The orthodox fundamentalist view of the Pali Canon by those who look to it for the foundation of their system of spirituality, religion, and culture is that the Pali Canon is the Buddhavacana, the literal word of the historical Buddha; therefore, the Pali language in which it is written is the literal language of Magadhi, where the Buddha lived and taught. In this scenario, the Pali words simply transcribe the dialogue of the living Buddha, preserved perfectly in the photographic memory of Ananda. Unfortunately, the texts themselves refute this view by virtue of the fact that they show signs of editing and include contradictory views and statements.
The Pali Canon is the result of a process of development that did not end till the time of Yeshua at the earliest, about 400 years after the Buddha’s death or parinibbana. For one thing, it seems unlikely that the Buddha taught in numbered lists or stock paragraphs. What we have in the Pali Canon is rather a snapshot of a collective memory, taken in Sri Lanka, far away from the Buddha’s homeland in northeast India, four hundred years after the Buddha’s death. To adapt a metaphor used by the Buddha himself, it is a long and winding path through an ancient and forgotten forest, including many interconnecting paths and many circuitous routes, all faint and overgrown, leading to an abandoned city.
Some scholars contest the historicity of the First Buddhist Council, but it seems reasonable to me that the Buddha’s senior disciples
One of the most prominent aspect of the Great Depression was that the people of United States lost confidence in the banking system and the banking crises of the 1933 followed. Until 1930s, unregulated banking system existed with the notion that increased competition would make the market more efficient increasing the consumer choice base and thus would promote resource allocation and growth. Since people at that time weren’t too supportive of centralization, there was division of power and all the states and regions had their own banks to mobilize resources and carry out investments. This led to increasing competition to attract the same resources which escalated the rates offered to depositors and induced lenders to invest in high return, high risk areas. As a result, the financial system became fragile and there were frequent mortgage
During the centuries of disunity in China, the Chinese supported and defended Buddhist influence from India. An anonymous Chinese scholar (like many other Buddhist scholars) created a “guide” for Chinese Buddhists to defend against the false suspicions of Chinese critics (Doc 3); however, since the author is anonymous, it is unknown whether he is as credible as other Chinese scholars such as Zhi Dun. Zhi
6, it states in the first sentence that Buddha was never spoken of before the Han
In document 5, Zong Mi, Buddhist scholar, talks about the similarities of the 3 traditions of Confucius, Laozi, and Buddha. He stresses the importance of all philosophies as being that of creating an orderly society with respect. It is interesting that a Buddhist scholar is favored by the Tang imperial household in the early ninth century since after 845 CE Buddhism was denounced in the empire. However, Buddhist scholars were very common at this time as many credited the survival of the area to the religion. The scholar, being favored by the royalty, probably tried to greatly influence them to accept and encourage Buddhism. Moreover, Zong Mi finds the commonalities of doing good deeds, punishing the wrong, and rewarding the right to further highlight that the essence of all the teachings is the same. As shown in document one Buddhism provides a clear path to attaining peace in the world and within
Buddhism originated in the early Fifth century BCE, from the teachings of Siddhartha Buddha (Fisher, 2005). Plagued by the desire to help end human suffering, Buddha reached a state of pure enlightenment showing him the way to end earthly suffering. Through meditation, people can control the desires of their human nature. By gaining control of our desires we can end our suffering. He taught his wisdom to all that wanted to learn. After his death, three main forms of Buddhism emerged; there was the Theravada’s, the Mahayana’s, and the Zen Buddhists (Fisher, 2005). For the sake of this report, the local Buddhist
Buddhism and Christianity are closely related in many unique ways. While their founders exhibit significant differences in when they began their existence in the world, their teachings hugely resemble each other. Gautama Buddha was reported to have lived about 600 or 500 before Christ was born. Buddha was born in Nepal, India while Jesus was born in Bethlehem, which is currently located in Palestine. Both Jesus and Buddha espoused altruism and always insisted in service of others. They emphasized the need for giving than receiving and both believed in love as the only tool of defeating hatred. Both teachings contained the need not to judge others. A key difference between the two was how Buddha taught followers to lose one’s self to receive Nirvana while Jesus encouraged his people to lose one’s self in order to receive an everlasting life (Talim, Jeffrey & Anant, 67). This assignment attempts to highlight the similarity between Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount and Gautama Buddha’s Jataka Tales.
