Namo Tassa Bhagavato Arahato Sammasambuddhassa

Introduction to Buddhism

Welcome to this introduction to the Buddhist religion, its history, practices and teachings.

Buddhism and Buddhist Teachings are vast subjects, or fields of learning and information to investigate. Where can we start an investigation of Buddhism that will give an overview and an appreciation of the essential or fundamental purpose of the religion and meaning of the teachings?

Let us start at the beginning with what it was the Buddha achieved for himself, for all Buddhism follows from that.

Buddhism started with the Buddha, nearly 2550 years ago in ancient India, when he made a world changing discovery of the truth of fundamental aspects of life that he had spent many years of intense effort and persistence trying to find.

The immense task he had set himself years before, on behalf of all living beings, was to find out absolutely the truth about birth and death. The truth about suffering, why living beings suffer and what is the way to the cessation of suffering.

This was the task he set himself because he believed this was the greatest benefit to offer the world and suffering beings.

In the West we have a lot of material comfort, a lot of wonderful conditions of prosperity, success, learning, progress and a seemingly endless array of options and possibilities. If we reflect on our living conditions in modern Australia for example, in many respects they are superior to most of the world's great kings, queens and rulers of the past times.

Whilst these conditions are of great and indisputable benefit, there is this effect, that, because of our good fortune, because of the comforts and amusements, we are somehow slightly blinded by this type of living to some of the fundamentals of human existence.

The circumstances of the Buddha's life however led him to be confronted by the stark realities of human life, old age, sickness and death. His response was deep compassion for the sufferings of beings and an incredible vow to find the truth about why living being suffer, and how to become free from suffering.

The person who was to become Buddha was born about 2,500 years ago in a place called Lumbini in ancient India, as Prince to the Sakya clan. He was known as Siddhartha.

Shortly after the birth of Siddhartha there were many visitors to the royal palace to pay respect to the king and the child, including learned brahmins and religious ascetics. Some of these learned and holy men gave predictions concerning the future of the young prince and many concluded that his life could take one of two possible courses. He could become a world ruling monarch or a fully enlightened teacher and saviour of humanity.

Siddhartha's Father, King Suddhodana, wished only that his son would continue to rule the kingdom and maintain the family's royal lineage and sought to avert the possibility that one day his son would leave the kingdom to follow the holy life. The king took steps to prevent the young prince from coming into contact with anything that may cause him to become disillusioned and forsake life in the royal courts.

He built the palace walls so high they could not be scaled by Siddhartha and restricted his experience of living to luxury and comfort, sensual pleasures and enjoyment. The Buddha later said of this time of his life "A white sunshade was held over me day and night so that no cold or heat or dust or grit or dew might inconvenience me". (Nanamoli 1995) 1.

Siddhartha had no knowledge about the life of his subjects and the difficulties and sorrows they experienced as a normal part of living. He never came into contact with elderly or sick people, the dead, or those who had decided to renounce the worldly life in favour of a spiritual path.

Siddhartha grew up as a healthy, gifted and handsome young man. At the age of sixteen he married his beautiful cousin Yasodhara who was princess of a neighbouring kingdom, and later they had one son together.

Even though Siddhartha lived with all the luxuries of the palace and an entourage of attendants he gradually became unsettled and wished to travel throughout his kingdom to know the life of his people.

Eventually his father consented to such a journey, but fearful that his son would encounter sights or experiences that would lead him toward the holy life, the king made arrangements to prepare the city for the royal tour to ensure that Siddhartha would only meet young and healthy people.

Yet as Siddhartha was passing through the capital Kapilavatthu, an old man happened to stumble out of his hut beside the road.

"When the prince saw the old man, he didn't know what he was looking at. It was the first time in his life that he had seen an old man of this type.

'What is that, Channa?" he asked his driver. That really cannot be a man! Why is he all bent? What is he trembling for? Why is his hair silver-grey, not black like mine? What is wrong with his eyes? Where are his teeth? Is this how some people are born? Tell me, oh good Channa, what does this mean?'

Channa told the prince that it was an old man and he was not born like that. "When young he was like us and now, due to his old age he has become this way." Channa told the prince to forget this man. But the prince was not satisfied. "Everyone in the world, if he lives long enough, becomes like this man. It cannot be stopped," said Channa.

The prince ordered Channa to drive back home at once, as he was very sad and wanted to think carefully about that terrible thing called old age."
2. Buddhanet

On three subsequent journeys outside the palace Siddhartha would see a sick person lying on the ground in agony, a dead body being cremated on a funeral pyre and finally he also saw a holy person, living the religious life of an ascetic.

Siddhartha's whole world had been turned upside down by the thunderbolt of these four visions of truth of which he had been unaware. He was consumed by the realisation that one day he too would be afflicted with sickness, old age and death and so would his loved ones.

