The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch was most likely written by multiple authors from two rival schools of Zen Buddhism. One school promotes the doctrine of sudden awakening and the other promotes the doctrine of gradual awakening. The sutra reconciles the different teachings and shows that both can lead to enlightenment. The Platform Sutra has two contrasting verses that suggest multiple authors from rival schools wrote it. The first verse supports the gradual awakening school and claims that “The body is the Bodhi tree, / The mind is like a clear mirror. / At all times we must strive to polish it, / And must not let the dust collect” (Reader 543). The second verse supports the sudden awakening schools and states that the “Bodhi originally
has no tree, / The mirror also has no stand. / Buddha nature is always clean and pure; / Where is there room for dust?” (Reader 544). Both verses reference emptiness and the Buddha-nature, yet the two verses disagree how Buddha-nature is realized. The authors support the doctrine of sudden awakening because Huineng becomes enlightened after only hearing the Diamond Sutra once. They still believe that the doctrine of gradual awakening is valid when they concede that “Once enlightened, there is from the outset no distinction between these two methods” (Reader 546). Here, the authors claim that sudden and gradual awakening are two different ways to attain enlightenment. Huineng is far along the path because he is a bodhisattva, so sudden awakening can aid skilled bodhisattvas in attaining enlightenment before their next life. The authors warn, however, that “An instant thought of evil will result in the destruction of good which has continued a thousand years” (Reader 549). Attaining enlightenment does not mean it will stay; one who attains it must continuously work to keep it. Sudden awakening requires a gradual effort and is not simply a shortcut to attaining enlightenment. The authors from the two rival schools show that the doctrine of sudden awakening and the doctrine of gradual awakening are both effective ways to attain enlightenment.
written in Pali in the Theravada tradition. There is no distinction in the nirvana attained by the
It is now in the novel that the mystic Buddha arrives.. Siddhartha goes to listen to the Buddha and decide for himself what he thinks about this holy man. Siddhartha recognized the Buddha immediately and saw the man has achieved Nirvana. The confidence and peace he moved and talked with radiated from him. “There was salvation for those who went the way of the Buddha" (Hesse). Here is a central theme of the book and that is suffering and peace from suffering usually by accepting Buddha. After a long spiritual discussion with the Buddha, Siddhartha was indeed able to find a flaw in the Buddha’s teachings. The Buddha reminds me of a holy person, this holy person from Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. “The Oracle was called Agbala, and people came from far and near to consult it. They came when misfortune dogged their steps or when they had a dispute with their neighbors. They came to discover what their future held for them or to consult the spirits of their departed fathers.” (Achebe) The Buddha from the novel and the Oracle have a lot in common. Finally after hearing the Buddha speak, and finding a flaw in his teachings Siddhartha knows he must go in to the world and seek his own Nirvana because Nirvana is obviously something that cannot be taught by any teacher.
Zen themes may be familiar to a student of religion, since they arise from Buddhism. The Buddha, Sidhartha Gautama, is said to have achieved his four noble truths about the nature of existence through meditation.
The book Buddhism Plain and Simple, by Steve Hagen, caught my attention and became more interesting to me than I thought. I have always heard of the religion Buddhism, but I never knew what it was all about. I never thought that Buddhism was as huge as it is. I knew that it existed in other countries, but I never knew what exact countries. Many of the views in this book surprised me and the book taught me a lot about morals and better ways to live your life. The word “ Awareness” is talked heavily all through this book. For Buddhists, this is probably the most important aspect in their religion.
The Buddha started the movement for all different peoples and denied that a person's spiritual worth is a matter of birth. The Buddha left no written word. His ideas have been put into writings though...
In Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha, a classic novel about enlightenment, the main character, Siddhartha, goes on a lifelong journey of self-discovery. Along the way, Siddhartha encounters many who try to teach him enlightenment, undoubtedly the most important being the Buddha himself. Although Siddhartha rejects the Buddha's teachings, saying that wisdom cannot be taught, we can see, nevertheless, that along his journey for understanding Siddhartha encounters the Four Noble Truths that are a central theme in Buddhism: suffering, the cause of suffering, the end of suffering, and the middle path.
Buddhist scholarship involves commentary on the sutras. In Tibetan Buddhism, there is a practice of acknowledging one’s teacher and monastic lineage so as to provide legitimacy and authenticity to the teachings. In what follows, I shall give my own commentary of the Heart Sutra, and thus I shall acknowledge the lineage through which this information passed down to me. My knowledge of the Heart Sutra comes from the commentary of the Dali Lama (3-52, 63-147) and the rest comes from commentary from Jamyang Gawai Lodro (151-164). Both of these commentaries are in a volume entitled Essence of the Heart Sutra translated by Geshe Thuptn Jipa. This is also where I read the words of the Sutra itself (59-61).
