The Buddhism was founded by the historical Buddha Siddhartha Gautama or Shakyamuni. In times of religious conflicts and caste systems, which promised salvation only to those of high social status, Buddhism was better understood by the numerically larger population. In Buddhism, everyone was treated equally. The Vedas and Upanishads and Puranas were much more difficult for lay people to understand than the Buddha's teaching.
A Buddha (Sanskrit: बुद्ध, buddha, Pali: Buddho,AWAKENED) bezeichnet im Buddhismus einen Menschen, der Bodhi und Nirvana erlangt hat (Samma sambuddha).
The word is also the title Siddhartha Gautama.
The ten powers of the Buddha are:
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The power to discern right from wrong
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The power to see the consequences of action (karma)
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The power to discern the tendencies of beings
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The power to recognize the different types of beings
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The power to recognize the respective talents of beings
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The power of knowing the path that leads everywhere (sarvatragäminipratipat-jnänabala);
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The power to know all obstacles, causes of suffering and the purification of contemplations, meditations, liberations, concentrations and absorptions
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The power of knowing your past lives
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The power to know death and future lives
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The power of knowing the end of defilements
The teaching
Buddhism is known for the concept of enlightenment. However, this is not based on a sudden insight into an ultimate reality, but it is the result of a spiritual development process.
The Buddhist concepts about life and the world :
Saṃsāra cycle of life
Karma (wanting, cetana)
Five Skandhas (the 5 collections):
1. Sensation of the material body, 2. Feelings, 3. Perception,
4. Mind formations, 5. Consciousness
Since a rich human encounter was already part of human expression , the Buddha gave advanced advice on how a loving attitude and positive actions for the benefit of others are part of one's path to liberation and enlightenment._cc781905-5cde -3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_
Buddha advises to deepen four qualities for the benefit of others and ourselves:
Love, Compassion, Sympathy and Equanimity. (The Four Immeasurable Desires)
In the teachings on application, the Buddha showed how attitude expresses itself more and more spontaneously as 6 Liberating Actions (6 Paramitas). These are also the actions of the Bodhisattvas (beings who aspire to supreme wisdom.
1. Generosity
2. sensible behavior
3. Patience
4. joyful effort
5. Meditation
6. Wisdom
The first four of these six acts are characteristics of every enjoyable human relationship. Through meditation and wisdom they become even more skillful and eventually liberating. Beyond benefiting others, "being a good person" in Buddhism is more than an end in itself. This is the basis that creates the conditions for realizing the nature of mind.
Generosity is the sharing of material things, one's own strength and good feelings. It creates trust and openness, makes every encounter rich and releases attachment in one's own mind.
Meaningful behavior, sometimes also called ethics, keeps human exchange going and is the basis for more growth. It means avoiding causes of trouble and benefiting others as much as possible.
Patience protects positive construction by enduring all kinds of difficulties. Nothing can disturb one who is full of compassion and can keep a relaxed mind in any situation.
Joyful effort means that we always do our best and work with perseverance for the good of others and ourselves.
Meditation creates space and freedom in your own consciousness. Internally, based on good concentration, one sees the thoughts and feelings as they arise. Externally, one experiences the creatures and the world from a clear perspective. The personally limited perception of attachment and aversion, expectation and fear, etc. gives way to insight into the diverse conditionality of all phenomena, the experience of "how things are" - this leads to
Wisdom - here a complete discrimination of all things takes place and it is recognized that subject, object and action are parts of the same whole. Generally speaking, the path to realizing the nature of mind (enlightenment) is perfected by building the two accumulations - positive impressions and wisdom.
The quantity of the positive enables the quality of ultimate spontaneous insight (wisdom). The first four of the Liberating Actions create infinite positive impressions in the mind. From positive impressions comes more wisdom. Meditation creates further good impressions and is a special prerequisite for the development of wisdom. The realization of wisdom is thus the result of the first five liberating actions. Ultimate wisdom, however, is the spontaneous expression of the mind when it is free from all limitation and fully possessed of the realization of its unconditional qualities of fearlessness, joy, and active love.
In addition to the teaching, the buddhist philosophy developed, which is reflected in extensive literature.
Buddhist literature and philosophy did not appear until several centuries after the Buddha Gautama.
The Pali Canon was composed by the Vibhajyvāda sect of Theravada (Hinayana).
Buddhism has produced numerous schools and systems over the course of its 2,500-year history. The terms "school" (vada), "vehicle" (yana) [on the current of suffering], or "path" are somewhat comparable to the terms "direction."
The three main Buddhist schools are THERAVADA, MAHAYANA & VAJRAYANA.
The THERAVADA, the »School of the Elders« and the MAHAYANA, the »Great Vehicle«.
Theravada is the older of the two major schools of thought, while Mahayana only developed around the turn of the Christian era (100 BC to 600 AD). The third major direction is VAJRAYANA or Tantrayana, which, despite its specific characteristics, is philosophically assigned to Mahayana. The Vajrayana developed in India between 400 and 1000 AD and was influenced by the resurgent Hinduism (particularly Tantrism).
