Buddhism is one of the three world religions and the oldest of them. It originated in India and over time spread throughout the world. The largest Buddhist communities are concentrated in the countries of East Asia - in Japan, China, Korea, etc. In our country, the number of Buddhists is very large. Most of them are in Kalmykia, Transbaikalia, Tuva and Buryatia. In 2005, in Elista, a beautiful temple was built with the blessing of the Dalai Lama 14, the “Golden Abode of Shakyamuni Buddha”.
The founder of Buddhism is Siddhartha Gautama Sakyamuni or Buddha. In spiritual literature, it is called by many names - Bhagavan (Blessed), Sugata (Walking in good), Tathagata (Coming and departing), Lokajyeshtha (World Honored), Gina (Winner), Bodhisattva (Cleansing the awakened consciousness of 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 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 human suffering and eliminating it. As a result of many years in the conditions of complete asceticism and meditation, 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 during his earthly life, and transferred his knowledge to his students.
The life path of Shakyamuni Buddha is usually divided into 12 periods, which are called 12 deeds, or deeds of the Buddha.
First feat
The first feat of Buddha is associated with his coming into the world. According to legend, for many hundreds of lives before Siddhartha in the territory of India lived the brahmana of Samedhi. Once he met 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 Lalitavistar he is called the first bodhisattva. Sumedhi revealed great wisdom: in order to give people knowledge of how to achieve nirvana, you need to incarnate into different living beings many times, to 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 that preceded the founder of Buddhism. Each nirmanakai realized a certain activity of Buddha Shakyamuni.
Second feat
The second feat of the Buddha is connected with the choice of his earthly parents.
The penultimate birth of Samedhi was in the heavens of Tushita in the form of one of the gods. This gave him the opportunity to transfer his knowledge to people, at his own will choosing the next embodiment. He decided that it would be the family of Raja Shuddhodana.
The rule in the principality of Shuddhodan was based on the principles of the republic, and Shuddhodana himself headed the ruling assembly, consisting of representatives of the most significant military classes. Another circumstance indicated Sumedhi the right choice - the ancestors of Raja Shuddhodana had not incestuous marriages for seven generations in a row.
The mother of Buddha Shakyamuni was the wife of Raja Shuddhodana, a princess from the colia family, Mahamaya. It is said of her that she was deprived of 32 destructive qualities and embodied virtue and mercy.
3rd feat
The divine conception and birth of Shakyamuni Buddha is described in the Tripitaki set of sacred Buddhist texts. 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. An elephant with six tusks touched her side, and she felt that the sun had risen inside her. Throughout her pregnancy, she had wonderful dreams in which she saw herself giving knowledge to many different living beings. For nine months she was completely freed from flares, that is, from the poison of thoughts that poison the consciousness.
On the eve of Shakyamuni Buddha’s birthday, Mahamaya went to her mother’s house, according to local traditions. However, she did not have time to get there before giving birth. They began a little earlier than the appointed time, on the seventh lunar day of the fourth month of 624 BC. e. Mahamaya went to the laksa tree and it lowered the branch directly to her right hand. A woman took hold of a branch, and a baby came out of her right side. She did not feel any painful labor pains. The kid was shrouded 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 child.
The hermit, the soothsayer Asita, came to congratulate Shuddhodan on the birth of his son. He said that a great future awaits the child. 32 signs on his body indicate that he will become a powerful king or holy Teacher of many nations.
Fourth feat
The biography of Buddha Shakyamuni contains information about the wonderful education that Siddhartha received in his father's house. Suddhodan understood: to become a king of kings, one must possess many knowledge and skills. He did not want to see his son as a saint and Master. His goal was to make him a great warrior and clever politician.
Shuddhodan hired the best teachers so that Gautama would receive a comprehensive education. He read a lot, was absolutely literate in languages. Then the most advanced sciences were considered mathematics, literature and astrology. Buddha perfectly mastered them.
Sports and games also played a large role in education. A boy from a young age comprehended various martial arts and easily won competitions. He could deftly control an elephant or a chariot drawn by horses, was an excellent rider, accurately shot from a bow, a metal spear and fought with a sword.
He was unsurpassed in the mastery of singing, dancing, composing music and playing various musical instruments.
Siddhartha was able to draw and compose fragrance compositions.
Fifth feat
The future Great Teacher, under 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 either old, or sick, or ugly people.
When Siddhartha was 16 years old, Shuddhodan chose Princess Yashodhara as his wife. The king built three young palaces for the young at different times of the year. The summer palace had a pool with red lotuses, the winter one had white ones, and the palace had blue ones for the rainy season. Yashodhara came to Sidhartha with a retinue of 84 thousand people. After 13 years, the couple was born 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, cold, resentment, anger or envy were. 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 luxury sutra, which was included in the Teachings of Buddha Shakyamuni, talks about life in Kapilavastu as an endless series of pleasures and pleasant communication.
Sixth feat
From early childhood, Siddhardha showed a desire for reflection. It bothered the father. Therefore, he created conditions for his son so that the mind of Siddhartha Gautama would be occupied only with sciences and art, and that he would never know what good and evil were.
The sixth feat of the Buddha is the prince’s departure from his father’s house. This happened when he was 29 years old.
Shortly before this event, Siddhartha secretly left the palace three times. The first time he saw a man who was moaning from a disease that tormented him. His body was covered with bleeding sores, covered in flies. On the second visit, the prince saw a stooped gray-haired old man whose face was covered with wrinkles. And when he again went outside the palace, he met a funeral procession and saw many tears of grief on the faces of people.
