Buddhism Essay -- essays research papers

Buddhism     Buddhism, integrity of the major religions of the knowledge domain, was founded by Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, who lived in northern India from 560 to 480 B.C. The time of the Buddha was one of social and religious change, tag by the further advance of Aryan Civilization into the Ganges Plain, the information of trade and cities, the breakdown of old tribal structures, and the rise of a complete spectrum of refreshful religious movements that responded to the demands of the multiplication (Conze 10). These movements were derived from the Brahmanic tradition of Hinduism but were also reactions against it. Of the new sects, Buddhism was the most successful and eventually spread throughout India and most ofAsia.      directly it is common to divide Buddhism into two main branches. The Theravada, or "Way of the Elders," is the more(prenominal) conservative of the two it is dominant in Sri Lanka, Burma, and Thailand (Berry 23). The Mahayana, or "Great Vehicle," is more diverse and liberal it is found mainly in Taiwan, Korea, and Japan, and among Tibetan peoples, where it is autocratic by its emphasis on the Buddhist Tantras (Berry 24). In recent times both branches, as well as Tibetan Buddhism, have gained followers in the West.     It is virtually impossible to tell what the Buddhist population of the world is today statistics argon difficult to obtain because persons power have Buddhist beliefs and engage in Buddhist rites while maintaining folk or opposite religions such as Shinto, Confucian, Taoist, and Hindu (Corless 41). Such persons might or might not call themselves or be counted as Buddhists. Nevertheless, the number of Buddhists global is frequently estimated at more than 300 million (Berry 32).     Just what the passkey teaching of the Buddha was is a matter of some debate. Nonetheless, it may be state to have centered on certain basic doctrines. The first of the iv Noble Truths, the Buddha held, is suffering, or duhkha. By this, he meant not only that compassionate existence is occasionally painful but that all beings humans, animals, ghosts, hell- beings, even the gods in the heavens are caught up in samsara, a cycle of rebirth, a maze of suffering in which their actions, or karma, keep them wandering (Coomaraswamy 53).     Samsara ... ...bsp  The purport of Zen monasticism is the practice of meditation it is this feature that has been most popular in Zens spread to the West. Zen meditation highlights the experience of enlightenment, or satori, and the possibility of attaining it in this life. The strict training of Zen monks, the daily physical chores, the constant hand-to-hand struggle with koans, the long hours of sitting in meditation, and the special intensive periods of practice, or sesshin, are all directed toward this end.     At the same time, e nlightenment is generally model of as being sudden. The meditator needs to be jolted awake, and the only one who can do this is his Zen master (Davids 113). The master-adherent relationship often involves mysterious interviews in which the Zen trait of unconventionality sometimes comes to the fore the master depart allow no refuge in the Buddha or the sutras but demands from his disciple a direct answer to his assigned koan (Davids 114). Conversely, the master may cock up the disciple by remaining silent or compassionately serving him out, but with the constant aim of trying to cause a uncovering from conventional to absolute truth (Corless 131).