Buddhism is one of the three world religions and the oldest of them. It originated in India and over time has spread throughout the world. The largest Buddhist communities are concentrated in the countries of East Asia - in Japan, China, Korea, etc. There is a very large number of Buddhists in our country. Most of them are in Kalmykia, Transbaikalia, Tuva and Buryatia. In 2005, a beautiful temple built with the blessing of the 14th Dalai Lama, the Golden Abode of Shakyamuni Buddha, was consecrated in Elista.
The founder of Buddhism religion is Siddhartha Gautama Shakyamuni or Buddha. In spiritual literature, he is called by many names - Bhagavan (Blessed), Sugata (Walking in goodness), Tathagata (Come and gone), Lokajyestha (Honored by the world), Jina (Victor), Bodhisattva (Cleansed the awakened consciousness from evil and suffering).
Shakyamuni was not the first buddha. There were others before him, but only Buddha Gautama became the Great Teacher. He discovered that human life is a constant suffering. Man is born in new incarnations, but suffering is the essence of every rebirth. The wheel of samsara (predestination) does not let him go. He set himself the goal of finding the cause of people's suffering and eliminating it. As a result of long years in conditions of complete asceticism andmeditation, he gained great wisdom and knowledge. He understood how to free a person from suffering, that is, to give him the opportunity to enter nirvana even during earthly life, and passed on his knowledge to his students.
The life path of Buddha Shakyamuni is usually divided into 12 periods, which are called 12 deeds, or deeds of the Buddha.
First feat
The first feat of the Buddha is associated with his coming into the world. According to legend, many hundreds of lives before Siddhartha, the Brahmin Sumedhi lived in India. One day he met the buddha Dipankara. He was struck by the serenity of the Buddha, and he decided by all means to learn the same attitude towards life. In Lalitavistara he is called the first bodhisattva. Sumedhi discovered great wisdom: in order to give people the knowledge of how to achieve nirvana, you need to incarnate many times in different living beings, feel and understand all their suffering. His desire to free people from predestination was so great that he did not leave Sumedhi even after death. It was present in him during all rebirths. And in each new incarnation, he gained new knowledge and wisdom. He was the twenty-four Nirmanakaya Buddhas who preceded the founder of the religion of Buddhism. Each nirmanakai realized a certain deed of Shakyamuni Buddha.
Second feat
The second feat of the Buddha is connected with the choice of his earthly parents.
The penultimate birth of Sumedha was in Tushita heaven in the form of one of the gods. This gave him the opportunity to transfer his knowledge to people, choosing the next incarnation of his own free will. Hedecided that it would be the family of Raja Shuddhodan.
Government in the principality of Shuddhodana was based on the principles of the republic, and Shuddhodana himself headed the ruling assembly, which consisted of representatives of the most significant military estates. Another circumstance pointed Sumedhi to the correctness of the choice - the ancestors of Raja Shuddhodana for seven generations in a row did not have incestuous marriages.
The mother of Buddha Shakyamuni was the wife of Raja Shuddhodana - a princess from the family of Kolya, Mahamaya. It is said about her that she was devoid of 32 evil qualities and embodied virtue and mercy.
3rd feat
The divine conception and birth of Shakyamuni Buddha is described in the set of sacred Buddhist texts "Tripitaka". They were compiled after in the V-III centuries. BC e.
The mother of the future great teacher conceived on the full moon of the fifteenth day of the second month of the year. She fell asleep and saw herself on a high mountain, soft as a feather pillow. A baby elephant with six tusks touched her side, and she felt the sun rising inside her. Throughout her pregnancy, she had wonderful dreams in which she saw herself giving knowledge to many different living beings. In nine months, she was completely freed from flares, that is, from the poison of thoughts that poisoned the mind.
On the eve of Shakyamuni Buddha's birthday, Mahamaya went to her mother's house, as was customary in the local area. However, she did not have time to come there before the birth. They began a little before the appointed time, on the seventh lunar day of the fourth month 624year BC e. Mahamaya went to the laksha tree and it lowered its branch right to her right hand. The woman took hold of a branch, and a baby came out of her right side. She did not feel any painful labor pains or pain. The baby was wrapped in a golden glow. He immediately got to his feet and took a few steps. Where the boy stepped, beautiful lotuses blossomed.
Mahamaya died on the seventh day after the birth of her son. Before she died, she asked her sister Maha Prajapati to take care of the boy as her own.
The hermit-soothsayer Asita came to congratulate Shuddhodan on the birth of his son. He said that the child had a great future. The 32 marks on his body indicate that he will become a powerful king or a holy teacher of many nations.
The Fourth Labor
The biography of Buddha Shakyamuni contains information about the excellent education that Siddhartha received in his father's house. Shuddhodan understood that in order to become the king of kings, one must possess many knowledge and skills. He did not want to see his son as a saint and teacher. His goal was to make him a great warrior and a smart politician.