In some sources, the history of Shakyamuni Buddha contains information that the Buddha four times secretly wandered outside the hometown. On the fourth visit, he met a sage who told him about the sorrows of people, as well as about passions and vices that torment them.
So Buddha Shakyamuni learned about the existence of suffering, but he also realized that suffering can be overcome. To find out real life, the young man decided to leave the palace.
The father opposed his plan - he organized new entertainments for his son and strengthened the protection 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 for the night, mounted his horse, and left the Kapilavast with his faithful servant.
Seventh feat
The seventh feat of Buddha is designated as an ascetic path.
Buddha moved a considerable distance from the palace, gave the horse to the servant, exchanged clothes with the first poor wanderer that came across, and set off in search of truth. From that moment, the life of Buddha Shakyamuni has changed forever. He embarked on a path leading to spiritual perfection.
The biography of Buddha Shakyamuni contains a story about how Prince Siddhartha came to Magadhi. The ruler of Rajagrichu, Raja Bimbisar, invited Gautama to his palace. He talked a lot with the poor hermit, as the prince presented himself to him, and was fascinated by his intelligence and knowledge. Raja needed such an adviser and offered Siddhartha a high post with his person, but the future Teacher of Nations refused.
During the wanderings of Siddhartha, Gautama Shakyamuni joined various ascetic groups 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 the hermit food and drink. By this time, Gautama had already accumulated a huge store of knowledge and what real life is. However, he was extremely exhausted - 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 make it possible to generalize them and turn them into universal teaching.
Having tasted ordinary food and bathed in clean water, he felt renewed. His students did not accept the change in teacher. They considered him an apostate who had betrayed his destiny to be an ascetic hermit. Siddhartha objected: "To learn is to change, otherwise teaching does not make sense."
Shakyamuni lowered his bowl into the water of the river and told his disciples: “If she swims against the stream, then I'm right,” and the bowl began to move up the river. Nevertheless, the students decided to leave their teacher and comrade and move on through austerities.
Eighth feat
The eighth feat or deed of Buddha is meditation. Six years of austerities strengthened his will. Having nourished strength with normal food and cleansed the body of dirt, he decided to plunge into himself.
At night, Gautama saw 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-determination. That is how a person who is immersed in meditation feels. Now the goal of Shakyamuni was to learn complete self-detachment.
Gautama went to the north of India in 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 everything earthly. The famous statue of Buddha Shakyamuni in the lotus position depicts the Master during meditation.
Ninth feat
The ninth feat of Buddha was the victory over the evil forces, which was the god Parinimitra-vashavartin Mara. On the seventh day of meditation, Mara sent his daughters to the Buddha, personifying various earthly temptations. They came to him in the form of beautiful maidens, offering all kinds of pleasures. For seven weeks, Shakyamuni's mind struggled with 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 into the consciousness of living beings, with whom fate simply drove him, but which he was not. And each time Gautama deliberately 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 a state of samadhi, that is, enlightenment. He got rid of flares, gained clairvoyance and absolute wisdom. Having passed all stages of development, his soul turned out to be completely free and felt endless 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 Sakyamuni delivered his first sermon. Quotes from it are often cited as the basic tenets of the doctrine. Teacher’s goal was to free people from suffering. He said: “The cause of human suffering is ignorance. No need to try to find the beginning of suffering. It is pointless. You can stop suffering by realizing it. There are four noble truths. First, suffering really exists. The second - suffering arises from desires. The third is the cessation of suffering - nirvana. The fourth is a way to get rid of suffering. This method is an octal path. "
The eightfold path is the eight steps to nirvana.
The first step requires awareness of the existence of suffering in your life.
The second stage requires the desire to embark on the path of liberation from suffering.
The third stage requires correct speech, that is, the rejection of lies, rudeness, slander and idle talk.
The fourth step requires proper behavior, that is, the refusal to kill, theft and adultery.
The fifth step requires the abandonment of work related to violence against living beings, the production of weapons, drugs and alcohol. You should also abandon work involving the accumulation of wealth in an unrighteous way.
The sixth step requires directing efforts to concentrate thoughts in the spiritual sphere - to develop a positive mood (joy, peace, peacefulness).
The seventh step requires learning without delay, passing through your mind thoughts and desires that can cause negative feelings and suffering.
The eighth step requires an understanding of the art of meditation and complete detachment.
11th feat
Buddha Shakyamuni opened a new milestone in the fate of mankind. He identified the causes of suffering, found a way to get rid of them and launched the so-called wheel of the Dharma (law). Having completed the third act, he set people to be free from suffering. Buddha turned the wheel of the Dharma three times. The first time I read a sermon in Deer Park and revealed to students the truth about suffering. The second turn occurred when 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 teachings of the Buddha on the octal path, as a way to get out of the wheel of samsara.
Twelfth feat
Buddha has been preaching his teachings 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, and he built a monastery for him.
Once, Buddha came to his native Kapilavastu. His father, wife, son, friends and relatives joined the Bodhisattva's teachings.
In the 81st year of life, the Great Teacher left this world and moved to 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 doctrine called the Dharma. Finally, they ended up in Pava, where they offered a treat to the travelers in the house of the blacksmith of Chund. 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 became the cause of his death. The passage of Buddha to Parinirvana occurred 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 strength of both good and evil by 10 million times.
Without even practicing Buddhism, on this day you can say the prayer of Buddha Shakyamuni, and she will turn the next wheel of the Dharma: "Om - Muni - Muni - Maha - Munie - Suuha." In Russian, it sounds something like this: "My ordinary consciousness, mind and body become the consciousness, body and mind of the Buddha."