Resumo de Basics Of Buddhism - The Buddha - http://buddhism.about.com/cs/fournobletruths/a/Basics.htm

The BuddhaThe Buddha was bornover 2500 years ago in Lumbini (in Nepal). He was born into a wealthyfamily and until the age of 29 lived a life of luxury and pleasure. He came torealize, however, that such pleasure was temporary and would never bring himlasting happiness. Whatever happiness you found in life would eventually beundermined by old age, sickness and death.So the Buddha lefthis life in his father's palace, his own wife and child and became a wanderingmendicant, bent on finding a way that would lead him to perfect contentment andpeace. For six years, sometimes working with other seekers, sometimes alone, heexperimented with various practices, often starving the body in the belief thatby ignoring his bodily needs, his spiritual faculties would be enhanced. Heachieved some measure of success but not the ultimate peace he was seeking.Then he recalled a time in his youth when sitting under a rose-apple tree hehad experienced a moment of illumination which had nothing to do with harmingthe body at all. And so he took another direction, realizing that what hesought did not rely on starving the body. At the age of thirty-five he came toa place called Bodh Gaya and sat beneath a tree, determined not to get up untilhe had attained enlightenment. As he meditated, he came to understand thenature of existence and a path that led to release from the inherent sufferingwe all experience. He also saw that we are all born many times and theconditions we are born into are depend on our deeds - good actions leading tohappy states, bad deeds leading to unhappy ones. He also realized that the ideaof a permanent self or soul was an illusion. The Buddha now had a choice.Should he share his teaching with the world - a teaching that he believed manywould not understand - or keep it to himself? Out of compassion, the Buddhachose the former and soon began teaching to all those who were willing to listen.For the next forty-five years or so, he lived as a wandering monk, amassingmany followers. He died at the age of eighty, leaving the followinginstruction: 'Strive on with diligence?. The Buddha was not a God and did notprofess to be one. He was a very special human being who succeeded in finding away to end suffering. Buddhism is often referred to as a religion without aGod. This is true. Buddhism does have a cosmological dimension but the supremefigure is the Buddha rather than a god or gods

Resumos Relacionados