Gautama Buddha
"Siddhartha" redirects here. For other uses, see Siddhartha (disambiguation)."Gautama" redirects here. For other uses, see Gautama (disambiguation).Gautama Buddha () was a
spiritual teacher in the ancient
Indian subcontinent and the historical founder of
Buddhism. He is universally recognised by
Buddhists as the Supreme
Buddha of our age. The time of his
birth and
death are unclear, but most modern scholars have him living between approximately
563 BCE and
483 BCE.[
1] By tradition, he was born with the name
() and, after a
quest for the
truth behind
life and death, underwent a transformative spiritual change that led him to claim the name of Buddha. He is also commonly known as
(, "sage of the
clan") and as the
("thus-come-one" or "thus-gone-one").
Gautama is the key figure in
Buddhism, and accounts of his life, discourses, and
monastic rules were summarized after his death and memorized by the
. Passed down by
oral tradition, the
, the collection of discourses attributed to Gautama, was committed to
writing about 400 years later.
As few of the details of the Buddha's life can be independently verified, it is difficult to gauge the historical accuracy of the these accounts. The main sources of information on Siddhārtha Gautama's life are the earliest available
Buddhist texts. The following is a summary of those narratives.
Conception and birth
According to
tradition, Siddhārtha was born more than 200 years before the reign of the
Maurya king
Aśoka.
His
mother dreamt one night that an
elephant with six tusks and a head the colour of rubies came down from the highest
heaven and entered her womb on the right side. Eight
Brahmins told her husband that the child would be holy and achieve perfect
wisdom. Later, she entered the garden of Lumbini with her attendants and walked beneath the Sal|Śālā tree, which bent down. The queen took hold of the branch and looked up to the heavens. At that moment, Siddhārtha was born out of her side. He immediately took seven steps towards each quarter of heaven, and at each step a lotus flower sprang up. He then declared he would have no more births, that this was his last body and he would pluck out by the roots sorrow caused by birth and death.
Siddhārtha was born in
Lumbini,
Nepal, under the
full moon of the sixth
lunar month, in the spring. His father was
Śuddhodana (Pāli Suddhodana), of the
Kṣatriya varṇa, was the chief (
rājā, or king) of the Śākya nation, one of several ancient tribes on the margins of the growing state of
Kośala (
Pāli Kosala). His mother was
Māyādevī, King Sudhodhana's wife.
The day of the Buddha's birth is widely celebrated in Buddhist countries as
Vesak. Gautama was born a
prince, destined to a luxurious life, with three palaces. All traditions agree that the Buddha's mother died at his birth or a few days later. During the
birth celebrations, the
seer Asita announced that this baby would either become a great king (
chakravartin) or a great
holy man. His father, King Śuddhodana, wishing for Gautama to be a great king, shielded his son from
religious teachings or
knowledge of human
suffering.
|
Birth of Buddha at Lumbini |
While later tradition and legend characterized Śuddhodana as a
hereditary monarch, the
descendant of the Solar Dynasty of , many
scholars believe that Śuddhodana was the elected chief of a tribal confederacy. Since Siddhārtha belonged to the Śākya clan, he came to be known as
Śākyamuni ("sage of the Śākyas"), with "
Muni" meaning "sage who is still".
Marriage
When the young Prince Siddhartha Gautama was still a
baby, an
ascetic named Kaladevala went into the heaven of the
Thirty-three gods and predicted that the young prince would become the Buddha. As the boy reached the age of 16, his father arranged his marriage to
Yaśodharā (
Pāli: Yasodharā), a cousin of the same age. In time, she gave birth to a son,
Rahula. Gautama spent 29 years of his life as a prince in Kapilavastu, a place now situated in Nepal. Although his father ensured that Gautama was provided with everything he could want or need, Gautama was troubled and dissatisfied.
The Great Departure
|
The Four Heavenly Messengers |
While venturing outside of his palace, Gautama saw an old crippled man (
old age), a
diseased man (
illness), a decaying
corpse (
death), and an
ascetic. These four scenes are referred to as the
four sights, or the four heavenly messengers (
Pali:
devaduta). Gautama was inspired by these sights -- he sought to overcome old age, illness, and death by living the life of an ascetic. Gautama soon left his home, his possessions, and his entire family at age 29, to take up the lonely life of a wandering
monk.
