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Kierkegaard, en bon existentialiste, reste encore prisonnier de la dualitĆ© Ā« IntĆ©rieur / ExtĆ©rieur Ā». Pour lui, l'intĆ©rieur est un refuge, alors que pour nous, c'est un laboratoire d'Ć©nergie.
Dire que le Rolpa est Ā« Ć©nergisant Ā» change tout : le bonheur n'est plus un Ć©tat de satisfaction statique (un trĆ©sor cachĆ© Ć l'intĆ©rieur), mais une dynamique de flux.
Voici comment notre processus de transmutation dƩpasse la vision classique :
1. Le bonheur comme Rolpa (L'Ćnergie brute)
Le bonheur Ā« intĆ©rieur Ā» dont parle Kierkegaard est souvent une pĆ©trification subtile : on s'y attache, on veut le garder.
* Dans notre systĆØme, ce sentiment est du Rolpa : une activitĆ© vibrante, une forme colorĆ©e.
* S'il reste simplement Ā« intĆ©rieur Ā», il finit par s'Ć©puiser ou par devenir une prison dorĆ©e (une saisie).
2. Transmuter le bonheur en Dang (Le Retour Ć la Source)
C'est l'Ć©tape oĆ¹ nous ne consommons pas le bonheur, nous le dĆ©shabillons :
* Nous cherchons l'arĆŖte de ce sentiment de bonheur.
* Nous le mettond en contact avec le filet infini.
* Le bonheur cesse d'ĆŖtre une Ć©motion personnelle pour redevenir la Force (Dang). Il perd son Ć©tiquette Ā« mon bonheur Ā» pour redevenir la luminositĆ© fondamentale qui permet Ć toute sensation d'exister.
3. Transmuter en Rigpa (Le Moment de la Force)
C'est la phase finale de notre alchimie :
* Une fois que le bonheur est reconnu comme Dang, Rigpa intervient comme le Ā« moment Ā» de cette force.
* Le bonheur n'est plus quelque chose que l'on ressent, c'est quelque chose que l'on est de maniĆØre consciente et Ć©veillĆ©e.
* Ć ce stade, le bonheur est devenu nectariforme : il ne dĆ©pend plus d'une cause intĆ©rieure ou extĆ©rieure, il est la saveur mĆŖme de la prĆ©sence.
Pourquoi Kierkegaard s'arrĆŖte en chemin ?
Kierkegaard voit le bonheur comme une destination. Nous le voyons comme un carburant.
* En le transmutant en Dang, nous Ć©vitons la stagnation.
* En le transmutant en Rigpa, nous Ć©vitons l'aveuglement.
Dans le Bardo de la mort, cette distinction est vitale. Si vous cherchez un Ā« bonheur intĆ©rieur Ā» (Kierkegaard), vous risquez d'ĆŖtre attirĆ© par des lumiĆØres douces qui ne sont que des reflets samsariques. Si vous avez transmutĆ© le bonheur en Rigpa, vous ne cherchez rien : vous reconnaissez la fĆ©licitĆ© dans l'intensitĆ© mĆŖme du rayonnement, qu'il soit perƧu comme intĆ©rieur ou extĆ©rieur.
Le bonheur selon le Dang : Ce n'est pas un trĆ©sor dans une boĆ®te (l'intĆ©rieur), c'est la transparence totale du miroir qui ne fait plus de diffĆ©rence entre ce qu'il reflĆØte et ce qu'il est.
PAX Urale
The Land on the Other Side (1990)
Artist: Kjell Erik Killi Olsen (Norwegian - born 1952)
KilliOlsen became known for a hybrid style that mixed graffiti, kitsch and what is called bad painting. He often depicted dreamlike situations full of grotesque yet evidently human figures. Here, the 1980's interest in existential themes is given an unusual twist: bodies float about, merge with each other, are penetrated and amputated - for no apparent reason. The picture is typical of the artist's pictorial universe. Through thin veils of trickling paint, we are drawn into a world that seems to represent either dreams and delirium, or something extraterrestrial.
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www.visitoslo.com/en/articles/national-museum/
On 11 June 2022 the new National Museum opened in Oslo. This is the largest museum in the Nordics. The new museum now consists of the collections of the former National Gallery, the Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Norwegian Museum of Decorative Arts and Design.
