Buddhism : Non Western Humanities 112

Buddhism is a major global religion with a complex history and system of beliefs. The founder of Buddhism is said to be Siddhartha Gautama, the son of an Indian warrior-king. Gautama led an extravagant life through early adulthood, reveling in the privileges of his social class. Gautama became bored with the indulgences of royal life so he wandered into the world searching for understanding. After encountering an old man, ill man, a corpse, and an ascetic, he was convinced that suffering lay at the end of all existence. He then became a monk, depriving himself of worldly possessions in the hope of comprehending the truth of the world around him. The culmination of his search came while meditating beneath a tree, where he finally understood how to be free from suffering, and ultimately, to achieve salvation. Gautama became known as the Buddha, meaning the “Enlightened One.” He spent the remainder of his life

Before the “Awakened One” or Buddha became known by this name he was known as Siddhartha Gautama. This was the name his parents bestowed upon him, his first name meant “he who achieves his goals” while his last name meant “descendants of gotoma”. Siddhartha was born in Lumbini, todays Nepal. His father was the king of the country and leader of the prominent clan called the Shakyas. His father married Mahamaya who gave birth to the future Buddha. His birth was noted as near painless and it was said that he was fully awake when he was born. Siddhartha’s father, King Shuddodana sought to seek his son’s future by a man who could foresee just that, the future. The man, Asita, prescribed two destinies for Siddhartha, the life of a great king or the life of an insightful, savior of mankind. His father in response to Asitas words made it his ultimate duty to shelter the boy from any sights that may be outside any one of their 3 palaces, especially the sick, the elderly, and death as well as any religious activities. This was to prevent Siddhartha from seeking

Siddhartha Gautama was the founder of Buddhism. He was born in Lumbini, Nepal. When the king Shuddodana asked Asita, a well-known sooth-sayer about his son. She told the king that he would either become a great king, even an emperor, or he could become a great sage and savior of humanity. The king wanted Gautama to become a king like himself, and was determined to keep Gautama from seeing anything that might result in him taking up the religious life. He was not allowed to see the elderly, the sickly, the dead, or anyone who had devoted themselves to spiritual practices. Only beauty and health surrounded Siddhartha. As Siddhartha continued living in the luxury of his palaces, he grew increasing restless and curious about the world beyond the palace walls. He finally demanded that he be permitted to see his people and his lands. The king carefully arranged that Siddhartha should still not see the kind of suffering that he feared would lead him to a religious life, and announced that only young and healthy people should greet the prince. He got to see a couple of old men who had accidentally wandered near the place. He

Siddhartha Gautama was born as the royal prince at Lumini (a place in Nepal now) in 6th century B.C.E. His father was the king of a clan named Shakyas named Shuddhodana Gautama, and his mother was queen Mayadevi ("The Birth of Buddha - Kadampa Buddhism."). One day, Queen Mayadevi went out to share food and clothes for the poverty people. After returning to the palace, the Queen had the dream that the white elephant descended from heaven and entered into her womb. After that, the Queen got pregnant. When she was giving birth of the child, she did not experience the pain. It was a miracle birth. The Hindu gods and godless came and blessed the child, and they took him from the side of the queen (“About Buddha.”). The baby stood up right after the delivery and he walked seven steps into four directions. He had the birthmark of a wheel or chakra at the bottom of his feet. Queen May died seven days after of Siddhartha’ birth. After that, Siddhartha was taken care by his mother’s sister. As the practice of all near East civilization, the king invited the fortuneteller- Brahmin to the palace to predict the future of the

Known as the Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, was born between the sixth and fourth centuries BCE, in what is now modern Nepal. He grew up living the extravagant life of a young prince because the ruler of the Sakya people, Suddhodana was his father. Custom dictated marriage and he married at the young age of sixteen to a girl named Yasodhara. His father had prearranged that he live a life of absolute isolation, but one day Siddhartha embarked out into the world and was accosted with the reality of the unavoidable affliction of life. At the age of twenty-nine, he opted to leave his kingdom, wife and newborn son to in lieu of leading the life of an ascetic to ascertain a way to mitigate universal suffering.

The facts surrounding Buddha’s early life as Siddhartha are very vague and incomplete. There is little known about his early family life or parents, except that he was born into royalty. The future Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, was conceived in the 5th or 6th century BCE in Lumbini, in what is currently known as Nepal. Buddha was born into a lavish, yet sheltered lifestyle. His father, Chief Shuddhodana, led the large clan of the Shakya. His mother, Mahamaya, believed his birth to be symbolic as she dreamt of white elephants, which symbolized royalty and authority. She was correct in her assumption that the baby would be born with the utmost purity, which ultimately resulted in the loss of her life a week prior to the birth.

Buddhism is a religion and philosophy based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama. It is the oldest and fourth largest religion in the world with around 500 million followers. Buddhism focuses on teaching people how to come to terms with and end the suffering of themselves and others by cutting out greed, hatred, and ignorance from their lives. Unlike most major world religions, Buddhism does not revolve around worshiping a god or divine creator, instead the focus of Buddhism is living one 's best life and transforming the lives of others. The ultimate goal of Buddhism is to reach Enlightenment and upon death achieve Nirvana, the liberation of pain and suffering. For Buddhists, it is the individual’s responsibility to find his or her own path to enlightenment; the principles of Buddhism are seen more as guidelines than rules.

