BIRTH OF BUDDHISM

Buddhism is a faith that was founded by Siddhartha Gautama (“the

Buddha”) more than 2,500 years ago in India. With about 470 million
followers, scholars consider Buddhism one of the major world religions .

Gautama was born into a wealthy family as a prince in present-day

Nepal.Siddhartha, as the Buddha was named at birth, was the son of a chief
of the Sakya clan. He had a sheltered upbringing within the palace, insulated
from the harsh realities of life. One day he persuaded his charioteer to take
him into the city. His first journey into the world outside was traumatic. .
Although he had an easy life he realised that the decay and destruction of
the human body was inevitable and Gautama was moved by suffering in
the world. 

Soon after, he left the palace and set out in search of his own truth.
Siddhartha explored several paths including bodily mortification which led him
to a situation of near death. Abandoning these extreme methods, he
meditated for several days and finally attained enlightenment. After this he
came to be known as the Buddha or the Enlightened One. For the rest of his
life, he taught dhamma or the path of righteous living.

SPREAD OF BUDDHISM
When Gautama passed away around 483 B.C., his followers began to
organize a religious movement. Buddha’s teachings became the
foundation for what would develop into Buddhism.

In the 3rd century B.C., Ashoka the Great, the Mauryan Indian
emperor, made Buddhism the state religion of India. Buddhist
monasteries were built, and missionary work was encouraged.

Over the next few centuries, Buddhism began to spread beyond India.
The thoughts and philosophies of Buddhists became diverse, with
some followers interpreting ideas differently than others.

Islam  began to spread quickly in the region during the Middle Ages ,

forcing Buddhism into the background

Buddhism spread from Central Asia to China, Korea and Japan, and through
Sri Lanka, across the seas to Myanmar, Thailand and Indonesia.

SCHOOLS OF BUDDHISM
In the present day, there are many schools of thought around the world
representing the Buddhist vision but the main three are:

 Mahayana Buddhism
 Theravada Buddhism (The School of the Elders, possibly developed
from the Sthaviravada school)
 Vajrayana Buddhism (The Way of the Diamond, also known as Tibetan
Buddhism)

Of these, as noted, Mahayana Buddhism is the most widely practiced, and its
rituals, such as pilgrimage to stupas and other holy sites and veneration of
statues of the Buddha, are most widely recognized. All schools recognize the
value of Buddha’s essential teaching of the Four Noble Truths and the
Eightfold Path but interpret and express that value differently in the way they
think best to address suffering and encourage compassionate enlightenment
throughout the world.

Some forms of Buddhism incorporate ideas of other religions and

philosophies, such as Taoism and Bon

Theravada Buddhism
Theravada is the dominant form of Buddhism in most of southeast Asia,
including Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, Laos, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. It
claims about 100 million adherents worldwide. Its doctrines are taken from the
Pali Tipitaka or Pali Canon and its basic teachings begin with the Four Noble
Truths.
Theravada teaches that enlightenment comes entirely through one's own
efforts, without help from gods or other outside forces.The ideal is to become
an arhat (sometimes arahant), which means "worthy one" in Pali. An arhat is a
person who has realized enlightenment and freed himself from the cycle of
birth and death.
The primary means of realizing enlightenment in the Theravada tradition is
through Vipassana or "insight" meditation. Vipassana emphasizes disciplined
self-observation of body and thoughts and how they interconnect.
 Mahayana Buddhism
Mahayana Buddhism is the largest Buddhist sect in the world, and its
beliefs and practices are what most non-adherents recognize as "Buddhism"
in the modern era. It developed as a school of thought sometime after 383
BCE, possibly from the earlier school known as Mahasanghika,
 Mahasanghika rejected the Sthaviravada position that the primary goal of
Buddha’s message was individual spiritual perfection, claiming an arhat was
just as fallible as any other human being and possessed no supernatural
powers or insights.
To the Mahasanghika school, an arhat was simply a spiritual ascetic who
used Buddha’s vision as a guide toward spiritual development instead of one
of the many others in use at the time.
The main difference between Mahayana and other schools was their focus on
the importance of the bodhisattva.
Vajrayana Buddhism
Vajrayana Buddhism originated in northern India around the 5th century CE,
took root in Tibet in the 7th and 8th centuries, and then spread across the
Himalayan region. Vajrayana Buddhism is better understood as an evolution
of Mahayana Buddhism, which places great emphasis on the use of
certain tantras—traditional spiritual techniques—in order to obtain
enlightenment as quickly as possible. According to Vajrayana adherents, the
ultimate goal of Buddhism can be most efficiently realized through these
practices. 
Vajrayana is usually translated as “diamond vehicle” or sometimes
“thunderbolt vehicle.” The term vajra means “lightning bolt,” which is the
primary weapon of the major Hindu god, Indra.
Because of its popularity in Himalayan nations such as Tibet, Nepal, and
Mongolia, the Vajrayana school is sometimes referred to as “Tibetan
Buddhism.” 
As with other schools of Mahayana Buddhism, Vajrayana adheres to the
concept of upaya. This, briefly, is the utilitarian philosophy of “whatever
works.” According to upaya, anything that brings someone to greater
enlightenment is good. Vajrayana, however, is unique for insisting that the
most efficient means of obtaining enlightenment are certain spiritual practices
known as tantras. According to Vajrayana Buddhism, these tantras are
effective enough that a person can obtain Buddha-hood in a single lifetime
rather than through countless reincarnations.

