Religion 3: The historical, cultural and Evolution aspects of Buddhism (v1.0)

 A key reference is Professor Grant Hardy at University of North Carolina at Ashville. 

In previous essays I covered the historical, cultural, social and evolution aspects of Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. I will cover the last remaining major religion here – Buddhism. I will not really talk much about the teachings of this religion because that is of interest only to the faithful and academics, but I will briefly state the central belief. There are about 500 million Buddhists today mostly in south and East Asia and represents 6.6% of the world's population. In the US, 1% are Buddhists. 

Siddhartha Gautama (5^th century BCE) was a northern Indian/Nepal prince who became the buddha (buddha means the awakened one). He found enlightenment (or awakening) under a bodhi tree and preached for about 45 years. He did not write down his teachings but conveyed it to his disciples. Buddha was not a divine being and he made no case to a heavenly nature. He was an individual who, through huge exertion of heart and brain, changed all confinements. He asserted the capability of each being to achieve Buddhahood. Buddhists consider him to be a perfect individual, and a guide who can lead every one of us towards Enlightenment. The key concepts are: All life is suffering. Suffering comes from desire. If you stop desire, you can stop suffering. You can stop desire by following the eight-fold path. The worldview of Buddhists is similar in many ways to Hindus. There is reincarnation (samsara). There is cosmic justice (Karma). There is good behavior (Dharma). And there is enlightenment or escape from cycle of birth and rebirth (Moksha or Nirvana). The key major difference from Hinduism is that the Buddhists reject the Vedas and rituals, and they reject the concept of atman or soul.

The Buddhist canon is huge at about 100,000 pages. It consists of three main divisions and are called Tripitaka (three baskets). The Vinaya are rules for monks and nuns. The sutras are the discourses of the Buddha. And the Abhidharma are higher teachings and works towards a systematic philosophy. The oral transmission of Buddhist teachings continued for several centuries. During that time there were about 18 different schools of Buddhism. Eventually they converged into the Theravada school. This school preserved all three baskets of the Tripitaka in written form in Sri Lanka written in Pali around the first century BCE. This is the oldest surviving texts of Buddhism. The Jataka tales are stories of previous lives of Buddha and read widely. Theravada Buddhism also propagated to Indonesia and Myanmar. 

Around the first century BCE, new sutras began circulating in Sanskrit that offered a different view. It basically put forward the notion that salvation is possible not just to monks but to anyone and elevated Buddha to a divine being. This is called Mahayana Buddhism and is Buddhism for the people. Its emphasis is more on devotion, charity and prayer instead of austere self-restraint like the monks. This thinking migrated from South Asia to China. These texts were translated to Chinese with changes (which took about 800 years). This translation propagated on to Korea, and Japan and Vietnam. Eventually a Tibetan canon also emerged and is somewhat different. An offshoot called Zen Buddhism is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that is known for its focus on practice and direct experience over scholarship or the study of doctrine, although this does play a role. It originated in China and was strongly influenced by Taoism. It shares roots with yoga; and like yoga, it emphasizes a meditative practice as a means of seeking the truth. Tantra which traces its roots to ancient India also took hold in some Mahayana schools. Tantra is a method for realizing the ultimate nature of reality, especially when “reality” is understood in terms of the nature of mind itself. It is also about the full manifestation of one’s buddha nature, our intrinsic potential to become buddhas ourselves.  

However, the divergences in Buddhism did not lead to persecution and violence unlike for example Catholics and Protestants or Shea and Sunni. Buddhism has generally been a religion of peaceful coexistence.

Buddhist economic ideas does not work to maximize consumption but human well-being, which lies in a simple, purposeful and dutiful life, in which rightful livelihood is earned. Human beings must remain true to their heritage and avoid materialistic pursuit. For Buddhists, mental health is of supreme importance and individuals must strive towards improving this by practicing non-violence and refraining from sexual misconduct and lying. However, Buddhist traditions do acknowledge physical ill-being. Pain and suffering are inevitable like death, for which taking any form of medication are not prohibited. 

Buddhist Art originated in the Indian subcontinent before evolving through its contact with other cultures and its diffusion through the rest of Asia and the world. Buddhist art diversified and evolved as it adapted to the new countries where the faith was expanding. It developed to the north through Central Asia and into Eastern Asia to form the Northern branch of Buddhist art, and to the east as far as Southeast Asia to form the Southern branch of Buddhist art. In India, Buddhist art flourished and even influenced the development of Hindu art, until Buddhism almost disappeared around the 10^th CE.

The beginnings of the Buddhist school of architecture can be traced back to B.C. 255 when the Mauryan emperor Asoka established Buddhism as the state religion of his large empire and encouraged the use of architectural monuments to spread Buddhism in different places. Buddhism, which is also the first Indian religion to require large communal and monastic spaces, inspired three types of architecture; the first is the stupa, a significant object in Buddhist art and architecture. The Stupas hold the most important place among all the earliest Buddhist sculptures. On a very basic level, the Stupa is a burial mound for the Buddha. The original stupas contained the Buddha’s ashes. Stupas are dome-shaped monuments, used to house Buddhists’ relics or to commemorate significant facts of Buddhism. The second type of architecture unique to Buddhism is the Vihara, a Buddhist monastery that also contains a residence hall for the monks. The third type is the chaitya, an assembly hall that contains a stupa (without relics). The central hall of the chaitya is arranged to allow for circumambulation of the stupa within it.

Buddhist Cusine is a kind of cuisine mainly for the believers of Buddhism. It is known as zhāi cài (zhāi means “purification” or “discipline”, cai means “cuisine” or “vegetable”) in China, and shōjin ryōri (shōjin means “devotion”, ryōri means “cuisine”) in Japan, and by many other names in other countries. Due to the understanding of animals as conscious and suffering beings, many Buddhists do not kill animals and many also do not eat meat.