Political Science Notes – For W.B.C.S. Examination – Indian Political Thought Buddhist traditions.

Buddhism is a popular tradition worldwide and basically developed in India. Since ancient time, Buddhism was dominant in India. It is a major world religion, founded in north-eastern India and based on the lessons of Siddhartha Gautama, who is called the Buddha, or Enlightened One (Matthew J. Moore, 2016). Buddhist holiness is observed as something from within, an innate goodness in all humans that has been lost can now be found through practice and meditation. Buddhists must inspire themselves, and rely on their own efforts, not those of a magnetic leader. If followers of the Buddha began to respect the man, they would become distracted from their task impeding spiritual progress. According to Mark W. Muesse, a professor of religious studies, “Buddhist spirituality promotes a form of life that provides an antidote to the stresses of modern living. As a counterpoint to the haste and hurry, the noise and confusion of this world, Buddhism prescribes a life of quietness and tranquillity, a life of contemplation and gentle awareness” (Muesse, 2002).Continue Reading Political Science Notes – For W.B.C.S. Examination – Indian Political Thought Buddhist traditions.

Buddhism is not a single monolithic religion. Many of its supporters have combined the teachings of the Buddha with local religious rites, beliefs and customs. In this tradition, some conflict occurs, because Buddhism is a philosophical system to which such additions can be easily implanted. Buddhism includes a variety of rituals and practices, which are intended to help in the journey to enlightenment and bring blessings on oneself and others. While some activities are exclusive to certain expressions of Buddhism, there are others that are found in most of the popular forms of the belief system.

Buddha is the key persona in the religion of Buddhism, and accounts of his life, discourses and simple rules, which involve the renouncing of worldly pursuits in order to wholly devote one’s self to spiritual work, are believed to have been summarized after his departure and are memorized by his followers. Collections of the teachings attributed to him were initially transferred to generations by oral tradition, and were first committed to writing about 400 years after his death.

In other religions such as the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and Hinduism, Buddha is regarded as a diviner and in others, a god. Supporters of this religion identify Buddha as an enlightened teacher who shared his insights to help beings that are not enlightened and are therefore confined to death, rebirth and suffering to attain nirvana. Nirvana is described as a supreme state which allows one to be free of suffering and selfish or individual existence. Nirvana allows an individual to blow out the fires of hatred, greed and delusion and therefore end the cycle of sorrow in the individual’s life.

Buddhist philosophy is described as the philosophical investigations and systems of inquiry that developed among various Buddhist schools in India following the death of the Buddha and later spread throughout Asia. Buddhism’s main concern has always been freedom from dukkha (unease) and the path to that ultimate freedom consists in ethical action (karma), meditation and in understanding the nature of reality (prajna). Indian Buddhists sought this understanding not just from the exposed teachings of the Buddha, but through philosophical analysis and coherent deliberation. Buddhist philosophers in India and afterwards in East Asia have covered topics as phenomenology, ethics, ontology, epistemology, logic and philosophy of time in their analysis of this path.

Richard Gombrich has briefly explained Buddhism as, “For Buddhists, religion is purely a matter of understanding and practising the Dhamma [Sanskrit: Dharma], understanding and practice which constitute progress towards salvation. They conceive salvation or liberation, to use a more Indian term as the total eradication of greed, hatred and delusion. To attain, it is open to any human being, and it is ultimately the only thing worth attaining, for it is the only happiness which is not transient. A person who has attained it, will live on so long as his body keeps going, but thereafter not be reborn. Thus he will never have to suffer or die again.

For Buddhists, religion is what is relevant to this quest for salvation, and nothing else”(1988).

Early Buddhism was based on empirical indication gained by the sense organs (ayatana) and the Buddha seems to have retained a skeptical distance from certain metaphysical questions, rejecting to answer them because they were not conducive to liberation but led instead to further speculation. An intermittent theme in Buddhist philosophy has been the reification of concepts, and the successive return to the Buddhist Middle Way.

Conventionally, Buddhists throughout the Buddhist world consider that the universe contains more beings in it than are normally visible to humans. Buddhists have no objection to the existence of the Hindu gods, although they repudiate completely the existence of God as spoken of in orthodox Christianity, understood as the all-powerful, omniscient, all-good, and primordially existent creator deity, who can be thought of as in some sense a person.

Nonetheless, people cannot as a Buddhist take refuge in Hindu gods, for Hindu gods are not Buddhas. That is, they are not enlightened. This means that Hindu gods, for all their power, do not see the final truth of things. They do not understand it as it is. Power does not necessarily require insight, and for Buddhists the Hindu gods, unlike Buddhas, do not have that liberating insight. Thus, because they are not open-minded Hindu gods too ultimately suffer. They have been reborn as gods due to their good performances in the past (as we have been reborn human for the same reason), and gods too (like us humans) die, and are reborn elsewhere. We may ourselves be gods in our next lives, and, Buddhists would say, we certainly have been infinite times in the past, in our infinite series of previous lives. Gods may be reborn as humans (or worse, the round of rebirth includes e.g. animals, worms, ghosts, and sojourns in horrible hells as well). But none of this entails that Hindu gods do not exist.

