A Short History Of Buddhism

Buddhism was started by the followers of Siddhartha Gautama (circa 563-483 BC). He was born into a Hindu family of the kshatriya caste in what is now known as Nepal. At the age of 29, he left his wife and infant son and went in search of enlightenment.

He achieved enlightenment some time later when sitting under a bodhi tree near Patna. After 49 days of rapture and withstanding temptations (Mara), He, now called Buddha, formed an order of monks and went forth to teach the word. After 45 years of preaching their philosophy of enlightenment Buddha died and reached Nirvana, the state in which 'ideas and consciousness cease to be'.

One of the most central concepts to Buddhists is the Tipitaka (the 'Three Baskets'), which is a record of the Buddha's doctrines as set down by His early followers after his death. The texts in these 'three baskets' tell the story of Buddha's life (Buddha); record his laws (Dharma); and his guidelines for setting up and maintaining a monastic order (Sangha).

Buddhists believe in reincarnation and the wheel of life in a comparable fashion to Hindus. They also believe that this cycle of life, death and rebirth can be broken by achieving enlightenment. Enlightenment can be achieved by devotion to the Four Noble Truths.

Life is transient despite the cycle of life, death and rebirth and can only create suffering (dukka) because of the pursuit of earthly desires. Suffering and desire can just be overcome by attaining Nirvana, which can be gained by following the Eightfold Path, otherwise known as the 'Middle Way'.

The Middle Way consists of: correct belief, thought, speech, action, livelihood, work, mindfulness and concentration. These form the core of Buddhist ethics.

A hallmark of Buddhism is the monastic order. Men can become monks for a few years or for life. There is also a female monastic order. In some sects, boys go into a monastery for a period of between a few weeks and a few months as part of their passage into adulthood. Boys in Thailand are expected to be monks for a number of weeks before they eventually get married.

Monks live an ascetic life in monasteries or temples. Each village has a temple in much the same manner as western villages have a church, but every temple attempts to maintain a population of at least nine monks, which is thought to be the ideal number for some of their duties like blessing a house or carrying out a wedding ceremony.

Buddhist monks live on charity given by the local villagers. In Thailand the novice monks walk the streets in the early morning collecting donations of food, which has to be eaten before noon, after which they may not eat. Monks are not allowed any contact with women at all. They may not even sit next to them on a bus or pass the fare to a female bus conductress.

Buddhist temples are principally for individual contemplation and meditation. They are open to anyone twenty-four hours a day and people use them to gain respite from the hustle and bustle of daily life. Group prayer meetings are far less common a feature of Buddhism than they are in Judaism, Christianity, Islam or even Hinduism.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece writes on many subjects but is currently concerned with Easter.If you want to read more, please go more than to our web site entitled Celebrating Easter.