Abandoning his inheritance, he dedicated his life to learning how to overcome suffering. He
meditated with two hermits, and, although he achieved high levels of meditative consciousness, he was still not satisfied with his path.
Gautama then chose the robes of a
mendicant monk and headed to
Magadha in what is today
Bihar in
India. He began his training in the
ascetic life and practicing vigorous techniques of
physical and
mental austerity. Gautama proved quite adept at these practices, and surpassed even his teachers.
However, he found no answer to his questions. Leaving behind his caring teachers, he and a small group of close companions set out to take their austerities even further. Gautama tried to find enlightenment through complete deprivation of worldly goods, including
food, and became a complete
ascetic. After nearly
starving himself to death (some sources claim that he nearly drowned), Gautama began to reconsider his path. Then, he remembered a moment in childhood in which he had been watching his father start the season's plowing, and he had fallen into a naturally
concentrated and focused state that was blissful and refreshing.
After leaving
After discarding asceticism and concentrating on
meditation, Gautama discovered what Buddhists call the
Middle Way—a path of moderation away from the extremes of
self-indulgence and
self-mortification. He accepted a little rice pudding from a village girl named
Sujata. Then, sitting under a
pipal tree, now known as the
Bodhi tree in
Bodh Gaya, he vowed never to arise until he had found the Truth. At the age of 35, he attained
Enlightenment; according to some traditions, this occurred approximately in May, and according to others in December. Gautama, from then on, was known as "The Perfectly Self-Awakened One", the
Samyaksambuddha (
Pāli:
Sammāsambuddha).
He stated that he had realized complete Awakening and insight into the nature and cause of human suffering which was ignorance, along with steps necessary to eliminate it. These truths were then categorized into the
Four Noble Truths; the state of supreme liberation—possible for any being—was called
Nirvana.
According to one of the stories in the
Āyācana Sutta (Samyutta Nikaya VI.1), a scripture found in the
Pāli and other
canons, immediately after his Enlightenment, the Buddha was wondering whether or not he should teach the
Dharma. He was concerned that, as human beings were overpowered by greed, hatred and delusion, they would not be able to see the true
dharma, which was subtle, deep and hard to understand. However, a divine spirit,
Brahmā Sahampati, interceded and asked that he teach the
dharma to the world, as "there will be those who will understand the
Dharma". With his great compassion, the Buddha agreed to become a teacher.
At the Deer Park near
Vārāṇasī (Benares) in northern India, he set in motion the
Wheel of Dharma by delivering his first sermon to the group of five companions with whom he had previously sought enlightenment. They, together with the Buddha, formed the first
, the company of Buddhist monks.
The Buddha emphasized that he was not a
god, he was simply enlightened. He stated that there is no intermediary between mankind and the
divine; distant gods are subjected to
karma themselves in decaying heavens; and the Buddha is solely a guide and teacher for the sentient beings who must tread the path of
Nirvāṇa (Pāli: Nibbāna) themselves to attain the spiritual awakening called
bodhi and see truth and reality as it is. The Buddhist system of insight, thought, and
meditation practice was not revealed divinely, but by the understanding of the true nature of the
mind, which could be discovered by anybody.
For the remaining 45 years of his life, the Buddha traveled in the
Gangetic Plain of Northeastern
India, teaching his doctrine and discipline to an extremely diverse range of people— from nobles to street
outcaste sweepers, including many adherents of rival philosophies and religions. The Buddha founded the community of Buddhist monks and nuns (the
Sangha) to continue the dispensation after his
Parinirvāna (Pāli: Parinibbāna) or "complete Nirvāna", and made thousands of converts. His religion was open to all races and classes and had no
caste structure. On the other hand, Buddhist texts record that he was reluctant to ordain women as nuns: he eventually accepted them on the grounds that their capacity for enlightenment was equal to that of men (and the
Lotus Sutra, in Chapter 12, contains a description of the dragon king's daughter attaining enlightenment in her present body), but he gave them certain additional rules (
Vinaya) to follow.
The Great Passing
According to the
Mahaparinibbana Sutta of the Pali canon, at the age of 80, the Buddha announced that he would soon enter
Parinirvana or the final deathless state abandoning the earthly body. After this, the Buddha ate his last meal, which, according to different translations, was either a mushroom delicacy or soft pork, which he had received as an offering from a blacksmith named
Cunda. Falling violently ill, Buddha instructed his attendant
Ānanda to convince
Cunda that the meal eaten at his place had nothing to do with his passing and that his meal would be a source of the greatest merit.
