10 Info About Buddhism

Many people have misconceptions about Buddhism. Below are a few facts most of the people seem to get wrong.

1) Siddhartha Gautama never traveled outside of India but his teachings did. Siddhartha Gautama would be a spiritual teacher in Ancient India who founded Buddhism. You will need to do not forget that he was a Vedic Brahman (Hindu by today’s standards) so many of his ideas were originally section of the ancient traditional religions with the local historical period. He’s thought to have lived from around 563 BCE to a number exceeding 483 BCE as they is assumed to possess died at Eighty years old. He traveled and taught along the Ganges River Valley starting near his home, near what’s now Nepal.

2) He is sometimes called Shakyamuni Buddha, or perhaps the Prince with the Shakyas, because of Ssakya Mountain Range which was his father’s (King Suddhodana) kingdom. He was born a prince but chose to be a holy man. He spent my childhood years in wealth and resistant to the outside but became curious about what people’s lives outside the palace could be like. Many legends surround his birth, but everything that is definitely known is always that his mother was designed to have passed away in childbirth or soon (days) afterwards. His father have been warned right after his birth that he would become a great military leader or even a great spiritual leader. His father, the king, had his own ideas of what was proper for Siddhartha, but, at around 29 years, house his charioteer, he escaped the palace walls and ventured outside to find out what life was like for some individuals. He witnessed the end results of final years, sickness, and saw a corpse, producing alert to death. Finally, he saw an ascetic. Siddharha’s charioteer explained how the ascetic was one that had renounced the globe and sought release from nervous about death and suffering.

3) Buddhism began by Siddhartha to be able to end the suffering (dissatisfaction) of most human beings. He realized the fact that we’re all impermanent and went on a spiritual quest for enlightenment. He studied with all the current best teachers of religion and philosophy that they may find during the time and learned the best way to meditate but decided that somehow wasn’t enough for him.

4) The very center Way: He still had much to master and ventured into the ascetics of the time to follow along with however in time found that the extremes that they endured weren’t working for him. He followed their methods for self inflicting pain and enduring it, fasting until he was weak, and holding his breath. It didn’t satisfy him as they decided this became just another ego inflating technique of self-gratification, proving yourself through self-abuse. He chose to turn off their strict abeyance to rules about starving yourself and eating unclean things, because he realized he would need strength to remain his quest, so he developed what is known as “the middle way”. When his disciples saw which he wasn’t pursuing the way they thought necessary, they made a decision to leave him. He left and made a decision to sit under a sacred fig tree until he previously discovered the solution. The tree was what was considered a sacred fig tree near Bodh Gaya, the tree being named later, the Bodhi Tree. From Wikipedia * “…The Bodhi Tree, also known as Bo (through the Sinhalese Bo), would be a large and extremely old Sacred Fig tree (Ficus religiosa) in Bodh Gaya (about 100 km (62 mi) from Patna in the Indian state of Bihar), this agreement SiddhÄÂrtha Gautama, the spiritual teacher and founding father of Buddhism later generally known as Gautama Buddha, is claimed to own achieved enlightenment, or Bodhi….”

5) His Awakening: As part of his deep condition of meditation (samadhi) during their visit he became enlightened when he rose from his deep meditation, he revealed that he’d some answers to the questions he had sought. He imparted the wisdom with the four noble truths as well as the eightfold path that come for a reason. Minus the previous, the others can be impossible to accomplish. 6)The 4 Noble Truths

1) Suffering (dukkha) does exist. (All humans suffer during birth, pain, sickness, and death.

2) The main cause of suffering is desire. All of us have desires that are either selfish or unrealistic. This is considered “delusional”.

3) There’s a approach to reach cessation of suffering.

4) The cessation of suffering comes through practicing the eightfold path. (Freedom from suffering is possible by practicing the Eightfold Path.)

7) The Eightfold Path

1) Right View Wisdom

2) Right Intention Wisdom

3) Right Speech Ethical Conduct

4) Right Action Ethical Conduct

5) Right Livelihood Ethical Conduct

6) Right Effort Mental Development

7) Right Mindfulness Mental Development

8) Right Concentration/Meditation Mental Development

8) Buddhist Principles: By striving towards the right thing one lessens selfish desire, therefore reaching a state of happiness internally that is not dependent on conditional circumstances. Mindfulness in all things is a key ingredient. If one understands that any tangible thing that we desire is impermanent and ceases to be “attached” to these things that we cannot keep, then one becomes more at peace. We can not become attached to any views since we will become passionate about this and when circumstances change, our view will no longer be important or pertinent.

9) Buddhism is not a self help program: Beware of those who call themselves a master or try to sell you “enlightenment”. There are many books and centers out there which try to use words like enlightenment” that is something that actually has to be attained personally, it can’t be given or taught in a paint by the numbers program that promises some things. First, the word enlightenment is not used in any of the texts from Siddhartha Gautama was concerned that people might rush into this without understanding and this would lead to repeating traditional ceremonies without understanding, which will lead to disappointment because of the lack of benefit from practice. Do not come to an understanding of Buddhism lightly or quickly, take your time and be sure. This will take investigation. Investigate completely, any facets that you don’t understand until it makes sense. Also, practice with others and a good teacher are the best method of learning.

10) Buddhism IS A RELIGION: It disturbs some Buddhists that some people feel that Buddhism is just a philosophy. Some people feel there has to be a main book or one religious deity to worship in order for a religion to be real. Most modern practitioners of Buddhism see that all religions are filled with mythology and they understand that most deities and mythological objects in Buddhism are analogies for science and nature or our own mental make up that early man could not explain. Some practitioners, especially in Asia, still believe in the physical existence of some of these objects and deities. We have to remember that early Buddhist teachings came from Siddhartha Gautama in India, who was a Vedic Brahman. It then traveled across Asia to China where it adapted to Confucianism, which relied strongly on Filial Piety. It then traveled through to Japan, where it adapted to Shinto, which is still practiced side by side with Buddhism in Japan. Buddhism was created to adapt to all other learning. Siddhartha Gautama likened it to “a raft to get to the other side” in a parable he taught. “The Parable of The Raft ” When speaking to his followers Gautama Buddha said, “When you come to a river and the current is too fast to allow you to swim across and there is no bridge then you might decide to build a raft. If after crossing the river you would have some choices as to what to do with the raft. a) You could tie it to the bank to be used by someone else later. b) You could set it afloat for someone else to find. c) You could say to yourself, “What a wonderful raft”, and then pick it up and carry it around on top of your head from now on. Which would be proper use of the raft? Buddhism is practiced in most countries around the world, although Buddhists make up only about 7% of the world’s religious population. Only a few modern Buddhist sects use an evangelical approach, trying to convert everyone around them. Most Buddhists refrain from trying to propagate their religion to anyone who doesn’t seek it.

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