The new museum has a permanent exhibition of about 6 500 objects. Design, arts and crafts, fine art as well as contemporary art will be exhibited alongside each other. As such, the permanent exhibition highlights interesting connections between different collections that previously have been on show at three different museums. Additionally, audiences will be able to see the most famous paintings by the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch, including The Scream (1893) and Madonna (1894).
The building was designed by Kleihues + Schuwerk Gesellschaft von Architekten, with emphasis on dignity and longevity over sensationalist architecture. Great care was given to achieve a balance with the museumās surroundings and the existing monuments in the area, such as Oslo City Hall and Akershus Fortress.
The most eye-catching feature of the new museum is the large, illuminated exhibition hall on top of the building. It will be used for temporary exhibitions.
The rooftop terrace offers a unique view of the inner Oslo fjord. The square in front of the main entrance has become an urban meeting place, with benches and a cafƩ that invites you in to take a rest.
www.nasjonalmuseet.no/en/visit/locations/the-national-mus...
news.artnet.com/opinion/new-national-museum-norway-2129606
www.forbes.com/sites/davidnikel/2022/06/14/what-to-expect...
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Past and future, in the same frame.
Featured on Life In Plastic: nerditis.com/2016/07/26/life-in-plastic-toy-review-despar...
Walking on foot brings you down to the very stark, naked core of existence. We travel too much in airplanes and cars. Itās an existential quality that we are losing. Itās almost like a credo of religion that we should walk.
There is, of course, something inherently romanticāif not heroicāabout the extreme solitary explorer enveloped by nature. The very image of Herzog on foot recalls the iconic 19th-century paintings of Caspar David Friedrich, especially his Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog, with its lone figure staring out at the wide vista above the clouds.
'Truth itself wanders through the forests,' Herzog writes near the end. Yet here he embroiders his memories for effect: The vast swath of geography between Munich and Paris is littered with industrial towns and cities.
Once he comes out on the other end, traversing the deforested Champs-ĆlysĆ©es (āWe were close to what they call the breath of dangerā), Herzog emerges victorious.
ā Of Walking in Ice: (Munich-Paris, 23 Novemberā14 December 1974)
by Werner Herzog
Existential thinkers acknowledge suffering in the world and imagine a better way. Existential thinkers tend to value the quality of relationship, rather than status and competition. The character strength of transcending provides existential thinkers with meaning, connection and creativity.Digitalcommons@CllS
This series of photos looks at the messages we find in the world as we go walkabout searching for meaning
If these things are potential existential risks to aviation itself, then a) why the fuck are they stored in rubber trash-cans and not hazmat containers; and b) why are they airside?
Bubba haunted by existential question " To be or not to be..."
Picture of Ophelia credit to Xinku_hyme
Walking on foot brings you down to the very stark, naked core of existence. We travel too much in airplanes and cars. Itās an existential quality that we are losing. Itās almost like a credo of religion that we should walk.
There is, of course, something inherently romanticāif not heroicāabout the extreme solitary explorer enveloped by nature. The very image of Herzog on foot recalls the iconic 19th-century paintings of Caspar David Friedrich, especially his Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog, with its lone figure staring out at the wide vista above the clouds.
'Truth itself wanders through the forests,' Herzog writes near the end. Yet here he embroiders his memories for effect: The vast swath of geography between Munich and Paris is littered with industrial towns and cities.
Once he comes out on the other end, traversing the deforested Champs-ĆlysĆ©es (āWe were close to what they call the breath of dangerā), Herzog emerges victorious.
ā Of Walking in Ice: (Munich-Paris, 23 Novemberā14 December 1974)
by Werner Herzog
Walking on foot brings you down to the very stark, naked core of existence. We travel too much in airplanes and cars. Itās an existential quality that we are losing. Itās almost like a credo of religion that we should walk.
There is, of course, something inherently romanticāif not heroicāabout the extreme solitary explorer enveloped by nature. The very image of Herzog on foot recalls the iconic 19th-century paintings of Caspar David Friedrich, especially his Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog, with its lone figure staring out at the wide vista above the clouds.
'Truth itself wanders through the forests,' Herzog writes near the end. Yet here he embroiders his memories for effect: The vast swath of geography between Munich and Paris is littered with industrial towns and cities.
