BUDH PRABHAT UPENG /7/2015

Transcription

1 National - Social & Religious Year - Issues BUDDH PRABHAT GROUP Dalai Lama Domingas Jorge (Brazil)- Chief Editor Clina Chen Pham le hang Daya Rana Tunga "Sri Lanka" Karma Choden Kiana Darabi Tam Thanh Mikette von "Issenberg" Om mani padam ham CN Chen Dammika KI Daqqyu EL Clause-d Blessmann Krish Lumbini Bodhi Sadhu Patricia Rossel Zapata Von dent Shantitrithani Jasmine thi Marcaeriel Bustos Thuyen ha Rica viljoen Khwarrucan nickey seemju Rattana amparattana Yeshe tsogyal Tashi delak bhutia Kan kalyana mitra Penpa kyipa upar say Chief Editor (Lucknow) Mohd. Javed Editor Rais Ali Publisher & Printer Mohd. Aman Siddiqui Legal Advisor Harimohan Sharma (Advocate) C.P. Verma (Advocate) Chief Editor (Mumbai, Mahrastra) Vijay Ganghaw great thoughts from lord Buddha Lord Buddha 3 Buddha's Life 4 10 great thoughts from lord Buddha 6 Buddha Quotes 8 Sarnath 13 Kushinagar 15 Buddhist Shrines 17 How do I develop insight through Buddhist Things the Buddha Never Said 22 The More Carefree You Are.. 24 Twenty Tibetan Buddhist nuns are 26 The Mustard Seed 27 Dalai Lama hails secularism practised in India 29 Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar 30 The Lotus Sutra 32 A trekker s guide to the Himalayas 33 Can faith and prayers heal? 36 Yogeshwar Dutt s medal upgrade Owner, Printer & Publisher : Mohd. Aman Siddique Editor : Rais Ali, Printed at Offset India Lalumal Road, Masakganj, Lucknow & Published from 225/2/234, Mampur Bana Takia, B.K.T., G.T. Road, Lucknow budhprabhat@gmail.com UPENG /7/2015 All Disputes shall be within Lucknow jurisdiction only. Courtesy - Google, Picaso,Yahoo.com & other newspaper & services The Lotus Sutra 1

2 Editorial The ill health of the nation The National Health Accounts data for present fresh evidence that India continues to have a non-serious approach to the provision of universal health coverage to all its citizens. India s health system is one of the most privatised in the world, poorly regulated and accessible only to those with income levels well above the average. All these attributes are, once again, strongly borne out by the NHA data, which lay bare the extremely low government spending on health which, at 1.15 per cent of GDP, compares poorly with even Sub-Saharan Africa. There, World Development Indicators say, the corresponding figure was 2.9 per cent six years ago. The share of State governments, which are largely responsible for provision of health care, in government health expenditure is estimated at 0.75 per cent of GDP. Evidently, a health policy that fails to pool the financial risk of illness at the population level results in impoverishing payments made out of personal funds and the NHA figures confirm that despite rising government revenues, the bulk of Indian health spending, a staggering 64.2 per cent of health expenditure, is met by households out-of-pocket. That such OOP expenses declined by five percentage points over a decade is encouraging, but this is insignificant in comparison with the achievement in, say, Thailand, where 75 per cent of the population was brought under UHC in just one year. If the NDA government intends to pursue its promise of universal health assurance in earnest, and wants to make up for two lost decades of reform, it has to act decisively. Raising government expenditure on health, in conjunction with the States, should form the basis of policy change; the road map for this was proposed by Editor 2

3 Lord Buddha In the year 624 BC, in Kapilawaththu (Nepal) Siddhartha Gautama was born as a prince. His father was King Suddhodana and his mother was Queen Mahamaya. When he was sixteen he finished his education and he married Princess Yasodara. King Suddhodana handed over his kingdom to his son Siddhartha. They had a baby name Rahula. When king Siddhartha was 29 years old he decided to renounce lay life. Siddhartha left from his kingdom and went to several well-known teachers to study the ultimate nature of reality. But their teachings didn t satisfy him and he set out to find his own path. Six years later he went to Bodgaya near the Neranjana River and sat under a tree. Siddhartha's mind was calm and relaxed. As he sat his concentration deepened and his wisdom grew brighter. In this clear and peaceful state of mind he began to examine the true nature of life. "What is the cause of suffering, he asked himself, and what is the path to everlasting joy?" In his mind's eye he looked far beyond his own country, far beyond his own world. Soon the sun, planets, the stars out in space and distant galaxies of the universe all appeared to him in his meditation. He saw how everything, from the smallest speck of dust to the largest star was linked together in a constantly changing pattern: growing, decaying and growing again. Everything was related. Nothing happened without a cause and every cause had an effect on everything else. As he realized this, deeper truths appeared to his mind. He looked deeply into himself and discovered that his life as Siddhartha the Prince was but the latest in a series of lifetimes that had no beginning - and that the same was true of everyone. We are born, live and die not one time, but again and again. He saw that death is only the separation of the mind from its present body. After death the importance of Karma is central to the next journey. When one life ends, another begins - and in this way the wheel of death and birth keeps spinning around and around. He also saw one life to the next we are constantly changing and constantly a f f e c t i n g o n e a n o t h e r. Sometimes we are rich and comfortable; sometimes we are poor and miserable. Occasionally we experience pleasure, but more often we find ourselves with problems. And Siddhartha also saw that as our conditions change, so do our relations with others. We have all been each other's friend and enemy, mother and father, son and daughter thousands upon thousands of times in the past. Then he looked at all of the suffering in the world. And he saw how living beings create their own misery and joy. Blind to the truth that everything is always changing, they lie, steal and even kill to get the things that they want, even though these things can never give them the lasting happiness they desire. And the more their minds fill with greed and hate, the more they harm each other - and themselves! Each harmful action leads them to more and more unhappiness. They are searching for peace yet find nothing but pain. Finally, he discovered the way to end all this suffering. He was filled with a radiant clear light. He was no longer an ordinary person. With a calm and peaceful smile, he arose from his meditation. In the golden daybreak, so it is said, Siddhartha looked up and saw the morning star. And then a great understanding came to him. He saw in his mind all the life of the world and the planets; of all the past and all the future. He understood the meaning of existence, of why we are here on this earth and what has created us. At long last he found the truth; he attained enlightenment and established the principles of Karma. Now he was the Lord Buddha, the fully liberated one, awakened and enlightened. The search of six long years had ended. It was a day when the full-moon shone, casting a bright silver light on the whole countryside, a day in the month of Vesak (May). 3