That he would be separated through death from his wife and child, who he loved dearly, and that he knew of no way to avoid this tragedy for himself or others.

He wished to find out why there is suffering in life, why there is old age, sickness and death? He longed to find a way to help his loved ones and all beings by understanding suffering and finding an answer to it. Finding out the truth of these things became his vow and life quest. His renunciation of the worldly life became complete when he left the palace secretly one night to become an ascetic in search of the truth.

He travelled throughout India and visited many teachers and holy men. He studied and practiced what they taught him until he had mastered each of their teachings, even better than his teachers had mastered them.

Then, one after the other he left saying, in these teachings I have not found the truth I am seeking about why beings suffer and how they can escape from these sufferings of sickness, old age and death.

After 6 years of practicing as an ascetic Siddhartha had not discovered what he was looking for. His practice at that time involved renunciation of all worldly pleasures, refraining from taking food, water, bathing, cutting hair, speaking.

He practiced these austerities in the belief that he could become free of attachment to his body by extreme self-denial. He became so emaciated from such practices that he was near death.

One day a music teacher was teaching his student how to play a string instrument.  Siddhartha heard the teacher say "if you wind the string too tight it will break and if you have the string too loose, there will be no music".

On hearing these words, Siddhartha came to the realisation of the middle way of living - the path between extremes, it must be neither strict, nor undisciplined.

Siddhartha then decided to give up the extreme austerities he had been practicing and take proper food once again to recover his health and strength. He remembered once as a child he had sat under a tree and had the experience of observing his own breath. He remembered how his mind had become very calm, peaceful and clear in that concentrated state.

He decided that he would sit with his back against a large tree and not leave that meditation, even if his body wasted away, until he had found the answer to his quest, the attainment of the highest wisdom and perfect enlightenment.

Intense thoughts of desire, fear and attachment that entered his mind could not disturb his concentration on that evening and, eventually, his mind became very peaceful and bright.

In the early part of the night he began to recall his past lives in detail stretching back in time over an immense period, then he understood the absolute nature of impermanence of all things and the process of death and rebirth that occurs for all beings.

Finally, by the end of that full moon evening in May, the Buddha had discovered the cause of suffering and the path leading to the complete cessation of suffering. This was Siddhartha's Enlightenment as a Buddha, meaning an "awakened one".

The Buddha said that each person can find out the things that he had found out for themselves. He said that persons had to find out for themselves - that this is the only way to wake up, by seeing for yourself.. Only when you see for yourself do you have real wisdom.

He taught the method of what he had done, so others could follow in his footsteps and come to understand about the nature of the world.

The Buddha found that there was great suffering in the world - he was not talking about famine or war - he was talking about the reality that, we all must suffer through sickness, old age and death of ourselves and our loved ones. We must experience this great loss through out our lives - whether we are rich or poor, or whichever country we are born into. 

This is not only true for humans, but also for animals and heavenly beings, hell beings, demi-gods and ghosts. All beings in the six realms of existence experience loss through their life and death.

He found out that beings are always in this cycle of birth and death. That beings take birth in the six planes of existence - human, heavenly, hell, hungry ghost, demi-gods and animal.

Even gods in the highest heavens are themselves in this process of birth and death and, although their lives are extraordinarily long and peaceful, they too will eventually die and be reborn in another plane of existence. Buddha found out that wherever there is birth, there is death.

Nature shows us this impermanence of living, passing away and rebirth, if we can recognise it. A breath arises and then passes away, followed by a new breath arising and passing away. The life cycle of birth, passing away and death.

The sun arises in the sky in the morning and then passes away at dusk. The seasons come and pass away, we wake in the morning and at night we go to sleep, thoughts in our mind arise and then pass away. It is the impermanent true nature of life and the world. Rebirth follows death, life follows rebirth.

The Buddha discovered that just as there are physical laws relating to the behaviour of materiality in our universe so there are also mental laws, laws that relate to the behaviour and conditions of our minds.

He saw how the mental laws and conditions determine and drive our individual existences both within our present life and from life to life. One of these laws is the Law of Kamma.

"Everything is mind wrought" the Buddha said. "If with an impure mind one thinks or acts, suffering follows him like the wheel of a cart follows the hoof of the ox". "If with a pure mind one thinks or acts, happiness stays with him like one's never departing shadow".

Of the way out of suffering the Buddha had strived to know so diligently and finally understood, the cause of human suffering can be found in our mind's thirsts and attachments to the physical body and senses and in the illusions of worldly passion.

These thirsts and illusions when traced to their source, are found to be rooted in the intense cravings and desires of physical instincts. Desire, having a strong will to exist, as its basis, seeks that which it feels desirable, even if it is sometimes death. This is called the Truth of the Arising of Suffering.

