A. Historic Person: 1. names: Siddhartha Gautama lived about 566 B.C.E. died at about age 84, Also refered to as Sakyamuni (clan name) or Buddha (the Enlightened One) 2. life: was a prince, lived in a secluded palace until about age 20, married and had one son. 3. experience: ventured out of palace and encountered birth, old age, sickness, death, poverty, toiling work: human suffering, existence=suffering 4. enlightenment: sought to find the end of suffering through various religious practices, finally decided to sit under the Bodhi Tree until he had obtained his goal. Beset by Mara (personification of death, delusion and temptation) sensuality, discontent, hunger, and thrist, caring, sloth and torpor, fear, doubt, hypocrisy, self-exhaltation, and desire for fame. and tempted by discontent, delight and craving.

Basic ideas behind teachings come from Vedic Hindu beliefs 1. transmigration of souls, death does not destroy life but is a transistion stage to future kinds of existence 2. individual - individual is only one of the instances belonging to the abstract universal Western view - individual has attibutes or qualities realized concretely by the individual itself 3. reverence for all sentient beings - no distinction between humanity and non-humanity

C. Teachings:




4 Basic (Noble) Truths a. life and suffering are inseparable b. cause of suffering is desire c. to be rid of suffering one must escape desire d escape from this is through the 8 fold Path

Eight Fold Path: right views, intentions, speech, action, livelihood, energy, mindfulness, concentration

Four determinations: discernment, truth, renunciation and calm.

Three Jewels:

Buddha - the example of the person who achieved the end to suffering

Dharma - the teachings of the Buddha to help others over come suffering

Sangha - the groups of people who follow the teachings and help each other in their meditation practice
 

Five Precepts:

1) Aware of suffering caused by the destruction of life

2) Aware of suffering caused by exploitation, stealing, social injustice

3) Aware of suffering caused by sexual misconduct

4) Aware of suffering caused by unmindful speech

5) Aware of suffering caused by unmindful consumption (alcohol)

(longer lists that elaborate upon these basic five are also common. precepts are not laws to be followed but more like decisions on how to live life.)

nirvana - release from the sequence of birth and rebirth, the extinction of desire/pain, literally extinguishing fire.

Teachings also include ways to achieve nirvana:
 

meditation - the method for coming to understand the self and one's place in the universe and to achieving an end to desire. A method for attaining a state of unity with the universe.

and things that can hinder this effort:  the three poisons: greed, hatred, delusion (sometimes included are: craving, lust, anger, ignorance) and the five hindrances: desire, hatred, sloth, agitation and doubt.
 

Schools:

Mahayana - (North) Tibet, China, Mongolia, Korea, Japan Universal salvation: the salvation of all livings things through the aid of bodhisattva's (individuals who put off their own salvation to help others)

Theravada - (South) Sri Lanka, Burma, Southern China, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Chinese in Malaya, Singapore, Indonesia, Phillippines

Personal salvation: Each person must work out their own salvation, arhats (lohans) are individuals who are examples of how to do this, persons who have found their own salvation.

No Monotheism, only individual mainfestations of one universal entity.

No Old Testament: No Adam and Eve, Original Sin, Garden of Eden

No heresy , many acceptable ways to reach nirvana little interest in doctrinal purity

No religious wars, no need to eliminate people with differing views or dominate with one's own view

No priests, only teachers - people who can assist the individual in meditative practice, ritual and prayers can be offered to Boddhisattva's in the Mahayana school to aid individuals in life and in death.