Once he comes out on the other end, traversing the deforested Champs-ĆlysĆ©es (āWe were close to what they call the breath of dangerā), Herzog emerges victorious.
ā Of Walking in Ice: (Munich-Paris, 23 Novemberā14 December 1974)
by Werner Herzog
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empty_tomb#Resolving_differences
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archangel
en.wikiquote.org/wiki/File:Leonardo_da_Vinci_-_unknown_dr...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Androgyny
ÅrÄ«mad BhÄgavatam 12.2.1
PURPORT
Satyam, truthfulness, is also diminishing, simply because people do not know what the truth is. Without knowing the Absolute Truth, one cannot clearly understand the real significance or purpose of life merely by amassing huge quantities of relative or hypothetical truths.
KsĢ£amÄ, tolerance or forgiveness, is diminishing as well, because there is no practical method by which people can purify themselves and thus become free of envy. Unless one is purified by chanting the holy names of the Lord in an authorized program of spiritual improvement, the mind will be overwhelmed by anger, envy and all sorts of small-mindedness. Thus dayÄ, mercy, is also decreasing. All living beings are eternally connected by their common participation in the divine existence of God. When this existential oneness is obscured through atheism and agnosticism, people are not inclined to be merciful to one another; they cannot recognize their self-interest in promoting the welfare of other living beings.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_cosmology
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Gu%C3%A9non#Hindu_doctrin...
famousdiamonds.tripod.com/taylor-burtondiamond5.jpg
Kali-yuga is sometimes thought to last 432,000 years, although other durations have been proposed. Kali-yuga began at midnight on 14 January 3102 B.C.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kali_Yuga
topdocumentaryfilms.com/art-deception/
In Kali-yuga, wealth alone will be considered the sign of a man's good birth, proper behavior and fine qualities. And law and justice will be applied only on the basis of one's power.
Men and women will live together merely because of superficial attraction, and success in business will depend on deceit.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvFl4eaK0N0
picasaweb.google.com/100215145079270544507/GoldenCalfLuxu...
Womanliness and manliness will be judged according to one's expertise in sex, and a man will be known as a brÄhmanĢ£a just by his wearing a thread.
A person's spiritual position will be ascertained merely according to external symbols, and on that same basis people will change from one spiritual order to the next. A person's propriety will be seriously questioned if he does not earn a good living. And one who is very clever at juggling words will be considered a learned scholar.
www.shambhalasun.com/index.php?option=com_content&tas...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_cosmology
A person will be judged unholy if he does not have money, and hypocrisy will be accepted as virtue. Marriage will be arranged simply by verbal agreement, and a person will think he is fit to appear in public if he has merely taken a bath.
A sacred place will be taken to consist of no more than a reservoir of water located at a distance, and beauty will be thought to depend on one's hairstyle. Filling the belly will become the goal of life, and one who is audacious will be accepted as truthful.
He who can maintain a family will be regarded as an expert man, and the principles of religion will be observed only for the sake of reputation.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPARaL3F498
As the earth thus becomes crowded with a corrupt population, whoever among any of the social classes shows himself to be the strongest will gain political power.
According to the Vedic scriptures, our current age, known as Kali-yuga, is one of spiritual darkness, violence and hypocrisy.
Humans begin to kill animals for food. They fall under the spell of intoxication. They lose all sexual restraint. Families break up. Women and children are abused and abandoned. Increasingly degraded generations, conceived accidentally in lust and growing up wild, swarm all over the world. Political leadership falls into the hands of unprincipled rogues, criminals and terrorists, who use their power to exploit the people. Entire populations are enslaved and put to death. The world teems with fanatics, extremists and spiritual artists, who win huge followings among a people completely dazed by hedonism, as well as by cultural and moral relativism. "Religion, truthfulness, cleanliness, tolerance, mercy, physical strength and memory diminish with each passing day." (Srimad-Bhagavatam 12.2.1)
The Linga Purana (ch. 40) describes the human race in Kali-yuga as a vain and stupid people "spurred on by the lowest instincts." They prefer false ideas and do not hesitate to persecute sages. They are tormented by bodily desires.
