their second son Henry, Lord Darnley married Mary, Queen of Scots and was murdered in 1567. Matthew died after being shot in the back in a skirmish at Stirling Castle in 1571. None of her eight children survived her and she died, in poverty, on 9th March 1578 (New Style dating). In the Abbey archives an order for her funeral shows that the coffin was to be met at the west door by the ministers and choir and during the procession to the hearse "I am the resurrection and the life" was to be said or sung. Two or three psalms are suggested and after the sermon there was the commemoration at the Communion Table with the epistle and gospel being read. At the offering some parts of Scripture were to be sung. The service then proceeded according to the prayer book.

Her grandson James VI of Scotland, who later became James I of England, is said to have erected the fine monument, which was in place by 1600 (the monument to Mary Queen of Scots was later erected to the east of Margaret's). Her recumbent effigy, made of alabaster, wears a French cap and ruff with a red fur-lined cloak, over a dress of blue and gold. On either side of the tomb chest are weepers (small kneeling statues) of her four sons (Charles and Henry and two who died young) and four daughters (all died young). The inscription panels read:

HEER LYETH THE NOBLE LADY MARGARET, COUNTESSE OF LEVENOX, DAUGHTER AND SOLE HEIRE OF ARCHIBALD EARLE OF ANGUISE [Angus], BY MARGARET Q. OF SCOTTES HIS WIFE THAT WAS ELDEST DAUGHTER TO KING HENRY THE 7, WHOE BARE UNTO MATHEW EARLE OF LEVENOX HER HUSBAND 4 SONNES AND 4 DAUGHTERS. THIS LADY HAD TO HER GREAT GRANDFATHER K.EDWARD THE 4, TO HER GRANDFATHER K.HENRY THE 7, TO HER UNCLE K.HENRY THE 8, TO HER COUSIN GERMANE K.EDWARD THE 6, TO HER BROTHER K.JAMES OF SCOTLAND THE V, TO HER SONNE KING HENRY THE FIRST [ie.Lord Darnley], TO HER GRANDCHILD K.JAMES THE 6. HAVINGE TO HER GREATE GRANDMOTHER AND GRANDMOTHER 2 QUEENES BOTH NAMED ELIZABETH, TO HER MOTHER MARGARET Q. OF SCOTTS, TO HER AUNT MARYE THE FRENCHE Q, TO HER COUSYNS GERMANES MARY AND ELIZABETH QUEENES OF ENGLAND, TO HER NEECE AND DAUGHTER IN LAW MARY Q.OF SCOTTS. HENRY SECOND SONNE TO THIS LADY WAS K. OF SCOTTS AND FATHER TO JAMES THE 6 NOW KING. THIS HENRY WAS MURTHERED AT THE AGE OF 21 YEARES. CHARLES HER YOUNGEST SONNE WAS EARLE OF LEVENOX FATHER TO THE LADIE ARBELL. HE DYED AT THE AGE OF 21 YEARES AND IS HERE INTOMBED.

On the ledge at the east end was a Latin inscription, translated as:

This work was completed at the charge of Thomas Fowler, the executor of this lady, 24 Oct 1578

The inscription at the west end is also in Latin and can be translated:

Sacred to the memory of MARGARET DOUGLAS, wife of Matthew Stuart, Earl of Lennox, granddaughter to Henry VII, King of England, by his daughter (Margaret Tudor): joined by the closest ties of kinship to most puissant kings, grandmother to James VI of Scotland, a lady of most pious character, invincible spirit, and matchless steadfastness. She died the tenth of March, year of Our Lord 1577. Margaret, mighty in virtue, mightier yet in lineage: ennobled by kings and by her forebears; descended from Scottish and English princes, she was also a progenitor of princes. Those things that belong unto death, she released to death most joyfully, and sought God, for she belonged to God before.

The monument was restored in the 1960s. At her feet is a crowned lion. Sculpted and painted coats of arms adorn the tomb chest: Darnley impaling Scotland at the east end; a lozenge of Angus and Douglas at the west end and at the sides Lennox impaling Angus and Douglas.

[Westminster Abbey]

 

Inside the Lady Chapel, Westminster Abbey

 

Westminster Abbey (The Collegiate Church of St Peter)

In the 1040s King Edward (later St Edward the Confessor) established his royal palace by the banks of the river Thames on land known as Thorney Island. Close by was a small Benedictine monastery founded under the patronage of King Edgar and St Dunstan around 960A.D. This monastery Edward chose to re-endow and greatly enlarge, building a large stone church in honour of St Peter the Apostle. This church became known as the "west minster" to distinguish it from St Paul's Cathedral (the east minster) in the City of London. Unfortunately, when the new church was consecrated on 28th December 1065 the King was too ill to attend and died a few days later. His mortal remains were entombed in front of the High Altar.

The only traces of Edward's monastery to be seen today are in the round arches and massive supporting columns of the undercroft and the Pyx Chamber in the cloisters. The undercroft was originally part of the domestic quarters of the monks. Among the most significant ceremonies that occurred in the Abbey at this period was the coronation of William the Conqueror on Christmas day 1066, and the "translation" or moving of King Edward's body to a new tomb a few years after his canonisation in 1161.