After I came across David Knitter, a former ordained Christian priest and the author of “Without Buddha I could not be a Christian”, I began to realize that I had taken a western approach to Buddhism and had misconstrued some of Buddhism’s core teachings in my mind according to what I thought it should be. Knitter argued that the meaning behind religious teachings can become distorted upon translation and interpretation (92). This is why he had personal issues with his own religion before he turned to Buddhism to look for answers. He stated that, “the bond between language and the truth is so tight, when we change the language, the truth can and feel very, very different” (94). He also argued that how we use language to interpret the teachings of religious texts changes over time because we become culturally conditioned (93).
For years, the dispute about what is fact and what is opinion has been present in the church. This debate is seen, in modern day, through the different denominations that are under the Christianity banner. Under the banner of Christianity there are Catholic, Baptist, Presbyterian, Apostolic, Methodist, Seventh-Day Adventist, Church of God in Christ (C.O.G.I.C), and Lutheran.
The book of Buddha’s teachings is called the Tripitaka, meaning “three baskets.” These “baskets” contain a collection of texts that are categorized by the purpose. The first is for monks/nuns and their duties, rules, and how they attain that service. The second is the talks Buddha gave when he was alive and teaching. The last contains are varied due to the passing down of traditions.
It is said that history is shaped by the lives of great men. Great men are leaders. They bring about change; they improve the lives of others; they introduce new ideas, models, and theories to society. Most of the world's religions were founded, developed, or discovered by great men. Two particular religions - Christianity and Buddhism - developed in different parts of the world, under different circumstances, and in different social atmospheres. But each religion is based upon the teachings of a great man. When one compares the life of Buddha with the life of Jesus, one finds that the two share many things in common. This essay aims to compare and contrast the lives of Buddha1 and Jesus in two key areas: conception and birth.
D.W. Reads is a retelling of the parable taught by the Buddha in chapter 3 of the Lotus Sutra as translated by Burton Watson.The Mahayana authors of this influential Sutra believed that the Buddha taught using expedient means (in the form of similes, parables and other expressions) to present his teachings to different people at different times based on their capacities. I have chosen to focus on chapter three of the Lotus Sutra, which provides an explanation and an example of expedient means, as well as a rationale of why the Buddha resorts to these expedient devices. In this paper, I will provide an analysis of the reasonings behind my various creative decisions including why I chose to create a children’s book to explain the role of expedient means, a discussion of the target audience and the categorization of my retelling according to the Ramanujan framework.
I’ve learned over the years that my mother, sister, and I are all American Cherokee Indian. My “Greatest” great-grandmother, what i like to call her, followed the culture of Cherokee Indians. She believed in magic, spirits, and veneration of her ancestors, Although I didn’t get to speak to her much about her history and culture often, I tell how much she wanted my mother and her children to embrace and never forget where we come from. To be exact from my knowledge my ancestors move up to New York and continued their lives here. This is where my mother was born and raised. Unfortunately I’ve never met my grandmother, my mother’s mom but I’ve heard she was a heartwarming lively woman about who she was. My mother doesn’t follow right after my
The Jataka is the most important Buddhist literature which was written in the 4th century BCE, and there are 547 stories. These stories are about the early lives of the Buddha before he was enlightened. The Buddha was born and reincarnated in rituals of humans, animals, and god. Buddhism is the religion of compassion that teach moral values and provides lessons. The objective of Buddhism is to enlighten about dharma and karma that might help individuals to escape the karmic cycle and reach nirvana. Dharma is expressed as the system of ethical behavior of life, distributing good life energy through the universe. Karma is mean as the network of cause/effect from the human action that can determine future reincarnation as a higher or lower creature.
1. What is our body's first and second defense mechanism against foreign pathogens outside of the body? What is it composed of?
the contradictory sutras to make sense of the new branch’s teachings as they translated them