Buddhism was started by the adherents of Siddhartha Gautama (circa 563-483 BC). He was born into a Hindu family of the kshatriya caste in what is now called Nepal. At the age of 29, he left his wife and infant son and went in search of
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He achieved enlightenment some time later while sitting under a bodhi tree near Patna. After 49 days of rapture and resisting temptations (Mara), He, now called Buddha, created a group of monks and went forth to preach the word. After 45 years of preaching their philosophy of enlightenment Buddha died and reached Nirvana, the state in which ‘ideas and consciousness cease to exist’.
One of the most important concepts to Buddhists is the Tipitaka (the ‘Three Baskets’), which is a record of the Buddha’s doctrines as set down by His early followers after his death. The writings in these ‘three baskets’ tell the story of Buddha’s life (Buddha); record his laws (Dharma); and his guidelines for establishing and maintaining a monastic order (Sangha).
Buddhists believe in reincarnation and the wheel of life in a comparable fashion to Hindus. They also believe that this cycle of life, death and rebirth can be broken by attaining enlightenment. Enlightenment can be achieved by adherence to the Four Noble Truths.
Life is impermanent despite the cycle of life, death and rebirth and can only create suffering (dukka) because of the pursuit of mortal desires. Suffering and desire can just be conquered by achieving Nirvana, which can be achieved by following the Eightfold Path, otherwise known as the ‘Middle Way’.
The Middle Way consists of: right belief, thought, speech, action, livelihood, work, mindfulness and concentration. These make up the nucleus of Buddhist ethics.
A characteristic of Buddhism is the monastic order. Men can become monks for a couple of years or for life. There is also a female monastic order. In some sects, boys go into a monastery for a period of between a couple of weeks and a couple of months as part of their passage into adulthood. Boys in Thailand are expected to be monks for a number of weeks before they eventually get married.
Monks live an ascetic life in monasteries or temples. Each village has a temple in much the same way as western villages have a church, but each temple tries to uphold a population of at least nine monks, which is considered the ideal number for some of their duties like blessing a house or performing a wedding ceremony.
Buddhist monks live on alms given by the local villagers. In Thailand the young monks walk the streets in the early morning collecting donations of food, which has to be consumed before midday, after which they may not eat. Monks are not permitted any contact with women at all. They may not even sit next to them on a bus or give the fare to a female bus conductress.
Buddhist temples are primarily
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