Transcript The History of Buddhism

The History of Buddhism
Ms. Ansari
March 1st, 2013
History of the Buddha
• Buddhism has its roots in northern India and
Hinduism
• It is a reformed version of Hinduism
• The founder, Siddhartha Gautama, is believed to
be the 9th avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu
The Life of the Buddha
• Around 400 BCE, Siddhartha Gautama was born
as a prince of a small Hindu kingdom
• A wise man prophesied that the young prince
would become either a great king or a great
saviour (religious leader)
• If the child was exposed to suffering, he would
follow the spiritual path
• Siddhartha’s father wanted him to become a
great king, so he tried to shelter him from the
suffering
The Life of the Buddha Continued
• Siddhartha married at the age of 16 and was on
his way to political leadership
• But he took a journey that exposed him to
suffering and ultimately led to the creation of
Buddhism
• When he was approximately 35 years old, he gave
his first sermon, called the Wheel of Dharma –
that explained what people must do to release
themselves from suffering
• The Buddha continued to teach until he was 80 –
during that time the Buddha taught mainly through
the use of stories
• However, his teachings were not written down during
his lifetime – in fact, they were first written down
400 years later by his followers
Suffering
• Siddhartha did not know what suffering was until
he saw a man in great pain, and a dead man whose
family was weeping over him
• Curious about learning what to do to release
oneself from suffering, he left his wife and
newborn son to become a religious ascetic and look
for answers
• Definition - Ascetic: someone who practices severe
self-discipline or abstains from physical pleasures
for religious purposes
• Siddhartha travelled from teacher to teacher with
5 companions for 6 years, but failed to find
Enlightenment
Siddhartha Becomes the Buddha
• He came to the realization that neither way of living
would allow him to reach Enlightenment
• He thought he would find a thoughtful, balanced way
to live
• He resolved to sit in meditation until he attained
Enlightenment
• For 49 days, he engaged in meditation
• He finally reached Enlightenment and became the
Buddha
Siddhartha Stays to Spread the News
• Instead of immediately entering Nirvana, the
Buddha decided to remain on Earth to share his
insights
• He accepted disciples (male and female) and
converted his five ascetic companions, who
became his first monks
The Spread of Buddhism
• As Buddhism spread, different groups began to
emphasize different teachings
• This led to the development of two main groups:
– Mahayana Buddhists
– Theravada Buddhists
• Some ‘Buddhist countries’ are ruled by governments
that do not approve of the teachings of Buddhism,
and this makes it very difficult to know how many
Buddhists are in the world
• What also makes it hard to count the number of
Buddhists is that many do not attend temples, but
pray in shrines in their homes.