Mick Canning
Travel Photography and Paintings
Buddhism in India and Nepal
Historical Overview - Life of the Buddha
in progress...
The Buddha was a historical figure who lived some two and a half thousand years ago in what is now the Nepalese Terai. Born Siddartha Gautama, the heir to a small princely state ruled by the Sakiyas, he was raised in luxury and secluded from the outside world after it was foretold at his birth that he would either become a great leader or renounce the world. His father, the king, worried about the possibility of the latter, decided to shield him from all outside influences and by the time that he was married, at a little less than thirty, he supposedly had never set foot outside of the palace.
Eventually, curiosity got the better of the young prince and, requesting his father that he ride out to view his future kingdom, which he had not yet visited, he managed to leave the palace to visit the world outside. His father ordered a clean-up of the town and ordered that the prince was not to see any beggars or the sick or dead, but was unable to completely prevent this. During his visit, he met a beggar, a sick person, a funeral procession and then a holy man on the road. This left him shocked and chastened, having never before considered his possible mortality. He realised that, although he was at present fit and well, he would eventually come to sickness, old age and death. Perhaps, he thought, the life of this monk will enable me to solve this problem. He made plans to leave the palace for good. Aided by his charioteer, he crept out that same night and rode away. After a while he stopped, gave his horse to the charioteer, cut off his long hair and changed his rich robes for patched yellow robes which in the East are the sign of the homeless religious mendicant and walked off down the road, turning his back on his previous life.
He then met and studied with several teachers, attaining high levels of ecstatic meditation, but was unsatisfied with the results, feeling that he had learned nothing about the problems of the world, birth and death. He resolved to use extreme asceticism, still practised in India today, to attempt to reach the solutions. With five disciples, he lived in graveyards or amongst filth, refrained from washing or wearing clothes and eating next to nothing, until he was gaunt and virtually starving. This for six years, until he learned that his mind was still not quietened and that he lacked the inner strength to successfully meditate. At this, he accepted food again and his five disciples left him, thinking only that he had failed, that he had given up. At this point, he took a meal popularly said to be a rice pudding, given by a milk-maid named Sujata, to gain strength, then sat down beneath the famous Bodhi tree at what is now Bodhgaya, in Bihar, India. He sat in the traditional meditation position, with legs crossed and back erect, hands lying one in the other on his lap. He vowed then not to rise up until he had achieved enlightenment.
Resisting temptations similar to those supposedly by Christ or Saint Anthony in the desert, Siddartha Gautama eventually quietened his mind and during the long night time he achieved enlightenment, or knowledge of the true state of things. These are usually sumarised as the Four Noble Truths:
1) The First Noble Truth: That 'there is suffering', often incorrectly interpreted as 'all life is suffering'. More correctly, it means that even happiness does not last, that in the end there is unhappiness and suffering.
2) The Second Noble Truth: That the root of this suffering is desire and grasping, or attachment. The more we want things, the more we suffer either because we cannot have them, or, having got them we become dissatisfied and want more. Or we have things and are afraid that others will take them. This leads to covetousness, greed and theft, or worse.
3) The Third Noble Truth: That the way out of this vicious spiral of greed is the cessation of desire.
4) The Fourth Noble Truth: That way is usually known as the Middle Way or Noble Eight-fold Path.
When Siddartha Gautama arose from beneath the Bodhi Tree, it was as the Buddha, or Enlightened One.
At first, he had no intention of teaching, thinking the truths that he had realised to be beyond most people, and spent the next week or so in silent meditation, but realised that some would be receptive to his teachings and so decided to first seek out his previous companions, who he caught up with at Sarnath, near present day Varanasi, at the Deer Park that still exists today. At first they refused to have anything to do with him, thinking that he had given up the search for Truth, but when he eventually spoke to them they realised that he had achieved his goal and became the first members of the Sangha, or Buddhist monkhood. This first sermon that the Buddha gave is referred to as 'The Turning of the Wheel of Dharma'.
For the next forty five years he travelled over Northern India and Southern Nepal, spreading the word of the Dhamma or teachings. When the time came for him to attain Nirvana he travelled to Kushinagar with a group of his disciples and at the time predicted by himself, expired. His final words being 'All things that arise are doomed to decay. Strive on untiringly.'
Historical Overview - Buddhism in India
Initially, Buddhism flourished in India. For a couple of hundred years it was little more than a local religion, but it received a powerful boost when it was adopted by the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka. Ashoka, who reigned from 268 to 239BC, converted to Buddhism after witnessing the carnage caused by his bloody victory in battle during the Kalinga War. After this, he attempted to rule his realm by the principles of Dharma, particularly justice and non-violence. Many temples and monasteries were built and missionaries took Buddhism to neighbouring countries. His own son and daughter, Mahendra and Sanghamitra, took the teachings to Sri Lanka.