Ananda protested Buddha's decision to enter Parinirvana in the abandoned jungles of
Kuśināra (Pāli: Kusināra) of the
Mallas. Buddha, however, reminds Anand how Kushinara was a land once ruled by a righteous king that resounded with joy:
:44. ''"Kusavati, Ananda, resounded unceasingly day and night with ten sounds -- the trumpeting of elephants, the neighing of horses, the rattling of chariots, the beating of drums and tabours, music and song, cheers, the clapping of hands, and cries of
'Eat, drink, and be merry!'
Buddha then asked all the attendant
Bhikshus to clarify any doubts or questions they had. They had none. He then finally entered Parinibbana. The Buddha's final words were, "All composite things pass away. Strive for your own salvation with diligence." The Buddha's body was cremated and the
relics were placed in monuments or
stupas, some of which are believed to have survived until the present. (For example, "The Temple of the Tooth" or "Dalada Maligawa" in Sri Lanka is the place where the right tooth relic of Buddha is kept at present.)
According to the Pāli historical chronicles of Sri Lanka, the
and
, the coronation of
Aśoka (Pāli: Asoka) is 218 years after the death of Buddha. According to one Mahayana record in Chinese (十八部論 and 部執異論), the coronation of Aśoka is 116 years after the death of Buddha. Therefore, the time of Buddha's passing is either 486 BCE according to Theravāda record or 383 BCE according to Mahayana record. However, the actual date traditionally accepted as the date of the Buddha's death in Theravāda countries is
544 or
543 BCE, because the reign of Aśoka was traditionally reckoned to be about 60 years earlier than current estimates (based on Aśoka's own inscriptions, and therefore among the soundest dates in early Indian history).
The Buddha as presented in the Buddhist scriptures is notable for such characteristics as:
*A comprehensive education and training in those fields appropriate to a warrior aristocrat, such as
martial arts,
agricultural management, and
literature, and also a deep understanding of the religious and philosophical ideas of his culture.
*Athletic and fit throughout his life, competent in martial arts such as
chariot combat,
wrestling, and
archery, and later easily hiking miles each day and camping in the wilderness. Images of a fat "Jolly Buddha" or
Laughing Buddha are actually depictions of either
Maitreya the future Buddha (
Chinese Mile Fo), or a 10th century Chinese monk, Budai Heshang (
Japanese Hotei)
*A superb teacher, with a fine grasp of the appropriate
metaphors, and tailoring his teachings to the audience at hand.
*Fearless and unworried at all times, whether dealing with religious debators, royalty, or murderous outlaws. He was never past exasperation when monks of his order misrepresented his teachings.
*Temperate in all bodily appetites. He lived a completely celibate life from age 29 until his death. He was indifferent to hunger and environmental conditions.
Buddha is perhaps one of the few sages for whom we have mention of his rather impressive physical characteristics. He was at least six feet tall and had a strong enough body to be noticed by one of the kings and was asked to join his army as a general.Although the Buddha was not represented in human form until around the
1st century CE (see
Buddhist art), his physical characteristics are described in one of the central texts of the traditional
Pali canon, the
Digha Nikaya. They help define the global aspect of the historical Buddha, his physical appearance is described by Buddha's wife to his son
Rahula upon Buddha's return in the scripture of the "Lion of Men":
"Like the full moon is His face; He is dear to Gods and men; He is like an elephant amongst men; His gait is graceful as that of an elephant of noble breed.That, indeed, is your father, lion of men.
"He is of
Aryan (aristocratic nobility) lineage, sprung from the
Kshatriya caste; His feet have been honoured by Gods and men; His mind is well established in morality and concentration.That, indeed, is your father, lion of men.
"Long and prominent is His well-formed nose, His eye-lashes are like those of a heifer; His eyes are extremely blue; like a rainbow are His deep blue eyebrows. (The word used is
adhi nila (), meaning "very blue",
nila () is used for the word blue sapphire.)That, indeed, is your father, lion of men.
"Round and smooth is His well-formed neck; His jaw is like that of a lion; His body is like that of king of beast; His beautiful skin is of bright golden colour. That, indeed is your father, lion of men."