4 Gautama Buddha (approximately 563 BC BC) (1) was born Siddhartha Gautama (Sanskrit form, or Siddhatta Gotama, Prakrit form); the title Buddha (enlightened one) was later bestowed upon him by his followers. He is also commonly known as Shakyamuni (or Sakyamuni), "The sage of the Shakya/Sakya clan", and as the Tathagata (untranslatable: roughly, "The thus-come one" or "The thus-gone one", emphasizing the nature of a Buddha to go about in the world without adding or subtracting anything from his experience.) Biographical sketch- Accounts of his life were passed down by oral tradition and first written a few hundred years after his death. The Buddhist scriptures do contain accounts of metaphysics and magic in the Buddha's life. Some, such as calming an angry elephant his enemies had released to kill him, may be acceptable to materialist readers. Others, such as his conversations with gods or instantaneous teleportation to Sri Lanka, may not. Stripped of these metaphysical or magical aspects, a sketch of his life runs thusly: Prince Siddharta was born in Lumbini (in modern day Nepal), to the kshatriya caste of Buddha's Life warrior-aristocrats. (The Indian caste system was also probably somewhat more informal at this time than it later became). He was the heir to the position of "prince" ("village chieftain" may be more accurate) of the Shakya clan's village of Kapilavatthu or Kapilvastu in the foothills of the Himalayas in what is now Nepal. Siddharta married and had a son: Rahula, but at age 29, around 534 BC, having become increasingly dissatisfied with the contrast between a life of aristocratic luxury and the suffering he observed endemic in all people, Siddharta abandoned his inheritance and palace and began living an ascetic life, training with ascetic philosophers, and practicing austere meditative practices. After six years, around 528 BC, he found that the severe practices did not lead to greater understanding, abandoned them and concentrated on meditation and the "middle way" (a practise of non-extremism), and soon afterwards claimed he had realized complete awakening or enlightenment into the nature and cause of human suffering and the steps necessary to eliminate it. This enlightenment is called a state of "Bodhi," and hence the name "Buddha," or "enlightened one." The Buddha emphasized that he was not a 4

5 god nor the messenger of a god and that Enlightenment was not the result of a supernatural process or agency, but rather the result of a close attention to the nature of the human mind which could be rediscovered by anyone for themselves. For the remaining 45 years of his life, he traveled the Gangetic Plain of central India (region of the Ganges/Ganga river and its tributaries), teaching his meditation practice to an extremely diverse range of people, from nobles to street sweepers, and including many adherents of rival philosophies and religions. He founded the community of Buddhist monks and nuns (the Sangha) to continue the teachings after his death (considered to be the paranirvana or complete ending of the Buddha). After intermittent illness, the Buddha died at Kusinara (now Kusinagar, India) at the age of 80. His last meal was sukara-maddava which he had received as an offering from a smith. The correct translation of this term is unknown; sukara means "pig", maddava apparently means something like "delicacy". Sukaramaddava may mean "tender pork" or "mushrooms or tubers enjoyed by pigs". Vegetarianism is for Buddhists an ideal rather than a mandate, and monks and nuns in particular are enjoined to accept all offerings of food made to them (unless they know an animal has been killed especially to feed them). One account gives the Buddha's last words as: "All things which are made of parts eventually come apart. Be mindful, and achieve Enlightenment!", while another gives, "Subject to change are all things. Strive on with diligence." P e r s o n a l i t y a n d character - The Buddha as presented in the Buddhist scriptures is n o t a b l e f o r s u c h characteristics as: Both a comprehensive education and training in those fields appropriate to a warrior aristocrat, such as martial arts, agricultural management, and literature, a n d a l s o a d e e p u n d e r s t a n d i n g o f t h e religious and philosophical ideas of his culture. Gautama Siddharta was reported to have been athletic and fit throughout his life, competent in martial arts such as chariot combat, wrestling, and archery, and later easily hiking miles each day and camping in the wilderness. Images of a fat "Jolly Buddha" or Laughing Buddha are actually depictions of the future Buddha, currently Bodhisattva Maitreya. A superb teacher, with a fine grasp of the appropriate metaphor, and tailoring his teachings to the audience at hand. Fearless and unworried at all times, whether dealing with religious debate, a patricidal prince, or a murderous outlaw. He was n o t, h o w e v e r, p a s t exasperation when monks of his order misrepresented his teachings. Completely temperate in all bodily appetites. Lived a completely celibate life from age 29 until his death. Indifferent to hunger and environmental conditions. 5

