style="font-size:15px;"> Chapter 1
Gautama Buddha: the Founder of Buddhism
In many countries and at various times there have been men who, dissatisfied with the conditions of their society or disappointed in their expectations, fled the bustle and deceptive pleasures' and wickedness of the world in order to seek in solitude or in sympathetic company quietude and peace of mind. Societies such as the Pythagorean and Orphic brotherhoods in Greece were among those who kept moral precepts and practical asceticism, but nowhere are conditions so favorable for the development of individual religious life as in India. The climate, institutions, the contemplative bent of the national mind, all tended to facilitate the growth of a persuasion that the highest aims of human life and real felicity cannot be obtained but by seclusion from the busy world, by undisturbed pious exercises and by a certain amount of mortification. It was not necessary to form a group or a community to struggle for existence since nature had abundantiy provided the inhabitants with natural resources, and little effort was required for those raising crops in the warm climate throughout the year. This accordingly led to an introspective life as each sought his own happiness and understanding of life.
For the Greeks who visited there, this highly indivisualistic life must have seemed strange. Strabon, a Greek geographist, who spent his life in India in the Christian era, reported thus: "They always take their meals alone; no lunch time is definitely fixed. They take meals as they wish. For the Polistic life, the opposite would be much better." The only tie that bound such self-centered individuals was the caste system, in which people were by birth classified into four classes, namely, Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaisya, and Sudra. No one could escape from this bond if he was born on the soil of India. Besides this, the social conditions of the Buddha's days were unstable: the small countries of Maghada, Kosala and others in Central India were in vie with each other. The evidence shows that in those days there was a great deal of loose living. The power of Brahmins was gradually declining, and the Kshatriya warrior class was dominant. Wondering ascetics vied for the ears of those who sought reality, and hermits were to be found in caves who taught their own spiritual experience. Animism, polytheism, daulism, and even advanced monism; all competed for authority, and within the mess of this society could be found no new hope for those who sincerely wished for spiritual salvation.
It was in these circumstances that historical Buddha was born in 560 B.C. as the son of King Suddhodana and Queen Maya. His real name was Gautama Siddhartha. His father was a ruler of Sakya clan in northern Magadha which was constantly threatened by the surrounding kingdoms. Therefore, his father was anxious to have a son who would succeed to his throne. One day, the astrologer predicted that the baby to be born would either become the future ruler or the Buddha. Queen Maya gave birth to her child at Lumbini Garden on her way to her parents' home. Legend tells us that when he was born he took seven steps and pointed to heaven with his right hand and to the earth with his left hand, and proclaimed, "Here I am who is destined to be the most honorable one on this earth." Since his mother passed away seven days after his birth, he was brought up by his step mother who spared no pains in the training of this future ruler. However, as he grew older, his keen sensitivity made him ponder over the sophisticated court life, and his uneasiness never ceased but rather intensified even though he was married to the beautiful Yasodhara when he was nineteen. When a son was born to him, he sighed and named his son Rahula the fetter. Legend also tells us that one day he stole out from the walled palace, and saw for the first time an old man, an ill man and a dead man. This horrible sight made him appreciate his deep sense of impermanence. In order to seek the truth, at the age of twenty-nine he decided to renounce the world, and left the palace one dark night leaving behind him all his worldly fame and luxury. He wondered around as mendicant practicing samadhi and asceticism for six years. However he could only gain an exhausted mind and an emancipated body. Thereafter he gave up his austere practices, and went to Gaya where he sat under a pipphala tree and vowed not to rise from deep contemplation till he attained enlightenment. Legend tells us that while he was in deep contemplation he was tempted by Mara, but unfettered he finally attained enlightment and became a Buddha, the Awakened One, at the age of thirty-five.
Gautama Buddha remained at Gaya for seven days and then started for the Grove of Deer Park at Saranath where he met a goup of five ascetics and delivered them the first sermon. The Buddha's disciples were multiplied in number, and their communities were formed as Samgha. Many monasteries were built at the cities such as Sravasti, Kausambi, Nalanda and Vaisali with the help of wealthy merchants and landlords. He sent his disciples to various parts of India and preached to the people according to their abilities and without making any distinction of caste or class. As water drawn into the parched earth so his teaching attracted the distressed people who were yearning for peace of mind. He left his footprints over almost all of the Central Ganges area of India.
At the close of forty-five years of missionary activity, Gautama Buddha went to Kusinagara where he felt the pangs of illness. He felt his death was approaching but his mind was calm because he knew that he had done what he had set out to do. He also knew that his teaching was universally valid and did not depend on the lives of its leaders. At his deathbed, he gave his final exhortations to Ananda and other disciples who had surrounded him: "Therefore, O Ananda, be ye lamps unto yourselves. Be ye a refuge unto yourselves. Hold fast to the truth as a lamp. Hold fast as a refuge to the Truth. Look not for a refuge to anyone besides yourselves. Decay is inherent in all component things. Work out, therefore, your salvation with diligence!" Leaving these last words behind him, Gautama Buddha peacefully passed away at the age of eighty.
Chapter 2
A Short History of Early
Buddhism in India
What Gautama Buddha taught to his disciples was the deliverance of oneself from the bondage of this illusioned world and the attainment of enlightenment which always entails death to the profane condition followed by a new birth. His teaching was therefore addressed to all suffering people regardless of whether they were ascetics or householders. However, he seemed to assert that rapid progress was to be gained in spiritual life which was only compatible with a retired life. He once said, "Now I tell you of the life which a householder should lead, of the manner in which a disciple should conduct himself. Such duties as are peculiar to the mendicants cannot be fulfilled by one who has a family." Many disciples were reported to abandon their past life and joined the Buddha's community which was known as Samgha. They thought that spiritual life could not be fulfilled in any existing form of society, and therefore formed a confraternity where they were relieved of care for food and lodging and could concentrate on their spiritual life. It should be noted, however, that there was a peculiarity of Buddhist Samgha distinguishing it from other religious orders, that is, everyone was accepted into its community regardless of whatever their ranks in their previous caste might have been. Since they were equally treated, they abandoned their family name and became a "son of the Buddha". In due course, such Buddhist Samgha were expanded as there were many more converts coming into the community, and they set up their own regulations, called Vinaya, in order to maintain it and propagate the Buddha's teaching more widely than ever. Although the Buddha held the life of a mendicant to be necessary for rapid progress toward deliverance from suffering, he highly honored the laity and received the same attention as the monks. After the passing away of the Buddha, however, there were some objections among the disciples to giving the same position to the laity. The Theravadin disciples wanted to possess the priviledges of attaining the Truth by themselves, but the disciples who belonged to the Northern school of Uttarapathaka admitted the laity to the same priviledges. In later years, this controversy gave rise to the development of Mahayana Buddhism in China and Japan in contrast to the traditional Theravada Buddhism which is prevalent in the South East Asian countries such as Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia.
Whichever the case may be, it was the Buddha's Samgha rather than his teaching which first insured for his religion its great vitality and its rapid spread, and which afterwards became a stronghold against the deep-rooted caste system of India. It naturally excited the hostility of the Brahmins and consequently was driven out from Indian soil.