Shuddhodan hired the very best teachers to ensure that Gautama received a comprehensive education. He read a lot, was absolutely literate in languages. Then the most advanced sciences were considered mathematics, literature and astrology. The Buddha also mastered them perfectly.
Sports and games also played a big role in education. From a young age, the boy comprehended various martial arts and easily won competitions. He could skillfully managean elephant or a chariot drawn by horses, was an excellent rider, accurately shot from a bow, threw a spear and fought with a sword.
He was also unsurpassed in singing, dancing, composing music and playing various musical instruments.
Siddhartha could draw and compose fragrances.
Fifth feat
The future Great Teacher until the age of 29 lived in Kapilavastu, a city protected by high walls from the outside world. The father protected his son from any manifestations of evil. The boy did not see any old or sick or ugly people.
When Siddhartha was 16 years old, Shuddhodan chose Princess Yashodhara as his wife. The king built three palaces for the young for different seasons. The summer palace had a pool of red lotuses, the winter palace had white lotuses, and the rainy season palace had blue lotuses. Yashodhara came to Siddhartha with a retinue of 84,000 people. After 13 years, the couple had a son. He was given the name Ruhul.
The entire biography of Buddha Shakyamuni confirms the information that until the age of 29, the prince did not know what illness, hunger, coldness, resentment, anger or envy are. In Kapilavastu, even the servants dressed in beautiful clothes and ate wheat, meat and selected rice, while the ordinary food of the poor consisted of crushed rice and lentils.
The sutra of luxury, included in the Teachings of Buddha Shakyamuni, speaks of life in Kapilavastu as an endless series of pleasures and pleasant communication.
The sixth feat
From early childhood, Siddhardha showeddesire for thought. Father was worried about this. Therefore, he created such conditions for his son that the mind of Siddhartha Gautama was occupied only with sciences and art, and that he would never know what good and evil are.
The sixth feat of the Buddha is called the departure of the prince from his father's house. This happened when he was 29 years old.
Shortly before this event, Siddhartha secretly left the palace three times. For the first time, he saw a man who was groaning from an illness that tormented him. His body was covered with bleeding ulcers, covered with flies. On his second visit, the prince saw a hunched, gray-haired old man whose face was covered with wrinkles. And when he again went outside the palace, he met the funeral procession and saw many tears of grief on the faces of people.
In some sources, the story of Buddha Shakyamuni contains information that the Buddha wandered secretly outside his hometown four times. On his fourth visit, he met a wise man who told him about the sorrows of people, as well as about the passions and vices that torment them.
So Buddha Shakyamuni learned about the existence of suffering, but he also understood that suffering can be overcome. To find out the real life, the young man decided to leave the palace.
The father opposed his plan - he organized new entertainment for his son and increased the security of the palace. Siddhartha did not change his mind. He asked his father if he could save him from old age and death. Having received no answer, the prince waited until night, saddled his horse, and left Kapilavastu with his devoted servant.
Seventhfeat
The seventh feat of the Buddha is designated as the path of the ascetic.
Buddha retired from the palace at a considerable distance, gave his horse to a servant, exchanged clothes with the first beggar wanderer he came across and set off on a journey in search of the truth. From that moment on, Shakyamuni Buddha's life changed forever. He embarked on the path leading to spiritual perfection.
The biography of Shakyamuni Buddha contains the story of how Prince Siddhartha came to Magadhi. The ruler of Rajagrihu, Raja Bimbisar, invited Gautama to his palace. He talked a lot with the poor hermit, as the prince appeared to him, and was fascinated by his intelligence and knowledge. The Raja needed such an adviser and offered Siddhartha a high post in his person, but the future Teacher of the Nations refused.
During the wanderings of Siddhartha Gautama Shakyamuni joined various groups of ascetics preaching self-denial and spiritual purification. He had his own students. He gained great respect among philosophers and sages.
One day Siddhartha met a girl who offered food and drink to the hermit. By this time, Gautama had already accumulated a huge store of knowledge about what real life is. However, he was extremely emaciated - ribs were visible through the skin, and he himself was close to physical death. He entered a period of existential crisis. The inability to change the world made him doubt that asceticism is the only way to nirvana. He felt that knowledge and experience should be taken to a new level. This will allow them to be generalized and turned into a universal teaching.
Having tastedordinary food and having bathed in clean water, he felt renewed. His students did not accept the change in the teacher. They considered him an apostate who betrayed his destiny to be an ascetic hermit. Siddhartha objected: “To learn is to change, otherwise teaching is meaningless.”
Shakyamuni lowered his bowl into the water of the river and told the students: “If it swims against the current, then I am right,” and the bowl began to move up the river. However, the disciples decided to leave their teacher and companion and move on through austerity.
The Eighth Labor
The eighth feat or deed of the Buddha is meditation. Six years of penance strengthened his will. After nourishing his strength with normal food and cleansing his body of dirt, he decided to dive into himself.
