Buddhism History and Diversity of a Great Tradition - Assignment Example

Running Head Buddhism Buddhism Buddhism is one of the oldest religions in the history which is based on old traditions and cultural norms of the Eastern world. The main peculiarity and distinction of this religion is that it emphasizes meditation practices. Buddhism shows the universal character based on the ritual doctrines and unique practices which awake human spirit and consciousness. Buddhism consists of and is influenced by three main schools of thought: the Vedic religion, the Sramanic movement, and Jainism. In other words, there is a conflict between the seemingly timeless, unchanging values of a pure tradition and the continuing imperative to adjust to and accommodate the forces of change. It is considered that the religion was founded on teaching of Gautama Buddha (500 B.C.E). The traditional date of the birth of the Buddha is 560 B.C.E. The Buddha is believed to have been born in northeastern India, and was a prince. He followed ascetic way of life and devoted himself to meditations and spiritual development. One day, he meditated near the Ganges River, and came to conclusion that asceticism did not work and did not help a person to achieve spiritual development. He understood that a person should eat a sufficient amount of food to have a good heath, should take enough rest but not too much, and meditate. In 525 B.C.E, the Buddha achieved Enlightenment and began to preach (Lyons and Peters 1985). As with other major world religions, the history of Buddhism has long been characterized by an ongoing tension between attempts to preserve traditional ideals and modes of practice and the need to adapt to changing social and cultural conditions (Lopez 2002). Many developments in Buddhist history, such as the infusion of esoteric rituals, the arising of forms of devotionalism and lay movements, and the assimilation of warrior practices, reflect the impact of widespread yet fundamental social and cultural changes on traditional religious structures. After Enlightenment, the Buddha preached his new teaching of salvation to his pupils. The Buddha's travels from place to place are regarded as dispersing these teachings throughout the region in a manner that reflects the subsequent division of the Buddha's cremated remains that brings the Sutta to a close-bodily relics, urn, and ashes-and their enshrinement in stpas in ten locations throughout India (Lyons and Peters 1985). In 480 BC was established the first Buddhist Council at Rajagriha in Bihar. At this council, the Vinaya and Sutra texts were standardized. As with most religions, the early years of Buddhism are shrouded in obscurity. But the period between that event and the reemergence of Buddhism into the light of history around 250 B.C.E. is somewhat unclear. Buddhist tradition holds that there was a meeting, or council, held immediately following the Buddha's death (Lopez 2002). The major concern of this meeting was to stabilize the Buddhist scriptures by coming to an agreement as to what were the accepted scriptures as spoken by the Buddha. For a variety of reasons, no such agreement seems to have been reached, although there was some general agreement on the basic message of the Buddha. Leaving the canon, that is to say the total collection of Buddhist scriptures, open in this way was to lead to disagreements later in Buddhist history. The second Buddhist Council at Vaisali marked the first division of the Buddhist Order (386 BC). In 244 BC, the third Buddhist Council called by Asoka. This council fixed the canon of Theravadin Buddhism (Lyons and Peters 1985). To other regions of the world, Buddhist tradition was spread with merchants. For instance, Buddhism was introduced to Southeast Asia in C. 200. Since C. 300, Buddhism is a prominent religion in China and begins to penetrate Korea. c. 750 Buddhism officially established in Tibet (beginnings of the Vajrayana school). c. 800 Ch'an and Pure Land Buddhism become dominant schools in China; establishment of Tendai and Shingon schools in Japan. Only, in 1893 World Parliament of Religions in Chicago introduces Americans to Buddhism. During 1940s, Buddhist Churches of America formed to unite the various North American Pure Land Buddhist groups. The concept of atman and Brahman were borrowed from the ancient Vedic tradition. The atman is pure spirit, unchanging and immortal. In turn, the atman is a fragment of Brahman, the spiritual force that created and sustained the universe. Since atman is immortal, the Sramanic philosophers wondered what happened to it at death when the physical body ceased to exist. Reincarnation, the idea that human beings die and are reborn in a new physical body continuously, soon came to be an accepted idea in all of the Indic religions. "The Buddha named what he spoke as the dharma, a word that used to be rendered as "law" (Lopez 2002, p. 14). But at the same time, it raised other philosophical problems. Life is seen as being essentially good. Buddha was memorialized after his death not only to honor him as a great religious leader but to make his person, his life, and his teachings present in space and time. These devotional activities appear to be far removed from a common preconception of the Buddha's rejection of Brahmanical ritualism and the singular dedication of Buddhist monks to the path of meditation. The philosophy of Buddhism uses such concepts as Four Noble Truths, the five Skandhas, the Eightfold Path, and the three dharma seals. The nature of Buddhism is that enlightenment can be achieved through the understanding of the notion that one is already an enlightened being (Lyons and Peters 1985). This understanding of the existence is often compared with awakening of human consciousness or can be like a flash. Buddhism teaches that the concern for others is a universal, but that societies alter our conceptions of who can and cannot be considered "the other". "With the development of various schools in the centuries after the Buddha's death, the doctrine of no-self came to be widely interpreted" (Lopez 2002, p. 26). The particular problem in the world for the reconciliation between the human subject and objective institutions is the reconciliation between the growing sense of personal freedom, independence and dignity which has been a marked feature of culture, and a world of institutions within which that sense of individual worth can both be recognized and made compatible with a similar recognition of the worth of others (Lyons and Peters 1985). References 1. Lopez, D.C. (2002). The Story of Buddhism: A Concise Guide to its History & Teachings HarperOne. 2. Lyons, E., Peters, H. (1985). Buddhism History and Diversity of a Great Tradition. University of Pennsylvania Museum Publication. Read More