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hinduism and buddhism impact on indian society
hinduism and buddhism impact on indian society
Discuss the origins of Buddhism
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Buddhism is a well-known world religion, a religion that touch people heart with it great compassion together with the notion to spread the seed of wisdom to all sentient beings, to help them reach their enlightenment state, so that they can be liberate from the samsaric (suffering) world. However, to understand the teaching of Buddhism, we needed to know who is the founder, where is it originated, it teaching, and it history. Through these, we can be able to grasp the fundamental ideas or the basic teachings such as the Four Noble Truth and The Noble Eightfold Path.
The Buddha
About 2500 years ago, in the Indo Nepalese region in the city called Kapilavathu, “Siddhartha” (later become the Buddha) was born in a royal family father Sakya Sudhodana and mother Maya. The prince grew up under the king shadow, and was literate in every-ways to become the future king.
At the age of nineteen, the king arranged a marriage of the prince to the most beautiful princess named Yasodhara and later gave birth to a son (Rahula). The prince was kept amused and happy for sometimes until one day he encountered an old man, a sick person, a death person and an enlightened monk. Through the encounters, the prince saw “suffering” naturally occur to all sentient being. This occurrences had awakened the prince mind, therefore, had deepened his quest in search for the truth.
At the age of twenty-nine, to seek for true happiness to liberate all sentient being, the prince left his family and became a monk. During his sought for the truth, the prince encountered two masters whom taught him the practice of deep meditation, after practicing with the two masters for a while. The prince realized this was not what he was seeking. Therefore, he w...
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“Buddhism is the oldest worldwide religion. It is known to be a religion, a philosophy and a way of life.” The main idea, foundation and fundamentals of Buddhism were born 2,500 years ago in the foothills of India. Siddhartha Gautama was born into a royal family and raised as a prince in the Gupta period. He was always confined to the palace and was sheltered from the real world. As time went on, Siddhartha wanted to find out the meaning of life and his experiences through his journey created the practice of Buddhism. His first teaching as a Buddha was based on the doctrine of the four noble truths and along with the principle of the middle way, the eight fold path. Through oral tra...
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Buddhism was founded by Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, in Northeastern India in the sixth century BC, after he attained enlightenment and assumed the title of Lord Buddha, meaning “one who has awakened”. While the life span of Gautama is uncertain, many historians date his lifetime circa 563 BCE to 483 BCE, with alternative chronologies that are not yet accepted by all historians. Siddhartha Gautama was a prince of the Sakya Tribe who lived an extravagant life and was destined for great things, prophesized shortly after his birth. The prophecy stated that Siddhartha would either become a great king or a holy man, and fearing that Siddhartha would embrace the spiritual path, his father did all he could to make sure Siddhartha lived a luxurious
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy based on the teachings of the Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama. Today, Buddhism has an estimated seven hundred million followers, known as Buddhists. Most practicing Buddhists believe in ideas such as karma, dharma, samsara and nirvana. In addition to these, Buddhists base their lives and actions on the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path. Taught by Gautama, the Noble Eightfold path is a theory, that when put into action, serves as a way to end suffering (The Noble Eightfold Path). In Buddhism, the belief is that life is suffering. Through out his life, Gautama, searched endlessly for a means of liberation from this suffering. The Noble Eightfold Path is a series of principles that serve as guidelines to ethical and mental development which ideally lead to understanding the truth about all things. These principles are also intended to teach discipline and proper ways to interact in relationships with others (Bodhi).
Buddhism is currently the fourth most popular religion in our society today, following Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism. Its major ideologies are based on the philosophies of Siddhartha Guatama, also known as “Buddha”, who began his teachings in 598 BCE at the age of 35, according to Buddhist texts. A Buddhist’s foremost aspiration is the obtainment of Bodhi, or enlightenment through meditation and Anapana-sati (awareness of the breath). Buddhism shares many ideologies with India’s Hinduism and Yoga such as non-harming, non-violence, and self-awareness. In many instances, people regard Buddhism as a way of life rather than a religion, for it has no clear belief in the idea of a God or Gods. Its structure is built upon a hierarchy much like Christianity where superior orders such as Lamas or the Dalai Lama are said to be chosen by nature through the process of reincarnation rather than by a council like Christianity’s Pope. Though these “higher level” Buddhists are rare (not everyone is a reincarnation of an ancient Buddhist “priest”), all are permitted to follow “The Middle Way” either as a Buddhist monk or the simple attendance of a weekly teaching session from time to time. Throughout the last few hundred years the Buddhist population has blossomed into a healthy 381,611,000 and over fifteen different sects including Zen, Mahayana, and Theravada.
Siddhartha Gotama was born into a rich royal family, located in Nepal in 563 BC. Siddhartha’s birth was prophesied by his mother whom had Queen Maya dreamt that a white elephant with six white tusks entered her right side (a sign of great importance in that culture) it was prophesied that he would be a great emperor or great religious leader.He was provided with all the luxuries of life and was shielded from all harm and those whom needed help. However he encounted an old man disturbed by this he consulted a guard who told him that everyone grows old, later he encounted a diseased man, then a corpse and then finally a ascetic. These are known as the four great sightings. He realized at the age of 29 that, not all lived a life like him and didn’t all have immeasurable riches, and he found that these luxuries didn’t necessarily provide happiness. So he left the palace and his family and decided to trial the different teachings, religions and philosophies of the period. After six long years of meditation and study he attained Enlightenment. Siddhartha is said to have discovered what Buddhists call the Middle Way—a path of moderation away from the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification. He accepted a little milk and rice pudding from a village gir...
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Buddhism prevailed as a religion indigenous to west India and comprises of varieties of traditions, beliefs and practices based on the teachings of Buddha. There are many reasons why Buddhism became so popular and entered into many civilizations. Buddhism began to be popular throughout Asia alongside India. Buddhism has blossomed in the contemporary world, especially in the West. It is an issue to wonder what Buddhism offers that other religions cannot and has become so significant worldwide. Buddhism has become an idea that is widespread and the teachings of Buddha have made a real difference in many civilizations like India, China, Japan, Vietnam, Korea and surprisingly Buddhism has come to make a significant difference in American culture.
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.
"What is Buddhism? | The Buddhist Centre." What is Buddhism? | The Buddhist Centre. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2014. .
Sach, Jacky. The Everything Buddhism Book: Learn the Ancient Traditions and Apply Them to Modern Life. Avon, MA: Adams Media Corporation, 2003. Print.
Eastern enlightenment religions have been gaining popularity throughout the western world for the past few decades, with many people attracted to a "different" way of experiencing religion. As with many other enlightenment religions, Buddhism requires disciples to understand concepts that are not readily explainable: one such concept is that of no-self. In this essay I shall discuss the no-self from a number of modern perspectives; however, as no-self is difficult to describe I shall focus on both the self and no-self. Beginning with psychological aspects, and neurophysiological research on transcendental meditation, I shall discuss the impact of modern brain science on our understanding of the self and transcendence. Next I will outline the relationship between quantum physics and non-locality, as this gives a western scientific explanation for no-self. Returning to the original source of Buddhism, I will briefly outline the discussion between Siddhartha and Vaccha regarding atman, then discuss the mind and no-self and their relationship to liberation. Finally I will summarize a few issues that the western mindset may face approaching this topic.