TEACHINGS OF BUDDHA
The Buddha’s teaching can be simply summed up into three parts:
Four Dharma Seals
Four Noble Truths
Noble Eightfold Path 
 The Four Dharma Seals reflect the genuine teachings of the Buddha, just as
a legal document is stamped with the royal seal. They can be simply
explained by using the following terms:

 Annica (impermanence)
 Dukkha(suffering0
 Anatta(non-self)
 Nirvana(true peace)
DHARMA
The Buddha’s sermons and teachings pointed toward the true nature of the
universe, what is known within Buddhism as the Dharma.
He taught that wisdom, kindness, patience, generosity and compassion
were important virtues.

Specifically, all Buddhists live by five moral precepts, which prohibit:

 Killing living things

 Taking what is not given
 Sexual misconduct
 Lying
 Using drugs or alcohol

FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS

The Four Noble Truths are the foundational tenets of Buddhism, which

spark awareness of suffering as the nature of existence, its cause, and how to
live without it. The truths are understood as the realization which led to the
enlightenment of the Buddha (l. c. 563 - c. 483 BCE) and were the basis of
his teachings.

The Four Noble Truths are:

 Life is full of suffering

 Suffering and unhappiness are a result of unfulfilled desire
 The end of suffering comes with an end to craving
 There is a path which leads one away from craving and suffering
The path alluded to in the fourth truth is The Eightfold Path which serves as
both a guide on the road to non-attachment and the road itself. The precepts
both inform a traveler on how to proceed and provide the way through spiritual
discipline. The eight precepts are:

 Right View
 Right Intention
 Right Speech
 Right Action
 Right Livelihood
 Right Effort
 Right Mindfulness
 Right Concentration

BELIEFS OF BUDDHISM

Some key Buddhism beliefs include:

 Followers of Buddhism don’t acknowledge a supreme god or deity.
They instead focus on achieving enlightenment—a state of inner peace
and wisdom. When followers reach this spiritual echelon, they’re said
to have experienced nirvana.
 The religion’s founder, Buddha, is considered an extraordinary being,
but not a god. The word Buddha means “enlightened.”
 The path to enlightenment is attained by utilizing morality, meditation
and wisdom. Buddhists often meditate because they believe it helps
awaken truth.
 There are many philosophies and interpretations within Buddhism,
making it a tolerant and evolving religion.
 Some scholars don’t recognize Buddhism as an organized religion, but
rather, a “way of life” or a “spiritual tradition.”
 Buddhism encourages its people to avoid self-indulgence but also self-
denial.
 Buddha’s most important teachings, known as The Four Noble Truths,
are essential to understanding the religion.
 Buddhists embrace the concepts of karma (the law of cause and effect)
and reincarnation (the continuous cycle of rebirth).
 Followers of Buddhism can worship in temples or in their own homes.
 Buddhist monks, or bhikkhus, follow a strict code of conduct, which
includes celibacy.
 There is no single Buddhist symbol, but a number of images have
evolved that represent Buddhist beliefs, including the lotus flower, the
eight-spoked dharma wheel, the Bodhi tree and the swastika  (an
ancient symbol whose name means "well-being" or "good fortune" in
Sanskrit). 
…………………………….

DALAI LAMA

Tenzin Gyatso was born Llhamo Döndrub in 1935 in North-Eastern

Tibet and was just like any other normal child until the age of two when
 he was recognized as the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama before him.
When he was fifteen years old he took on a huge role and became a
political leader for Tibet as a response to the invasion of Tibet by the
Chinese Peoples Liberation Army. At the age of twenty-five he
graduated with a doctorate of Buddhist philosophy. 

The Dalai Lama has made many contributions to Buddhism and has
changed it in many ways for the better. One of these contributions was
the putting together of a Five Point Peace Plan for Tibetan
independence and for the restoration of peace and human rights in
Tibet. The plan is as follows:Transformation of the whole of Tibet into a
zone of Ahimsa, a demilitarised zone of peace and non-violence.

CONCLUSION
Buddhism did not initially find a wide audience in India where Hinduism,
which was already well established, and Jainism, which appealed to the
ascetic community, were more popular. It was not until Buddhism was
embraced by Ashoka the Great (r. 268-232 BCE) of the Mauryan
Empire (322-185 BCE) that it was spread across the Indian subcontinent and
was exported to other lands such as China, Sri Lanka, Korea, and Thailand.

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