The remainder of the year, he wandered from place to place, making new converts or revisiting and encouraging the widely scattered bands of his disciples. In his travels, some of his most famous disciples accompanied him, while others went in other directions, expounding the Dhamma taught to them by the Buddha and receiving into the Sangha those who accepted it in its entirety. In is worth noting at this point that, throughout his whole ministry, those attracted to the teachings of the Buddha were generally from the upper classes of society.
His most ardent supporters were kings, princes, and wealthy merchants, while the most illustrious members of his Sangha were Brahmins and learned philosophers of the higher castes. Realizing that he would not live long, he spent such strength as he could muster in exhorting his disciples to adhere firmly to and to zealously propagate the Dhamma that he had realized and taught to them. The immediate cause of his death was food-poisoning from eating a dish of rice and pork specially prepared for him by a lay disciple, the goldsmith Chanda.
Such, in outline, is what can be considered the facts surrounding the real life of the historical Gotama, the Buddha. The impossible legendary tales and miraculous fables that have been interwoven with those facts by generations of Easterners have been shorn from this account. These Buddhist scriptures are essentially different from the scriptures of all other religions in that they do not claim divine inspiration or superhuman intervention of any kind, but are, by their own admission, the product of pure human insightfulness.
These collections were thenceforth passed down orally from generation to generation. Sometime later, grave departures from the disciplinary rules began to develop among members of the Sangha, which was, consequently, becoming split into two factions: 1 an orthodox faction, favoring strict adherence to the established rules and 2 a laxer faction, favoring relaxation of those rules.
A second council was held somewhere around BCE, consisting of seven hundred members. At this council, the principles of the orthodox faction prevailed, the deviations from the disciplinary rules were prohibited, and the disciplinary rules and doctrines were again recited in the unaltered form and vindicated. However, the decisions of this council were not accepted by everyone, and the first open schism after the death of the Buddha occurred.
Thus began the history of differing and antagonistic schools and sects. This council consisted of a thousand members and, like the second council, was convened to settle disagreements among members of the Sangha. Asoka seems to have been the guiding spirit not only at the third council but also in the immediately subsequent history of Buddhism. It is unlikely that so astute a ruler would have let slip the advantages gained at the council, with the means available to him for fixing them.
It must be stressed in this connection that the Buddha did not leave an immature, embryonic system, but that His doctrines had been fully developed and clearly stated long before His death. A long and vigorous life had gone into the development and statement of those doctrines. He spent six years of his life — from age 29 to age 35 — engaged in the most active and independent mental investigation ever undertaken, during which time He formulated the fundamentals of His system and shaped the forms of their expression.
THE DHAMMA 15 bitter and most intelligent opponents and in constant teaching of enthusiastic adherents, employing the most logical and exacting methods of instruction and explanation. Of the principles that had come to be generally or universally accepted by His predecessors and contemporaries, the Buddha flatly denied certain that appeared to Him patently false, while He accepted others that appeared to Him patently true. He then modified certain others to agree with what He had accepted and yet would not necessitate what He had rejected.
Lastly, He made certain original additions which perfected His system. These features include: 1. God and soul: One of the most characteristic and fundamental features of original Buddhism is its rejection of the ideas of God and of soul, self, or ego. No other feature of the system is so surprising to those who first encounter Buddhism.
In no other doctrine did it differ more from Brahminism and other contemporary systems of philosophy. And, at no other point are several modern schools of Buddhism more at variance with the original. There have always been those who reject God, and there were such persons in the days of the Buddha — blasphemous atheists who mocked the idea of God and found in their atheism license for base indulgence; pessimistic atheists who rejected the idea of God and left mankind helpless and hopeless in the ceaseless world of suffering.
But the Buddha was not such as these. He was unquestionably a chaste, earnest, and honest truth-seeker, looking for a way that would enable mankind to conquer lust and escape from suffering. In His search for truth, He had to rely solely upon His own intuition and powers of reason.
To him, the idea of God seemed absolutely beyond proof, quite unnecessary in any system of belief, and utterly incapable of explaining either the cause or the cure of suffering. Therefore, He rejected it, and, with it, every form of worship, every form of sacrifice, and every kind of priestly intervention. The Buddha spoke of gods, demons, ghosts, etc.
On the contrary, they must see to their own liberation. When any being in any of the various realms of existence dies, he must be reborn in some other realm, based upon his kamma, for there is no other possibility. If he is reborn in one of the woeful hell realms, he is not thereby disbarred from seeking liberation, and, even if he is reborn in a celestial realm as a god, he must, at some time, leave it and seek a still higher state — that of the perfectly enlightened being.