The new leaders emerge from the laborer class and begin to persecute religious people, saints, teachers, intellectuals, and philosophers.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagavad_Gita_trial_in_Russia
Civilization lacks any kind of divine guidance. The sacred books are no longer revered. False doctrines and misleading religions spread across the globe. Children are killed in the wombs of their mothers. Women who have relations with several men are numerous. Predatory animals are more violent. The number of cows diminishes.
The men of Kali-yuga seek only money. Only the richest have power. People without money are their slaves. The leaders of the state no longer protect the people, but plunder the citizenry through excessive taxation. Farmers abandon living close to nature. They become unskilled laborers in congested cities.
Many dress in rags, or are unemployed, and sleep on the streets.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diogenes_of_Sinope
Through the fault of the government, infant mortality rates are high. False gods are worshiped in false ashrams, in which pilgrimages, penances, charities and austerities are all concocted.
picasaweb.google.com/100215145079270544507/ByeByeTheCross...
2.bp.blogspot.com/-kdj2WIBRpB0/TiE2bs5Wo3I/AAAAAAAABCM/a0...
pit.dirty.ru/dirty/1/2012/08/21/34892-173541-5f2f3ee5103e...
In the Kali Yuga, food will lose its savor, women will become as men, love will be confused for desire and time will appear to speed up.
In the Kali age every one who has cars and elephants and steeds will be a Raja, and every one who is feeble will be a slave. Farming men will abandon agriculture and commerce, and gain a livelihood by servitude or the exercise of mechanical arts. Then will the clouds yield scanty rain: then will the corn be light in ear, and the grain will be poor, and of little sap: garments will be mostly made of the dying fibres and milk will come mostly from goats.
In the Kali Yuga every text will be scripture that people choose to think so and humans will be haunted on both sides - by the fist of despotic ideas and the rising ocean of ignorance. Endowed with little sense, men, subject to all the infirmities of mind, speech, and body, will daily make dreadful errors; and every thing that is calculated to afflict beings, vicious, impure, and wretched, will be generated in the Kali age until men and women will become as lizards are, skuttling and watchful for weakness, or as hunted birds, white and ever blinking. The world will become a hive, fuelled by nighmares.
But for the children and the insane there will be freedom, and those that learn the madness of play, at the end of time, will take their game to the Satya Yuga.
And those who love freedom will be amazed at how awake they can be.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleansing_of_the_Temple
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectuals_and_Society
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Peter
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gatekeeper
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-establishment
However, by operating through the arts and media, the line between politics and culture is blurred, so that pigeonholing figures such as Banksy as either anti-establishment or counter-culture figures can be difficult. The tabloid newspapers such as The Sun, are less subtle, and commonly report on the sex-lives of the Royals simply because it sells papers, but in the process have been described as having anti-establishment views that have weakened traditional institutions. On the other hand, as time passes, anti-establishment figures sometimes end up becoming part of the Establishment, as Mick Jagger, the Rolling Stones frontman, became a Knight in 2003, or when The Who frontman Roger Daltrey was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2005 in recognition of both his music and his work for charity.
Individuals who were anti-establishment often spoke of "fighting the man", "selling out to the Establishment", and "tearing down the Establishment." Many historical figures and groups innovated great changes to society by standing up to "the Establishment", including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. especially in 1968, Malcolm X, Malvina Reynolds, Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky, Public Enemy, K-Rino, Immortal Technique, Anti-Flag, Rage Against the Machine, Terminator X, Gil-Scott Heron, dead prez, and Lupe Fiasco among others.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lettrism
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-Lettrist
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letterist_International
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situationism_%28disambiguation%29
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situationist_International
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satya_Yuga
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_bombing_of_Yugoslavia
sh.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operacija_Milosrdni_an%C4%91eo
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prophecy_from_Kremna
Future Events
"Here in Kremna many a field will become a meadow, and many a home will be abandoned, but then those who have left will come back to heal themselves by breathing fresh air. In Serbia it will not be possible to distinguish a man from a woman. Everybody will dress the same. This calamity will come to us from abroad but it will stay with us the longest. A groom will take a bride, but nobody will know who is who. People will be lost and more and more senseless day by day. Men will be born not knowing who was their grandfather and great-grandfather. People will think that they know everything, but not a thing they will know.
