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Siddhartha Gotama, "The Great Wayshower," lived in the
sixth century BCE in the Hindu
culture of an area near modern Nepal. After six years as a Hindu
ascetic, Siddhartha renounced asceticism after discovering that
clear-mindfulness, not the pain of ascetic practice,
is the key to spiritual understanding. He sought a new kind
of awareness characterized by mastery over all emotions - a
sharp, clear awareness that is unswayed by self-interest. The
term "Buddha" came to refer to one who has relinquished all
clinging to concerns related to space and time, thus transcending
individualized existence.
Buddhism's
Path to Enlightenment has three aspects: Sila (morality),
Samadhi (concentrated meditation), & Panna (liberating
insight). Nirvana is the highest good and the ultimate
goal: the key to Nirvana is within oneself, not in ritual. Karma
is the accumulated sum of one's deeds: fate is the result of
these deeds throughout former lives, so each person always deserves
what occurs.
About
two centuries after Gotama Buddha's death in the early fifth
century BCE, King Ashoka converted to Buddhism, thus solidly
establishing this religion in India.
However, by the ninth century CE (over 1,000 years later), Buddhism
had disappeared in India, giving way to Hindu bhakti movements,
Jainism, & Islam.
Theravada ("teaching of the elders") Buddhism, the most traditional
form of Buddhism, migrated to Southeast Asia (what is now Burma,
Thailand, and nearby countries). Mahayana ("great and grand
way") Buddhism expanded the role of the non-monk and migrated
to Central Asia, Tibet, and China,
though this process had begun as early as the first century
CE.
In
China, Buddhism took two main forms: Pure Land (or Western paradise)
Buddhism, and Taoist-influenced
Ch'an, later known as Zen in Japan. Entering Japan in the sixth
century from Korea, Buddhism co-opted the Shinto
deities (known as kami). Within Japan, Buddhism splintered into
many varieties such as Shingon ("True World"), Tendai
("original Enlightenment"), as well as Pure Land, Zen and
Nichiren Buddhism.
In
the twentieth century, Japanese Buddhism, especially Zen, would
export its ideas to the western world. Many people have been
attracted by Buddhism's non-doctrinal and existential emphasis
on meditation, insight and the search for the "beyond that is
within."
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