Buddhism in India began to wane as Hinduism undertook a resurgence, incorporating various local religious cults and also vegetarianism and pujas from Buddhism. This narrowed the gap between the two and Buddhism began to get squeezed out. Then, in the tenth century AD, there followed the Mughal invasions from the north west and many Buddhist temples and monasteries were destroyed and the monks put to the sword. Within a relatively short time, Buddhism was all but extinct in most of India, the remaining centres being in the more inaccessable Himalayan regions. Thus it remained until the British arrived in India and began to explore the history of the sub-continent.
He then met and studied with several teachers, attaining high levels of ecstatic meditation, but was unsatisfied with the results, feeling that he had learned nothing about the problems of the world, birth and death. He resolved to use extreme asceticism, still practised in India today, to attempt to reach the solutions. With five disciples, he lived in graveyards or amongst filth, refrained from washing or wearing clothes and eating next to nothing, until he was gaunt and virtually starving. This for six years, until he learned that his mind was still not quietened and that he lacked the inner strength to successfully meditate. At this, he accepted food again and his five disciples left him, thinking only that he had failed, that he had given up. At this point, he took a meal popularly said to be a rice pudding, given by a milk-maid named Sujata, to gain strength, then sat down beneath the famous Bodhi tree at what is now Bodhgaya, in Bihar, India. He sat in the traditional meditation position, with legs crossed and back erect, hands lying one in the other on his lap. He vowed then not to rise up until he had achieved enlightenment.
Resisting temptations similar to those supposedly by Christ or Saint Anthony in the desert, Siddartha Gautama eventually quietened his mind and during the long night time he achieved enlightenment, or knowledge of the true state of things. These are usually sumarised as the Four Noble Truths:
1) The First Noble Truth: That 'there is suffering', often incorrectly interpreted as 'all life is suffering'. More correctly, it means that even happiness does not last, that in the end there is unhappiness and suffering.
2) The Second Noble Truth: That the root of this suffering is desire and grasping, or attachment. The more we want things, the more we suffer either because we cannot have them, or, having got them we become dissatisfied and want more. Or we have things and are afraid that others will take them. This leads to covetousness, greed and theft, or worse.
3) The Third Noble Truth: That the way out of this vicious spiral of greed is the cessation of desire.
4) The Fourth Noble Truth: That way is usually known as the Middle Way or Noble Eight-fold Path.
When Siddartha Gautama arose from beneath the Bodhi Tree, it was as the Buddha, or Enlightened One.
At first, he had no intention of teaching, thinking the truths that he had realised to be beyond most people, and spent the next week or so in silent meditation, but realised that some would be receptive to his teachings and so decided to first seek out his previous companions, who he caught up with at Sarnath, near present day Varanasi, at the Deer Park that still exists today. At first they refused to have anything to do with him, thinking that he had given up the search for Truth, but when he eventually spoke to them they realised that he had achieved his goal and became the first members of the Sangha, or Buddhist monkhood. This first sermon that the Buddha gave is referred to as 'The Turning of the Wheel of Dharma'.
For the next forty five years he travelled over Northern India and Southern Nepal, spreading the word of the Dhamma or teachings. When the time came for him to attain Nirvana he travelled to Kushinagar with a group of his disciples and at the time predicted by himself, expired. His final words being 'All things that arise are doomed to decay. Strive on untiringly.'
Historical Overview - Buddhism in India
Initially, Buddhism flourished in India. For a couple of hundred years it was little more than a local religion, but it received a powerful boost when it was adopted by the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka. Ashoka, who reigned from 268 to 239BC, converted to Buddhism after witnessing the carnage caused by his bloody victory in battle during the Kalinga War. After this, he attempted to rule his realm by the principles of Dharma, particularly justice and non-violence. Many temples and monasteries were built and missionaries took Buddhism to neighbouring countries. His own son and daughter, Mahendra and Sanghamitra, took the teachings to Sri Lanka.
Buddhism in India began to wane as Hinduism undertook a resurgence, incorporating various local religious cults and also vegetarianism and pujas from Buddhism. This narrowed the gap between the two and Buddhism began to get squeezed out. Then, in the tenth century AD, there followed the Mughal invasions from the north west and many Buddhist temples and monasteries were destroyed and the monks put to the sword. Within a relatively short time, Buddhism was all but extinct in most of India, the remaining centres being in the more inaccessable Himalayan regions. Thus it remained until the British arrived in India and began to explore the history of the sub-continent.
in progress...
