History of Buddhism

The traditional founder of Buddhism is Sidhartha Guatema, who lived c. 563-470. BCE. Born into riches and wealth, Sidhartha discovered suffering, embraced extreme ascetism and poverty, then finally discovered enlightenment through the Middle Way, a path of moderation.

Buddhism began as a response within Hindu culture to decrepitude, death, suffering and the emptiness of luxury. In that context, it might be regarded as an athiestic religion, an alternative to Hinduism that is more concerned about how to transcend suffering and human psychology than it is about theological speculation, or reverance for gods.

Basic to all forms of Buddhism is the tenet of Dukkha, the First of the Four Noble Truths. This is the idea that all of life essentially consists of suffering. Human life is itself the quality of suffering. The Second Noble Truth maintains that the conflict implicit in Dukkha is a result of lust, human craving and desire. The idea implicit here is that the quest for personal fulfillment above everything else, egoistic obsession with oneself, linked with the lower passions, causes suffering. As a dynamic, this quality of suffering in turn continues to promote the illusion of selfhood which ends in alienation, as well as the deception of Maya, the false perception that things are separate and distinct.

The Third Noble Truth posits that the way to overcome a condition is to root out its source, which as a principle leads to the Fourth Noble Truth, which is the basic path to Satori (or enlightenment), then, is to overcome the desire which causes suffering, thereby breaking the power of the illusion of self. The objective then becomes the dissolution of the bundle of perceptions which contrive the notion of the self in a state of nirvana, which is the absence of these perceptions, and therefore, also the absence of suffering. The path that Sidhartha traditionally taught is called the Eightfold Path, and necessitated a monastic vocation, renunciation of the things that people tend to use in order to feed the lust for self-fulfillment.

Now, there are four major forms of Buddhism which seek to reach the goal of Nirvana through various routes. The Theravata Buddhist seeks to take responsibilty in his life by inculcating habits of disciplined simplicity. This would involve simple rituals, meditation, and moderate asceticism. The Mahayana Buddhist meditates under the direction of a disciplined teacher, who is his own wisdom and achievement is able to guide the student in therapy wisely and with discretion towards enlightenment. The Amitushu and Zen Buddhist also submits to a teacher, who guides him on the path to satori through overcoming the enemy of words and concepts which confirm and foster the illusion of self. A Zen teacher migth supply a koan, a self-contradictory or illogical statement, to help the student along this path. Tibetan Buddhists often seek more immediate and sudden enlightenment through visualization, the use of mantras (repeated words or phrases that accompany meditation), or the art of intricate mandalas.