6 10 great thoughts from lord Buddha 1. You become what you think about or in other words: what you focus on grows in your life and from what you take your focus away from diminishes. This is also the message of the law of attraction, recently very popular by the movie and book "The Secret ". It means that the mind is directing our life in that way that we manifest the life around us by the thoughts and directions we take with our mind. Since everything we created around us is first created in the mind, it is the tool or the interface between our self and the material world. Another quote of Buddha with a similar message here is "He is able who thinks he is able". This also shows the creative power of the mind and if we are able to consciously use it in that way avoiding negative thoughts and utilizing empowering thoughts we use it in a supportive manner. 2. This is the core of personal development. It points towards the need to train and develop the mind and to free it from limits and negativity. The other quote "The mind is the source of happiness and unhappiness." makes the same point with the special notion of happiness. The mind used correctly i.e. constructive, empowering, solution- and action-oriented, positive, truth-seeking can create happiness. But used poorly i.e. blaming, egocentric, negative, blinded by ambition or separation it will create unhappiness for us. Training the mind is the key here. The q u o t e m a y a l s o p o i n t t o a transformation by awakening directly, where the mind becomes the servant of the self and not the creator of a selfimage (the concept of the ego) as a replacement for the true self. 3. This points to the abundant nature of reality. The abundance mentality says there is enough foreveryone, we only have to realize and live by it. It is the opposite of a scarcity mentality, where you have the belief that you always have to fight for your part in a limited world. 4. The essence of living in the present moment, the Now, is focusing the mind here and take attention away from thinking about past or future. The present moment is all there ever is to experience life directly. Past and future are only concepts of our mind and therefore are good for learning from the past or conceptual planning when it is useful, but after this there is no need for them. Especially not to dwell in them and get stuck there in the mind by constant thinking loops. I wrote more about this in "What is The Present Moment " and in "Clock Time vs. Psychological Time ". The present moment is the entry point to the spiritual dimension and to life itself. 5. "However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you If you do not act on upon them?" Action is what counts. It means to be action-oriented and to actually do what we think, to prove what we believe by applying it in reality. Only if we "walk our talk" we are authentic and truthful to ourselves. To apply yourself and your ideas in reality is like a proof-test for what we think is right and will work. If there is no action and therefore no testing in reality, the words or ideas themselves are of no real sustainable value. Another quote for this message is "A dog is not considered a good dog because he is a 6

7 good barker. A man is not considered a good man because he is a good talker." 6. Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely. This is the essence of Carpe diem To seize the day fully means living wisely. It means to live to the highest truth we know and to rise to our highest values and capabilities. Living wisely also means not to believe every thought that comes, but to live more from the space between thoughts, from our essence. 7. "Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without." The so-called Inside-Out approach strength" which shows that if we become means to look within oneself to find the able to dissolve the separate perspective to a inspiration and power to act from this place. It perspective of oneness with all other, we hold means not to look to the outside world for the key to end conflicts and to find solution liberation or happiness, but to take the and agreements suitable for everybody. responsibility for oneself and become that 9. "If we could see the miracle of a single what we are seeking. His second quote here flower clearly, our whole life would change." "No one saves us but ourselves. No one can This quote is perhaps the most difficult one and no one may. We ourselves must walk the to really understand. In the first place, it is not path." talks directly about this responsibility, about the beautiful nature of the flower or response-ability we have inside. beauty itself. What Buddha is talking about 8. "In the sky, there is no distinction of east in my humble opinion is to see and get in and west; people create distinctions out of touch with the life in a flower directly, without their own minds and then believe them to be any interference by our mind by mental true." concepts and thoughts of the flower. Any perspective we have on anything is 10."The only real failure in life is not to be only a relative truth. There are always both true to the best one knows." (or more) sides of any story. An objective If we are not authentic and truthful to perspective or an absolute truth is very hard ourselves, we build a wall around us that or maybe impossible to see. But to be aware eventually we have to tear down again. It is of this and to be interested to see another then literally a resistance to the reality and perspective from another person can be very our own nature where we can hide some mind-opening and valuable. The matter of time, but life has a way to show us our own perspective (also described in the 7 habits of faults in the end. To be true to the best one highly effective people ) is a very powerful knows means to come from our own best one and it is the core of most (if not all?) knowledge and not buy into something conflicts between people. One things one is outside ourselves blindly, always asking: is right as long one stays in one s own single this really true to what I know? In resonance perspective needless to say, the other with this quote also is the final one by The person has the same reality. There is a Buddha: "There are only two mistakes one similar quote by The Buddha that fits in here: can make along the road to truth; not going all "In seperateness lies the world s great the way, and not starting." misery, in compassion lies the world s true 7