If desire, which lies at the root of all human passion, can be removed, then passion will die out and all human suffering will be ended. This is called the Truth of the Cessation of Suffering.

To reach the state where there is no desire and no suffering, nirvana in the Sanskrit language, one must follow a path of training which the Buddha taught his many students over a period of 45 years until he passed away.

So, Buddhism is a system of practice that can lead one to enlightenment - realising the true nature of all things.

Buddha Dhamma is a system that gets one out of suffering by ending the cycle of birth and death.

In summary the Buddhist Path, known as the Noble Eightfold Path, is to firstly cultivate a generous kind nature towards other beings through the practice of giving and loving-kindness.

From a Buddhist perspective by helping others you bless them, but as a by-product you are certainly creating causes and conditions for your own well being and happiness, so you bless yourselves also.

In addition to the worldly benefits of service, developing generosity in the mind is an antidote to the greed, desire, craving and selfishness. Love and compassion are also developed in Buddhism towards all beings, as an antidote to callousness, indifference, hate, jealousy, and narrow mindedness.

The second training of the Buddhist Path is to develop a pure clean heart and mind through keeping moralities. There are five basic moralities a Buddhist layperson needs to keep decisively. They are all about treating others with kindness and dignity.

These precepts are, firstly, to not kill any living beings, including animal or insects. It is incongruous to be concerned for the welfare of living beings whilst at the same time inflicting suffering through killing even tiny living beings.

To not lie. In order for the mind to see the absolute truth about the way things are the mind has to stop distorting and twisting reality to suit itself by lying. The mind that lies can never perceive reality clearly, nor can it know the higher levels of knowledge and truth.

To not steal.  The kammic outcome of stealing is that a person will experience the loss of things they have worked hard to acquire.

To not commit sexual misconduct. This is to avoid producing emotional distress for oneself, and for others to whom we are emotionally related such as our partners, our children and our relatives. It is to avoid creating intense hatred and jealousy that can sometimes last for many years or invoke violence in the people effected.

The kammic outcome of breaking this precept is that a person will experience unstable relationships and family life at sometime in their future.

The fifth precept is to refrain from intoxicants that cloud the mind. The Buddhist Path brightens and clarifies the mind very powerfully so that in meditation insight into the true nature of reality can be experienced. Intoxicants have the exact opposite effect by dulling and clouding the mind.

These are not commandments proclaimed by the Buddha. It is up to us whether we choose to keep these precepts, or not. We will not be punished by someone else for breaking these precepts, however, we know the kammic outcome of breaking any of these five precepts is suffering for ourselves in the future.

These are some of the most powerful actions the Buddha identified that are direct causes of suffering to arise in the future.

Finally, the third part of the Buddhist training is through meditation.

The purpose of Buddhist meditation is really to understand the true nature of our mind by observing it directly. It's a bit like how a scientist understands something in his laboratory by using a microscope to observe it directly.

We can't examine the mind using an external piece of equipment because the mind has no physical form, however the mind can observe itself, through meditation.

There are of course different stages of meditation, the first being to develop mental calmness and concentration. To develop calmness in the mind like the surface of a still pond in which a reflection can be clearly seen.

Using a base of mental purity and mental calmness, the mind can become highly concentrated by focusing on the breath as an object of concentration.

Once the meditator has developed the right mental qualities, just like the scientist has adjusted his microscope correctly to put the object in focus, the mind can see clearly its own nature, contents and behaviour.

In other words you can really understand how your mind works. This is the key to understanding how we create our own happiness and suffering and is the method for the development of wisdom for oneself. 

Whilst this short "Introduction to Buddhism" has presented Buddhism from the viewpoint of overcoming suffering, it could also be presented as the path to perfect peace and happiness. There is a saying in Buddhism that goes something like, "better one day living in nirvana that a whole life of fleeting worldly pleasures".

Buddhism really is a path to securing a future of well being and happiness each for himself or herself.

May you be well and happy.

References

1. Bhikkhu Nanamoli. 1972. The Life of the Buddha., Published by the Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy, Sri Lanka. P.O. Box 61, No.54, Sangharaja Mawatha, Kandy, Sri Lanka.

2. The Buddha Dhamma Education Association and Buddhanet. The Four Sights: Old Age. Published by the Buddha Dhamma Education Association online at www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/buddhism/lifebuddha/7lbud.htm.

Bibliography

1. Carter, A. Halls, E. Nelson, L. O'Donnell, J. White, P. 2004. What is Buddha Dhamma? Buddhist Hour Radio Program (series), Script Number 313 (volume). Published by the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd, 33 Brooking Street, Upwey, Victoria 3158.

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