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Religion, 2024

isara solutions, 2019

Buddhism is one of the world's largest religions and originated 2,600 years ago in India. Buddhists believe that human life is one of suffering and that meditation, spiritual and physical labour and good behaviour are the ways to achieve enlightenment or nirvana. 1 Siddhartha Gautama, a prince who resigned his privileged upbringing for the lifestyle of an ascetic (e.g., Basham 1967; Davids 1910; Lamotte 1988; Lopez 2001), is said to be the founder of Indian Buddhism around the fifth or sixth century BCE (archaeological history of Buddhism). Siddhartha attained enlightenment after many hardships, discovering the way to terminate the cycle of reincarnation and misery. He taught this method to an expanding number of disciples for the rest of his life. Following his death, his students proceeded to spread the Buddha's teachings and founded the sangha, a community of monks and nuns. Members of the sangha2 were originally roaming ascetics who lived outside of society, begging for sustenance and practising meditation and other ascetic practises. In contrast to the sangha's austere practises, the Buddhist laity began making pilgrimages to important places in the Buddha's life, as well as to burial sites-stupas-that housed cremated remains. The goal of this research is to look at the cultural, economic, and social effects of Buddhism. Buddhism had a significant impact on Magadh's culture, political structure, and socioeconomic situations. The story of Buddhism might be said to have begun with a loss of innocence. Siddhartha Gautama, a young prince of the Shakhya clan in India, had been raised in a life of royal ease, shielded from the misery and cruelties of the world outside the palace gates, distracted by sensual pleasures and luxurious living. But one day the fateful encounter with the real world occurred, and Siddhartha was shaken to the core. 2 There in his kingdom, not far from his gardens and delights, he encountered people suffering from sickness, old age and death; he brooded over these things, deeply disturbed that such was the fate of all beings. Then he encountered an ascetic holy man, a renunciate dedicated to liberation. The prince then undertook the great renunciation, forsaking his family, fortune and kingdom in pursuit of the path of liberation. The central, profound question that burned in Gautama was this: "How may suffering be ended?" He became a wandering ascetic, practised yogic disciplines and meditation, studied with various teachers, and attained high states of consciousness; but still, he did not find the answer to his question. He practised severe forms of asceticism, almost to the point of death by starvation, all without gain. Finally he sat under a Bodhi tree, determined not to rise from meditation until he had gained the

Journal of Indian Philosophy, 1989

The Historicity of the First Buddhist Council and its significance in the history of Indian Buddhism (MN 108; MĀ 145), the Council was led by the eminent disciple venerable Mahakassapa 2 after three months, one of the honourable disciples of the Blessed One, which took seven months by contribution of King Ajātasattu 3. There were two reasons of holding the First Buddhist Council: due to impudent speech of Subhadda and a message from the Buddha that omission of minors disciplines (khuddanusikkhā) is granted if desires. One is that due to the speech of Subhadda 4 about which, after only seven days beyond the demise of the Buddha, he proclaimed impudent utterance and condemned on the rigid disciplines that the Buddha laid down. However, regarding this, Suzuki points out that although Subhadda's case was described by Mahīśāsaka, Mahāsaṅghika and Dharmagupta, however, Sarvāstivāda did not mention relevant to Subhadda's impudent utterance (Suzuki 1904, 260). Having heard the word of Subhadda which brought about the sense of urgency (saṃvega) in the bottom of Mahākassapa's heart because the death of the Blessed One was recently occurred but unexpectedly such disrespectful harsh speech has been appeared. Thus, Mahākassapa the Great, thereupon he decided that such refers to the indications of declination of the Buddha dispensation for which the preservation of the teachings should be conducted for the benefit of all living teachings of the Buddha would not be extinct. Another one was that the message of the Buddha through Ananda which was "if the Saṅgha have desire to abrogate the lesser and minor rules after his demise, that he permits", which brought about the ambiguity. However, the Elder Ananda did not conduct any inquiry which dhamma should denote as minor, with reference to that message what the Buddha wished to give whereto he was blamed. This ambiguous word encouraged to become schism among Saṅgha wherefore Mahākassapa accused Ananda as his misdemeanours (Suzuki 1904, 265). Whereas, the message of the Buddha was that "Ananda, after I am gone, the Saṅgha may, if it wishes so, abolish lesser and minor Rules of the Discipline."(Mingun Sayadaw 1997, Vol. V, 315). The reason of the Buddha did not give an unambiguous mean was that he transferred this choice to make decision by Saṅgha and fully confidentiality upon Mahākassapa that would not omit any disciplines thought it were minor of lesser ones (Mingun 383 B.C. Ui Hakuju 386 B.C. Bhikkhu Sujāto & Bhikkhu Brahmali 400 B.C. Gombrich 405 B.C. Max Muller 477 B.C. T. Endo 480/486 B.C. Geiger 483 B.C. Modern scholars 483 B.C Hermann Jacobi 484 B.C. Kanakura Ensho 484 B.C. Lamotte 486 B.C. Nalinaksha Dutt 487/483 B.C. Common use 544 B.C. Table: Miscellaneous dates of the demise of Lord Buddha The First Buddhist Council was the assemblage of the Elders, specifically five hundred awakened monks, and unanimous agreement of authenticity of the Buddha's dhammas. The name of Theravāda is due to the Theras (the Elder) who participated and organized in the First Council whereby which is called as "Thera tradition". Thus, this name is denoted since then. Gombrich explains that council means "Communal Recitation" (Pāli; Saṅgīti) at which the

Journal of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies, 2019

This paper examines contemporary dissent from orthodox Theravāda Buddhism. It presents four modern Buddhist thinkers who hold the fifth century commentator Buddhaghosa responsible for a drastic change in Buddhist doctrine. Several reasons are proposed to explain this ‘distortion’: it may be attributed to an excess of literalism (Shravasti Dhammika) or to the introduction of foreign ideas, drawn from other Buddhist schools (David J. Kalupahana) or from Brahmanism (Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu, Sue Hamilton). It will be argued that, in such cases, the figure of Buddhaghosa is linked to a particular reconstruction of ‘the Buddha’s Buddhism’, of which he is presented as a semi-legendary antagonist.

Acta Orientalia Vilnensia, 2010

Institute of Buddhist Studies at the Graduate Theological UnionThe Indian religious traditions, including Buddhism, are generally characterised by an understanding of the problematic character of the human condition as ignorance (avidya) instead of sin, as in Christianity.1 The centrality of ignorance in defining the problematic character of the human condition creates a dramatically different religious dynamic—a religious dynamic that is fundamentally concerned with epistemological issues rather than with moral ones. In Indian discussions of the limits of religious knowledge, the shared intellectual framework was the idea of means of valid knowledge (pramāṇa). While other religio-philosophic traditions in India accepted testimony (śabda) as an autonomous (i.e., irreducible) means of valid knowledge, Buddhist epistemologists rejected it. Having rejected the idea that testimony is an autonomous means of valid knowledge (śabdapramāṇa), an alternative explanation for the authority of t...