Buddhism Ethical Beliefs

Buddhism is one of the oldest and greatest religions of our world. It originated in the life and teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, an Indian Prince. Although he taught primarily in southeastern India, it spread to Central Asia, Southeast Asia, China, Korea, Japan, and eventually the rest of the world. Its teachings stress achieving enlightenment and escaping the cycle of life, death, and rebirth, which generate suffering. After his Awakening, or epiphany, he discovered the Four Noble Truths that would eliminate suffering and achieve Nirvana. His teachings were very popular because he taught a middle way, as opposed to the severe asceticism, or abstinence from worldly pleasures, that Hinduism taught. It was also popular due to its position
against the Hindu caste system, teaching an inclusive enlightenment for all, as opposed to an exclusive salvation for the affluent. However, before one can understand Buddhism and the Buddha, one must understand the Buddha’s life, and how he impacted the ancient and modern worlds. The Buddha was born as Siddhartha Gautama in Kapilavastu, or the foothills of the Himalayas in present day Nepal, around the year 563 B.C. He was born as a prince to a royal family, son of King Suddhodana and Queen Mayadevi, leaders of the Shakya state. According to Buddhist legend, what was special about the period of time before his birth was that his mother had a dream that a white elephant with six tusks visited her. Several months later, Siddhartha was born. After his birth, it is said that the hermit, seer Asita, prophesized great fortune in his future. If he stayed home, he would become a chakravartin, or a great political and military world ruler. If he left home, he was destined to become a universal spiritual leader. In any case, he exhibited the marks of a great man. Seven days after Siddhartha’s birth, his mother died, so during his childhood, he was brought up by his mother’s sister and father’s second wife, Pajapati. He had three palaces built for him for seasonal occupation so he could switch during each season. He fulfilled the prophecies and great expectations foretold of him by perfecting himself in the knowledge, techniques, and sports of his time, known collectively as the kalajnana, or the 64 arts. At the age of 16, a marriage was arranged between him and his cousin, Yasodhara. They had a son named Rahula. During Siddhartha’s stay at his palaces, he was not familiar with the religious teachings of his time, specifically, the Hindu caste system. This was because although he was from a royal family of the Kshatriya, or warrior class, of the Gotama clan, his community was formed into more of an oligarchy than a monarchy. Furthermore, his father was determined to have him become a king and world political and military ruler rather than a spiritual one. So, he was often left isolated in his palaces and separated from the rest of the world.
After 29 years of isolation, despite his father’s efforts, Siddhartha took a trip beyond his palace where he saw sickness and suffering. First, he saw an old, arthritic and diseased leper. Next, he saw a decaying corpse. Lastly, he saw an ascetic man, who seemed a lot happier than the two previously mentioned. When his charioteer explained to him that everybody grew old and died, he took more trips further away from his palace. This revelation of pain and suffering in the world shocked Siddhartha Gautama so much that it drove him into a depression where he was determined to overcome ageing, sickness and death. He was so determined, that after a short while he snuck out of his palace and ran away to live an ascetic life. This is known as the Great Departure.
After his departure, Siddhartha Gautama arrived at a forest and traded his royal clothing with a hunter’s clothes. Then, he set off to wander the forests of India for six years, seeking enlightenment, or wisdom. He started as an ascetic mendicant, begging for alms on the street. At one point, Bimisara, the king who eventually took over for Siddhartha, saw him begging on the street, and after learning of his quest, offered him the throne. However, Siddhartha declined in order to continue to seek enlightenment. Instead, he left the mendicant life to study yoga. After a while of practicing yoga, he achieved high levels of meditative consciousness, but was still left unsatisfied. Then, he sought to find enlightenment through the deprivation of worldly goods, including food. So basically, he was starving himself. However, after starving himself to the point that he was so weak he collapsed and almost drowned while bathing, he realized deprivation was also not the right path. Finally, he created his own mode of meditation where he detached his mind from all subjects and concentrated on one, called the Jhana.
After he realized that the Jhana was the right meditation to follow but that extreme self-indulgence and self-mortification did not work, he developed a philosophy called the Middle Way, which led in-between the two extremes.
With his new mode of meditation and the Middle Way, he planned to find the truth. He sat underneath a pipal tree in Bodh Gaya, India for 49 days until he finally attained enlightenment. He subsequently preached his first sermon to his several followers about his epiphany. He had realized the causes to suffering and the steps people should take to eliminate it. These steps were called the Four Noble Truths. The Four Noble Truths are that life is filled with suffering and sorrow, the cause of suffering is from selfish desire and temporary pleasures, the way to end suffering is to end desire, and the way to overcome desire and attain enlightenment is to follow the Eightfold Path, which is the Middle Way. The Eightfold Path includes right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. By following the Four Noble Truths, one could achieve Nirvana, or a state of supreme liberation from selfishness and pain, which was possible for anyone. His realizations are called the Awakening. After the Awakening, he was known as the Buddha, or enlightened
one.
These teachings by the Buddha are called the Dharma. At first, Buddha debated whether or not he should spread these teachings, he thought they were subtle, deep, and too hard to grasp for the young, immature yet ancient world. However, a Brahmin, or priest, at his enlightenment sermon convinced him to do so. So for the remaining 45 years of his life he traveled through the subcontinent expanding the Dharma with his Sangha, or group of priests. He taught a diverse variety of people from nobles to outcastes to murderers to cannibals. During the monsoon seasons, they would retreat to monasteries, parks, or forests, where people would come to them. He eventually met up with his son again and let him join the Sangha. At the age of 80 in the year 483 B.C., Siddhartha Gautama died of mesenteric infarction, which is a gastro-vascular disorder. There are debates on whether or not this disorder was caused by food poisoning, but most historians believe that it was brought on as a symptom of old age.
Like Jainism, Buddhism had a large impact on ancient society. However, it was even more so for Buddhism because of its popularity between members of all Hindu castes. At first, the Buddha’s followers included mostly laborers and craftspeople of the northeastern region of India, where the strictly Hindu Aryans had less influence. Women were also not included in Sanghas until because Siddhartha thought that they would distract the men. However, his aunt insisted and he himself saw no reason why women should not attain enlightenment as well, so that policy was changed during his lifetime. Many Buddhist monasteries were opened and some even developed into universities, such as Nalanda, which also attracted non-Buddhists. After his death, the Dharma were written down and passed on. Some sacred Buddhist literature contained commentaries, rules on monastic life, meditation manuals, and Buddhist legends. In the years that followed, missionaries spread Buddhism all over Asia, spreading to areas like Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. Central Asian trade routes, such as the silk roads, also helped to spread Buddhism.
Although by the late middle ages Buddhism was not as popular, it is now growing more and more worldwide.
Estimates of how many Buddhist followers there are by scholars range from 550 million to 1.7 billion, and estimates are only uncertain due to what defines someone of the Buddhist faith and if Buddhists have to have congregational memberships in order to really be considered Buddhist. While Buddhism used to be a primarily Asian religion in the ancient times, it is now widespread with American and European regions. There have also been a number of Buddhist movements since the late twentieth century, including the Dalit Buddhist Movement and Engaged Buddhism.
In conclusion, Siddhartha Gautama was an important historical figure because he is the founder of the world’s fourth largest religion, Buddhism, after Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism.
The Sangha created by Siddhartha Gautama is one of the world’s oldest organizations. Buddhism was the first world religion and the largest religion during the first half of the twentieth century. Without Siddhartha Gautama, we would not have Buddhism. Without Buddhism, what would have happened to the Hindu caste system or the approximately 1.6 billion people who currently believe in Buddhism? What would not have
happened?

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