Was The Buddha Sabbañu (Omniscient)?

The Buddha's teachings can be understood on two distinct levels. One is logical and conceptual and is concerned with an intellectual comprehension of man and the external universe. The second level is empirical, experiential and psychological. It concerns the ever-present and inescapable phenomena of human experience -- love and hate, fear and sorrow, pride and passion, frustration and lation. And most important, it explains the origins of such states of mind and prescribes the means for cultivating those states which are rewarding and wholesome and of diminishing those which are unsatisfactory and unwholesome. It was to this second level that the Buddha gave greater emphasis and importance.

Buddhism is the fourth largest religion on earth and is composed of three major traditions today; Theravada, Mahayana and Tibetan Buddhism (“Lecture 5”). The founder of Buddhism, known as Buddha, was a royal prince named Siddhartha Guatama from Northern India. Siddhartha’s father kept him closely confined inside of a large palace, with the intention of preventing him from taking up a religious life, so that he too would one day become a great king. However, one day while Siddhartha was outside of the palace, he observed four sights that would change his destiny forever. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the four sights experienced by Siddhartha Guatama, their significance and examine why they led him to seek religious

Jainism and Buddhism acknowledge extremely similar aspects in their respective religions. They both have a grounded belief of karma, samsara, and one of liberation. Although these basic principle are the same, they have differences within them. In this essay, it will discuss the similarities and differences between the basic beliefs and traditions regarding karma, samsara, recognition of the self, and final liberation in regards to Jain and Buddhist religions.

After being asked how he was able to reach enlightenment, Siddhartha draws the distinction between knowledge and wisdom. He says, “ No, I am telling you what I discovered. Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. One can find it, live it, be forfeited by it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it.” (115).

The main focus of Buddhism is that the faith centers on correct understanding of human nature and ultimate reality, The Buddha was also called the Enlightened One, he taught that the way to eliminate suffering begins with understanding the true nature of the world. He rejected speculation about such matters as God, the nature of the universe, and the afyterlife, urging his folloers to focus instead on the Four Noble Truths by which they can free themselves from suffering. “We do not believe that this world is created and ruled by God.” The disbelief in God does not make Buddhism an atheistic religion. The Buddha rejected the concept of the atman, or soul. In

“It is here argued that, although the Buddha and Buddha’s are not regarded as gods by Buddhism, they clearly fulfill the criteria of “counter-intuitive agents” as they have been presented by Pascal Boyer.” (Pyysiainen, 2003, p.147)

“But where, where was this self, this innermost part, this ultimate part? It was not flesh and bone, it was neither thought nor consciousness, thus the wisest ones taught. So, where, where was it? They knew everything, the Brahmans and their holy books, they knew everything, they had taken care of everything and of more than everything, the creation of the world, the origin of speech, of food, of inhaling, of exhaling, the arrangement of the senses, the acts of the gods, they knew infinitely much—but was it valuable to know all of this, not knowing that one and only thing, the most important thing, the solely important thing?” (Hesse and

As one matures through life he gets wiser and more knowledgeable. As Siddhartha’s long life journey was coming to a close, he too was becoming wiser and more knowledgeable. Siddhartha learned that if you search your whole life for wisdom you will miss many steps along the way. Siddhartha’s revelation between the difference of wisdom and knowledge corresponds with his other discovery which is the difference between finding and seeking. This has been the guide for his way of life. These differences he has discovered are the main reasons for having several teachers and a radical lifestyle. Furthermore, this revelation has made a distinct separation between Siddhartha and Govinda. It highlights the major difference between Govinda and Buddhism

Siddhartha finally comprehends why he knows nothing about himself, its because he is afraid to; he has a feeling of awakening as he understands that he now must become his own pupil and “learn the secret of Siddhartha” (Page 39, Paragraph 2).

The life of Siddhartha Gautama has captivated millions of people around the world. Millions of humans practice and try to live a life free of possessions and free of distractions from the materialistic plane of existence we call society. In essence, a popular belief about life becomes mainstream and therefore a new religion is created. I would argue that Buddhism is merely a way of approaching life from an uncharacteristic perspective. Therefore, I am suggesting that the Buddha created a philosophy and deserves a place among the great fathers of human thought such as Aristotle, Plato, and many others. Where Buddhism differentiates from the three major religions of the world, is the amazing techniques that Buddhists pursue every day to optimize their inner thinking within. The philosophies of Buddhism and new research in the scientific community surrounding techniques done by its followers, has created a growing interest in the way of life, especially in western culture. Going along, we will explore what makes this so.

It was not flesh and bone, it was not thought or consciousness. That was what the wise men taught. Where then was it?"(6). He is thinking of taking another path to the self because he believes that he learned as much as he can from the Brahmins. With the Samanas his lifestyle changes dramatically and " [he] had one single goal-to become empty, to become empty of thirst, desire, dreams, pleasure and sorrow- to let the Self die"(14). As a Samana, he wanted to let the Self die in order to reach the secret of pure being. The Samanas believed they could lose the Self through meditation, fasting, and holding of breath. In a relatively short time with the Samanas he is already on the path to becoming a great Samana. When he went through a village he his view of things was that " everything lied, stank of lies; they were all illusions of sense, happiness and beauty"(14). He called the people "child people" because their whole life was materialistic and they were always concerned with trivial matters. Govinda could see that Siddhartha would become an important Samana but Siddhartha became skeptical about this way of life. Siddhartha tells Govinda, " What I have learned so far from the Samanas, I could have learned more quickly and easily in every inn in a prostitute's quarter, amongst the carriers and dice players"(16). Govinda was appalled but Siddhartha explained that he said this because he believes that meditation, fasting and holding of

Buddhism was brought to light about 500 BC by Siddhartha Gautama. Buddhism has not been described as a religion as such but rather as philosophy. The story of Siddhartha Gautama and how he brought Buddhism to limelight is quite moving. In this essay the thoughts of Siddhartha Gautama are explained and how the society reacted to his arguments. Generally this essay will briefly describe the achievements of Siddhartha Gautama in his quest to attain enlightenment and how that impacted the society of his time and to some extent the current society.

We are provided an insight to Buddha and Ashoka through Siddhartha’s Enlightenment, The Buddha’s First Sermon at Benares and Ashoka, “Pillar Edicts”. Though it seems that the edicts were more useful as a social contract, rather than a path to enlightenment, the influence of Buddhism is unmistakable. The Buddha would agree with Ashoka’s policies and beliefs because both are ways one can use to reach further self-enlightenment and continue further on the path to Nirvana.

The Upanishad scriptures suggest that followers exercise their body and mind. These exercises become more important to Hindu practice as time goes by. Through the teachings of Upanishads there is a spiritual essence called “Brahman”. Brahman is a single world soul that is the base of all physical matter, energy, time and space. Brahman is all things on earth and beyond. It is thought that a person’s inner soul known as the “atman”, is part of Brahman and therefore; a person’s innermost soul is part of the single world soul. The meditation associated with the search for perfect knowledge has evolved into a permanent aspect of Hinduism and is known as “Yoga”. During this period Buddhism and Jainism were created as additional ways of reaching enlightenment while denying key teachings and practices.

The idea of omnipotence has been a tricky concept for philosophers for many years. Many philosophers have tried to define it without success. In this essay, I intend to look at, as the question poses, whether ‘A being is omnipotent if it has every power which it is logically possible to possess’ is an adequate definition of omnipotent and then move on to look at some other ways of defining omnipotence to see if they do any better.