Edward's Abbey survived for two centuries until the middle of the 13th century when King Henry III decided to rebuild it in the new Gothic style of architecture. It was a great age for cathedrals: in France it saw the construction of Amiens, Evreux and Chartres and in England Canterbury, Winchester and Salisbury, to mention a few. Under the decree of the King of England, Westminster Abbey was designed to be not only a great monastery and place of worship, but also a place for the coronation and burial of monarchs. This church was consecrated on 13th October 1269. Unfortunately the king died before the nave could be completed so the older structure stood attached to the Gothic building for many years.

Every monarch since William the Conqueror has been crowned in the Abbey, with the exception of Edward V and Edward VIII (who abdicated) who were never crowned. The ancient Coronation Chair can still be seen in the church.

It was natural that Henry III should wish to translate the body of the saintly Edward the Confessor into a more magnificent tomb behind the High Altar in his new church. This shrine survives and around it are buried a cluster of medieval kings and their consorts including Henry III, Edward I and Eleanor of Castile, Edward III and Philippa of Hainault, Richard II and Anne of Bohemia and Henry V.

There are around 3,300 burials in the church and cloisters and many more memorials. The Abbey also contains over 600 monuments, and wall tablets – the most important collection of monumental sculpture anywhere in the country. Notable among the burials is the Unknown Warrior, whose grave, close to the west door, has become a place of pilgrimage. Heads of State who are visiting the country invariably come to lay a wreath at this grave.

A remarkable new addition to the Abbey was the glorious Lady chapel built by King Henry VII, first of the Tudor monarchs, which now bears his name. This has a spectacular fan-vaulted roof and the craftsmanship of Italian sculptor Pietro Torrigiano can be seen in Henry's fine tomb. The chapel was consecrated on 19th February 1516. Since 1725 it has been associated with the Most Honourable Order of the Bath and the banners of the current Knights Grand Cross surround the walls. The Battle of Britain memorial window by Hugh Easton can be seen at the east end in the Royal Air Force chapel. A new stained glass window above this, by Alan Younger, and two flanking windows with a design in blue by Hughie O'Donoghue, give colour to this chapel.

Two centuries later a further addition was made to the Abbey when the western towers (left unfinished from medieval times) were completed in 1745, to a design by Nicholas Hawksmoor.

Little remains of the original medieval stained glass, once one of the Abbey's chief glories. Some 13th century panels can be seen in the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Galleries. The great west window and the rose window in the north transept date from the early 18th century but the remainder of the glass is from the 19th century onwards. The newest stained glass is in The Queen Elizabeth II window, designed by David Hockney.

History did not cease with the dissolution of the medieval monastery on 16th January 1540. The same year Henry VIII erected Westminster into a cathedral church with a bishop (Thomas Thirlby), a dean and twelve prebendaries (now known as Canons). The bishopric was surrendered on 29th March 1550 and the diocese was re-united with London, Westminster being made by Act of Parliament a cathedral church in the diocese of London. Mary I restored the Benedictine monastery in 1556 under Abbot John Feckenham.

But on the accession of Elizabeth I the religious houses revived by Mary were given by Parliament to the Crown and the Abbot and monks were removed in July 1559. Queen Elizabeth I, buried in the north aisle of Henry VII's chapel, refounded the Abbey by a charter dated 21 May 1560 as a Collegiate Church exempt from the jurisdiction of archbishops and bishops and with the Sovereign as its Visitor. Its Royal Peculiar status from 1534 was re-affirmed by the Queen and In place of the monastic community a collegiate body of a dean and prebendaries, minor canons and a lay staff was established and charged with the task of continuing the tradition of daily worship (for which a musical foundation of choristers, singing men and organist was provided) and with the education of forty Scholars who formed the nucleus of what is now Westminster School (one of the country's leading independent schools). In addition the Dean and Chapter were responsible for much of the civil government of Westminster, a role which was only fully relinquished in the early 20th century.

[Westminster Abbey]

 

What are these Uprisings across the sky; These Silent Scriptures waiting to be read or sung to; These Inhuman Formations.

 

_AS_

 

© Anshul Soni, All Rights Reserved.

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Gautama Buddha, also known as Siddhārtha Gautama, Shakyamuni, or simply the Buddha, was a sage on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. He is believed to have lived and taught mostly in northeastern India sometime between the sixth and fourth centuries BCE.

 

The word Buddha means "awakened one" or "the enlightened one". "Buddha" is also used as a title for the first awakened being in a Yuga era. In most Buddhist traditions, Siddhartha Gautama is regarded as the Supreme Buddha (Pali sammāsambuddha, Sanskrit samyaksaṃbuddha) of the present age. Gautama taught a Middle Way between sensual indulgence and the severe asceticism found in the śramaṇa movement common in his region. He later taught throughout regions of eastern India such as Magadha and Kosala.

 

Gautama is the primary figure in Buddhism and accounts of his life, discourses, and monastic rules are believed by Buddhists to have been summarized after his death and memorized by his followers. Various collections of teachings attributed to him were passed down by oral tradition and first committed to writing about 400 years later.

