Buddhism (Based on NCERT)

Buddhism

Buddha Dharma is one of the oldest religions, the founder of Buddhism was the great Mahatma Gautama Buddha. Mahatma Buddha was born in a village called Lumbini in Kapilvastu in  563 BC. Presently Kapilvastu is located in the country of Nepal.

Gautam Buddha's father was King Shuddhodhana and his mother was Mahamaya, after the death of his mother, Buddha was brought up by Mother Gautami. Gautami and Mahamaya were real sisters, so Gautami was both Buddha's aunt and adoptive mother.

Gautam Buddha's childhood name was Siddhartha. They were married at the age of 16. The name of the wife of Mahatma Buddha was  Yashodhara and the name of the son was Rahul.

At the age of only 29, Mahatma Buddha had left his home after leaving the Rajpath in the night watch to get rid of sorrows in the world and search for the truth of life and death.

The abdication of home by Mahatma Buddha is called 'Mahabhinishkraman' by Buddhists.

Mahatma Buddha attained enlightenment on the day of Vaishakhi Purnima under the Bodhi tree at a place called Urubela in Bodh Gaya, Bihar,  on the banks of the  Niranjana River. The peepal tree is known as the Bodhi tree.

Buddha gave his first sermon on the full moon day of Ashadha at ' Mrigdava' (present-day Sarnath) in Varanasi. The Buddha's first sermon is known in the Buddhist tradition as ' turning the wheel of Dharma '.

Bimbasara , Udayana and Prasenjit were the main followers of Buddha. The followers of Buddha are divided into four parts – 'Bhikkhu, Bhiknu, Upasak and Upasika '.

Sariputra, Yogagalan, Ananda, and Upali were the main disciples of Buddha. Ananda was the most beloved disciple of Buddha.

The Eightfold Path is one of the main teachings of Mahatma Buddha,
the Eightfold Paths of Buddhism are -

1. Samyak Drishti - Understanding of truth and falsehood, power of understanding reality.
2. Right Sankalpa – Living life with firm determination.
3. Right speech should be true and pure, that is, the words of a person should be free from sin, deceit, and untruth.
4. Samyak Karmant - Good deeds (good) deeds, one's conduct should be free from good and evil and sin.
5. Right Living - Living a just life, one should not live by deceiving or killing someone's rights.
6. Right Exercise – To generate good thoughts and stay away from sin, deceit, and deceit, and understand the ill effects of wrong deeds.
7. Samyak Smriti – Only a mind focused and free from hatred can know itself. Stay away from the wrong things.
8. Samyak Samadhi – The mind should be concentrated.

The four noble truths or principles of Buddhism were the antidote of suffering, the community of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the antidote of suffering.

There were three main parts of Buddhism - Buddhism, Sangha, and Dhamma. They are also called Triratna.

The teachings given by Buddha are called ' Dhamma ' in Buddhism. And the organization of Buddhist monks and nuns is called ' Sangha '.

Buddha did not believe in the existence of the soul and God. But Buddhism, like  Jainism, also believed in reincarnation.

There are three sects of Buddhism  ' Hinayana, Mahayana, and Vajrayana '. The meaning of Hinayana is the inferior or low path. The main goal of the followers of the Hinayana sect was not to attain enlightenment but to attain the position of ' arhat '.

In the Kushan period, Buddhism split into two sects ' Hinayana and Mahayana '. The people of the Hinayana sect used the Pali language, while the people of the Mahayana sect used the Sanskrit language.

Mahakashyapa was the president of the first Buddhist council. And the third Buddhist council was organized at Patiliputra by the great Mauryan ruler Ashoka. Two hundred years after the Buddha's nirvana, the Mauryan ruler Ashoka, through his ' Dharmamahamatras ', spread Buddhism to Central Asia, West Asia, and Sri Lanka and made it a worldwide religion.

The most important ones that provide moral education in relation to Buddha are the Jataka stories, which are based on the Buddha's earlier birth and the religious, social, and economic life of Buddha. Jataka stories are written in the Pali language. Because at that time the common colloquial language was Pali.

Buddhacharita and Saundranand epic are written in the Sanskrit language by Ashvaghosha.

The Sariputra episode is a drama book written in the Sanskrit language by the great poet Ashwaghosh.

Buddhist literature is mainly contained in the Tripitikas. This is the main text of Buddhism, which is considered by all Buddhist sects. It is written in the Pali language. It consists of 17 texts.
These are the Tripitaka , the Sutta Pitaka , the Abhidhamma Pitaka and the Vinaya Pitaka .

1. The Sutta Pitaka is a collection of Buddha's religious teachings. The Sutta Pitaka is a collection of teachings of Lord Buddha in the form of arguments and dialogues. In which many short stories have been written.
2. The Vinaya Pitaka describes the rules of the Buddhist Sangha. The literal meaning of Vinay Pitaka is "Basket of Discipline". Its main subject is written rules for the monks and nuns to be in discipline.
3. The Buddhist philosophy is discussed in the Abhidhamma Pitaka. There are seven texts in Abhidhammapitaka – Dhammasangani, Vibhanga, Jatukatha, Puggalpanti, Kathavathu, Yamaka and Patthan.

The death of Mahatma Buddha is known in Buddhist texts as ' Mahaparinirvana '. Mahatma Buddha died at the age of 80 in 483 BC at a place called Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh. 

According to a legend, after death, the remains of Buddha's body were divided into eight parts and eight stupas were built on them. There are eight stupas –  Magadha, Vaishali, Kapilvastu, Alakappa, Ramagam, Bethdweep, Pava, and  Kushinagar.

Mahavibhasha is a high-quality Buddhist text, which was written by Vasumitra in the Sanskrit language. Mahavibhasha means ' compository '.

The Lalit Vistara is a text of the Mahayana sect. It mentions the life of Mahatma Buddha.

Mahatma Buddha gave his last sermon to ' Sumchha '.

The first woman to enter the Buddhist Sangha was Gautami Prajapati, the stepmother of Buddha.

 

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