Anger, is one of the most human emotions possible. Rooted deep in the brain’s amygdala, anger sits as a product of evolution. Yet, this evolutionary necessity has been the root cause of so much sadness and violence due to war and conflicts caused by anger. In Buddha’s essay titled “Let a Man Overcome Anger by Love”, he outlines the necessity for inner peace to avoid conflict and anger amongst each other. This essay outlines the persistent truths of reaching peace, while emphasizing the need and importance of making peace with oneself first. Through analyzing Buddha’s essay, “Let a Man Overcome Anger by Love”, it is clear Buddha has a clear understanding peace in all facets and his truths would be widely applicable to today’s world and has great …show more content…
Buddha’s social location helped him greatly to be able to define conflict and peace and project peace into his surroundings. Social location is defined by Kirk and Okizawa as, “. . . the result of a complex interplay among a range of factors: individual decisions and choices, particular life events, community recognition and expectations, societal categorization, classification and socialization, and key national or international events” (1). Buddha’s social location would be best described by his story. Buddha’s story is well known across the world, coming from a rich family he was extremely sheltered from the outside worlds chaos and sadness. When he did eventually begin to experience the world, he was saddened and troubled by it and began the life of a hermit. Through a tremendous amount of effort and energy he became fully enlightened. Englightenment granted the Buddha a special glimpse of the entire fabric of the world and it’s cosmic existence. All of these life experiences played into the Buddha’s social location as an …show more content…
Through defining concepts such as conflict and peace as internally rooted ideas, Buddha draws correlations to Dorothy Day in regards to how they operated peace building in their areas. Starting at the micro level of a problem is not a new phenomenon and Dorothy Day and Buddha have both capitalized on it. In Dorothy Day’s Catholic Worker Houses she worked to feed and helped the destitute in the community, in helping the most needy in the community she was building peace on a micro level that would eventually expand outwards and make the communities a better place. This Christian thought reflects back to the Buddha in that he emphasized working internally for peace. Buddha reflects the need to work inwards first is displayed through him saying, “Let a wise man blow off the impurities of his self. . . Lead others, not by violence, but by law and equity. He who possesses virtue and intelligence. . .him the world will hold dear” (Buddha 3). Through bettering oneself first and finding inner peace, it allows the person to be free of anger and internal conflict which relates heavily to the Catholic mission that Dorothy Day worked on of solving the needs of the people first. This connection between Buddha theory for peace and Catholic peace workers such as Dorothy Day is seen through in how they both view peace as an inward starting
Siddhartha Gotama was born into a rich royal family, located in Nepal in 563 BC. Siddhartha’s birth was prophesied by his mother whom had Queen Maya dreamt that a white elephant with six white tusks entered her right side (a sign of great importance in that culture) it was prophesied that he would be a great emperor or great religious leader.He was provided with all the luxuries of life and was shielded from all harm and those whom needed help. However he encounted an old man disturbed by this he consulted a guard who told him that everyone grows old, later he encounted a diseased man, then a corpse and then finally a ascetic. These are known as the four great sightings. He realized at the age of 29 that, not all lived a life like him and didn’t all have immeasurable riches, and he found that these luxuries didn’t necessarily provide happiness. So he left the palace and his family and decided to trial the different teachings, religions and philosophies of the period. After six long years of meditation and study he attained Enlightenment. Siddhartha is said to have discovered what Buddhists call the Middle Way—a path of moderation away from the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification. He accepted a little milk and rice pudding from a village gir...
Buddhism is considered as one of the leading religions throughout the world today. In order for a Buddhist to follow the religion, there are certain set of guidelines that one has to follow to gain a better life, but most people have other factors that they have to face along this path. The story, “The Journey of One Buddhist Nun” by Sid Brown, is an account of a Thai woman, Maechi Wabi, who entered a spiritual life along with life struggles and outside influences. According to Brown, Wabi faced many challenges along the way to liberation and two challenges she faced most are the gender and socioeconomic issues which she overcame during her spiritual journey.
It is said that history is shaped by the lives of great men. Great men are leaders. They bring about change; they improve the lives of others; they introduce new ideas, models, and theories to society. Most of the world's religions were founded, developed, or discovered by great men. Two particular religions - Christianity and Buddhism - developed in different parts of the world, under different circumstances, and in different social atmospheres. But each religion is based upon the teachings of a great man. When one compares the life of Buddha with the life of Jesus, one finds that the two share many things in common. This essay aims to compare and contrast the lives of Buddha1 and Jesus in two key areas: conception and birth. In these two areas, one finds that the Buddha and Jesus share many similarities.