 

CONTENTS

HISTORICAL SIDDHARTA GAUTAMA

Scholars are hesitant to make unqualified claims about the historical facts of the Buddha's life. Most accept that he lived, taught and founded a monastic order during the Mahajanapada era during the reign of Bimbisara, the ruler of the Magadha empire, and died during the early years of the reign of Ajasattu, who was the successor of Bimbisara, thus making him a younger contemporary of Mahavira, the Jain tirthankara. Apart from the Vedic Brahmins, the Buddha's lifetime coincided with the flourishing of other influential śramaṇa schools of thoughts like Ājīvika, Cārvāka, Jainism, and Ajñana. It was also the age of influential thinkers like Mahavira, Pūraṇa Kassapa , Makkhali Gosāla, Ajita Kesakambalī, Pakudha Kaccāyana, and Sañjaya Belaṭṭhaputta, whose viewpoints the Buddha most certainly must have been acquainted with and influenced by. Indeed, Sariputta and Moggallāna, two of the foremost disciples of the Buddha, were formerly the foremost disciples of Sañjaya Belaṭṭhaputta, the skeptic. There is also evidence to suggest that the two masters, Alara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputta, were indeed historical figures and they most probably taught Buddha two different forms of meditative techniques. While the general sequence of "birth, maturity, renunciation, search, awakening and liberation, teaching, death" is widely accepted, there is less consensus on the veracity of many details contained in traditional biographies.

 

The times of Gautama's birth and death are uncertain. Most historians in the early 20th century dated his lifetime as circa 563 BCE to 483 BCE. More recently his death is dated later, between 411 and 400 BCE, while at a symposium on this question held in 1988, the majority of those who presented definite opinions gave dates within 20 years either side of 400 BCE for the Buddha's death. These alternative chronologies, however, have not yet been accepted by all historians.

 

The evidence of the early texts suggests that Siddhārtha Gautama was born into the Shakya clan, a community that was on the periphery, both geographically and culturally, of the northeastern Indian subcontinent in the 5th century BCE. It was either a small republic, in which case his father was an elected chieftain, or an oligarchy, in which case his father was an oligarch. According to the Buddhist tradition, Gautama was born in Lumbini, nowadays in modern-day Nepal, and raised in the Shakya capital of Kapilavastu, which may have been in either present day Tilaurakot, Nepal or Piprahwa, India. He obtained his enlightenment in Bodh Gaya, gave his first sermon in Sarnath, and died in Kushinagar.

 

No written records about Gautama have been found from his lifetime or some centuries thereafter. One Edict of Asoka, who reigned from circa 269 BCE to 232 BCE, commemorates the Emperor's pilgrimage to the Buddha's birthplace in Lumbini. Another one of his edicts mentions several Dhamma texts, establishing the existence of a written Buddhist tradition at least by the time of the Maurya era and which may be the precursors of the Pāli Canon. The oldest surviving Buddhist manuscripts are the Gandhāran Buddhist texts, reported to have been found in or around Haḍḍa near Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan and now preserved in the British Library. They are written in the Gāndhārī language using the Kharosthi script on twenty-seven birch bark manuscripts and date from the first century BCE to the third century CE.

 

TRADITIONAL BIOGRAPHIES

BIOGRAPHICAL SOURCES

The sources for the life of Siddhārtha Gautama are a variety of different, and sometimes conflicting, traditional biographies. These include the Buddhacarita, Lalitavistara Sūtra, Mahāvastu, and the Nidānakathā. Of these, the Buddhacarita is the earliest full biography, an epic poem written by the poet Aśvaghoṣa, and dating around the beginning of the 2nd century CE. The Lalitavistara Sūtra is the next oldest biography, a Mahāyāna/Sarvāstivāda biography dating to the 3rd century CE. The Mahāvastu from the Mahāsāṃghika Lokottaravāda tradition is another major biography, composed incrementally until perhaps the 4th century CE. The Dharmaguptaka biography of the Buddha is the most exhaustive, and is entitled the Abhiniṣkramaṇa Sūtra, and various Chinese translations of this date between the 3rd and 6th century CE. The Nidānakathā is from the Theravada tradition in Sri Lanka and was composed in the 5th century by Buddhaghoṣa.

 

From canonical sources, the Jataka tales, the Mahapadana Sutta (DN 14), and the Achariyabhuta Sutta (MN 123) which include selective accounts that may be older, but are not full biographies. The Jātakas retell previous lives of Gautama as a bodhisattva, and the first collection of these can be dated among the earliest Buddhist texts. The Mahāpadāna Sutta and Achariyabhuta Sutta both recount miraculous events surrounding Gautama's birth, such as the bodhisattva's descent from the Tuṣita Heaven into his mother's womb.

 

NATURE OF TRADITIONAL DEPICTIONS

In the earliest Buddhists texts, the nikāyas and āgamas, the Buddha is not depicted as possessing omniscience (sabbaññu) nor is he depicted as being an eternal transcendent (lokottara) being. According to Bhikkhu Analayo, ideas of the Buddha's omniscience (along with an increasing tendency to deify him and his biography) are found only later, in the Mahayana sutras and later Pali commentaries or texts such as the Mahāvastu. In the Sandaka Sutta, the Buddha's disciple Ananda outlines an argument against the claims of teachers who say they are all knowing while in the Tevijjavacchagotta Sutta the Buddha himself states that he has never made a claim to being omniscient, instead he claimed to have the "higher knowledges" (abhijñā). The earliest biographical material from the Pali Nikayas focuses on the Buddha's life as a śramaṇa, his search for enlightenment under various teachers such as Alara Kalama and his forty five year career as a teacher.