Just as He had rejected the idea of any real God, so, too, He utterly rejected the idea of a permanent soul, self, or ego. There is nothing in the doctrinal part of His system that the Buddha more strenuously maintained or made more essential to the acceptance of His system than the rejection of these two mistaken views.
Impermanence anicca : The Buddha, in denying the existence of a Creator God and in rejecting the idea of a permanent soul, self, or ego, did not, in so doing, assume the eternal existence of matter.
He held that the material universe, like sentient being, was continually changing in its passage through an unending cycle of existences. Indeed, He did not recognize any essential difference between animate and inanimate as to either cause or continuance.
He recognized no real being but an ever-changing, never-ending process of becoming. Slowly, each new universe evolves from its predecessor, and, just as slowly, it disintegrates only to evolve immediately after its demise into another universe that succeeds it. Kamma and the succession of cause and effect are constant and eternal. But, aside from these two abstract ideas, in all His teachings, the Buddha reiterated and insisted upon the impermanence and unreality of everything else, mental or material, animate or inanimate.
This is the path that leads to purity. The aggregates khandha : Having denied the existence of an abiding entity in the form of a soul, self, or ego, the Buddha replaced this false notion with an assemblage of five aggregates, as follows: A. These five aggregates comprise absolutely all that belongs to, or goes to make up, sentient being. Volitional actions kamma : The denial of a permanent soul, together with the doctrine of the five aggregates, made it impossible for the Buddha to accept the soul- transmigration theories of the Brahmins without radical modification.
Consequently, He proposed a new interpretation of the doctrine of kamma. To Western minds, this doctrine is often difficult to grasp. That the accumulated kamma of another being who has entirely ceased to exist should be transferred to an entirely new being who never existed before and with whom it never had any apparent connection whatsoever seems impossible in itself.
And yet, this doctrine provides the only reasonable answer as to why there are such stark differences in the characters, personalities, and innate aptitudes of beings. It is unquestionably the driving force behind Buddhist ethics — the actuating principle in most, if not all, of the conscious, intentional righteousness and benevolence in the lives of the millions of those who have claimed to be Buddhists during more than twenty-six centuries.
These truths are universal, not bound up with any particular country or any particular epoch. And, in everyone, even in the lowliest, there lies latent the capacity for seeing and realizing these truths and attaining to the highest perfection. These Four Noble Truths are as follows: A. The First Noble Truth, about the universality of suffering dukkha , teaches, in short, that all forms of existence are uncertain, transient, contingent, and devoid of intrinsic self-identity and are, therefore, by their very nature subject to suffering.
The Buddha does not deny that there is happiness, enjoyment, and pleasure in life. However, due to their fleeting nature, even these are reckoned as dukkha. Consequently, the Buddha enjoins His followers to abandon such pleasures and, instead, to seek the joys of a life devoted to realizing the truth.
It further explains the cause of this seeming injustice in nature by teaching that nothing in the world can come into existence without a reason or a cause and that, not only all our latent tendencies, but our whole destiny, all weal and woe, results from causes that can be traced partly in this life and partly in former states of existence.
This doctrine consists of twelve links arranged in eleven propositions. These propositions are as follows: 1. If, then, craving can be destroyed, release from all suffering might be attained. This leads to the Third Noble Truth. This extinction, however, does not mean the extinction of life, but of craving. It expresses that condition of life wherein an Arahant has utterly extinguished all desire, or craving, of every sort, all ignorance, all defilements, all taints, all fetters, and all attachment to existence in any form whatsoever.
The Fourth Noble Truth shows the way, or the means, by which the cessation of suffering is to be reached. Each truth requires that it be acted upon in its own particular way — understanding suffering, letting go of its origin, realizing its cessation, and cultivating the path.
In describing to the five ascetics what His awakening meant, the Buddha spoke of having discovered complete freedom of heart and mind from the compulsions of craving. Personality belief — the delusion of selfhood; 2. Skeptical doubt — doubt about the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha; 3. Attachment to rites and rituals — this includes any kind of a belief in a Supreme Being, together with all charms, rites, ceremonies, or other forms of worship; 4.
Desire for gratification of the senses — this includes every conceivable form of desire for sensory gratification; 5. Ill-will — this includes all forms of anger, hatred, aversion, resentment, and the like, no matter how subtle; 6. Craving for fine-material existence — the desire for existence in bodily, material form, whether as a human being on earth or as a celestial being in one of the lower celestial realms; 7. Craving for immaterial existence — the desire for existence without bodily, material form, as a celestial being in one of the higher celestial realms; 8.