Interpretations may vary, and the reliability of the
Sutras may be questioned. The description above is indicative of a typically
Indo-Aryan body type. This can also be related to the tradition describing the historic Buddha as a member of the Indian
Kshatriya warrior caste.
The teachings of the Buddha are covered in the articles on
Buddhism and
Buddhist philosophy. While there is disagreement amongst various
Buddhist sects over more esoteric aspects of Buddha's teachings and over
disciplinary rules for monks, there is generally agreement over these points:
* The
Four Noble Truths: that suffering is an inherent part of existence; that the origin of suffering is ignorance and the main symptoms of that ignorance are attachment and craving; that attachment and craving can be ceased; and that following the
Noble Eightfold Path will lead to the cessation of attachment and craving and therefore suffering.
* The
Noble Eightfold Path: right understanding, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration.
* The concept of
dependent origination: that any phenomenon 'exists' only because of the ‘existence' of other phenomena in a complex web of cause and effect covering time past, present and future. Because all things are thus conditioned and transient (
anicca), they have no real independent identity (
anatta).
* Rejection of the
infallibility of accepted
scripture: Teachings should not be accepted unless they are borne out by our experience and are praised by the wise.
*
Anicca (Sanskrit:
anitya): That all things are impermanent.
*
Anatta (Sanskrit:
anātman): That the perception of a constant "
self" is an illusion.
*
Dukkha (Sanskrit:
duḥkha): That all beings suffer from all situations due to unclear mind.
Hinduism
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Some adherents of Hinduism regard Buddha (bottom right) as one of the 10 avatars of Vishnu |
"The Hindu system of philosophy would have lost much of their depth, interest and value, if they could not assimilate much from Buddhism, and if they were not forced to take an independent stand by its side.''
I yield to none in my profound respect for the great teacher Sankara, but a careful analysis of his writings demonstrate indisputably that he largely borrowed his doctrine, his phraseology, his dialectics and his method of approach from Buddhism. Not only Sankara but many of his followers like Sri Harsha, Ananda Janana and others who have constructed the
Vedānta into a rational system of philosophy deliberately followed the footsteps of Nagarjuna and other Buddhist writers."
(Dr. S. N. Dasgupta, Principal, Sanskrit College, Calcutta)
Contrary to most Buddhists, some
Hindu denominations on the basis of the
s of later Hinduism regard Buddha as the ninth avatar of
, and the general decline of Buddhism in India has been attributed to the development of
Vedānta philosophy, which began challenging Buddhism's philosophically strong image. There are accounts of the Buddha as an incarnation of that are pro- and anti-
Buddhist (see
Buddha as an Avatar of Vishnu. That is to say, either that "really meant" what he said while incarnated as Buddha or that he was intentionally tricking those who follow unorthodox doctrines. In some, the Buddha has been described in a manner that many Buddhists find unacceptable, as the texts say that had taken the Buddha incarnation to "mislead" the "demons" from the true
Vedic path by deliberately propagating a false religion. The term
nirvana was popularized by the Buddha and his followers, as Hindu scriptures generally concentrate instead on the principle of
Brahman and
Moksha. Hindus claim Parinirvana, in Hinduism is known as Mahasamadhi -- this is incorrect as Vedic Dharma never went past Brahma Viharas of the Buddhists. Buddhism is different from Hinduism, in which the Nirvana is Brahma-Nirvana.
The Buddha in some Hindu scriptures is referred to as a "Nastik", since he did not give preeminence to the Vedas. However, it was the most well-known Buddhist scholar Rahula Vipola, who wrote that the Buddha was trying to shed the true meaning of the Vedas. Buddha is said to be a knower of the Veda (vedajña) or of the Vedanta (vedântajña) (Sa.myutta, i. 168); Sutta Nipâta, 463)
Although many Hindus claim that Buddha Dharma all but disappeared as it was taught by Buddha from India, Buddha's message continued and continues to influence Indians to this day. Some of the most prominent Indian thinkers, religious and political reformers and revolutionaries of modern India, from all backgrounds, continued to be influenced by his message:
Buddha is the ideal karma yogi... acting entirely without motive, and the history of humanity shows him to have been the greatest man ever born, beyond compare, the greatest combination of Head & Heart that ever existed.