At least every Asian country with a Buddhist community has experience some sort of civil war, foreign invasion, or systematic poverty and tyranny. During the Khmer Rouge era, Buddhism was nearly destroyed. Monks were tortured, killed and forced into lay life. Buddhist temples were destroyed and used as a prison area. After the defeat of the Khmer Rouge, Buddhism remained repressed within Cambodia. Some Buddhist monks or leaders responded with forms of social engagement. That being said, Maha Ghosananda is one the monks who played a key role in rebuilding Buddhism in Cambodia after the fall of the Khmer Rouge. His work, Dhammayietras was the first program to set up for peace and non-violence in Cambodia. The Dhammayietras consisted of peace walks through war-torn, landmine-infested regions. This non-violence and social action is considered to be “engaged Buddhism.” The idea of “engaged Buddhism” places an emphasis on the need for compassion for compassionate action is rooted in the Buddhist practice. Ghosananda activism rebuilt Buddhism in Cambodia by teaching peace through example. T...
The founder of Buddhism was a man named Siddharta Gautama. He was born as a prince of a small kingdom located near today’s Nepal, around 500 B.C.E. (Gurinder 1). According to the legends, Siddharta was raised in the lap of luxury. He was given the finest clothes, riches, and a mansion for every season (Fisher 136). Despite having anything his imagination could conjure, he was unconvinced of their value (136). As the story continues, he was presented with the four sights that were being kept from him (136). These sights included death, sickness, old age, and a monk seeking lasting happiness rather than material possessions (136). After these sights, Sidhharta began his long path to enlightenment. After six years of searching, he had reached his goal of an ultimate consciousness called Nirvana, or enlightenment that is above ordinary human states of mind (Gurinder, Numrich, Williams 1-2). After his discovery of the ultimate consciousness, he was given the title of Buhhda, which means “Enlighten One” (2).
The Accidental Buddhist: Mindfulness, Enlightenment, and Sitting Still by Dinty M. Moore is a personal memoir about Moore’s journey into the world of American Buddhism. Although Moore is an Irish-American who lives in central Pennsylvania, was raised in a Catholic family, and attended Catholic school, he decided at a young age that God had let him down, he gave up religion. However, later on in his adult life he came across the book Being Peace by Thich Naht Hanh, and desired to know what the “Buddhists had discovered” and what he was “missing” (19). Moore thought that the most effective way of finding out how to incorporate Buddhism into his own life would be to find out how other Americans are accomplishing this; He wanted to uncover how this old Asian-practice fits into modern American culture, essentially, what is American Buddhism? To answer this question, Moore visited Monasteries, read books, attended meditation sessions, and talked to multiple revered monks. By the end of his exploration Moore cannot define exactly what American Buddhism is, but he suggests that there is a place for Buddhism in American culture, and as long as the basic practices and teachings are followed, Buddhism can be altered in many ways to fit into all types of modern American lives.
Ashvaghosha’s Buddhacarita: The Life of the Buddha serves as one of the most relevant and profound texts regarding the Buddhist religion and it’s foundations. However, unlike other popular religious texts, this one does not serve as a historical document but rather a vessel for explaining the teachings of the Buddha, serving as a guide for the followers of the Enlightened One. Ashvaghosha’s descriptions of the Buddha, his life, and his actions provide an example of the Buddha’s disciplines and truths, giving his followers a detailed and structured idea of his way of life. The Buddhacarita’s descriptions in particular focus on the teaching of pervasive suffering, it’s causes, and the paths (both right and wrong) to breaking free from it.
In a world of suffering and pain the Dalai Lama said, “Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive”. The Dalai Lama has become a figurehead for Buddhism worldwide for his compassion and warm smiles. Buddhism has extended beyond meditation and even monks such as the Dalai Lama. The basic concepts of compassion and mindfulness in Buddhism are being applied in the daily lives of lay people who need it the most.