Conceit — there are three types of conceit which must be overcome: a equality conceit; b inferiority conceit; and c superiority conceit; 9. Restlessness — an unsettled, agitated, or excited state of mind; The Four Stages of Sainthood are: 1. He cannot be born in any sphere lower than the human, and if he does not attain full liberation earlier, he is bound to do so within the course of seven lives at the most.
When all ten Fetters are destroyed, he attains the state of Arahant. When the thought-moment of insight flashes forth, the meditator knows beyond all doubt the nature of his attainment and what, if anything, still needs to be accomplished.
That teaching is eminently practical. The Buddha always refused to enter upon metaphysics or the discussion of topics not relevant to the purpose of the Dhamma, which was to answer, practically, those two burning questions as to the origin of suffering and the way to escape from it.
That there was knowledge outside this narrow domain, He readily admitted, and He claimed, as Buddha, to be familiar with it. But, He claimed that it was utterly useless — everything which was not pertinent to the escape from suffering was a hindrance, and, as such, an evil to be absolutely avoided.
For Buddhist Monks, the training in morality consists of the observance of rules, while Buddhist Nuns must follow an additional set of rules. In any kind of spiritual development, aspirants need to establish their practice on moral principles so that they feel self-respect and stability. The Five Precepts are: 1.
To abstain from taking life; 2. To abstain from taking what is not freely given; 3. To abstain from sexual misconduct; 4. To abstain from false speech; 5. To abstain from intoxicating drinks and drugs causing heedlessness.
The Eight Precepts include the above five together with three additional precepts; here, the third precept is changed to prohibit any and all types of sexual activity: 1.
To abstain from all sexual activity; 4. To abstain from intoxicating drinks and drugs causing heedlessness; 6. To abstain from eating any solid food after noon; 7. To abstain from dancing, singing, music, and unseemly shows; from the use of garlands, perfumes, and unguents; and from things that tend to beautify and adorn; 8.
To abstain from high and luxurious beds and seats. The Five Precepts, the first and most important Buddhist ethical principles, are applicable to all alike. The Eight Precepts, on the other hand, are not obligatory for lay disciples, and yet, all earnest followers of the Buddha are expected to observe them at certain times, especially on Uposatha Days.
Here, the seventh precept is divided into two, and a tenth precept is added not to accept gold or silver. Only very pious lay persons undertake to observe the Ten Precepts, and, then, only for a specified period of time covered by a special vow.
All ten are obligatory for members of the Sangha, and, in their observance, the third precept requires absolute chastity. Greed lobha ; 2. Hatred dosa ; 3. Delusion moha ; 4. Restlessness uddhacca ; 9.
Shamelessness ahirika ; Lack of moral dread, or unconscientiousness anottappa. The Taint of wrong views is eliminated through the path of Stream-Entry, the Taint of sense-desire is eliminated through the path of Non-Returning, and the remaining two Taints are eliminated through the path of Arahantship. The Taints are to be overcome through insight, sense-control, avoidance, wise use of the necessities of life, etc.
These are discussed above under the Four Stages of Sainthood. Its exercises include the development of the following four higher sentiments: 1. From an ethical point of view, these four principles emphasize the moral foundation of every form of religious life and are considered indispensable to spiritual development. The state of the mind citta ; D. The contents of the mind, or mind objects dhamma ; seeing all as composite, ever-becoming, impermanent, and subject to decay.
To prevent unarisen unwholesome mental states from arising; B. To abandon unwholesome mental states that have already arisen; C. To develop wholesome mental states that have not yet arisen; D.
To maintain and perfect wholesome mental states that have already arisen. In other words, it is the fourfold effort that one makes to overcome and avoid fresh bad actions by body, speech, and mind; and the effort that one makes in developing fresh actions of righteousness, inner peace, and wisdom, and in cultivating them to perfection.
Concentration of intention accompanied by effort of will; B. Concentration of energy accompanied by effort of will; C. Concentration of consciousness accompanied by effort of will; D.
Concentration of investigation accompanied by effort of will. Spiritual Faculties indriya : This includes the following five factors: A. Energy viriya ; C. Mindfulness sati ; D. Powers bala : The list of the powers includes the same factors as that of the spiritual faculties given above: A. The powers are distinguished from the spiritual faculties in that they are unshakable by their opposites. They represent, therefore, the aspect of firmness in the spiritual faculties.
The Seven Factors of Enlightenment bojjhanga : They are so called because they lead to Enlightenment. They are: A. Mindfulness sati ; B. Investigation of the Dhamma dhamma ; C. Energy viriya ; D. Tranquility passaddhi ; F. It consists of: A. These are ten qualities leading to Buddhahood. They are: 1.