 

Traditional biographies of Gautama generally include numerous miracles, omens, and supernatural events. The character of the Buddha in these traditional biographies is often that of a fully transcendent (Skt. lokottara) and perfected being who is unencumbered by the mundane world. In the Mahāvastu, over the course of many lives, Gautama is said to have developed supra-mundane abilities including: a painless birth conceived without intercourse; no need for sleep, food, medicine, or bathing, although engaging in such "in conformity with the world"; omniscience, and the ability to "suppress karma". Nevertheless, some of the more ordinary details of his life have been gathered from these traditional sources. In modern times there has been an attempt to form a secular understanding of Siddhārtha Gautama's life by omitting the traditional supernatural elements of his early biographies.

 

Andrew Skilton writes that the Buddha was never historically regarded by Buddhist traditions as being merely human:

It is important to stress that, despite modern Theravada teachings to the contrary (often a sop to skeptical Western pupils), he was never seen as being merely human. For instance, he is often described as having the thirty-two major and eighty minor marks or signs of a mahāpuruṣa, "superman"; the Buddha himself denied that he was either a man or a god; and in the Mahāparinibbāna Sutta he states that he could live for an aeon were he asked to do so.The ancient Indians were generally unconcerned with chronologies, being more focused on philosophy. Buddhist texts reflect this tendency, providing a clearer picture of what Gautama may have taught than of the dates of the events in his life. These texts contain descriptions of the culture and daily life of ancient India which can be corroborated from the Jain scriptures, and make the Buddha's time the earliest period in Indian history for which significant accounts exist. British author Karen Armstrong writes that although there is very little information that can be considered historically sound, we can be reasonably confident that Siddhārtha Gautama did exist as a historical figure. Michael Carrithers goes a bit further by stating that the most general outline of "birth, maturity, renunciation, search, awakening and liberation, teaching, death" must be true.

 

BIOGRAPHY

CONCEPTION AND BIRTH

The Buddhist tradition regards Lumbini, in present-day Nepal to be the birthplace of the Buddha. He grew up in Kapilavastu. The exact site of ancient Kapilavastu is unknown. It may have been either Piprahwa, Uttar Pradesh, present-day India, or Tilaurakot, present-day Nepal. Both places belonged to the Sakya territory, and are located only 15 miles apart from each other.

 

Gautama was born as a Kshatriya, the son of Śuddhodana, "an elected chief of the Shakya clan", whose capital was Kapilavastu, and who were later annexed by the growing Kingdom of Kosala during the Buddha's lifetime. Gautama was the family name. His mother, Maya (Māyādevī), Suddhodana's wife, was a Koliyan princess. Legend has it that, on the night Siddhartha was conceived, Queen Maya dreamt that a white elephant with six white tusks entered her right side, and ten months later Siddhartha was born. As was the Shakya tradition, when his mother Queen Maya became pregnant, she left Kapilvastu for her father's kingdom to give birth. However, her son is said to have been born on the way, at Lumbini, in a garden beneath a sal tree.

 

The day of the Buddha's birth is widely celebrated in Theravada countries as Vesak. Buddha's Birthday is called Buddha Purnima in Nepal and India as he is believed to have been born on a full moon day. Various sources hold that the Buddha's mother died at his birth, a few days or seven days later. The infant was given the name Siddhartha (Pāli: Siddhattha), meaning "he who achieves his aim". During the birth celebrations, the hermit seer Asita journeyed from his mountain abode and announced that the child would either become a great king (chakravartin) or a great sadhu. By traditional account, this occurred after Siddhartha placed his feet in Asita's hair and Asita examined the birthmarks. Suddhodana held a naming ceremony on the fifth day, and invited eight Brahmin scholars to read the future. All gave a dual prediction that the baby would either become a great king or a great holy man. Kondañña, the youngest, and later to be the first arhat other than the Buddha, was reputed to be the only one who unequivocally predicted that Siddhartha would become a Buddha.

 

While later tradition and legend characterized Śuddhodana as a hereditary monarch, the descendant of the Suryavansha (Solar dynasty) of Ikṣvāku (Pāli: Okkāka), many scholars think that Śuddhodana was the elected chief of a tribal confederacy.

 

Early texts suggest that Gautama was not familiar with the dominant religious teachings of his time until he left on his religious quest, which is said to have been motivated by existential concern for the human condition. The state of the Shakya clan was not a monarchy, and seems to have been structured either as an oligarchy, or as a form of republic. The more egalitarian gana-sangha form of government, as a political alternative to the strongly hierarchical kingdoms, may have influenced the development of the śramanic Jain and Buddhist sanghas, where monarchies tended toward Vedic Brahmanism.

 

EARLY LIFE AND MARRIAGE

Siddhartha was brought up by his mother's younger sister, Maha Pajapati. By tradition, he is said to have been destined by birth to the life of a prince, and had three palaces (for seasonal occupation) built for him. Although more recent scholarship doubts this status, his father, said to be King Śuddhodana, wishing for his son to be a great king, is said to have shielded him from religious teachings and from knowledge of human suffering.

 

When he reached the age of 16, his father reputedly arranged his marriage to a cousin of the same age named Yaśodharā (Pāli: Yasodharā). According to the traditional account, she gave birth to a son, named Rāhula. Siddhartha is said to have spent 29 years as a prince in Kapilavastu. Although his father ensured that Siddhartha was provided with everything he could want or need, Buddhist scriptures say that the future Buddha felt that material wealth was not life's ultimate goal.