Swami Vivekananda[http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Olympus/5208/karmayoga/ideal.html]"Of all the persons that have walked on this earth, I have the greatest regard for Gautama Buddha."
Satyendra Nath Bose[http://www.calcuttaweb.com/people/snbose.shtml]The teachings of the Buddha now form an integral part of Hinduism...... by his immense sacrifice, by his great renunciation, and by the immaculate purity of his life he left an indelible impression upon Hinduism, which owes an eternal debt of gratitude to that great teacher.
Mohandas Gandhi[ Gandhiji in Ceylon (S Ganesan, Publisher, Triplicane, Madras 1928)] I prefer Buddhism because it gives three principles in combination, which no other religion does. Buddhism teaches prajna (understanding as against superstition and supernaturalism), karuna (love), and samata (equality). This is what man wants for a good and happy life. Neither god nor soul can save society. Dr.
B.R. Ambedkar[May 1956, a talk by Ambedkar titled "Why I like Buddhism and how it is useful to the world in its present circumstances" was broadcast from the British Broadcasting Corporation, London. ] The Buddha has been something greater than all doctrine and dogma, and his eternal message has thrilled humanity through the ages. Perhaps at no time in past history was his message of peace more needed for a suffering and distracted humanity than it is today.:"I still don't know how Buddhism died," Nehru said, "but I think I have an inkling why. The genius of the Buddha has to do with the fact that he is a man. The originator of one of the most profound systems of thought, in the history of humanity, an inflexible spirit and the most noble compassion. An accuser, vis-à-vis the teeming multitude of the gods. When he became deified, he merged with that multitude, which closed round him."
Jawaharlal NehruSerenity of spirit and love for all sentient creation are enjoined by the Buddha. He does not speak of sin, but only of ignorance and foolishness, which could be cured by Enlightenment and Sympathy.:When we read Buddha's discourses, we are impressed by his spirit of reason. His ethical path has for its first step right views, a rational outlook. He endeavors to brush aside all cobwebs that interfere with mankind's vision of itself and its destiny.-- Dr. S
Radhakrishnan ["Gautama The Buddha"]'In thine immeasurable mercy and goodness'
[Buddha in Tagore's imagination/Rama Kundu. ]:Then came the age of Buddha, who stirred up, in our country, humanity to its uttermost depth, and the freedom of mind which it produced expressed itself in a wealth of creation in all departments of life, ever flowing in its richness the continent of Asia.
Rabindranath Tagore[full text of a lecture given by Rabindranath Tagore on April 2, 1920 at the Gujarati Sahitya Parishad, as a reply to their felicitation of the poet. It was published three years later as "Dr. Tagore's Reply" in Chhaththi Gujarati Sahitya Parishadano Report - 1920 (`Report of the Sixth Gujarati Sahitya Parishad - 1920'; pub.1923; Pp. 112-132).http://www.parabaas.com/rabindranath/articles/pRabindranath_Reply.html]Taoism, Confucianism and Shintoism
Taoism and Confucianism
The arrival of Buddhism forced
Taoism to renew and restructure itself and address existential questions raised by Buddhism. Buddhism was seen as a kind of foreign Taoism and its scriptures were translated into Chinese with Taoist vocabulary.
Chan (
Seon,
Thien, or
Zen) Buddhism in particular holds many beliefs in common with philosophical Taoism. Some early Chinese Taoist-Buddhists thought
Buddha to be a reincarnation of
Lao Tzu born in the land of barbarians.
[ The Cambridge History of China, Vol.1, (The Ch'in and Han Empires, 221 B.C.-A.D. 220) ISBN: 0-521-24327-0 hardback]Buddhism shares many commonalities with
Neo-Confucianism , which is Confucianism with more religious elements. In fact, the ritual of ancestor worship normally practiced by Confucianists, has been adapted to Chinese Buddhist beliefs.
Shintoism
In the
Japanese religion of
Shinto, the long coexistence of Buddhism and Shintoism resulted in the merging of Shintoism and Buddhism. Gods in Shintoism were given a position similar to the Hindu gods in Buddhism. Moreover, because one of Mahayana Buddha's (Dainichi Nyorai) symbols was the sun, many equated Amaterasu, the son goddess, as the previous reincarnation (boddisatva) of Dainich Nyorai. However, the Tokugawa Shogunate era saw a revival movement within Shinto. Some Shinto scholars started to argue that Buddhas were previous incarnations of Shinto gods, thus turning the position of Shintoism and Buddhism upside down. Shinto and Buddhism were officially separated after the
Meiji Restoration.