Renunciation nekkhamma ; 4. Energy viriya ; 6. Patience khanti ; 7. Truthfulness sacca ; 8. One may find such repetitions tiresome, but they serve to show where emphasis is laid.
A third type, the forest renunciants, may have functioned alongside and in addition to the monastic and lay communities. The Buddha wisely recognized that comparatively very few men and women would ever attempt, and fewer still succeed in the attempt, to follow his path throughout its four difficult stages to the goal.
Thus, with practical good sense, he a set up an Order of Monks and Nuns who could devote all of their time and energy to the attainment of the goal, and he opened that Order to all, regardless of caste or social standing.
The lay disciples, on the other hand, continued to live ordinary lives in the world, marrying, rearing a family, earning a livelihood, etc. All, however, were certain of finally attaining the goal. I go to the Buddha for Refuge. I go to the Dhamma for Refuge. I go to the Sangha for Refuge.
A second time, I go to the Buddha for Refuge. A second time, I go to the Dhamma for Refuge. A second time, I go to the Sangha for Refuge. A third time, I go to the Buddha for Refuge. A third time, I go to the Dhamma for Refuge. A third time, I go to the Sangha for Refuge. However, the lay disciples were admonished to observe the entire ethical system and to undertake more or less intense and protracted meditation, and the door was always open for them to join the Sangha if, at any time, they became earnest enough to abandon the life of a householder and become mendicant ascetics.
Even as householders, they were encouraged to undertake more serious and extended observances of the Dhamma, especially on Uposatha Days and during longer or shorter periods of voluntary vows. He clearly taught that only those who were prepared to utterly, fully, completely abandon attachment to the world might be successful in attaining the goal. In practical terms, such a life was only possible to a hermit, an ascetic, or a cenobitic Monk or Nun. The very nature of his system, therefore, necessitated the establishment of an Order of renunciants.
It must be clearly understood that the Sangha was in no sense a priesthood. Moreover, the Sangha was not a hierarchy. At the same time, the members of the Sangha were actively spreading, for the benefit of others, the blessed knowledge of the path, which they themselves had received. At first, the members of the Sangha were considered equals, and admission was easy and simple, consisting merely of the repetition of the Refuges. A novice might be admitted by any Bhikkhu. The candidate had to be at least fifteen years old, and, if a child, had to have the consent of his parents.
He must be free from contagious diseases, consumption, and fits; he must not be a slave, or a debtor, or in royal service; and he must have provided himself with suitable robes. Bearing his robes in hand, while still wearing the clothing of a householder, he approached a Bhikkhu and requested admission to the Sangha.
If his request were granted, his hair was cut, and his robes were donned. Then, he knelt while repeating the Refuges and took a vow to observe the Ten Precepts these are discussed in Chapter 3. The candidate had to be at least twenty years old and, generally, and had to have been, for a longer or shorter period, according to circumstances, under instruction as a novice. One who had been a novice from his fifteenth year would have spent at least five years under such instruction, while, in the case of mature men, the two admissions were either simultaneous or immediately successive.
He was also required to be provided with robes and alms-bowl. He then removed the robes he had been wearing as a novice and resumed the garb of a householder. An assembly consisting of not fewer than ten Bhikkhus was then convened, presided over by a Bhikkhu who had been a full member of the Sangha for at least ten years, and the candidate had to appear before this assembly and request admission to full membership in the Order.
If the candidate was found to be satisfactory, he was led aside and reclad in his mendicant robes. Then, bearing his alms-bowl, he reappeared before the assembly, thrice repeated the Three Refuges, and again took a solemn vow to observe the Ten Precepts. Then, if no one in the assembly objected to his admission, silence was construed as consent, and the presiding Bhikkhu declared him admitted.
The Four Forbidden Acts are: 1. Sexual activity of any kind; 2. Taking anything not freely given; 3. Taking a human life or inducing another to commit suicide; 4. Falsely boasting of supernormal powers. The breaking of any one of these prohibitions was inevitably followed by irrevocable expulsion from the Sangha. The Four Resources were not absolutely binding, since, in every case, the laity were encouraged to furnish, and the members of the Sangha were allowed to accept, better.
Alms collected in bits, for food; 2. Old rags from the dust heap, for clothing; 3. Excreta of cows, for medicine; 4. Shelter of trees, for residence. The two great requirements in the Sangha, voluntary poverty and purity of life, are emphasized in these two lists. Theoretically, poverty was to be all but absolute. The three separate pieces of his robes loincloth, skirt, and cloak [see below] ; 4. An undergarment; 5. An alms-bowl; 6. A razor; 7. A needle; 8. A water strainer.