 

RENUNCIATION AND ASCETIC LIFE

At the age of 29, the popular biography continues, Siddhartha left his palace to meet his subjects. Despite his father's efforts to hide from him the sick, aged and suffering, Siddhartha was said to have seen an old man. When his charioteer Channa explained to him that all people grew old, the prince went on further trips beyond the palace. On these he encountered a diseased man, a decaying corpse, and an ascetic. These depressed him, and he initially strove to overcome aging, sickness, and death by living the life of an ascetic.

 

Accompanied by Channa and riding his horse Kanthaka, Gautama quit his palace for the life of a mendicant. It's said that, "the horse's hooves were muffled by the gods" to prevent guards from knowing of his departure.

 

Gautama initially went to Rajagaha and began his ascetic life by begging for alms in the street. After King Bimbisara's men recognised Siddhartha and the king learned of his quest, Bimbisara offered Siddhartha the throne. Siddhartha rejected the offer, but promised to visit his kingdom of Magadha first, upon attaining enlightenment.

 

He left Rajagaha and practised under two hermit teachers of yogic meditation. After mastering the teachings of Alara Kalama (Skr. Ārāḍa Kālāma), he was asked by Kalama to succeed him. However, Gautama felt unsatisfied by the practice, and moved on to become a student of yoga with Udaka Ramaputta (Skr. Udraka Rāmaputra). With him he achieved high levels of meditative consciousness, and was again asked to succeed his teacher. But, once more, he was not satisfied, and again moved on.

 

Siddhartha and a group of five companions led by Kaundinya are then said to have set out to take their austerities even further. They tried to find enlightenment through deprivation of worldly goods, including food, practising self-mortification. After nearly starving himself to death by restricting his food intake to around a leaf or nut per day, he collapsed in a river while bathing and almost drowned. Siddhartha was rescued by a village girl named Sujata and she gave him some payasam (a pudding made from milk and jaggery) after which Siddhartha got back some energy. Siddhartha began to reconsider his path. Then, he remembered a moment in childhood in which he had been watching his father start the season's ploughing. He attained a concentrated and focused state that was blissful and refreshing, the jhāna.

 

AWAKENING

According to the early Buddhist texts, after realizing that meditative dhyana was the right path to awakening, but that extreme asceticism didn't work, Gautama discovered what Buddhists call the Middle Way - a path of moderation away from the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification, or the Noble Eightfold Path, as was identified and described by the Buddha in his first discourse, the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta. In a famous incident, after becoming starved and weakened, he is said to have accepted milk and rice pudding from a village girl named Sujata. Such was his emaciated appearance that she wrongly believed him to be a spirit that had granted her a wish.

 

Following this incident, Gautama was famously seated under a pipal tree - now known as the Bodhi tree - in Bodh Gaya, India, when he vowed never to arise until he had found the truth. Kaundinya and four other companions, believing that he had abandoned his search and become undisciplined, left. After a reputed 49 days of meditation, at the age of 35, he is said to have attained Enlightenment. According to some traditions, this occurred in approximately the fifth lunar month, while, according to others, it was in the twelfth month. From that time, Gautama was known to his followers as the Buddha or "Awakened One" ("Buddha" is also sometimes translated as "The Enlightened One").

 

According to Buddhism, at the time of his awakening he realized complete insight into the cause of suffering, and the steps necessary to eliminate it. These discoveries became known as the "Four Noble Truths", which are at the heart of Buddhist teaching. Through mastery of these truths, a state of supreme liberation, or Nirvana, is believed to be possible for any being. The Buddha described Nirvāna as the perfect peace of a mind that's free from ignorance, greed, hatred and other afflictive states, or "defilements" (kilesas). Nirvana is also regarded as the "end of the world", in that no personal identity or boundaries of the mind remain. In such a state, a being is said to possess the Ten Characteristics, belonging to every Buddha.

 

According to a story in the Āyācana Sutta (Samyutta Nikaya VI.1) - a scripture found in the Pāli and other canons - immediately after his awakening, the Buddha debated whether or not he should teach the Dharma to others. He was concerned that humans were so overpowered by ignorance, greed and hatred that they could never recognise the path, which is subtle, deep and hard to grasp. However, in the story, Brahmā Sahampati convinced him, arguing that at least some will understand it. The Buddha relented, and agreed to teach.

 

FORMATION OF THE SANGHA

After his awakening, the Buddha met Taphussa and Bhallika — two merchant brothers from the city of Balkh in what is currently Afghanistan - who became his first lay disciples. It is said that each was given hairs from his head, which are now claimed to be enshrined as relics in the Shwe Dagon Temple in Rangoon, Burma. The Buddha intended to visit Asita, and his former teachers, Alara Kalama and Udaka Ramaputta, to explain his findings, but they had already died.

 

He then travelled to the Deer Park near Varanasi (Benares) in northern India, where he set in motion what Buddhists call the Wheel of Dharma by delivering his first sermon to the five companions with whom he had sought enlightenment. Together with him, they formed the first saṅgha: the company of Buddhist monks.

 

All five become arahants, and within the first two months, with the conversion of Yasa and fifty four of his friends, the number of such arahants is said to have grown to 60. The conversion of three brothers named Kassapa followed, with their reputed 200, 300 and 500 disciples, respectively. This swelled the sangha to more than 1,000.