Christianity and Judaism
Although the philosophical systems of Buddhism and Christianity have evolved in rather different ways, the moral precepts advocated by Buddhism from the time of Ashoka through his edicts do have some similarities with the Christian moral precepts developed more than two centuries later: respect for life, respect for the weak, rejection of violence, pardon to sinners, tolerance. The administrative structures formed by Buddhists are also very similar: monasticism, early Christian Councils and missions all were predated by Buddhist missions in the Middle East, in the same regions in which Christianity began.
One theory is that these similarities may indicate the propagation of Buddhist ideals into the Western World, with the Greeks acting as intermediaries and religious syncretists.
For example, the "miracle" of walking on water, which is frequently attributed to Jesus in the New Testament, is first found in Buddhist literature in the oldest Pali Canon "Digha Nikaya 11," in the
Kevatta Sutta. This is not found in any other literature in the world except 500 years later in the Christian New Testament.
"Scholars have often considered the possibility that Buddhism influenced the early development of Christianity. They have drawn attention to many parallels concerning the births, lives, doctrines, and deaths of the Buddha and Jesus" (Bentley, "Old World Encounters").
The story of the birth of the Buddha was well known in the West, and possibly influenced the story of the birth of Jesus:
Saint Jerome (4th century CE) mentions the birth of the Buddha, who he says "was born from the side of a virgin". Also a fragment of
Archelaos of Carrha (278 CE) mentions the Buddha's virgin-birth.
Early 3rd-4th century Christian writers such as
Hippolytus and
Epiphanius write about a
Scythianus, who visited India around 50 CE from where he brought "the doctrine of the Two Principles". According to these writers, Scythianus' pupil Terebinthus presented himself as a "Buddha" ("he called himself Buddas"
Cyril of Jerusalem). Terebinthus went to
Palestine and
Judaea where he met the Apostles ("becoming known and condemned" Isaia), and ultimately settled in Babylon, where he transmitted his teachings to
Mani, thereby creating the foundation of what could be called Persian syncretic Buddhism,
Manicheism. One of the greatest thinkers and saints of western Christianity,
Augustine of Hippo was originally a Manichean.
In the 2nd century CE, the Christian dogmatist
Clement of Alexandria recognized Bactrian Buddhists (Sramanas) and Indian Gymnosophists for their influence on Greek thought:
"Thus philosophy, a thing of the highest utility, flourished in antiquity among the barbarians, shedding its light over the nations. And afterwards it came to Greece. First in its ranks were the prophets of the Egyptians; and the Chaldeans among the Assyrians; and the Druids among the Gauls; and the Sramanas among the Bactrians ("Σαρμαναίοι 'άκτρων"); and the philosophers of the Celts; and the Magi of the Persians, who foretold the Saviour's birth, and came into the land of Judaea guided by a star. The Indian gymnosophists are also in the number, and the other barbarian philosophers. And of these there are two classes, some of them called Sramanas ("Σαρμάναι"), and others Brahmins (
'ραφμαναι)." Clement of Alexandria "The Stromata, or Miscellanies" Book I, Chapter XV[21]
The main Greek cities of the Middle-East happen to have played a key role in the development of Christianity, such as
Antioch and especially
Alexandria, and "it was later in this very place that some of the most active centers of Christianity were established" (Robert Linssen, "Zen living").
The Greek legend of "
Barlaam and Ioasaph", sometimes mistakenly attributed to the
7th century John of Damascus but actually written by the
Georgian monk
Euthymios in the
11th century, was ultimately derived, through a variety of intermediate versions (
Arabic and
Georgian) from the life story of the Buddha. The king-turned-monk Ioasaph (Georgian
Iodasaph, Arabic
Yūdhasaf or
Būdhasaf) ultimately derives his name from the Sanskrit
Bodhisattva, the name used in Buddhist accounts for Gautama before he became a Buddha. Barlaam and Ioasaph were placed in the Greek calendar of
saints on
26 August, and in the West they were canonized (as "Barlaam and Josaphat") in the Roman Martyrology on the date of
27 November.
The story was translated into Hebrew in the Middle Ages as "Ben-Hamelekh Vehanazir" ("The Prince and the
Nazirite"), and is widely read by Jews to this day.