His food was to consist of whatever was collected in his alms-bowl as a result of going on alms-rounds from house to house. His robes were to be patched together by himself out of old yellowed rags collected from the dust heaps and cemeteries.
Finally, he was expected to dwell in the open air at the foot of a sheltering tree or in a little hut built by himself of leaves and grass.
Practically, however, these austerities were not strictly enforced. For, in all these respects, minor indulgences were allowed by the Buddha, and with his full consent. They were generally built in parks or forests adjoining villages and towns — far enough away to be free from confusion and noise, but near enough for ready accessibility. Of course, on such occasions, the very best possible provisions and service would be provided by the pious host, but animal food was generally, though not always, omitted.
There seems never to have been any very strong prohibition against eating meat, provided someone else had killed and prepared it — even the Buddha himself is said to have died from eating tainted pork. However, while these indulgences in food were allowed, the regular rule of going from house to house with the alms-bowl to collect whatever was freely given was quite generally adhered to. In eating, each Bhikkhu went apart and ate alone, while, at the same time, meditating on the impermanence of the body and assuring himself that he ate only for the purpose of sustaining life.
He must not pick and choose from what was in his bowl, but eat everything as it came. The rule concerning clothing was seldom, if ever, enforced. Under no circumstances whatsoever was a member of the Sangha to take steps to provide himself with robes, other than according to the original rule of picking rags from the dust heap and sewing them together. A Bhikkhu was never allowed to have more than one change of robes in addition to those actually worn at the time.
If the robes provided by the laity were of new cloth, the cloth must be torn into pieces and sewed together, in order to destroy its commercial value.
The robes consisted of three separate pieces: 1 a loincloth — a straight strip for covering the loin and thighs; 2 a skirt — a straight strip fastened about the waist and draped about the lower limbs; and 3 a cloak — a broad, straight strip adjusted about the trunk in order to cover the entire body below the neck, except the right shoulder and arm, which were left bare.
The completely shaven head was always left bare. Later on, sandals and an umbrella were also allowed, and a large fan was carried as a screen to shut out sights likely to disturb the calm of subjective contemplation. The duties and routine of daily life in the Sangha were very simple. First of all was the necessity for discipline within the Order itself. Members of the Sangha had little contact with the laity; they were not spiritual or moral overseers, and, in no sense, were they pastors to the masses of lay people among whom they lived and to whom they looked for support.
However, it was essential that they maintain the disciplinary rules and avoid the prohibitions laid down for the Sangha. Except in cases of violation of the more serious prohibitions and when a member voluntarily requested the assembled members to point out any fault noticed in his life, no charges were ever brought by one against another, but all matters of discipline came up on voluntary confession of fault.
Silence was considered a claim of guiltlessness. In case of violation of one or more of the Four Forbidden Acts, immediate and irrevocable expulsion from the Sangha was inflicted. In other, more minor violations, penances, more or less severe, were imposed. Instruction was an important duty. The preceptors must give instruction for five years to those who had selected them at the time of admittance into full membership in the Order.
The novices were under more or less constant instruction. In general, any saintly or capable Bhikkhu was expected to impart his greater attainments to those who desired his instruction. Impurity asubha. Restlessness and worry uddhacca-kukkucca ; 5. Applied thought, or initial application vitakka ; 2. Happiness sukha ; 5. The term, however, has a wider application.
There were many different exercises for the development of concentration. And it was this insight alone that had the power to confer entrance to the Four Stages of Sainthood and, thus, to free beings forever from the ten Fetters that bind them to the never-ending cycle of rebirth and suffering. The Sangha was frequently relieved of the last duty, however, by pious lay followers who gained much merit by this service. When no lay followers were available to undertake this duty, it generally became the responsibility of the novices.
In the ordinary daily routine of life, the early morning hours, often long before daybreak, were spent in meditation, in the recitation of parts of the Dhamma, and in instruction. Later in the morning came the alms-rounds for collecting food, and, just before noon, the one substantial meal of the day. After the midday meal, there was a short period of rest, followed by more instruction and more meditation. In the evening, there were quiet walks in the well-kept grounds, or quiet conversation, or meditation, this last often extending far into the night.
Duties requiring manual labor were performed in the early morning or in the evening. The path of Buddhism leads people to what is called Enlightenment or Buddhahood. The word Buddha is a title, not a name. This word means «the awakened one» in the sense that it has « awakened to reality». This title encompasses and expresses the attainment of Siddhartha Gautama , who lived 2, years ago in northern India.
After several years of work and effort, Gautama attained enlightenment at the age of This was made possible by being in deep meditation. From then on he spent the rest of his life traveling throughout much of northern India, spreading his teaching of the path to enlightenment.
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