8 Buddha Quotes Gautama Buddha the renowned founder of Buddhism, was born in a princely Kshatriya family of Kapilavastu in the Nepalese Tarai to the north of the Basti district in Uttar Pradesh. His father s name was Suddhodhana and his mother was Maya. She died in childbirth and her son who was given the name of Siddhartha was brought up by his aunt and step-mother, Prajapati Gautami. His family name was Gautama. After the name of the Sakya tribe to which his father belonged he was also called Sakya-Sinha, or lion amongst the Sakyas, and later on, Sakya-Muni or sage amongst the Sakyas. At the age of sixteen he was married to a lady named Yasodhara (also called Bhadda Kachchami, Subhadraka, Bimba or Gopa). For the next thirteen years Siddhartha lived a luxurious life in his father s palace till at last the vision of old age, disease and death made him realise the hollowness of worldly pleasures and its attractions so intensely that the very night on which a son was born to him he felt the fetters of earthly life growing stronger than before and left his father s comfortable home, his beloved young and beautiful wife as well as his newborn son and assumed the life of a wandering monk determined to find out a way of escape fi om the sufferings of disease, old age and death to which all persons were prey. At the time of this Great Renunciation Gautama was only twenty-nine years of age. For one year he studied Indian philosophy, but it gave him no solution. Then for the next five years he practised severe austerities hoping thereby to find the way to salvation. His yogic practices may have included hatha yoga, yogasanas, kriya yoga and other processes to raise the kundalini. He is known to have spent time with many yogic teachers. The samana tradition is an ancient yogic tradition that also included Mahavir Jain, the founder of Jainism. But all proved futile. Then one day as he sat immersed in deep meditation under the famous Bodhi tree of modern Bodh Gaya on the bank of the Niranjana, enlightenment came to him and he realised the truth. Henceforth he came to be known as the 8

9 Buddha or the Enlightened and decided to spend misunderstandings (tantra yoga itself has the rest of his life in preaching the truth as he saw nothing to do with sexuality) are only recent. it. He delivered his first sermon at the Deer Park Buddhism the religion founded by Gautama at Sarnath near Benarcs where five disciples Buddha in the latter half of the sixth century BC. It joined him. started with the basic principles of rebirth and From that time for the next forty-five years karma which were then accepted by Indian Buddha moved about the Gangetic valley in philosophers as truths which required no proof. Uttara Pradcsha and Bihar preaching and The karma doctrine means that the merits and teaching, visiting and converting princes as well demerits of a being in his past existences as peasants, irrespective of caste, organising his determine his condition in the present life. The disciples in the great Buddhist Sangha or Order, doctrine of rebirth implies that at death the body endowing it with rules and discipline and perishes, but the soul which is immortal, takes converting hundreds and thousands to his death new births until it attains salvation. But according which came to be known as Buddhism (q.v.). He to the Buddhist view the connecting link between died at the age of eighty at Kusinagara which has a fijrmer existence and a later one is not to be been identified by many archaeologists with fimnd in the soul, the existence and immortality of Kasia in the Gorakhpur district. The date of his which are assumed by Hindu philosophers but Parinirvana or decease, like the date of his birth, denied by Buddhism. On the death of a person has not yet been decided with accuracy, though it the only thing thar survives is not the soul, as the is admitted by all that he was contemporary with Hindus hold, but the result of his action, speech kings Bimbisara and Ajatasatru of Magadha and and thought, that is to say, his karma (doings) died in the reign of the latter. According to a which docs not die with the body. Cantonese tradition Buddha passed away in 486 Buddhism thus came to be based on what was B.C. He was, then, born eighty years earlier, in claimed to be the four Noble Truths: (I) There is 566 B.c. suffering in lite. (2) This suffering has a cause. (3) Gautama Buddha is a unique figure amongst Suffering must be caused to cease. (4) Suffering the founders of religions. First, he is definitely a can cease if one knows the right way. Buddhism historical person. Secondly, he claimed no holds that the suffering inseparably connected divinity for himself and discouraged any idea of with existence is mainly due to desire, to a being worshiped. He only claimed that he had craving thirst for satisfying the senses. Therefore attained knowledge which again he held could the extinction of desire will lead to the cessation be attained by any other person provided he of existence by rebirth and of consequent made the necessary effort. Thirdly, he was the suffering. Desire can be extinguished if one first founder of a religion who organised a followed the Noble Eightfold Path which consists brotherhood of monks and started evangelization of the following: ( l) right views or beliefs meaning in an organised manner by peaceful means alone simply a knowledge of the Four Noble Truths and carrying the message of equality, peace, mercy. of the doctrine of rebirth and karma implied in Lastly, he put reason above everything and them. (2) Right aims implying the determination exhorted his followers to accept nothing as true to renounce pleasures, to bear no malice and do unless it stood the test of reasoning. He not only no harm. (3) Right speech implying abstention preached the brotherhood of man but also from falsehood, slandering, harsh words and practised it all through his life as a religious foolish talk. (4) Right conduct or action involving teacher accepting as his disciples all who cared abstention from taking life, from stealing and from to listen to him without any consideration of caste immorality. (5) Right means of livelihood implying and race and thus founding a religion which occupations which do not hurt or endanger any eventually passed beyond the limits of India and living being. (6) Right endeavour involving active hecame one of the world s greatest religions. benevolence and love towards all beings as well Buddha Quotes About Buddhism as efforts to prevent the growth of evil thoughts in Buddhism is commonly mistaken with tantra the mind. (7) Right mindfulness meaning yoga and kundalini yoga, thanks to the Tibetan complete self-mastery by means of self- Buddhism versions. These are the versions that knowledge. (8) Right meditation which is to be are associated with the Dalai Lama, mandalas practised in a quiet place sitting with body erect a n d o t h e r s u c h t y p e s. B u t t h e s e and intelligence alert and thought concentrated 9