 

TRAVELS AND TEACHING

For the remaining 45 years of his life, the Buddha is said to have traveled in the Gangetic Plain, in what is now Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and southern Nepal, teaching a diverse range of people: from nobles to servants, murderers such as Angulimala, and cannibals such as Alavaka. Although the Buddha's language remains unknown, it's likely that he taught in one or more of a variety of closely related Middle Indo-Aryan dialects, of which Pali may be a standardization.

 

The sangha traveled through the subcontinent, expounding the dharma. This continued throughout the year, except during the four months of the Vāsanā rainy season when ascetics of all religions rarely traveled. One reason was that it was more difficult to do so without causing harm to animal life. At this time of year, the sangha would retreat to monasteries, public parks or forests, where people would come to them.

 

The first vassana was spent at Varanasi when the sangha was formed. After this, the Buddha kept a promise to travel to Rajagaha, capital of Magadha, to visit King Bimbisara. During this visit, Sariputta and Maudgalyayana were converted by Assaji, one of the first five disciples, after which they were to become the Buddha's two foremost followers. The Buddha spent the next three seasons at Veluvana Bamboo Grove monastery in Rajagaha, capital of Magadha.

 

Upon hearing of his son's awakening, Suddhodana sent, over a period, ten delegations to ask him to return to Kapilavastu. On the first nine occasions, the delegates failed to deliver the message, and instead joined the sangha to become arahants. The tenth delegation, led by Kaludayi, a childhood friend of Gautama's (who also became an arahant), however, delivered the message.

 

Now two years after his awakening, the Buddha agreed to return, and made a two-month journey by foot to Kapilavastu, teaching the dharma as he went. At his return, the royal palace prepared a midday meal, but the sangha was making an alms round in Kapilavastu. Hearing this, Suddhodana approached his son, the Buddha, saying:

 

"Ours is the warrior lineage of Mahamassata, and not a single warrior has gone seeking alms."

 

The Buddha is said to have replied:

 

"That is not the custom of your royal lineage. But it is the custom of my Buddha lineage. Several thousands of Buddhas have gone by seeking alms."

 

Buddhist texts say that Suddhodana invited the sangha into the palace for the meal, followed by a dharma talk. After this he is said to have become a sotapanna. During the visit, many members of the royal family joined the sangha. The Buddha's cousins Ananda and Anuruddha became two of his five chief disciples. At the age of seven, his son Rahula also joined, and became one of his ten chief disciples. His half-brother Nanda also joined and became an arahant.

 

Of the Buddha's disciples, Sariputta, Maudgalyayana, Mahakasyapa, Ananda and Anuruddha are believed to have been the five closest to him. His ten foremost disciples were reputedly completed by the quintet of Upali, Subhoti, Rahula, Mahakaccana and Punna.

 

In the fifth vassana, the Buddha was staying at Mahavana near Vesali when he heard news of the impending death of his father. He is said to have gone to Suddhodana and taught the dharma, after which his father became an arahant.The king's death and cremation was to inspire the creation of an order of nuns. Buddhist texts record that the Buddha was reluctant to ordain women. His foster mother Maha Pajapati, for example, approached him, asking to join the sangha, but he refused. Maha Pajapati, however, was so intent on the path of awakening that she led a group of royal Sakyan and Koliyan ladies, which followed the sangha on a long journey to Rajagaha. In time, after Ananda championed their cause, the Buddha is said to have reconsidered and, five years after the formation of the sangha, agreed to the ordination of women as nuns. He reasoned that males and females had an equal capacity for awakening. But he gave women additional rules (Vinaya) to follow.

 

MAHAPARINIRVANA

According to the Mahaparinibbana Sutta of the Pali canon, at the age of 80, the Buddha announced that he would soon reach Parinirvana, or the final deathless state, and abandon his earthly body. After this, the Buddha ate his last meal, which he had received as an offering from a blacksmith named Cunda. Falling violently ill, Buddha instructed his attendant Ānanda to convince Cunda that the meal eaten at his place had nothing to do with his passing and that his meal would be a source of the greatest merit as it provided the last meal for a Buddha. Mettanando and Von Hinüber argue that the Buddha died of mesenteric infarction, a symptom of old age, rather than food poisoning. The precise contents of the Buddha's final meal are not clear, due to variant scriptural traditions and ambiguity over the translation of certain significant terms; the Theravada tradition generally believes that the Buddha was offered some kind of pork, while the Mahayana tradition believes that the Buddha consumed some sort of truffle or other mushroom. These may reflect the different traditional views on Buddhist vegetarianism and the precepts for monks and nuns.

 

Waley suggests that Theravadin's would take suukaramaddava (the contents of the Buddha's last meal), which can translate as pig-soft, to mean soft flesh of a pig. However, he also states that pig-soft could mean "pig's soft-food", that is, after Neumann, a soft food favoured by pigs, assumed to be a truffle. He argues (also after Neumann) that as Pali Buddhism was developed in an area remote to the Buddha's death, the existence of other plants with suukara- (pig) as part of their names and that "(p)lant names tend to be local and dialectical" could easily indicate that suukaramaddava was a type of plant whose local name was unknown to those in the Pali regions. Specifically, local writers knew more about their flora than Theravadin commentator Buddhaghosa who lived hundreds of years and kilometres remote in time and space from the events described. Unaware of an alternate meaning and with no Theravadin prohibition against eating animal flesh, Theravadins would not have questioned the Buddha eating meat and interpreted the term accordingly.

