Transcript Siddhartha
Siddhartha Buddhism Buddhism • The greatest achievement is selflessness. The greatest worth is self-mastery. The greatest quality is seeking to serve others. The greatest precept is continual awareness. The greatest medicine is the emptiness of everything. The greatest action is not conforming with the world’s ways. The greatest magic is transmuting the passions. The greatest generosity is non-attachment. The greatest goodness is a peaceful mind. The greatest patience is humility. The greatest effort is not concerned with results. The greatest meditation is a mind that lets go. The greatest wisdom is seeing through appearances. Overview • About 365 million followers—6% of the world’s population • Fourth largest religion in the world • Several forms of Buddhism • Founded in Northern India by Siddhartha • In 6th Century BCE he attained enlightenment and assumed title of Lord Buddha (one who has awakened) Siddhartha • Raised as a Hindu • 2 prophecies: universal monarch or monk who would be great religious teacher • Parents raised him in luxury hoping for universal monarch (he would become attached to earthly things and pleasure) Four Visions • 1st: saw helpless, , frail, elderly man • 2nd: saw emaciated, depressed man suffering from advanced disease • 3rd: saw grieving family carrying corpse to a cremation site • 4th: saw religious mendicant who led a reclusive life and was calm and serene Monk vs Monarch The four encounters motivated him to follow the path of the mendicant and find a spiritual solution to the problems brought about by human suffering. He left his life of luxury and future role as a leader of his people in order to seek truth. It was an accepted practice at the time for some men to leave their family and lead the life of an ascetic. Solution to Human Suffering • First tried meditation—found meditation could not last forever—must return to normal consciousness • Second tried asceticism—realized mortification of the flesh would not lead to enlightenment The Bodhi Tree • First Watch: developed ability to recall previous reincarnations in detail • Second Watch: able to see how the good and bad deeds living entities performed during their lifetimes led to the nature of their subsequent reincarnation into their next life • Third Watch: progressed beyond "spiritual defilements," craving, desire, hatred, hunger, thirst, exhaustion, fear, doubt, and delusions. He had attained nirvana. He would never again be reincarnated into a future life Core Beliefs • Reincarnation: concept that people are reborn after dying • Individuals go through many cycles of birth, living, death, and rebirth Think of a leafwhen a leaf withers and falls, a new leaf will replace it. It is similar but not identical to the old leaf After many such cycles, if a person releases their attachment to desire and the self, they can attain Nirvana. This is a state of liberation and freedom from suffering. Christianity • World is created in 7 days • There is a Garden of Eden (Walled Paradise of Delight) • There is a serpent that speaks • 1st woman is formed from 1st man’s rib • God forbids them to eat the Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil Christianity Continued • Eve and Adam “fall” and eat the fruit • Fearing that next they will eat the fruit of eternal life and become knowing and immortal, God expels them from the Garden • Cherubim (2) guard the gates and the tree of life Elements in Common • Mythic image of tree of immortal life defended by 2 terrifying guards • Serpent • Emergence of a savior, hero, redeemed one Compare and Contrast Christianity • Cherubim guarding Tree of Life—keep us out of the Garden (Wrath of God) • Serpent—embodies evil and leads us to Fall—is rejected and cursed Buddhism • Warriors guard temple gate—fear of death and desire for life these 2 arouse are to be left behind as we pass between • Serpent—symbolic of immortal inhabiting energy of all life on earth— protected the Buddha as he sat under the Bodhi Tree Compare and Contrast Christianity • Christ restored man to immortality—his cross was equated with the tree of immortal life • The fruit of the Tree is the Savior • Left His body nailed to the tree and passed in spirit to atonement or salvation Buddhism • Our attachment to goods and pleasures of physical lives keeps us out of the garden • Buddha s the savior, the teacher • Leave behind the known world, desire, and fear to pass into enlightenment or the Garden (Nirvana) Samsara • Eternal cycle of birth, death, and rebirth • Process of coming into existence as a mortal creature subject to the world Nirvana • Freedom from the endless cycle of reincarnation, suffering, the extinction of individual passion, hatred, and delusion • Salvation through the union of Atman • A place or state characterized by freedom from or oblivion to pain, worry, and the external world. Atman • The principle of life • The individual self, known after enlightenment to be identical with Brahman • The World Soul, from which all individual souls derive, and to which they return as the supreme goal of existence. Brahman • Brahmin—a member of the highest, or priestly, class among the Hindus • The impersonal supreme being, the primal source and ultimate goal of all beings, with which Atman, when enlightened, knows itself to be identical.