Buddhism is one of the world’s major religions and one of the oldest ones of our time. Religion can be examined from different perspectives, and the anthropology perspective helps give an unbiased examination. The term anthropology refers to the study of humanity, and its goal is to study the broad range of human beliefs and behaviors, to discover what it means to be human (Stein 3). The focus will be to understand Buddhism from a functional approach which seeks to understand what religion does either socially or psychologically. Emphasis will be put on the origins of Buddhism and beliefs, its religious symbols, institutions, and an introduction to its rituals.

Modern Buddhism rises from the word "Budhi" meaning to ‘awaken', originating about 2500 years ago when Siddhartha Gotama, known as the Buddha, achieved the state of enlightenment. Many view Buddhism as a lifestyle and a way of living; with the goal of attaining the final liberation. Attaining liberation in Buddhism is defined as achieving the right view, intention, speech, action, effort and etc. Similarly, Muslims have certain beliefs which are believed that Allah has sent a number of prophets to teach the followers the ways. The lifestyle aspect of Islam includes the following; striving for the good, differentiating between wrong and right, consulting with others, valuing others over yourself, and believing in God. Islam was developed by

In a place near the Himalayan foothills around 563 B.C.E, the Buddha was born, and he then began in inspirational teachings around Benares at Sarnath. Buddha’s life were in times of widespread religious, spiritual, intellectual, and social uproar, making his teaching gravely influential. Siddhartha Gautama, later known as the Buddha, was the son of Queen Mayadevi and King Shuddhodana. According to some legends, a fortuneteller had predicted at his birth that he might become

Siddhartha Gautama, who is also known as Buddha, was the founder of Buddhism. He was a religious philosopher born in Kapilavastu, Lumbini (modern day Nepal) on c. 563 B.C.E. to the Shakyas, a massive clan. Buddha is in the Sanskrit language, when translated to english, it means the “enlightened one” or “the awakened”. The Shakyas, an indigent Indian tribe, was ruled by his father. His mother passed away seven days after giving birth to him. In order to avert him for over thinking about the complications of death, suffering, and inequity, Gautama’s father constructed a remarkable palace for him around knowledge of religion and the privation of human. At the age of 16, he married and had a son, but he was isolated from others for the 13 years after.

To begin, the first fact I learned about Buddhism is that each tradition and time period had a different stories about the Buddha, meaning the story is constantly changing in a way. It was fascinating in many ways to learn that they believe telling the story of The Buddha is a good way to learn about Buddhism, therefore, teaching people about Buddha allows them to learn his teachings. Because they believe he is such a key point to understanding Buddhism they study about how in the beginning of his life he was shielded from any and everything bad. He only saw the good in life for years, until he began taking trips outside of his palace. Here he found out about old age, sickness and death, discovering that this was an inevitable part of life even for himself. However, they also believe that after he finds these facts out he then discovers that there were people who committed themselves to a spiritual side seeking to escape all of these awful facts of life. So, he decides to leave his life of luxury, but as he is leaving Mara tempts him to stay and essentially rule the world. But, according to Buddhism he resisted and left the world he had know his whole life, he cute his hair and put on the robes of those who seek enlightenment, he gives up everything in order to gain more from his life. Buddhist believe that this was the beginning of his journey, he personally does not have any teachings yet, nor does he have an understand of the world as of yet. He does, however, recognize

are not sure if it was held at either Kasmir or Jalanhar. Both divisions of

Buddha was born Siddhartha Gautama in Lumbini, Nepal during the 4th to 6th century B.C. He was born to the King Sakya Sudhodana, who ruled at Kapilavastu in Ancient India, and Queen Maya. After seven days of giving birth to Siddhartha his mother died however, a holy man was to have said that one of two great things would come of the newborn; he would grow up to become a great king or military leader or he would be a great spiritual leader. After the passing of his mother, Buddha grew up in a rich household and lived an extravagant life. According to their beliefs, he married at the age of sixteen to a girl named Yasodhara, which they had a child together. During this time, his father had ordered that he were to live a life of isolation in

The Buddhism is one of the major religion in the world. Buddhism started in India and so many of its early symbols are related to ancient India and Hinduism as well though their original meaning were often changed. Buddhism has followers all over the world most of them from China, India, Sri Lanka, Korea, Japan, Mongolia, and Thailand. The Buddhism religion is over 2500 years old. The name of Buddhism religion came from a person named Buddha. He was born Siddhartha Gautama of the Shaka. He was married and had a son. He was a teacher, but he didn’t think to be other than an ordinary human being. Other teachers were either God or directly inspired by God. The Buddha was a true human being, and he has no inspiration from any God. According to Buddhism the man is supreme, and he is his own master and there in no other higher power that judgment over his destiny.