Main factor of Buddhist philosophy have often been the subject of disagreements between different schools of Buddhism. These elaborations and disputes gave rise to various schools in early Buddhism of Abhidharma, and to the Mahayana traditions and schools of the prajnaparamita, Madhyamaka, Buddha-nature and Yogacara.

The basic thought of the Buddha:

The four Noble Truths: The method for the four Noble Truths is perhaps based on the formula for a medical diagnosis. That is, it states the illness, the source of the illness, then the cure for the illness, and finally the way to bring about that cure.

It can be said that The Buddha’s first sermon after his Enlightenment focused on the Four Noble Truths, which are the basis of Buddhism. The truths are:

1. The truth of suffering (dukkha)
2. The truth of the cause of suffering (samudaya)
3. The truth of the end of suffering (nirhodha)
4. The truth of the path that frees us from suffering (magga)

1. The Truth of Suffering: The First Noble Truth often is interpreted as “Life is suffering.” It is observed that many people do not have idea about Buddhism dogma as soon as they hear this. But the Pali word dukkha also denotes to anything that is temporary, conditional, or compounded of other things. Even something valuable and pleasing is dukkha, because it will end. Related to the nature of life is the nature of self. People want more and more from life and that is the core of the problem, egocentric desire. This is Buddha’s diagnosis (Simpkins & Simpkins, 2000). People can understand that life is impermanent but are they, also, impermanent? The Buddha communicated that before people can understand life and death, they must understand the self.

2. The Truth of the Cause of Suffering: The Second Noble Truth in Buddha’s teaching is Cause of Suffering. The cause of suffering is craving or thirst (tanha). People continually search for something outside ourselves to make them happy. But no matter how successful they are, they never remain satisfied. The Buddha taught that this thirst cultivates from ignorance of the self. People go through life grabbing one thing after another to get a sense of security about ourselves. They attach not only to physical things, but also to ideas and opinions about themselves and the world around them. Anger is one of the main causes for distress to others; it also will cause suffering within. People constantly engage in actions that cause anguish, either directly or indirectly (Simpkins & Simpkins, 2000). Then they become frustrated when the world does not behave the way they want and their lives do not conform to their expectations. The Buddha’s teachings on karma and rebirth are narrowly related to the Second Noble Truth.

3. The Truth of the End of Suffering: The Buddha’s teachings on the Four Noble Truths are compared to a physician identifying an illness and prescribing a treatment. The first truth tells what the illness is, and the second truth tells what causes the illness. The Third Noble Truth holds out hope for a cure. The Buddha taught that through hardworking practice, people can put an end to craving. Ending the hamster-wheel chase after satisfaction is enlightenment (bodhi, “awakened”). The enlightened being exists in a state called Nirvana.

4. The truth of the path that frees us from suffering: In the Fourth Noble Truth, the Buddha as physician recommends the treatment for our illness. The Eightfold Path. Dissimilar in many other religions, in Buddhism, there is no particular benefit to just believing in a dogma. Instead, the emphasis is on living the doctrine and walking the path.

Major Buddhist Traditions:

Major branches of Buddhism are as under.

Theravada: Theravada is the oldest on-going branch. It denotes to the school of elders, and is prevalent in Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka.

Theravadan (Doctrine of the Elders) Buddhism traces its origins to the earliest traditions of Buddhism, beginning with the original Sangha of the Buddha. Presntly, Theravadan Buddhists consider their tradition to be the only surviving representative of the earliest schools of Buddhism.

Theravadan Buddhists admit the earliest composed teachings of the Buddha, the Pail Canon, as the true authoritative Dharma (Pali was a language used during the Buddha’s lifetime.). While the teachings of the Pali Canon are accepted as authentic in every branch of Buddhism, other traditions recognize other teachings as well as trustworthy.

Theravadan Buddhismh has been the principal religion of Sri Lanka and continental Southeast Asia (Cambodia, Laos, Burma/Myanmar and Thailand). It is also found in parts of southwest China, Vietnam and Bangladesh, as well as in Malaysia and Indonesia. Theravadan Buddhism is growing today in Singapore and in the West.

Theravadans uphold that the ideal Buddhist is the “one who is worthy, the perfected person who attains nirvana through his own efforts. Although the Theravadan arhat “takes refuge in the Buddha,”his focus is on the practice of the Buddha’s dhamma. The role of the monastic and layperson are clearly distinguished by the Theravadans, with monks who detach from the world seen as those who may become arhants, with laypeople.

The modern Theravadan monastic tradition includes both Pali scholarship as well as a meditative practices. In traditional Asian Theravadan cultures, Buddhists support the monastic community which is working toward arahantship. While researchers may be found in the large monasteries of the Asian Theravadan countries, meditators often continue the tradition of “forest monks” from the Buddha’s time.

Theravadans deeply admire the historical Buddha as a perfected master but do not pay homage to the numerous buddhas and bodhisattvas that are worshiped in the Mahayana. Currently, Theravada Buddhism now has huge number of followers. Buddhist missionaries from India took the religion to a number of countries, but it initially only accomplished a foothold in Sri Lanka. It later spread from Sri Lanka to Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and parts of Vietnam. They stimulated the Vibhajjavada school (Separative Teaching). By the 15th century, this form of the religion reached almost its present geographical extent.

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