10 on the Four Noble Truths. This Noble Eightfold Path is also called the Middle Path, for it avoided extremes of luxury as well as of austerity. By the pursuit of it persons will attain Nirvana which is the highest goal of a Buddhist. Buddhism repudiates the authority of the Vedas, denies the spiritual efficacy of Vedic rites and sacrifices, denies the efficacy of prayers and practically ignores the existence of a Supreme Being or God. It holds that the acceptance of the Four Noble Truths and the pursuit of the Noble Eightfold Path which is open to all, irrespective of caste and sex, laymen as well as monks and nuns, will lead to the extinction of desire and this will lead to Nirvana which it is possible to attain even in this life and will free a person from the curse of rebirth. It holds that it is easier for a monk living a secluded life to attain Nirvana but it is also open to lay Buddhists to attain the same. The Buddhist monks are not priests and they can pray neither for themselves nor for others who may wish to employ them. They arc an intellectual aristocracy like the Brahmans and are to be maintained by pious Buddhists. Buddhism requires no church or temple, but it recognises congregational discourses where the teachings of Gautama Buddha are recited and explained. The founder of Buddhism, Gautama Buddha, himself is to be recognised as a supremely wise person who has known the truth, but not as God to whom prayers can be addressed. It was spread by Gautama Buddha during his lifetime in the Gangetic valley of Uttara Pradesha and of Bihar. About 250 years after the decease of Gautama Buddha Emperor Asoka embraced the religion, sent Buddhist missionaries throughout India as well as to many countries outside India and thus started Buddhism on its victorious career which gradually turned it into a 10 world religion. But it eventually disappeared from the land of its birth for a variety of causes. The wealth of the monasteries and the easy life there which soon attracted many undesirable and unworthy inmates, the preponderance of the monks over the laity, the gradual replacement of the earlier ethical idealism ofbuddhism by the ritualism of the Mahayana, the support that later Buddhism gave to Tantricism which was marked by various vicious and immoral practices, the reorganisation and re-vitalization of Hinduism by Sankara and Kumarila and finally the Muhammadan invasions of India-all combined to bring about the decline and fall of Buddhism in

11 India, though it still counts one-third of the world s population as its followers. Buddhist Councils were held four times. The First Council met at Rajagriha (modern Rajgir) in Bihar soon after the death of Gautama Buddha. It was attended by the Buddhist elders (Theras) and was presided over by one of Buddha s prominent Brahman disciples, named Mahakassapa. As Buddha had left none of his teachings in writing so at this Council three of his disciples, Kasyapa, the most learned, Upali, the oldest and Ananda, the most favoured of Buddha s disciples, recited his teachings which were at first learnt orally and transmitted by teachers to disciples and were much later on put down in writing. A century later a Second Council of the Buddhist elders met at Vaisali to settle a dispute that had arisen by that time amongst the Buddhist monks on certain questions of discipline. The Council decided in favour of rigid discipline and revised the Buddhist scriptures which were still unwritten. A Third Council met, according to tradition, 236 years after the death of Buddha, under the patronage of King Asoka Maurya. It was presided over by monk Tissa Moggaliputta, the author of the Kathavattu, a sacred Buddhist text. This Council is believed to have drawn up the Buddhist canon in the final form of the Tripitaka or the Three Baskets, and gave its decisions on all disputed points. If the Sarnath Pillar Edict of Asoka is correctly believed to have been issued after the session of this Third Council it can be rightly held that its decisions were not accepted by so many Buddhist monks and nuns that King Asoka found it necessary to threaten the schismatics with dire punishment. The Fourth and last Council of the Buddhist elders met during the reign of Kanishka, the Kushana king (c. A.D ). It drew up authentic commentaries on the canon and these were engraved on copper-plates which were encased in a stone-coffer and kept for safety in the Kundalavana monastery. These have not yet been found. Buddhist scriptures-have all grown after the death of Gautama Buddha who left nothing in writing. The scriptures known as the Tripitaka are believed to have been first recited by Ananda, Upali and Kasyapa, three close disciples of Gautama Buddha, at the session of the First Council of the Buddhist elders which met at Rajagriha soon after Buddha s death. For many centu-ries these were learnt orally, being transmitted by teachers to their disciples and it was not till 80 B.C. that these were put down in writing in Ceylon in the reign of king Vattagamani. The Tripitaka consists of the Sutta, the Vinaya and the Abkidhamma. The Sutta contains stories and parables related by Buddha during his preaching tours; the Vitzaya lays down the laws and rules of discipline and the Abkidhamma contains the doctrines and metaphysical views of Buddhism. The Sutta is subdivided into five Nikayas of varying length, one of which contains the Dhammapada, Thera and Tkerigathas and the]atakas; the Vinaya has three sub-divisions, while the Abhidhamma has seven sub-divisions of which the celebrated Dhammasangini is the first. There are now four versions of the Tripitaka, namely the Pali version which is followed in Ceylon, Burma and Siam; the Sanskrit version which is current in Nepal and among the Buddhists in Central Asia; the Chinese version which is a rendering in Chinese of the Sanskrit version and the Tibetan version which is a translation made between the ninth and the eleventh centuries of the Christian era. The whole forms a massive body of literature. The japanese version of it runs into one hundred bound volumes of one thousand pages each. Besides the Tripitaka, the Milindapanka by Nagasena (c. 140 B.c.) and the Visuddkimagga by Buddhaghosha are also important as religious literature of the Buddhists. Buddhist sects arose as a result of the circumstance that none of the teachings of Gautama Buddha was written down during his lifetime. Differences on questions of discipline for the monks and nuns as well as on the significance of what he had taught arose amongst his followers soon after his death and within a century of the Parinirvana the Buddhists became split up into several sects of which the two most important came eventually to be known as the Hinayanists (i.e., followers of the Lower Vehicle) and the Mahayanists (i.e., the followers of the Higher Vehicle). The scriptures of the Hinayana are written in Pali while those of the Mahayana in Sanskrit. Consequently the Hinayana is often known as the Pali school and the Mahayana as the Sanskrit school of Buddhism. Again, the Hinayana prevails mainly in Sri Lanka and Burma and is consequently often called the Southern Buddhism while the Mahayana which mainly prevails in Nepal, China, Tibet, Mongolia, Korea 11

