| Past Lifes of Sidharta Guama: | -Siddhartha, after enlightenment, recalls 550 past lives in Jatakas, illustrating his journey to perfection.
-Jatakas convey moral lessons in Mahayana and Theravada traditions.
-Layman walks on water to Jetavana, saved by thoughts of Buddha's virtues.
-Layman recalls a past life at sea with a barber during a shipwreck.
-Serpent-king transforms into a ship, offers passage to India to the layman but refuses the barber.
-Layman insists, sharing the fruits of his virtues for the barber's benefit.
-Sea-Spirit conveys them to Benares, creates wealth, advises to keep good company.
-Layman attains Nirvana; Sariputta is the Serpent-king, and Buddha is the ocean-god in this past life. |
| Buddha The Four signs: | -Before Gautama's birth, an ascetic predicts he will see four signs leading him to become the Buddha.
-King Suddhodana surrounds Gautama with pleasures to prevent him from seeing the signs.
-Despite efforts to shield him, Gautama encounters the four signs: an old man, a sick man, a dead man, and a monk.
-Each sight leads Gautama to contemplate the inevitability of aging, illness, death, and the pursuit of spiritual life.
-Gautama decides to renounce his princely life and become a monk after seeing the monk, symbolizing his journey towards enlightenment.
-Many others, inspired by Gautama, also renounce worldly life and become monks.
-Gautama seeks seclusion to contemplate the nature of suffering and the path to liberation from it. |
| Buddha The Four Noble Truths: | -Excerpt from Buddha's first sermon, known as the Benarus sermon, outlines essential Buddhist teachings.
-Buddha rejects two extremes: indulgence in sensual pleasures and extreme asceticism.
-Advocates the Middle Way, represented by the Noble Eightfold Path, leading to peace, wisdom, enlightenment, and Nirvana.
-Describes the Four Noble Truths: existence involves suffering, craving causes suffering, cessation of craving leads to the end of suffering, and the Noble Eightfold Path is the way to end suffering.
-Buddha attains clarity on these truths, achieves unsurpassed wisdom, and declares the immovability of his heart's emancipation.
-Asserts that this is his last existence, signaling the end of rebirth for him. |
| Buddha The non self: | -Buddhism emphasizes "anatman" or "non-self," rejecting the idea of a permanent soul or essence in individuals.
-Hinduism, in contrast, believes in "atman," an eternal self, part of the universal essence "brahman."
-Buddhism's non-attachment strategy involves recognizing impermanence in the five changing factors (skandhas) that constitute an individual.
-Western culture often prioritizes self-importance, but Buddhism sees the concept of self as a mistaken belief and promotes the idea of non-self.
-Five skandhas in Buddhism: form, perception, conception, volition, and consciousness, temporarily uniting to form an individual being.
-Authentic happiness, according to Buddhism, comes from transitioning from a focus on self to a state of non-self and realizing the delusional nature of personal identity.
-Buddhism teaches the ultimate goal of nirvana, a state of total liberation and renunciation of attractions and desires. |
| Buddhist ethics: | -The Eightfold Abstinence for householders includes:
1.Not killing or approving of killing.
2.Not stealing or taking what has not been given.
3.Practicing chastity and not engaging in sexual misconduct.
4.Not lying or causing others to lie.
5.Abstaining from intoxicating drinks.
6.Not eating at improper times.
7.Avoiding the use of perfumes and garlands.
8.Sleeping on simple bedding.
-Comparison with the Ten Commandments:
-Similarities include prohibitions against killing, stealing, lying, and adultery.
-Missing from the Eight Abstinences are commandments related to the worship of God, the sabbath, and honoring parents.
-The first four commandments in Exodus 20 focus on the relationship with God, which is not addressed in the Eightfold Abstinence.
-The inclusion of the first four commandments in Judeo-Christian ethics introduces a theistic dimension, emphasizing duties to God and setting a foundation for moral and ethical behavior based on divine command, distinct from the primarily ethical and practical approach of the Eightfold Abstinence. |
| Kisagotami Story: | -Kisagotami loses her son and seeks a cure to bring him back to life.
-Advised to find mustard seed from a house untouched by death, she realizes death has touched every home.
-Unable to find such a house, she understands the universality of death and buries her child.
-Buddha teaches her the impermanence of life, comparing it to lamps that light up and then extinguish.
-She learns that all living beings face death and only in Nirvana is there peace from this cycle. |
