Buddhism as a Philosophy of Enlightenment, Meditation, Morality, and Wisdom - Essay Example

Report on Religious Field Research What comes into our mind when we think about Buddhism? That it is related to Buddha somehow. That’s all most of us known about Buddhism. Well, Buddhism is much more than that. It is the fourth largest religion in the world. There are about three hundred million followers of Buddhism around the globe. The word ‘budhi’ means ‘awaken’. Buddhism is about awakening and spirituality. It came into existence about two thousand and five hundred years ago when Siddhartha Gotama, also known as Buddha, awakened himself at the age of thirty five (BBC, 2009) When I listened to Boundless Light Sangha (live meditation and Dharma message service) sitting at my home, I realized that Buddhism is much more than we think it is. I came to know many things about Buddhism that I didn’t know before and yes, definitely some misunderstandings were cleared. Buddhism is basically more of a saintly religion which focuses mainly on the personal religious development and accomplishment of profound insight into the genuine nature of life. It is a philosophy of enlightenment, meditation, morality, and wisdom (Boundless Light Sangha, 2012). The biggest conflict people have about Buddhism is whether it is a religion or not. It primarily depends on how you define religion. Some people define religion as the belief in the presence of one or more than one deities. According to this definition, Buddhism is not a religion. But, others exclude deities from the definition of religion and according to them, Buddhism is a religion. According to Webster’s New World Dictionary, religion is any defined set or system of worship and belief which involves adoration of a supernatural entity. Pertaining to this definition, Buddhism would not be considered a religion. But then again, as I described earlier, there are more than 300 million practitioners of Buddhism all around the world and this wasn’t possible if all these people didn’t regard it to be a religion (In Guralnik, 1970). The second biggest misconception most of us have about Buddhism is that it is a pagan religion which means that they usually belief in gods or gods other than the usual worldwide accepted Christian God. However, Buddhists don’t usually restrict themselves to God or god(s). They are mainly focused about Dharma, which is not a belief into god or god(s). It is belief in reality or truth. Therefore, when a tragic or depressing event occur in our lives or our loved ones, Buddhists, like people of other religion won’t ask “Why did you do this to me God?!” That is why Buddhists practically don’t belief that there is a god or god(s) seeking to solve each person’s problems. Buddhism is basically an outlook of accepting the predictable changes of life, and just being happy that they are alive (Dharma Teaching Service, 2012). But this realistic approach of Buddhism takes us into another misconception. Most of us believe that Buddhists greet anguish. This misapprehension is only due to the fact that Buddhist is only sincere and true if he is in a kind of suffering and is indignant. This misconception might be true in some regards but not all. The reality is that Buddhists don’t welcome suffering in any condition because to greet suffering would be to be a masochistic. But instead Buddhists try to look forward to suffering not as something “bad” but as a chance to discover and prosper. In that case, it might be perceived that Buddhists try to look forward to suffering and impediments as something optimistic and something that we could learn from (Boundless Light Sangha, 2012). Buddhists don’t believe in any one personal God. It is not based on the association between God and human beings. They believe that nothing is permanent or fixed and that everything keeps on revolutionizing. Furthermore, most of us think that Buddhists worship idols. This isn’t true. Listening to Dharma Teaching Service (live with English translator) on http://www.ustream.tv/channel/buddhist-dgarma-teachings, I came to know that Buddhists might pay deference to images and statues of Buddha, but it is only for pled for favors. It is not for the purpose of worship. A statue of Buddha with a passionate smile and hands placed on its lap tells us to struggle to bring peace and love among ourselves. Bending towards the statue is only an expression of gratefulness for his teachings (Dharma Teaching Service, 2012). All Buddhists have a firm belief in reincarnation. But then there is a misunderstanding regarding this issue. Tibetan Buddhists, who are the most eminent sect of Buddhism, believe prominently in reincarnation. But, the Shin Buddhists treat reincarnation in the same aspect as we do in God. They said they don’t give it a much though and to them what is most important is that Buddhists do struggle to stick to the central teachings of temporary and mutually supporting form of life that we live in. As the truth about this awareness establishes, so does compassion increases. We also perceive all Buddhists to do exhausting meditation which isn’t true. Some Buddhists sects including Zen do pay attention to meditation but whether it is exhausting or tiring depends on one’s flexibility. Shin Buddha sect only meditate for at most ten minutes. However, even if certain meditations are exhausting, it is all because of accomplishing “awakening” or enlightenment which is the major aspect of Buddhism (Dharma Teaching Service, 2012). The information I collected by listening to Boundless Light Sangha (live meditation and Dharma message service) and Dharma Teaching Service (live with English translator) assisted me in realizing that there were certain misconceptions about Buddhism I never ever paid heed to. Misconceptions mentioned above and others are common because none of us tend to actually read about other religions or research into their history or daily ways of worships. We are so engrossed in our tiny little lives that we never bothered to even clear the misunderstanding or misconceptions we have about people of other religions who live with us and are around us all the time (Boundless Light Sangha, 2012; Dharma Teaching Service, 2012). If we take out some time from our busy life schedules to study religions on a broader perspective, we will be astonished to realize we have missed so much. I would recommend that we all at least give sometime reading about other religions and studying them to clear the misconceptions and misunderstandings we have about them so that we don’t just perceive them wrong or out of the world according to the little prior knowledge we possess. Bibliography BBC (17th November, 2009) Buddhism at a glance. BBC Religions. ONLINE. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/buddhism/ataglance/glance.shtml In Guralnik, D. B. (1970). Webster's New World dictionary of the American language. New York: World Pub. Co. Dharma Teaching Service (live with English translator)(27th August, 2012).ONLINE. Available at: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/buddhist-dgarma-teachings Boundless Light Sangha (live meditation and Dharma message service) (27th August, 2012). ONLINE. Available at: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/boundless-light-sangha Read More