As Dr. Madhu Bazaz Wangu, founder of Mindful Writers Group indicates and professor of religions in India, indicates, Buddhism is a path to spiritual discovery (8). Being that Buddhism is a non-theistic religion; its disciples follow the monotheistic doctrine demonstrating that they believe in only one deity. Siddhartha Gautama, mostly acknowledged as Buddha––the enlightened––, is the one deity Buddhists believe in. As Dr. Wangu writes, Siddhartha practiced severe self-denial and meditation before he could accomplish Nirvana (state of mind that ends the path of suffering) (8). Siddhartha came to the conclusion that to reach Nirvana one should be capable of eliminating desire by doing right and thinking right. This could be done by following the Dharma (the law of Buddhism). Because the Buddha never wrote down any of his teachings, his disciples memorized his words. Nevertheless, hundreds of years later after the Buddha’s death, his teachings were written down. By that time, two different forms of Buddhism had already appeared; Theravada Buddhism and Mahayana Buddhism. As viewonbuddhism.org explains, Theravada Buddhism follows more firmly the Buddha’s teachings while Mahayana Buddhism adapted the Buddha’s teachings more freely. Unlike Theravada Buddhists who teach how to become arhats (perfect saints) to obtain Nirvana, Mahayana Buddhists teach how to become Bodhisattvas, saints who delay Nirvana to help other obtain it as well.
Although the origins of Mahayana Buddhism are not clearly known, Richard Hughes Seager, professor of religious studies at Hamilton College, writes, Mahayana Buddhism has it origins in India around 100 C.E. (23). Because the Buddha initiated his teachings in India, the different forms of Buddhism emerged fro...
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...adapted, hence emerged many different schools from it. The final purpose of all Mahayana Schools is to help others obtain Nirvana with an open option to become a Buddha. Buddhism was never forced on anyone; instead, Mahayana Buddhism was made to be easily adapted with any other religion or tradition. Being a flexible version of Buddhism, Mahayana can provide a routine of meditation and thought to help you end the path of suffering––Nirvana.
Works Cited
Freiburg KG Herder, Verlag. Trans. Heinrich Dumoulin, and John C. Maraldo. Buddhism in the Modern World. New York: Macmillan Co., Inc, 1976. Print.
Seager Hughes, Richard. Buddhism in America. Chichester: Columbia University Press, 1999. Print.
Wangu Bazas, Madhu. Buddhism: World Religions. New York: Brown Publishing Network, Inc., 1993. Print.
Rudy Harderwijk. http://viewonbuddhism.org/ . nd, web, March 27, 2014.
Buddhism was founded by one man, Siddhartha Guatama. He was born into royalty around 563 B.C.E. in a Kingdom near the border of India and Nepal. He was raised in wealth and luxury, and at the age of 16, he married a wealth woman and they had a child together. Around the age of 29, he began to realize that all humans were in a cycle of suffering, dying, and then being reincarnated only to suffer and die over and over again. It was then that he decided to leave his wife and child to find a way out of this repeating cycle of life and death. First he studied with teachers, but found he was coming to no conclusions, so he turned to more extreme things such as self-mortification, but he was still left unsatisfied.
Buddhism first developed in India by Siddhartha Gautama as a means to end suffering. Nirvana could ultimately be achieved with adherence to the Four Noble Truths and the middle way. The Mahayana tradition arose within Buddhist with different interpretations of Buddha’s teachings and new ideals. It emphasized the role of the bodhisattva and the bodhisattva path as the means to attain enlightenment, or Buddhahood. The nature of the Buddha is no longer equivalent to that of the arhant, rather, he is beyond the level of the arhant; he is a transcended being. Within Mahayana, Madhyamika and Yogacara philosophical schools developed in India and the Zen tradition arose once Buddhism spread to East Asia. While Madhyamika, Yogacara, and Zen emphasize several different concepts in an effort to attain enlightenment, all three adhere to the Mahayana doctrine of emptiness and non-duality.
Siddharta Gautama obtained the name Buddha after he was able to reach his enlightenment since the Buddha is a name that translates to the “enlightened one”. After reaching his enlightenment, Buddha began teaching others how to reach enlightenment for themselves. One thing Buddha did not believe was necessary in order to reach enlightenment is the belief and worship of gods. Therefore, unlike most religion...
There are three motives followers of Buddhism have lesser, middling and great motivation. Mainstream Buddhism has middling motivation and Mahayana has great motivation. Mainstream Buddhism end goal for the majority of its followers is to become an arhat who is a worthy one or the small minority that want to become a Buddha. Mainstream Buddhist have been known to lead the more selfish path since their main goal is to achieve nirvana for one self and stay there. The path to either becoming an arhat or Buddha varies in length. Becoming a Buddha is said to have a more difficult and long journey than one of an arhat. Now Mahayana Buddhist follows the Bodhisattva Path, which can take up to an aeon to complete and when embarking on this path one first accepts the bodhisattva vow. A reason so many are motivated to accept the bodhisattva vow is to avoid bad karma and the penalties that come with it like the five realms of hell. The main goal in Mahayana Buddhism is to attain Buddhahood which, is when one does not reside in nirvana, they wish to pursue other realizations and they come back down out of nirvana to help other beings attain nirvana this is called a Bodhisattva. Since Mahayana Buddhist return from nirvana they remain in a state of samsara till the end. The nirvanas Mahayana and Mainstream
A man of noble birth, living in the time before the Common Era, preached a way to extinguish the fire of self-centered delusion. This state of Nirvana can be achieved by understanding The Four Noble Truths, suffering in life, he explains can be avoided by following an Eightfold Path. Sounds simple? This must have been an awaking for people of his time seeking a more personal religion, away from the rigidities of a priest-dominated Hinduism of India. The man, the Buddha, spent the rest of his life teaching the religion he discovered and its doctrine based upon his Dharma (cosmic law and order). The first written evidence of the existence of Buddhism is found over 400 years ago after the life of the Buddha. (Kozak) Historians pose the
After many years of seeking answers to his questions, particularly about suffering and death, Siddhartha came to a revelation and decided to adopt a path of moderation known as the Middle path, which found ground somewhere in between self-indulgence and asceticism. According to legend, Siddhartha sat under what is known as the Bodhi Tree and meditated intensely until at last he achieved Enlightenment when he reached a state of profound understanding. From that point on he was known as the Buddha. (Molloy 127)...