The Serbs will separate from each other, and they will say, "I am not a Serb; I am not a Serb." The unholy one will infiltrate this nation and bed with Serbian sisters, mothers and wives. He will sire such children that among the Serbs, since the beginning of the world, these will be the worst of offspring. Only weaklings will be born, and nobody will be strong enough to give a birth to a real hero.
At one time we shall disappear from this land of ours. We shall go to the north, and then realizing our stupid deed we shall return. When we come back, we shall wise up and chase away the unholy one, not to see him, in God's name, ever again."
Drilling in the Earth
"People will drill wells in the ground and pump some kind of gold, which will produce light, speed, and power. The Earth will weep because of that. Man will not know that more energy and light exists on the surface of the Earth. Only after many years, people will discover this, and they were fools to be drilling holes in the ground."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_%28archangel%29
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantinople
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Niu_IAPuyyo
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalachakra#Controversy
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Muslims_in_Burma
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Look_Homeward,_Angel
Look At Your Home, Angel
lyricstranslate.com/en/pogledaj-dom-svoj-andjele-look-you...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUaXdDesHvg&feature=player_em...
Look at your home, angel,
and remove the spider web from your eyes
you will see soul-stirring sights
you will see the unfortunate and sick
you will see distress, death and misery
Look at your flock, angel,
only crippled and beggars
blind men wandering in a crowd
everybody's spines broken
from you they expect salvation
Look at the rabble, angel,
their soul's been cursed
they put reins on everyone
built shrines for themselves
their hands are bloody
Raise your sword, angel
remember the crusades
remember the jugulated
when you stand in front of God
may peace reign in your soul
Answer the prayers, angel
may the fiends drop dead, so help me God,
so be an angel of revenge
let them feel on their own skin
what poverty, fear and pain mean
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Angel
A picture of the White Angel of MileŔeva was sent as a message in the first satellite broadcast signal from Europe to America after the Cuban Missile Crisis, as a symbol of peace and civilization. Later, the same signal, containing the White Angel, was transmitted to space in an attempt to communicate with extraterrestrial life forms.
www.kubon-sagner.de/opac.html?record=F026515
new.visitserbia.org/files.php?file=Beli_andjeo__White_ang...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eschatology
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End_time
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_eschatology
biblehub.com/john/7-6.htm: Therefore Jesus told them, "My time is not yet here; for you any time will do.
biblehub.com/john/7-7.htm: The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil.
biblehub.com/john/7-8.htm: You go to the festival. I am not going up to this festival, because my time has not yet fully come."
biblehub.com/matthew/24-9.htm: "Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Madison
www.constitution.org/fed/federa51.htm
"If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabian_Society
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabian_Society#Criticism
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leszek_Ko%C5%82akowski
books.google.rs/books/about/Religion_if_there_is_no_God.h...
a nervous chain-mailed elf priestess suffering an existential crisis and a career change (lean into it)
Existentialism
I'll try and give this one meaning:
And there he stood, the late afternoon's sun streaming down him, trying to make sense of these two weird people with bigger eyes and noses than his three years on Earth have ever before introduced him to ;-).
PS: Of course, as per most kids, he looked at Mau next to me, not at me and the camera.
this is a view into my left eye. challenges in there if you can find - swell but a great photo.
The existential feeling of the eye with the counter angst of limited view make this a pro-nomer of eccentricity
It was hell to set this up with the doctor
this joins the set of body parts
On the horns of a dilemma... how apt. Two distinct courses of action with vastlly different outcomes- to change not just the present but to invent a different future...
LONG SON PAGODA
Long SĘ”n Pagoda (Vietnamese: ChĆ¹a Long SĘ”n) is a Buddhist temple in the city of Nha Trang on South Central Coast of Vietnam. It is regarded as one of the main sites in the city, along with Hai Duc Temple.
HISTORY
Long Son Pagoda was previously known as ÄÄng Long Tį»± and it is located at 22 October 23 Street. It is located in the ward of PhĘ°Ę”ng SĘ”n, and sits at the foot of Trįŗ”i Thį»§y mountain, in city of Nha Trang, just 400 m west of the railway station.
Long Son Pagoda was erected on another hill in 1886 under the abbotship of ThĆch Ngį» ChĆ (1856ā1935), who hailed from the district of Vinh Xuong in KhĆ”nh HĆ²a Province. Before joining the sangha, he was a participant in anti-French resistance forces that attempted to regain Vietnamese independence.