During the night, Gautama had five symbolic dreams that told him what to do next. He remembered how in early childhood, playing with his comrades, he lost consciousness for a short time and felt an unprecedented lightness and self-renunciation. This is how a person immersed in meditation feels. Now Shakyamuni's goal was to learn complete self-renunciation.
Gautama went to the north of India to the town of Bodhgaya. There he settled down under a large ficus (bodghai tree) and sat under it for seven days and seven nights. He was determined to completely renounce all earthly things. The famous statue of Buddha Shakyamuni in the lotus position depicts the Master during meditation.
The ninth feat
The ninth feat of the Buddha was the victory over the evil forces that represented the godParinimitra-vashavartin Mara. On the seventh day of meditation, Mara sent his daughters to the Buddha, who personified various earthly temptations. They came to him in the form of beautiful maidens offering all sorts of pleasures. For seven weeks Shakyamuni's mind fought the demons. All this time the Bodhisattva remained motionless. He again and again experienced his past incarnations, in which he was either different animals or people. He also freely penetrated the consciousness of living beings with whom fate simply brought him, but which he was not. And each time, Gautama consciously rejected evil, because, as he later told his students, Mara has power only over those who want to fall under his influence.
Feat 10
On the last night of meditation, Sidhartha reached the state of samadhi, that is, enlightenment. He got rid of the flares, gained clairvoyance and absolute wisdom. His soul, having gone through all the stages of development, turned out to be completely free and felt infinite peace and joy. Siddhartha's body began to radiate a golden light - he became the Great Buddha. He was 35 years old.
Buddha Shakyamuni got up and went to his ascetic friends who left him on the eve of meditation. They were in Deer Park. There, in front of them, Buddha Shakyamuni delivered his first sermon. Quotations from it are often cited as the main postulates of the teaching. Master's goal was to free people from suffering. He said: “The cause of human suffering is ignorance. There is no need to try to find the beginning of suffering. It's pointless. You can stop suffering by realizing it. There isfour noble truths. First, suffering is real. The second is that suffering arises from desires. The third is the cessation of suffering - nirvana. The fourth is a way to get rid of suffering. This way is the eightfold path.”
The Eightfold Path is the eight steps to Nirvana.
The first step requires awareness of the presence of suffering in your life.
The second step requires the desire to enter the path of liberation from suffering.
The third step requires correct speech, that is, the rejection of lies, rudeness, slander and idle talk.
The fourth step requires right behavior, i.e. refraining from killing, stealing and adultery.
The fifth step requires the renunciation of work related to violence against living beings, the production of weapons, drugs and alcohol. You should also give up work that involves the accumulation of we alth in unrighteous ways.
The sixth step requires directing efforts to concentrate thoughts in the spiritual sphere - to develop a positive mood in yourself (joy, peace, peacefulness).
The seventh step requires you to learn how to let thoughts and desires through your mind that can cause negative feelings and suffering without delay, to pass through your mind.
The eighth step requires mastery of the art of meditation and complete detachment.
11th feat
Buddha Shakyamuni opened a new milestone in the fate of mankind. He determined the causes of suffering, found a way to get rid of them and launched the so-called wheel of Dharma (law). Having performed the third act, he set people up for liberation from suffering. Buddhaturned the wheel of Dharma three times. The first time I preached in Deer Park and revealed to the disciples the truth about suffering. The second turn happened when the Teacher explained to the students the relationship between all living beings and the responsibility of each person for the fate of the whole world. The third turn is associated with the Buddha's teachings on the eightfold path, as a way to get out of the wheel of samsara.
The twelfth feat
Buddha preached his teaching for 45 years. He walked around India with his students and talked with different people - from poor dervishes to kings. He again visited the Raja of Bimbisar, who built a monastery for him.
Once the Buddha came to his native Kapilavastu. His father, wife, son, friends and relatives joined the teachings of the Bodhisattva.
At the age of 81, the Great Teacher left this world and passed into Parinirvana. Three months earlier, he told his disciple Ananda about this. Then, accompanied by his disciples, the Buddha continued his journey through India, preaching his teaching, called the Dharma. Finally, they ended up in Pava, where they brought refreshments to the travelers in the house of the blacksmith Chunda. In accordance with their rules, the monks, so as not to offend the owner, could not refuse, but Buddha Shakyamuni forbade them to eat. He himself tasted the dried pork or mushrooms brought to him, which caused his death. The Buddha's transition to Parinirvana took place on the fifteenth day of the fourth month of the lunar calendar. This day is considered the most important in Buddhism because it increases the power of both good and evil 10 million times.
Not evenprofessing Buddhism, on this day you can say a prayer to Buddha Shakyamuni, and she will turn the next wheel of Dharma: "Om - Muni - Muni - Maha - Muniye - Suuha." In Russian, it sounds something like this: “My ordinary consciousness, mind and body become the consciousness, body and mind of the Buddha.”
