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Thursday, January 5, 2012

The Buddha - Story Continues (Part 4) - The Beginning of Him Teaching People...

This is minute 60 to 80 of the movie "The Buddha - The Story of Siddhartha" - This is the fourth post. Please reference post #1, #2 and #3 first.

Post #1 - Click here...
Post #2 - Click here...
Post #3 - Click here...
In this part, Buddha beings to teach his findings and quickly gains many disciples. He sets up the first "Temple" and even embraces women as equals, a feat never done at that time.

Although influenced heavily by Hinduism, The Buddha never believes in the Caste System or priestly rituals. As he proves, Buddhists have no interest in creationism, or who the Creator is. Their only concern is human suffering and how to end it. Anything around and beyond that is irrelevant.

He says that anyone of any caste can become Noble by following his teachings and looking within for the right answer. He also sets up for "4 Pillars of Noble Truth" that come with a "recipe" of how to acheive this state of Peace.

His basic message becomes training the mind through meditation on understanding and taming desires.

Here are my detailed notes:

1. On Buddha's first attempt to teach he fails because the pupil sees nothing special about him - he looked so ordinary. But that is exactly what Buddhism is about - being normal and nothing more or less.

2. He makes his way back to old companions who were still practicing punishing their bodies. But they made a pact not to listen to him because they were so disgusted with him that he had "given in."

3. His first teaching would later be called "Setting in Motion the Wheel of the Dharma" because it brought the Buddha's message into the World for the first time.

4. Buddhists don't have a "creation story" - there is no Creator. It's not really of interest to them.

What's interest is just the problem of human suffering and the solution to it. Everything else is really just treated as "besides the point."

5. When the Buddha spoke of "suffering" - he meant more "disappointment." More the feeling of never being satisfied or feeling like we have enough.

6. What came later was known as the "4 Pillars of Truth"

1. There is suffering (dukkha)
2. There is a cause of suffering (craving)
3. There is the cessation of suffering
4. There is eightfold path leading to the cessation of suffering
(a set of recipes to essentially try on your own life to see which releases your suffering the fastest).

7. Buddha taught the main problem is "DESIRE" - He didn't mean to "wipe out desire." He knew that desire must be there, but he was saying that "Be SMART about your desire."

8. The first 5 quickly became his disciples and from there, hundreds came to see him and they also became his disciples.

9. Caste and priestly rituals done by Hindus were of NO interest at all to the Buddha. He said it didn't matter what caste you came from to become Noble - it took just the understanding he was teaching.

10. The Buddha ordained women as nuns and accepted them into his initial Temple (the Sanga). This was very different at that time as women were not given freedoms and treated with much suspicion. They were abused, mis-treated and always left out. But, not with The Buddha.

11. The Buddha taught how to handle desires through meditation by placing their minds on those very desires and thoughts.

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