Lots of people have misconceptions about Buddhism. Below are a few facts most people manage to get wrong.
1) Siddhartha Gautama never traveled outside India but his teachings did. Siddhartha Gautama would have been a spiritual teacher in Ancient India who founded Buddhism. You will need to keep in mind that he would have been a Vedic Brahman (Hindu by today’s standards) so many of his ideas were originally the main ancient traditional religions with the local historical period. He could be considered to have lived from around 563 BCE to around 483 BCE while he is known to get died at Eighty years old. He traveled and taught along the Ganges River Valley starting near his home, near what is now Nepal.
2) He or she is also known as Shakyamuni Buddha, or the Prince in the Shakyas, due to Ssakya Mountain Range which was his father’s (King Suddhodana) kingdom. He came to be a prince but decided to turn into a holy man. He grew up in wealth and shielded from the outside world but became inquisitive about what people’s lives beyond your palace could possibly be like. Many legends surround his birth, but everything is actually known is that his mother was likely to have died in childbirth or soon (days) afterwards. His father was warned after that his birth he would be a great military leader or perhaps a great spiritual leader. His father, the king, had their own ideas of what was proper for Siddhartha, but, at about 29 years, with the help his charioteer, he escaped the palace walls and ventured outside to discover what life was like for some individuals. He witnessed the end results of old age, sickness, and saw a corpse, making him mindful of death. Finally, he saw an ascetic. Siddharha’s charioteer explained how the ascetic was one that had renounced the entire world and sought release from fear of death and suffering.
3) Buddhism began by Siddhartha to be able to end the suffering (dissatisfaction) of most human beings. He realized the fact that we all have been impermanent and went on the spiritual hunt for enlightenment. He studied with the best teachers of religion and philosophy that he can find at that time and learned how you can meditate but decided that somehow wasn’t enough for him.
4) The very center Way: He still had much to find out and ventured into the ascetics of that time period to follow along with however in time found that the extremes that they can endured weren’t doing work for him. He followed their ways of self inflicting pain and enduring it, fasting until he was weak, and holding his breath. It didn’t satisfy him as he decided this was the next ego inflating approach to self-gratification, proving one’s self through self-abuse. He made a decision to turn using their strict abeyance to rules about starving one’s self and eating unclean things, while he realized although need strength to continue his quest, so he developed what is known “the middle way”. When his disciples saw that he wasn’t following a way they thought necessary, they thought we would leave him. He left and decided to sit with a sacred fig tree until he previously discovered the result. The tree was the fact that was considered a sacred fig tree near Bodh Gaya, the tree being named later, the Bodhi Tree. From Wikipedia * “…The Bodhi Tree, also referred to as Bo (from your Sinhalese Bo), would have been a large and intensely old Sacred Fig tree (Ficus religiosa) in Bodh Gaya (about 100 km (62 mi) from Patna from the Indian state of Bihar), to which SiddhÄÂrtha Gautama, the spiritual teacher and founding father of Buddhism later generally known as Gautama Buddha, is considered to get achieved enlightenment, or Bodhi….”
5) His Awakening: In their deep condition of meditation (samadhi) stay he became enlightened when he rose from his deep meditation, he asserted that he’d some solutions to the questions he had sought. He imparted the wisdom with the four noble truths and the eightfold path which come in order for a reason. Without the previous, the rest would be impossible to realize. 6)Some Noble Truths
1) Suffering (dukkha) does exist. (All humans suffer during birth, pain, sickness, and death.
2) The cause of suffering is desire. All of us have desires which might be either selfish or unrealistic. This really is considered “delusional”.
3) There exists a approach to reach cessation of suffering.
4) The cessation of suffering comes through practicing the eightfold path. (Freedom from suffering can be done by practicing the Eightfold Path.)
7) The Eightfold Path
1) Right View Wisdom
2) Right Intention Wisdom
3) Right Speech Ethical Conduct
4) Right Action Ethical Conduct
5) Right Livelihood Ethical Conduct
6) Right Effort Mental Development
7) Right Mindfulness Mental Development
8) Right Concentration/Meditation Mental Development
8) Buddhist Principles: By striving towards the right thing one lessens selfish desire, therefore reaching a state of happiness internally that is not dependent on conditional circumstances. Mindfulness in all things is a key ingredient. If one understands that any tangible thing that we desire is impermanent and ceases to be “attached” to these things that we cannot keep, then one becomes more at peace. We can not become attached to any views since we will become passionate about this and when circumstances change, our view will no longer be important or pertinent.
9) Buddhism is not a self help program: Beware of those who call themselves a master or try to sell you “enlightenment”. There are many books and centers out there which try to use words like enlightenment” that is something that actually has to be attained personally, it can’t be given or taught in a paint by the numbers program that promises some things. First, the word enlightenment is not used in any of the texts from Siddhartha Gautama was concerned that people might rush into this without understanding and this would lead to repeating traditional ceremonies without understanding, which will lead to disappointment because of the lack of benefit from practice. Do not come to an understanding of Buddhism lightly or quickly, take your time and be sure. This will take investigation. Investigate completely, any facets that you don’t understand until it makes sense. Also, practice with others and a good teacher are the best method of learning.
10) Buddhism IS A RELIGION: It disturbs some Buddhists that some people feel that Buddhism is just a philosophy. Some people feel there has to be a main book or one religious deity to worship in order for a religion to be real. Most modern practitioners of Buddhism see that all religions are filled with mythology and they understand that most deities and mythological objects in Buddhism are analogies for science and nature or our own mental make up that early man could not explain. Some practitioners, especially in Asia, still believe in the physical existence of some of these objects and deities. We have to remember that early Buddhist teachings came from Siddhartha Gautama in India, who was a Vedic Brahman. It then traveled across Asia to China where it adapted to Confucianism, which relied strongly on Filial Piety. It then traveled through to Japan, where it adapted to Shinto, which is still practiced side by side with Buddhism in Japan. Buddhism was created to adapt to all other learning. Siddhartha Gautama likened it to “a raft to get to the other side” in a parable he taught. “The Parable of The Raft ” When speaking to his followers Gautama Buddha said, “When you come to a river and the current is too fast to allow you to swim across and there is no bridge then you might decide to build a raft. If after crossing the river you would have some choices as to what to do with the raft. a) You could tie it to the bank to be used by someone else later. b) You could set it afloat for someone else to find. c) You could say to yourself, “What a wonderful raft”, and then pick it up and carry it around on top of your head from now on. Which would be proper use of the raft? Buddhism is practiced in most countries around the world, although Buddhists make up only about 7% of the world’s religious population. Only a few modern Buddhist sects use an evangelical approach, trying to convert everyone around them. Most Buddhists refrain from trying to propagate their religion to anyone who doesn’t seek it.
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