12 and Japan is called the Northern Buddhism. As all Buddhist canonical literature wherever it might have extended, arose in northern India and the two schools possess traces of mutual influence so the division of the Buddhist Church into Northern and Southern Schools is more or less unjustified. As the two schools represent only different aspects of the same religious system so the use of terms lower and higher is not also justifiable. Indeed many prefer to call the Hinayana as Theravada, that is to say, the opinion of the Theras or older monks. When exactly this division of the Buddhist Church took place, is not definitely known. Mahayanism was not a sudden development; it developed slowly and gradually in the course of some centuries. The origin of the Mahayana thought has been traced by some to the Mahasamghika and Sarvastivadin sects of Buddhism which existed as far hack as 350 B.c. The inscriptions of Asoka (c B.c.) practically show no sign of Mahayanism which also did not have the controlling voice even at the fourth and last Buddhist Council which met in the reign of Kanishka (ace. c. A.D. 120), though Nagarjuna who was a contemporary and protege of Kanishka exposed in his Karika the hollowness of the Hinayana thought. When, however, Fa-Hien came to India in the fourth century A.D. he found Mahayanist monasteries existing side by side with those of the Hinayanists in all the places that he visited in India. It was, therefore, between the second and the fourth centuries of the Christian era that Mahayanism fully developed in India. It was also during this period that many non-indians were converted to Buddhism. This circumstance has led to the theory that Mahayanism was developed in order to meet their requirements. There are, however, reasons for holding that Mahayanism grew up in order to meet the religious and philosophical needs of the Indian Buddhists themselves though in later times it grew more popular outside India. The differences between the two schools are wide. According to the Hinayana Gautama is the Buddha, the sole Buddha, who now reposes in Nirvana, the absence of desire and striving, having left to mankind a simple rule by which the? also may attain a like bliss, either in this existence or at a later. This creed knows no prayers, invocations or offerings and worships no images, for Buddha is not God, but a man who 12 has attained perfection and thrown off the karma which dooms mankind to successive existences in the world of pain and sorrow. Each is to work for himself and attain Nirvana by overcoming all thirst or attachment by living a good life as indicated by the Noble Eightfold Path. According to the Mahayana, Gautama is merely one reincarnation in a vast series of Buddhas stretching from an illimitable past into an equally infinite future. Not only in this world but in other worlds numerous as the sands of the Ganges, Buddhas have lived and preached at intervals separated by myriads of years from a time past human calculation. This world is but a speck in space and an instant in time; il will pass away and Maitreya will be the Buddha of the next period. Past Buddhas and Buddhas to come are gods of transcendant power, hearkening to the prayers of mankind, responding to invocations and delighting in offerings and incense. Ultimately in China Amida or Amitabha Buddha, a personage unknown to early Buddhist scriptures, became the object of almost exclusive devotion and his pure paradise, called the Western Heaven, the goal to which the pious should aspire. Nirvana and Gautama Buddha were almost forgotten. The Mahayana holds that the ultimate aim of the life of a Buddhist is not the attainment of individual liberation. A person who acquires enlightenment should not remain satisfied with his own Nirvana, but should work for the good of his fellowmen. Such a person is called Bodhisattva (wisdom being). Thus Buddhas and Bodhisattvas came to be worshiped and their images were made and installed in temples where these were worshiped with various rituals and incantations. Every incident of Buddha s life as well as of his previous births familiarised by the Jataka stories and by later biographical sketches like the Lalitavistara came to be depicted in Buddhist sculptures. Using Sanskrit in its rituals and scriptures and worshiping images of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas Mahayanism tended to shorten the breach that separated Buddhism from Hinduism within the wide folds of which it was ultimately assimilated. In spite of the differences that exist between the Hinayana and the Mahayana there are not two Buddhisms. They are really one and the spirit of the founder of Buddhism prevails in both. Each has developed in its own way, according to the differences in environments in which each has blossomed and grown.

13 Sarnath Sarnath is the place where Gathama Buddha gave his first sermon. So, it holds special significance as an important Buddhist pilgrimage center. It is considered to be one among the four holy places that a Buddhist pilgrim must visit. Located 13 kilometers away from Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh is also variously known as Sarnatha, Mrigadava, Migadaya, Rishipattana and Isipatana. It is here that Lord Buddha set his first Dharma chakra or wheel of Dharma into motion and is also the place where the Buddhist Sangha came into existence. Sarnath is also famous for India's tallest Buddha statue with a height of 80 feet, built in an area of 2.5 acres and with a little more than 800 stones. It is also a very important pilgrimage destination for the Jain as, Singpur, a village a little away from Sarnath, is the birth place of the eleventh Jain Tirthankar Shreyansanath. There is a temple dedicated to him. History of Sarnath Gautama Buddha came to Sarnath after attaining enlightenment at Bodhgaya and selected the deer park to deliver his maiden sermon and also set the Dharma chakra in motion. Buddha met his former companions who were into extreme austerities. They felt that Buddha was a mere ordinary man with well-nourished sustenance 13