In 1900, after a large cyclone, the temple was destroyed and had to be moved from the hill to its current location. In 1936, the Buddhist Studies Association made the temple the headquarters of the Buddhist Association in KhĆ”nh HĆ²a Province. In 1940, the temple was renovated and expanded under the leadership of ThĆch TĆ“n Thįŗ„t Quyį»n and a lay Buddhist by the named of VƵ ÄƬnh Thį»„y. In 1968, the temple was heavily damaged during the Vietnam War, in particular the tiled roof. In 1971, ThĆch Thiį»n BƬnh organised for the capital works program to restore the temple, which was around 60% complete in accordance with the plans of the architect VƵ ÄƬnh Diį»p when it was interrupted by the Fall of Saigon and the communist victory over South Vietnam.
Since its construction, the temple has had a stable leadership, with only three abbots in over 120 years: ThĆch Ngį» ChĆ (1886ā1935), ThĆch ChĆ”nh HĆ³a (1936ā1957) and ThĆch ChĆ TĆn (1957ā).
From the Long Son Pagoda, there is a large road leading up to Hai Duc Pagoda along the crest of the hill, where there is a large white concrete statue of Gautama Buddha. The statue was built on the site of the original temple and the statue was cast in 1964 before being installed the following year, under the auspices of ThĆch Äį»©c Minh, who was the Head of the Buddhist Association of KhĆ”nh HĆ²a Province. The sculpture of the statue was by Kim Äiį»n. From the ground up, the statues is 24 m, and from the base of the statue, it is 21 m. The figure of the Buddha is 14 m while the lotus blossom comprises 7 m. Around the statue are statues of seven arahants. In front of the statue are a pair of dragons, which are 7.20 m long. The statue is visible from afar as one enters the city, from either the national highway or by train.
The temple grounds also includes a garden.
The entrance and roofs are decorated with dragon mosaics which are built from glass and ceramic tiles. The main ceremonial hall is adorned with modern interpretations of classical motifs. The nasal hairs of the dragons are wrapped around the pillars on either side of the main altar.
The main statue in 152 stone steps up from the entrance of the pagoda, and is often used as a vantage point to look over the city of Nha Trang.
_____________________________________
GAUTAMA BUDDHA
Gautama Buddha, also known as SiddhÄrtha 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 sammÄsambuddha, Sanskrit samyaksaį¹buddha) of the present age. Gautama taught a Middle Way between sensual indulgence and the severe asceticism found in the Åramaį¹a 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 Åramaį¹a schools of thoughts like ÄjÄ«vika, CÄrvÄka, Jainism, and AjƱana. It was also the age of influential thinkers like Mahavira, PÅ«raį¹a Kassapa , Makkhali GosÄla, Ajita KesakambalÄ«, Pakudha KaccÄyana, and SaƱjaya Belaį¹į¹haputta, whose viewpoints the Buddha most certainly must have been acquainted with and influenced by. Indeed, Sariputta and MoggallÄna, two of the foremost disciples of the Buddha, were formerly the foremost disciples of SaƱjaya Belaį¹į¹haputta, 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 SiddhÄrtha 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 PÄli Canon. The oldest surviving Buddhist manuscripts are the GandhÄran Buddhist texts, reported to have been found in or around Haįøįøa near Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan and now preserved in the British Library. They are written in the GÄndhÄrÄ« 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 SiddhÄrtha Gautama are a variety of different, and sometimes conflicting, traditional biographies. These include the Buddhacarita, Lalitavistara SÅ«tra, MahÄvastu, and the NidÄnakathÄ. Of these, the Buddhacarita is the earliest full biography, an epic poem written by the poet AÅvaghoį¹£a, and dating around the beginning of the 2nd century CE. The Lalitavistara SÅ«tra is the next oldest biography, a MahÄyÄna/SarvÄstivÄda biography dating to the 3rd century CE. The MahÄvastu from the MahÄsÄį¹ghika LokottaravÄda 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 Abhiniį¹£kramaį¹a SÅ«tra, and various Chinese translations of this date between the 3rd and 6th century CE. The NidÄnakathÄ is from the Theravada tradition in Sri Lanka and was composed in the 5th century by Buddhaghoį¹£a.