Though both Hinduism’s moksha and Buddhism’s nirvana are more or less synonymous, they both hold distinctive differences in the path that leads followers to the end goal of enlightenment from samsara. In Hinduism, “letting go” or releasing from samsara by way of the realization that “atman is Brahman” is what moksha is defined as. Contrastingly, Buddhism involves extinguishing feelings that cause suffering and thus, achieving
A man of noble birth, living in the time before the Common Era, preached a way to extinguish the fire of self-centered delusion. This state of Nirvana can be achieved by understanding The Four Noble Truths, suffering in life, he explains can be avoided by following an Eightfold Path. Sounds simple? This must have been an awaking for people of his time seeking a more personal religion, away from the rigidities of a priest-dominated Hinduism of India. The man, the Buddha, spent the rest of his life teaching the religion he discovered and its doctrine based upon his Dharma (cosmic law and order). The first written evidence of the existence of Buddhism is found over 400 years ago after the life of the Buddha. (Kozak) Historians pose the
The popularity of Buddhism in America became most pronounce in the period after World War II. It is interesting to note that the United States had just concluded the most devastating war in human history, with the first use of the atomic bomb on the Empire of Japan, yet the Japanese of style Buddhism took hold in America more than other school after the war. It could be said that the main figure head of Japanese, or more precisely, Zen Buddhism, in America was the author and intellectual Dr. D.T. Suzuki. In terms of the American expression of Buddhism, Suzuki had more influence over the interpretation of Zen philosophy than any other writer of the time.
In their own way both Sutras highlight the fact that Mahayana Buddhism is more lay people friendly than the traditional Pali Canon, while still maintaining an important role for monks and nuns. Perhaps the most obvious example of this is presented in the “Whole Universe Sutra”. According to the Sutra, all beings possess the knowledge and enlightenment of Buddhahood within themselves. This pure core is simply buried beneath or wrapped in the deluded minds of the imperfect being (107-World). In other words, every being is capable of reaching Buddhahood as the truth resides within each individual, however, it can only be reached when “they abandon their deluded, contrary views”. It is only then that the “unimpeded knowledge” will arise within them (107,108-World).
1. What is the difference between a. and a. The founder of Buddhism was a man called Siddhartha Gautama, born to a wealthy family and destined for greatness; Siddhartha, however, left his family and the palace in search for religious truth and an end to suffering. Siddhartha tried many ways of reaching an enlightened stage; wandering the forest, joining the beggars, fasting, debating with religious leaders, but when none of these methods brought him a greater understanding of the world, Siddhartha sat himself down under a fig tree, and meditated. After forty-nine days of meditation Siddhartha was said to have achieved an understanding of the cause of suffering, he then became known as the Buddha, enlightened one.
Well, we live in a modern society, so I’ve been asked what kinds of occupations are we not allowed to work. It is quite easy as we have to make reasonable and conscious decisions to avoid leaving the path of the eightfold. Buddhists are not allowed to gamble or pornography because it damages our karma when we influence and show the world that we are not supposed to be. We cannot profession in fishing, hunting, or anything in that nature as such is not allowed in our dietary supplement. We cannot be arms dealers because we do not believe in violence.
As with most religions, the early years of Buddhism are shrouded in obscurity. One thing is certain, however, and that is that the Sangha, the Buddhist order of monks, survived the physical death, or Parinirvana, of the Buddha. But the period between that event and the reemergence of Buddhism into the light of history around 250 B.C.E. is somewhat unclear (Hawkins, 1999). Buddhist tradition holds that there was a meeting, or council, held immediately following the Buddha's death. The major concern of this meeting was to stabilize the Buddhist scriptures by coming to an agreement as to what were the accepted scriptures as spoken by the Buddha. For a variety of reasons, no such agreement seems to have been reached, although there was some general agreement on the basic message of the Buddha. This meant that to a certain extent the interpretation of what was a genuine Buddhist scripture and what was not was left up to the individual Buddhist.
In their own way both Sutras highlight the fact that Mahayana Buddhism is more of an all encompassing faith, arguably more lay people friendly, than the traditional Pali Canon which often favors or is geared toward monks and nuns. The most obvious example of this is presented in the “Whole Universe Sutra”, which states that all beings possess the knowledge and enlightenment of Buddhahood within themselves. This pure core is simply buried beneath or wrapped in the deluded minds of the imperfect being (World Universe as a Sutra, 107). In other words, every being is capable of reaching Buddhahood as the truth resides within each individual, however, it can only be reached when “they abandon their deluded, contrary views”. It is only then th...