He also makes reference to the long history of religious intolerance and persecution within the Christian tradition, brought about by greed, mistrust, and ignorance. He emphasizes the need for continuous practice, prayer, meditation, mindfulness, and personal growth within individual religious traditions and cultures. We must make the spirit of the Buddha and the spirit of Christ part of our everyday lives. He explores the “Five Wonderful Percepts of Buddhism”: reverence for life, generosity, responsible sexual behavior, speaking and listening deeply, and ingesting only wholesome substances; comparing them to the teachings of Christ. These precepts are without a doubt, very similar to the principles thought by Christ and his apostles. Each precept or teaching works with the next, interconnecting and building upon each other toward the same goal to end suffering, bring about personal and worldly understanding, world peace, and spiritual
“We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.” Gautama Buddha, a figure responsible for the founding of the Buddhist culture, urges that those who experienced a fulfilling life will succeed. However, in this generation, social norms placed on citizens prevent this state of spiritual acceptance. For instance, humans have this certain mindset to crave perfection, knowledge, and power; and, as a result, these needs hinder any attempt to succeed. In other words, humans have the condition to continuously strive for success through the means of power and control. Contrarily, this excessive need to succeed, consequently, segways to conflicts; and, as a result, the solution
As time went on, Siddhartha wanted to find out the meaning of life and his experiences through his journey created the practice of Buddhism. His first teaching as a Buddha was based on the doctrine of the four noble truths and along with the principle of the middle way, the eight fold path. Through oral tradition, the ideas and practices of Buddhism spread across India. The teachings of Buddha spread through Asia when the trade of silk passed from one country to another along with what came to be known as “The Silk Road.”
To reach enlightenment in Buddhism, one must overcome attachment to the pleasure of peace. Gampopa defines the pleasure of peace as “the desire to achieve nirvana only for oneself without the altruistic mind for sentient beings, and because of it, one does not benefit others” which is also termed as the lesser vehicle (Gampopa, 126). The remedy for this is the practices of loving-kindness and compassion. When one develops this loving-kindness and compassion, then one will have a mind that wants all sentient beings to meet with happiness as well as be free from suffering and its cause. When one achieves this, then one is attached to all sentient beings and no longer wants to attain liberation only for oneself. Compassion is so heavily ingrained in Buddhist practices, that it has been noted that the Buddha had said “the cultivation of loving kindness and compassion is not just part of our practice, it is all of our practice” (Strain, “Compassion & Stoic Philosophy”). Compassion is not just a crucial aspect of the path to Enlightenment; practicing and training in compassion can function to improve the lives of those unconcerned with achieving Buddahood through means of improving health, well-being and increasing self-motivation. Considering the benefits that can come from compassion, everyone should take part in practicing and experiencing compassion as its benefits extend into other aspects of life.
Peace of mind, body and spirit, in a personal sense, a social sense and a universal sense. Although they share the same goal, adherents of the faiths have difference conceptions of what a ‘state of peace’ encompasses, and the path to which it may be attained. For Christians, the ultimate peace is in the afterlife, in heaven, where believers will find their salvation. In heaven there is no sin, Christians can see God, and live in his presence, whilst anyone who does not choose to believe within their lifetime on earth, will go to hell, a place of eternal pain and suffering. For Buddhists, peace is found in nirvana, through enlightenment, whereby one experiences perpetual rebirth until this ultimate harmony is achieved. Buddhism and Christianity both care about the Self and the Other, but the order is reversed. Buddhists believe that in serving yourself you serve others, focusing on your own path to enlightenment, and practicing loving kindness, will leads to social transformation and world peace. Christians on the other hand serve others in order to serve self, believing that by following Jesus’ instructions and entering relationship with
“I desire not of the Lord the greatness which comes by the attainment of the eightfold powers, nor do I pray to him that I may not be born again; my one prayer to him is that I may feel the pain of others, as if I were residing within their bodies, and that I may have the power of relieving their pain and making them happy.” (Santi Deva, pg. 148). This quote is a perfect representation of conflict of interests between values of our society and those of the Buddhists. The quote captivated me because it is completely opposite to the ideals in our society. The “...
Much of what we know of Buddha was passed down for generations though word of mouth and teachings, which were probably not written until long after his death (Fisher). Buddha like many other religious figures was born without human intercourse and was born into a very wealthy family and lived a life of luxury. He went on to marry and have a son, Buddha’s life changed however when he saw “the four sights” a sick man, an old man, a dead man, and finally a man seeking lasting happiness. The later inspired Buddha to leave his luxurious life behind and seek total liberation also known as nirvana. After traveling for many years and depriving himself from all wants and many needs including food for long periods of time, Buddha had what is known as the awakening. While meditating under a tree he saw all of his past lives and how good and bad deeds can effective future lives (Fisher). The awakening also showed how to end suffering and Buddha was radiant with light afterward (Fisher). From that point on he traveled around Asia teaching everyone he met what he now knew. Many that he taugh...