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 JÄtakas retell previous lives of Gautama as a bodhisattva, and the first collection of these can be dated among the earliest Buddhist texts. The MahÄpadÄna Sutta and Achariyabhuta Sutta both recount miraculous events surrounding Gautama's birth, such as the bodhisattva's descent from the Tuį¹£ita Heaven into his mother's womb.
NATURE OF TRADITIONAL DEPICTIONS
In the earliest Buddhists texts, the nikÄyas and Ägamas, the Buddha is not depicted as possessing omniscience (sabbaƱƱu) 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 MahÄvastu. 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" (abhijƱÄ). The earliest biographical material from the Pali Nikayas focuses on the Buddha's life as a Åramaį¹a, 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 MahÄvastu, 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 SiddhÄrtha 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 mahÄpuruį¹£a, "superman"; the Buddha himself denied that he was either a man or a god; and in the MahÄparinibbÄna 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 SiddhÄrtha 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 Åuddhodana, "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 (MÄyÄdevÄ«), 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 (PÄli: 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. KondaƱƱa, 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 Åuddhodana as a hereditary monarch, the descendant of the Suryavansha (Solar dynasty) of Ikį¹£vÄku (PÄli: OkkÄka), many scholars think that Åuddhodana 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 Åramanic 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 Åuddhodana, 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 YaÅodharÄ (PÄli: YasodharÄ). According to the traditional account, she gave birth to a son, named RÄhula. 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. ÄrÄįøa KÄlÄma), 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 RÄmaputra). 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 jhÄna.
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 NirvÄna 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 ÄyÄcana Sutta (Samyutta Nikaya VI.1) - a scripture found in the PÄli 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, BrahmÄ 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 ā 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 saį¹ gha: 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 VÄsanÄ 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 Änanda 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 HinĆ¼ber 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 KuÅinÄra (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 (Saį¹ khÄra) are perishable. Strive for your own liberation with diligence" (Pali: 'vayadhammÄ saį¹ khÄrÄ appamÄdena sampÄdethÄ'). 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 PÄli historical chronicles of Sri Lanka, the DÄ«pavaį¹sa and MahÄvaį¹sa, the coronation of Emperor AÅoka (PÄli: Asoka) is 218 years after the death of the Buddha. According to two textual records in Chinese (åå «éØč« and éØå·ē°č«), the coronation of Emperor AÅoka is 116 years after the death of the Buddha. Therefore, the time of Buddha's passing is either 486 BCE according to TheravÄda record or 383 BCE according to Mahayana record. However, the actual date traditionally accepted as the date of the Buddha's death in TheravÄda countries is 544 or 545 BCE, because the reign of Emperor AÅoka 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, ShÄkyamuni, ShÄkyasimha, Bhante and Bho, he was known after his parinirvana as Arihant, BhagavÄ/Bhagavat/BhagwÄn, MahÄvira, Jina/Jinendra, SÄstr, Sugata, and most popularly in scriptures as TathÄgata.
BUDDHA AND VEDAS
Buddha's teachings deny the authority of the Vedas and consequently [at least atheistic] Buddhism is generally viewed as a nÄstika 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 Lakkhaį¹a 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, NarasÄ«ha GÄthÄ ("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 BuddhÄnusmį¹ti. The nine virtues are also among the 40 Buddhist meditation subjects. The nine virtues of the Buddha appear throughout the Tipitaka, and include:
- Buddho ā Awakened
- Sammasambuddho ā Perfectly self-awakened
- Vijja-carana-sampano ā Endowed with higher knowledge and ideal conduct.
- Sugato ā Well-gone or Well-spoken.
- Lokavidu ā Wise in the knowledge of the many worlds.
- Anuttaro Purisa-damma-sarathi ā Unexcelled trainer of untrained people.
- Satthadeva-Manussanam ā Teacher of gods and humans.
- Bhagavathi ā The Blessed one
- Araham ā 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 dhyÄna. 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 MahÄsaccakasutta, 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 "NibbÄna" (Sanskrit: NirvÄna) 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 BahĆ”'Ć 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 BÅ«dhasaf 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) ā though not in the Roman Missal ā and in the Eastern Orthodox Church liturgical calendar (26 August).
Disciples of the Cao ÄĆ i 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