14 and thought that he is not worth their respect. To this Buddha commented that austerities confuse people, making them unable to understand ordinary things of life and hence, he had chosen a middle way, maintaining an equal distance from both luxury and austerities. Motivated by his speech, all the five men became his first disciples. Thus, it started a monastic tradition in Sranath that spanned over 1,500 years. Emperor Asoka, who was a great Buddhist follower of 3rdcentury BC, erected a column meters in height, in Sarnath. This column, depicting four lions and a chakra is now famous as the Lion Capital of Asoka. The lions in the column symbolize Ashoka's majestic rule and also his devotion to the Buddha. This symbol was later adopted as the National Emblem of India. Qutbud-din Aibak, the Turkish ruler, invaded Sarnath and completely destroyed the village. The only 6th century Stupa, the Dhamek Stupa survived. Major Attractions of Sarnath There are many sacred places to visit in Sarnath. The Dhamek Stupa is considered to be the first sacred place to receive the holy voice of Lord Buddha when he delivered his discourse. This is considered to be a very holy place. Mulagandhakuti Vihara is a temple where the Buddha spent the first rainy season in meditation. According to the writings of a 7th century writer, the original structure was a huge building with a height of 200 feet and contained 100 niches with Buddha carving along each wall. The Deer Park, which is now maintained as an open animal park, still has herds of deer. The spot where the Buddha met his first disciples is m a r k e d b y t h e Chaukhandi Stupa. This Stupa was under restoration recently and is said to date back to the 5th century or even earlier. Other popular attractions at Sarnath i n c l u d e t h e Dharmarajika Stupa, t h e S r i L a n k a n Mahabodhi Society, the Ashoka Pillar, the Sarnath Archeological Museum and a Bodhi tree grown from the cut branch of the original B o d h i t r e e w h e r e G a u t a m a w a s enlightened. How to Reach Saranath By Air: Varanasi airport, which is the nearest airport to Sarnath, is located at a distance of 24 kilometers and is connected to the rest of the country. By Train: Though there is a railway station in Sarnath, only a few train stops there as it is a small station. The nearest major rail station is the Varanasi cantonment railway station located at a distance of 6 kilometers from Sarnath. By Road: Sarnath is connected to rest of India by roads. Long distance buses usually arrive at Varanasi from where you can board a local bus or a taxi to reach Sarnath. One need not be a Buddhist to visit Sarnath. Anyone who likes to soak in centuries of history is sure to have a nice time over here. Sarnath is also a place where one can meet people of many cultures where Buddhism is the dominant religion. This holy land is truly worth visiting at least once in a lifetime. 14

15 Kushinagar Kushinagar, a district in Uttar Pradesh, India, is one of the major Buddhist pilgrimage centers because it is the place where Lord Buddha is believed to have entered Mahaparinirvana (death). It was near the Hiranyavati River that Buddha took his last breath and was cremated at the Ramabhar Stupa. Located at a distance of 55 kilometers away from Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, Kushinagar can indeed be a holy experience not only for Buddhist but also for all travel enthusiasts and historians. Numerous excavations have unearthed many monasteries and Stupas making it a very important pilgrimage destination for Buddhists. As a place with religious and spiritual significance, Kushinagar continues to attract both pilgrims and tourists. Kushinagar is home to many stupas and monasteries, though many of them are not yet properly restored. A visit to Kushinagar will not be complete without visiting the Mahaparinirvana temple and Nirvana Stupa which are closely associated with Lord Buddha's death. Let us take a look on the important pilgrimage sites in Kushinagar. History of Kushinagar On his eighty-first year, after delivering a speech at the Vulture's Peak at Rajgir, Lord Buddha along with Ananda left for the north. After a small nap, he crossed the river Ganges and entered a village called Beluva. There he fell ill, but proceeded to Vaishali in spite of the sickness. They then proceeded to Pava and then to Kushinagar. Buddha rested near a village on his way to Kushinagar from Pava, where he met a Malla nobleman who talked to the Buddha. Deeply moved by Buddha's teachings, the man offered two pieces of shining gold cloth but its glitter was completely outshone by Buddha's radiance. It is believed that Buddha's complexion became prodigiously brilliant both on eve of his enlightenment and nirvana. Buddha thus reached Kushinagar and many noble men came to meet him there. There was a 120 year-old Brahmin among them, named Subhadra who, after getting attracted to Buddha's speech, expressed his desire to join the Sangha, and is believed to be the last monk to be ordained by the Buddha. Upon the third watch of the night, 15