 

Ananda protested the Buddha's decision to enter Parinirvana in the abandoned jungles of Kuśināra (present-day Kushinagar, India) of the Malla kingdom. The Buddha, however, is said to have reminded Ananda how Kushinara was a land once ruled by a righteous wheel-turning king that resounded with joy:

 

44. Kusavati, Ananda, resounded unceasingly day and night with ten sounds - the trumpeting of elephants, the neighing of horses, the rattling of chariots, the beating of drums and tabours, music and song, cheers, the clapping of hands, and cries of "Eat, drink, and be merry!"

 

The Buddha then asked all the attendant Bhikkhus to clarify any doubts or questions they had. They had none. According to Buddhist scriptures, he then finally entered Parinirvana. The Buddha's final words are reported to have been: "All composite things (Saṅkhāra) are perishable. Strive for your own liberation with diligence" (Pali: 'vayadhammā saṅkhārā appamādena sampādethā'). His body was cremated and the relics were placed in monuments or stupas, some of which are believed to have survived until the present. For example, The Temple of the Tooth or "Dalada Maligawa" in Sri Lanka is the place where what some believe to be the relic of the right tooth of Buddha is kept at present.

 

According to the Pāli historical chronicles of Sri Lanka, the Dīpavaṃsa and Mahāvaṃsa, the coronation of Emperor Aśoka (Pāli: Asoka) is 218 years after the death of the Buddha. According to two textual records in Chinese (十八部論 and 部執異論), the coronation of Emperor Aśoka is 116 years after the death of the Buddha. Therefore, the time of Buddha's passing is either 486 BCE according to Theravāda record or 383 BCE according to Mahayana record. However, the actual date traditionally accepted as the date of the Buddha's death in Theravāda countries is 544 or 545 BCE, because the reign of Emperor Aśoka was traditionally reckoned to be about 60 years earlier than current estimates. In Burmese Buddhist tradition, the date of the Buddha's death is 13 May 544 BCE. whereas in Thai tradition it is 11 March 545 BCE.

 

At his death, the Buddha is famously believed to have told his disciples to follow no leader. Mahakasyapa was chosen by the sangha to be the chairman of the First Buddhist Council, with the two chief disciples Maudgalyayana and Sariputta having died before the Buddha.

 

While in the Buddha's days he was addressed by the very respected titles Buddha, Shākyamuni, Shākyasimha, Bhante and Bho, he was known after his parinirvana as Arihant, Bhagavā/Bhagavat/Bhagwān, Mahāvira, Jina/Jinendra, Sāstr, Sugata, and most popularly in scriptures as Tathāgata.

 

BUDDHA AND VEDAS

Buddha's teachings deny the authority of the Vedas and consequently [at least atheistic] Buddhism is generally viewed as a nāstika school (heterodox, literally "It is not so") from the perspective of orthodox Hinduism.

 

RELICS

After his death, Buddha's cremation relics were divided amongst 8 royal families and his disciples; centuries later they would be enshrined by King Ashoka into 84,000 stupas. Many supernatural legends surround the history of alleged relics as they accompanied the spread of Buddhism and gave legitimacy to rulers.

 

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

An extensive and colorful physical description of the Buddha has been laid down in scriptures. A kshatriya by birth, he had military training in his upbringing, and by Shakyan tradition was required to pass tests to demonstrate his worthiness as a warrior in order to marry. He had a strong enough body to be noticed by one of the kings and was asked to join his army as a general. He is also believed by Buddhists to have "the 32 Signs of the Great Man".

 

The Brahmin Sonadanda described him as "handsome, good-looking, and pleasing to the eye, with a most beautiful complexion. He has a godlike form and countenance, he is by no means unattractive." (D, I:115)

 

"It is wonderful, truly marvellous, how serene is the good Gotama's appearance, how clear and radiant his complexion, just as the golden jujube in autumn is clear and radiant, just as a palm-tree fruit just loosened from the stalk is clear and radiant, just as an adornment of red gold wrought in a crucible by a skilled goldsmith, deftly beaten and laid on a yellow-cloth shines, blazes and glitters, even so, the good Gotama's senses are calmed, his complexion is clear and radiant." (A, I:181)

 

A disciple named Vakkali, who later became an arahant, was so obsessed by the Buddha's physical presence that the Buddha is said to have felt impelled to tell him to desist, and to have reminded him that he should know the Buddha through the Dhamma and not through physical appearances.

 

Although there are no extant representations of the Buddha in human form until around the 1st century CE (see Buddhist art), descriptions of the physical characteristics of fully enlightened buddhas are attributed to the Buddha in the Digha Nikaya's Lakkhaṇa Sutta (D, I:142). In addition, the Buddha's physical appearance is described by Yasodhara to their son Rahula upon the Buddha's first post-Enlightenment return to his former princely palace in the non-canonical Pali devotional hymn, Narasīha Gāthā ("The Lion of Men").

 

Among the 32 main characteristics it is mentioned that Buddha has blue eyes.

 

NINE VIRTUES

Recollection of nine virtues attributed to the Buddha is a common Buddhist meditation and devotional practice called Buddhānusmṛti. The nine virtues are also among the 40 Buddhist meditation subjects. The nine virtues of the Buddha appear throughout the Tipitaka, and include:

 

- Buddho – Awakened

- Sammasambuddho – Perfectly self-awakened

- Vijja-carana-sampano – Endowed with higher knowledge and ideal conduct.