In contrast to Theravada, Mahayana does not form an actual and unified teaching tradition and practice. The numerous schools do not orientate themselves - as in Theravada - on the canon of the discourses of the Buddha in the Pali language (the Pali canon, also Tipitaka), which was laid down at three councils in the centuries after Buddha's death, but on a remnant of parallel ones and later translated into Chinese or Tibetan, the originals of which were mostly lost, as well as a large number of later Mahayana sutras (in Sanskrit) that existed independently. However, these were only selectively recognized by the various schools and made their own basis. There is thus no common canon in the Mahayana, but there are Chinese (San-ts'ang) and Tibetan (Kanjur) collections of various texts translated from Sanskrit, plus original Chinese or Tibetan texts.
All directions of Buddhism adhere to the Buddha's "Four Noble Truths" about suffering, its origin, its overcoming and the "Eightfold Path" leading to the overcoming of suffering, which leads to the salvation of suffering (liberation from the bondage of delusion and attachment). This liberation from suffering is called Nibbana (P.) or Nirvana (Skr.) ("extinction" of greed, hatred and delusion), which represents the goal of salvation common to all denominations. The goal of realizing Nirvana and thus realizing Buddhahood (Buddhata) is the same everywhere, only the paths that lead to this goal are different.
THERAVADA (Teaching of the Elders)
Origin: 4th century BC in India.
Systematician: Buddhadatta (4th/5th century), Buddhaghosa (5th century), Dhammapala (5th century), Anuruddha (12th century)
Today's distribution: Sri Lanka, Myanmar (Burma), Bangladesh, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, PR China (in Yunnan), western world.
Main sources: Tipitaka (three baskets) or Pali canon; Visuddhimagga, Milindapanha, Abhidhammatthasangaha.
Way of salvation: Overcoming suffering by eliminating the causes of suffering greed, hatred and delusion through virtue, meditation and knowledge.
Systems of the MAHAYANA:
ZEN/Chan/Son/Thien (meditation school)
Origin: 6th century AD in China, Henan, Songshan, Shaolin Monastery.
Founder: Bodhidharma (6th century).
Today's distribution: China, Taiwan, Japan (Zen), Korea (Son), Vietnam (Thien), western world.
Main sources: Prajñaparamitasutras: Heart Sutra and Diamond Sutra, Lotus Sutra, Lankavatara Sutra, Koan Collections.
Way of salvation: knowledge (spiritual training) through meditation and koan
Madhyamaka
Origin: 2nd century AD in India.
Branches: in China: Sanlun; in Japan: Sanron.
Main sources: Prajñaparamitasutra, Mulamadhyamakakarika.
Way of salvation: Recognition of the emptiness (Shunyata) of all phenomena of existence and insight that this emptiness is the absolute = redemption.
Vijñānavāda (Yogacara)
Origin: 3rd/4th Century AD in India.
Main sources: Yogacarabhumishastra, Samdhinirmocana, Avatsamsaka, Lankavatara.
Way of salvation: Realizing that everything is "only spirit" (cittamātra) and turning back to the pure spirit, the basic consciousness = absolute = salvation.
Pure Land, Amidism (Amitabha Buddhism, School of Faith)
Origin: 1st century AD in India.
Today's distribution: China, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Vietnam, Singapore.
Most important sources: The Great Amitabha Sutra (Sukhâvatîvyûha-mahâyânasûtra, Japanese Muryôju-kyô), the Small Amitabha Sutra (Sukhâvatîvyûhonâma-mahâyânasûtra, Japanese Amida-kyô) and the so-called Meditation Sutra (Amitâyurdhyâna-sûtra, Japanese Kanmuryôju- kyo)
Heilsweg: Vertrauen in den helfenden Beistand des transzendenten Buddha Amitabha (Amida); Entlastung vom Karma durch den helfenden Beistand heilswirksamer Bodhisattvas; Wiedergeburt in an intermediate paradise (Sukhavati); Become a bodhisattva yourself.
Saddharmapundarika (Lotus School)
Origin: 3rd century AD in India.
Today's distribution: China; Japan
Main sources: Saddharmapundarikasutra (Lotus Sutra).
Way of Salvation: Worship of the Lotus Sutra, realization of one's Buddha-nature through the practice of Daimoku.
VAJRAYANA (Esoteric Buddhism/Tantrayana/Mantrayana)
Main representative:His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Origin: originated in India from the 3rd century,
there are similarities to Indian Tantrism
In Tibet: Padmasambhava (8th c.); in Japan:
Kobo Daishi
Today's distribution: Tibet, Sikkim, Bhutan, Mongolia,
Buryatia, Kalmykia, Ladakh, China, Korea, Japan,
Western world.
Main sources: Tantra literature.
Way of salvation: Redemption through experience of the universal identity
and opening up the Absolute within oneself
using secret psychoactive techniques.
Siddhartha Gautama Buddha