16 Buddha called up his disciples thrice, and asked if there were any confusions remaining with regard to the Buddhist doctrine. Receiving silence as reply, Buddha gave the famous advice "impermanence is inherent in all things. Work out your own salvation with diligence". After this last sermon Buddha entered Mahaparinirvana through meditation. And, it is said that even nature responded to this. The earth shook, stars blast off and the atmosphere reflected celestial music. It is said that the pyre was not burnt until Mahakashyapa, the great disciple of Buddha, arrived and when he stepped into the cremation ground, the pyre burnt automatically. Surprisingly, only the skull bone, teeth and the inner and outer burial garment remained after the cremation, which the Mallas of Kushinagar decided to divide among them, and so, they became the most fortunate people to receive all the remnants of Lord Buddha's body. However, the holy relics had to be divided into eight folds and eight great Stupas were built to house them. These relics were yet again subdivided, when Emperor Ashoka decided to build 84,000 Stupas. Now, the relics are contained in many Stupas scattered across Asia. During his visit to India, FaHien found monasteries at Kushinagar but, almost all of them were in ruins by the time of Huen Tsang's India expedition. Major Attractions of Kushinagar The Mahaparinirvana temple, dates back to the 5th century, and is famous for the reclining statue of Lord Buddha, which is 6.10 meters long. This statue represents his death. This statue was excavated The Nirvana Stupa is situated to the east of the Mahaparinirvana temple. This huge Stupa was excavated by Carllel in 1867, underneath which was found a copper vessel 2.74 meters high with Brahmi insciptions. This stupa is of ultimate importance to the Buddhist as it is believed that it contains Buddha's relics. The Mathakuar Shrine is situated about 400 yards away from the Mahaparinirvana temple. This shrine is famous for the black stone Buddha statue in Bhumi Sparsha Mudra. It is believed that Lord Buddha delivered his last sermon here. Ramabhar Stupa, measuring a height of 49 feet, is the place where the Lord Buddha was cremated. This Stupa is mentioned as Mukut- Bandhan Vihar in ancient Buddhist transcripts. The Japanese Temple is famous for the Buddha idol made of eight metals which was built by Atago Isshin World Buddhist Cultural Association of Japan. At the Kushinagar Museum, there are 248 excavated ancient objects which are exhibited to the public. The Buddha Vihar, otherwise known as Myanmar Buddha Vihar, is the first Monastery in Kushinagar. The Meditation Park, Birla Temple, Chinese Temple, the International Buddha Trust, the Wat Thai temple are other important attractions. The ideal time to visit Kushinagar is from October to March. How To Reach Kushinagar By Air: The nearest airport is at Gorakhpur, which is at a distance of 44 kilometers from Kushinagar. Other airports are the Kasia airstrip at a diatance of 5 kilometers, the Amausi airport at Lucknow is at a distance of 252 kilometers from here and the Babatpur airport in Varanasi which is about 286 kilometers from here. These airports connect Kushinagar to major cities like Delhi, Kolkata, Lucknow and Patna. By Train: The nearest railhead is at Gorakhpur, which is an an important railhead in Uttar Pradesh, and is connected to other major Indian cities. By Road: Kushinagar is connected to the rest of the nation through an extensive network of roads. The major travel hubs that are connected to Kushinagar are Gorakhpur (51 km), Sravasti (254 km), Sarnath (266 km) and Agra (680 km). Kushinagar is one of the most important places which are closely associated with the Lord Buddha. The major excavations prove this place was an important Buddhist center. The place has a number of Stupas and monasteries that date back to the Ashokan period. A visit here would indeed be a brush with history. 16

17 Buddhist Shrines Buddhism is a religion based on the divine earth. When they pray, they do not pray for teachings of Lord Buddha or King Siddhartha. His forgiveness, wealth or health but remember his father was the ruler of Kapilavastu, so, he lived a teachings and ask for his strength to follow it. life of comfort and luxury in the palace. At the age Bodhgaya : of 29, he, for the first time, saw the miseries that Bodhgaya is a holy shrine of the Buddhists. humankind faced. Deeply disturbed he gave up They believe that this was the place were Lord all his comforts. Abandoning his life of luxury, he set out alone in search of the true meaning of life. After years of meditation he attained enlightenment under a Bodhi tree in the district of Gaya in Bihar. Bodhgaya is now one of the most important Buddhist shrines out of the four primary shrines. The three other shrines are Lumbini, in Nepal, where he was born, Sarnath, the place where he gave his first preaching, and Kushinagar, where he died at the age of eighty. Other than these, the important places where he preached his words of wisdom are also considered shrines. Some of these places are Buddha received his enlightenment under a pipal Sravasti Sankasya, Rajgriha, Vaisali, Piparahwa, tree or the sacred fig tree. There are three other Ladakh and so on. Each place has its own holy places of Buddhists: Lumbini, in Nepal, remarkable story attached to it. For example, it is Buddha's birthplace, Sarnath, near Varanasi believed that in Vaisali, monkeys offered honey to where he preached his first message, and Lord Buddha, whereas, in Rajgriha, it is said that Kushinagar, near Gorakhpur, where he died. he tamed a wild elephant that was let loose by his Kushinagar : cousin Devdatta. There are also places that are Kushinagar, a district in Uttar Pradesh, India, considered as shrines because of the stupas and pillars that were erected by the Mauryan king Ashoka in honor of the Lord Buddha. The architecture in most shrines consists of carvings or engravings depicting the life and teachings of Lord Buddha. Some of these shrines even have museums that exhibit the relics of these times. The most remarkable Buddhists shrines, which are also of archeological significance, are the rock-cut caves, stupas and pillars. The stupas are dome shaped structures a harmika, which is a small platform, mounted on it and contains Buddhists relics. Although, the stupas are generally made of chunar sandstone, there is one stupa that is made of bricks. It is situated in Piprahwa, in Basti District, Uttar Pradesh, and is said to have existed even before the era of Ashoka. The earlier stupas were more hemispherical in shape whereas the later ones were found to be more cylindrical in shape. In all is one of the major Buddhist pilgrimage centers these places the idol of Buddha is placed as the because it is the place where Lord Buddha is central figure. However, Buddhists are not believed to have entered Mahaparinirvana considered idol worshippers. By offering fruits, (death). It was near the Hiranyavati River that flowers, rice etc. they only mean to pay homage Buddha took his last breath and was cremated at and respect to the greatest person who lived on the Ramabhar Stupa. Located at a distance of 55 17