What Is Buddhism? Introduction For more than 2,500 years, the religion we know today as Buddhism has been the primary inspiration behind many successful civilizations, a source of great cultural achievements, and a lasting and meaningful guide to the very purpose of life for millions of people. Today, large numbers of men and women from diverse backgrounds throughout the world are following the Teachings of the Buddha. So who was the Buddha and what are his teachings? The Buddha The man who was to become the Buddha was born Siddhattha Gotama around 2,600 years ago as a prince of a small territory near what is now the Indian-Nepalese border. Though he was raised in splendid comfort, enjoying aristocratic status, no amount of material pleasure could conceal lifes imperfections from the unusually inquisitive young man. At the age of 29 he left wealth and family to search for a deeper meaning in the secluded forests and remote mountains of Northeast India. He studied under the wisest religious teachers and philosophers of his time, learning all they had to offer, but they could not provide the answers he was seeking. He then struggled with the path of self-mortification, taking that practice to the extremes of asceticism, but still to no avail. Then at the age of 35, on the full moon night of May, he sat beneath the branches of what is now known as the Bodhi Tree, in a secluded grove by the banks of the river Neranjara, and developed his mind in deep and luminous, tranquil meditation. Using the extraordinary clarity of such a mind, with its sharp penetrative power generated by states of deep inner stillness, he turned his attention to investigate the truth of mind, universe and life. Thus he gained the Supreme Enlightenment experience and from then on he was known as the Buddha, the Awakened One. His Enlightenment consisted of the most profound and all-embracing insight into the nature of mind and all phenomena. This Enlightenment was not a revelation from some divine being, but a discovery made by himself based on the deepest levels of meditation and the clearest experience of mind. It meant that he was free from the shackles of craving, ill-will and delusion, that all forms of inner suffering had been eliminated and that he had acquired unshakeable peace.
Posted on: Thu, 28 Aug 2014 11:46:53 +0000
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