- Sugato – Well-gone or Well-spoken.

- Lokavidu – Wise in the knowledge of the many worlds.

- Anuttaro Purisa-damma-sarathi – Unexcelled trainer of untrained people.

- Satthadeva-Manussanam – Teacher of gods and humans.

- Bhagavathi – The Blessed one

- Araham – Worthy of homage. An Arahant is "one with taints destroyed, who has lived the holy life, done what had to be done, laid down the burden, reached the true goal, destroyed the fetters of being, and is completely liberated through final knowledge."

 

TEACHINGS

TRACING THE OLDEST TEACHINGS

Information of the oldest teachings may be obtained by analysis of the oldest texts. One method to obtain information on the oldest core of Buddhism is to compare the oldest extant versions of the Theravadin Pali Canon and other texts. The reliability of these sources, and the possibility to draw out a core of oldest teachings, is a matter of dispute. According to Vetter, inconsistencies remain, and other methods must be applied to resolve those inconsistencies.

 

According to Schmithausen, three positions held by scholars of Buddhism can be distinguished:

 

"Stress on the fundamental homogeneity and substantial authenticity of at least a considerable part of the Nikayic materials;"

"Scepticism with regard to the possibility of retrieving the doctrine of earliest Buddhism;"

"Cautious optimism in this respect."

 

DHYANA AND INSIGHT

A core problem in the study of early Buddhism is the relation between dhyana and insight. Schmithausen, in his often-cited article On some Aspects of Descriptions or Theories of 'Liberating Insight' and 'Enlightenment' in Early Buddhism notes that the mention of the four noble truths as constituting "liberating insight", which is attained after mastering the Rupa Jhanas, is a later addition to texts such as Majjhima Nikaya 36

 

CORE TEACHINGS

According to Tilmann Vetter, the core of earliest Buddhism is the practice of dhyāna. Bronkhorst agrees that dhyana was a Buddhist invention, whereas Norman notes that "the Buddha's way to release [...] was by means of meditative practices." Discriminating insight into transiency as a separate path to liberation was a later development.

 

According to the Mahāsaccakasutta, from the fourth jhana the Buddha gained bodhi. Yet, it is not clear what he was awakened to. "Liberating insight" is a later addition to this text, and reflects a later development and understanding in early Buddhism. The mentioning of the four truths as constituting "liberating insight" introduces a logical problem, since the four truths depict a linear path of practice, the knowledge of which is in itself not depicted as being liberating:

 

[T]hey do not teach that one is released by knowing the four noble truths, but by practicing the fourth noble truth, the eightfold path, which culminates in right samadhi.

 

Although "Nibbāna" (Sanskrit: Nirvāna) is the common term for the desired goal of this practice, many other terms can be found throughout the Nikayas, which are not specified.

 

According to Vetter, the description of the Buddhist path may initially have been as simple as the term "the middle way". In time, this short description was elaborated, resulting in the description of the eightfold path.

 

According to both Bronkhorst and Anderson, the four truths became a substitution for prajna, or "liberating insight", in the suttas in those texts where "liberating insight" was preceded by the four jhanas. According to Bronkhorst, the four truths may not have been formulated in earliest Buddhism, and did not serve in earliest Buddhism as a description of "liberating insight". Gotama's teachings may have been personal, "adjusted to the need of each person."

 

The three marks of existence may reflect Upanishadic or other influences. K.R. Norman supposes that these terms were already in use at the Buddha's time, and were familiar to his listeners.

 

The Brahma-vihara was in origin probably a brahmanic term; but its usage may have been common to the Sramana traditions.

  

LATER DEVELOPMENTS

In time, "liberating insight" became an essential feature of the Buddhist tradition. The following teachings, which are commonly seen as essential to Buddhism, are later formulations which form part of the explanatory framework of this "liberating insight":

 

- The Four Noble Truths: that suffering is an ingrained part of existence; that the origin of suffering is craving for sensuality, acquisition of identity, and fear of annihilation; that suffering can be ended; and that following the Noble Eightfold Path is the means to accomplish this;

- The Noble Eightfold Path: right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration;

- Dependent origination: the mind creates suffering as a natural product of a complex process.

 

OTHER RELIGIONS

Some Hindus regard Gautama as the 9th avatar of Vishnu. The Buddha is also regarded as a prophet by the Ahmadiyya Muslims and a Manifestation of God in the Bahá'í Faith. Some early Chinese Taoist-Buddhists thought the Buddha to be a reincarnation of Lao Tzu.

 

The Christian Saint Josaphat is based on the Buddha. The name comes from the Sanskrit Bodhisattva via Arabic Būdhasaf and Georgian Iodasaph. The only story in which St. Josaphat appears, Barlaam and Josaphat, is based on the life of the Buddha. Josaphat was included in earlier editions of the Roman Martyrology (feast day 27 November) — though not in the Roman Missal — and in the Eastern Orthodox Church liturgical calendar (26 August).

 

Disciples of the Cao Đài religion worship the Buddha as a major religious teacher. His image can be found in both their Holy See and on the home altar. He is revealed during communication with Divine Beings as son of their Supreme Being (God the Father) together with other major religious teachers and founders like Jesus, Laozi, and Confucius.

 

In the ancient Gnostic sect of Manichaeism the Buddha is listed among the prophets who preached the word of God before Mani.

 

WIKIPEDIA