Buddha believed that by following the Eightfold Path, one could fulfill and find legitimacy in the Four Noble Truths, and reach Nirvana; the release from selfishness and pain. Like the Hindu, Buddha believed in reincarnation, a major factor in achieving Nirvana, as...
Siddhartha Gautama is famously known as Gautama Buddha and was the founder of the idea of Buddhism. The Buddha was known to possess supernatural powers and abilities. He was born in the holy land of Nepal and his journey began in India when he decided to travel and teach himself about life. In the midst of his journey, he discovered Buddhism after he experienced a profound realization of the nature of life, death and existence. Buddhism became a religion based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama and since then Buddhism has been popular throughout many civilizations. Buddhism is now one of the most ancient religions in the world, where people follow Buddha, which stand for “awakened one,” and Buddhism which has gained popularity because of the teachings of the Buddha.
the light of Buddhist understanding. To limit the topic of study, this paper will examine only the
Mahayana Buddhism believes in the Path of Bodhisattva, which is path to become Awakened by achieve own-being’s enlightenment and more importantly, to help others to achieve enlightenment. What is the Path of Bodhisattva is too complicated, but the first step in the Path of Bodhisattva is very simple; teach others the dharma and help others. The relevant point to modern world is that people, today, need to understand that by helping others you are helping yourself. In Mahayana Buddhism’s context, by helping others to achieve Awakened you are moving forward on the Path of Bodhisattva and moving toward Awakened. If by helping one person you will get a teaspoon of wheat, and a teaspoon of wheat is useless. However, if you continue helping others, one day you will surprisingly find that you got a barn of wheat. What us, modern humans, need to learn from Mahayana Buddhism is that keep helping others and one day you will get your “repayment.”
The study of Buddhism over the past century or so has resembled the encounter of the blind men and the elephant in many ways. Students of Buddhism have tended to fasten onto a small part of the tradition and assume their conclusions held true about the whole. Often the parts they have seized on have been a little like the elephant's tusks a striking, but unrepresentative, part of the whole animal. As a result, many erroneous and sweeping generalizations about Buddhism have been made, such as that it is 'negative', 'world-denying', 'pessimistic', and so forth.
One branch of Buddhism is Mahayana, which literally means the Great Vehicle. Mahayana can more easily be defined as a loose collection of teachings with large and extensive principles that coexist all together. Mahayana defines itself as penetrating further and more deeply into the Buddha's Dharma, or the way of the Buddha. This practice originates in India, and slowly spread across Asia to countries as China, Japan, Korea through the missionary activities of monks and the support of kings. However, the roots of this religion are still not completely known. In the early views, it was presumed that it was as a separate school. Due to the veneration of Buddha’s , Mahayana was often understood as a more religious, traditional practice of Buddhism. However, these views have long been dismissed in due to a greater range of early texts that have become available. These original texts often illustrate firm compliance to the path of a bodhisattva, and engagement in the abstinent ideal of a monastic life in the. Similar to other branches of Buddhism, The Mahayana believes that suffering is produced by grasping on to things and experiences that are temporary or transitory.
Living by Buddhism principles demanded a lot of devotion. Mahayana Buddhism evolved as a step towards more suitable religion for the people 's lives.
History proves that as Buddhism spread throughout the Asian world in the early 1st century, it was occasionally altered to fit the specific needs and beliefs of people it touched. Mahayana Buddhism is one such example of this gradual evolution. It was primarily a movement started and kept alive by monks that slowly gained popularity amongst lay people but was in no way a unified movement. Mahayana Buddhism still adheres to the basic fundamental beliefs presented in the Pali Canons, however, it Sutras often expand upon these basic ideas and traditions in order to answer the questions of a later generation. After closer study of the Mahayana texts the “A Sutra for Long Life” and “The World Universe as a Sutra”, it seems evident that, although Mahayana Buddhism is based on the teachings of the traditional Pali Canon, it places a larger emphasis on philosophical inquires; and ultimately creates a more accessible version of enlightenment, and the Buddhist faith in general, for all.
Buddhism was founded around 520 BC by Siddharta Gautama, who was an Indian Prince. Buddhism emphasizes practice over belief. In reality, however, Buddhism centers on correct understanding of human nature and ultimate reality. The Buddha was, after all, called the "Enlightened One." He taught that the way to eliminate suffering began with understanding the true nature of the world. In Buddhism, the purpose of life is to end suffering. The Buddha taught that humans suffer because we continually strive after things that do not give lasting happiness.