The Sanskrit word
bodhisattva is translated as
nazir and in Hebrew means: ("One who abstains"); and is generally a word used for monks. Jesus too is referred throughout the Greek New Testament as a Nazarene and a celibate, something different than the vows of the original vow of Nazirs in Numbers 6:1-21.
Buddha exhorts us to study the Dharma (which is translated as the truth, law or way), for those who see the Dharma see the Buddha, in other words, Buddha is the law and the law is the Buddha. We read in the Kindred Sayings (III, Khandhaa-vagga, Middle Fifty, Ch 4, 87, Vakkali) that the Buddha said to Vakkali:
yo kho dhammam passati so mam passati; yo mam passati so dhammam passati) (Cp. Itv. sec. 92):"
He who sees the Dhamma, he sees me; he who sees me, sees the Dhamma."
Similarly, in the New Testament, John 14:6, Christ answers:
Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him,
I am the way, the truth and the life: no man cometh to the Father, but by me.
In the Six Characteristics of the
Dharma or the "law", the fourth one is
"Ehipashyaka" or, "Come and See". In the following two verses of the Book of John, we have a direct correlation with the law and body of Jesus.
John 1:35-39:"35 Again the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples; 36 And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God! 37 And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. 38 Then Jesus turned, and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi, (which is to say, being interpreted, Master,) where dwellest thou? 39 He saith unto them,
Come and see. They came and saw where he dwelt, and abode with him that day: for it was about the tenth hour." We find a similar discription in John 1:43-46.
Islam
The Indian scholar
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad proposed in a commentary on the
Qur'an that Siddhartha Gautama is the
prophet of Islam Dhū'l-Kifl referred to in Sura 21 and Sura 38 of the
Qur'an together with the Biblical characters
Ishmael,
Idris (
Enoch), and
Elisha. Azad suggested that the
Kifl in
Dhū'l-Kifl (
Ar: "possessor of a double portion") is an
Arabic pronunciation of
Kapilavastu, where the Buddha spent his early life [
2]. There is no direct evidence to support this speculation. According to other ancient Muslim scholars
Dhū'l-Kifl was either a righteous man and not a prophet, or he was the prophet called
Ezekiel in the
Bible.
The Buddhist monastic class flowed into what came to be called Islamic monasticism, meaning
Sufism - which has given many poets and scientists to both Islam and the world. A Muslim mystical movement, the Kalandarriya Sufi Order, which arose in 9th Century as a result of the malamattiya, became established in Khorasan as early in the 11th Century... had many Buddhist monks. (Gabriel Mandel Khan, from
Great Biographies, Buddha).
Ascetic practices within the sufi philosophy are associated with Buddhism. The notion of purification (cleaning one' s soul from all evil things and trying to reach Nirvana and to become immortal in
Nirvana) plays an important role in Buddhism. The same idea shows itself in the belief of
vuslat (communion with God) in Sufi philosophy. (Kamuran Godelek,
The Neoplatonist Roots of Sufi Philosophy)
"The mission of the Buddha was quite unique in its character, and therefore it stands quite apart from the many other religions of the world. His mission was to bring the birds of idealism flying in the air nearer to the earth, because the food for their bodies belonged to the earth." Hazrat Inayat Khan,
The Sufi MessageIf you desire to see the most noble of mankind, look at the king in beggar's clothing; it is he whose sanctity is great among men.(Abdul Atahiya, Arab Poet)
Thelema
In the occult philosophy of
Thelema, expounded by
Aleister Crowley, Siddhartha is considered to be a
magus of the
Argenteum Astrum due to his introduction of a new
Logos [
3]. Siddhartha is also considered saint according to the Collects of
the Gnostic Mass of
Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica.
*
Buddha*
Buddhism*
Iconography of the Buddha*
Life of the Buddha*
A sketch of the Buddha's Life*
Lord Buddha by
Swami Sivananda*
Mahamevnawa Buddhist Monastery - Sri Lanka*
Critical Resources: Buddha & Buddhism*
The Emaciated Gandharan Buddha Images: Asceticism, Health, and the Body*
The Lalitavistara*
What was the Buddha really like?*
Relatives and Disciples of the Buddha by Radhika Abeysekera
