The Buddha - Story Continues (Part 5) - His Final Years

This is the last 30 minutes of the movie "The Buddha - The Story of Siddhartha." This is the fifth post, please reference post #1, #2, #3 and #4 before reading this one.

Post #1 - Click Here...
Post #2 - Click Here...
Post #3 - Click Here...
Post #4 - Click Here...

This last part is short to summarize. This is where Buddha's teachings really become a waive. He sends out his Monks to all corners of the continent to teach under vows.

He later dies with his final words of advice in a very peaceful manner.

Here are my detailed notes:

1. The Buddha sent out his monks into the communities to teach. They were sworn to poverty and dedication only to teaching.

2. The monks existed by begging, they could not even beg for the next day - only for that particular upcoming meal.  In exchange for the meal, you would give a lecture, unless they said they do not want to hear it.

3. The only way you could be fed was to service them by preaching to them. 

4. The Buddha himself also wandered across India, teaching and gaining more disciples as he went. He didn't require anything from you, he taught everyone.

5. The 3 Poisons - Anger, Greed and Ignorance. He taught not to IGNORE them but to turn them around. 

6. As he gathered more followers, the stories of his miracles spread through the communities.

Stories of miracles such as:

1. 500 pieces of wood stacked up on each other, split in half on his command.
2. A wild elephant was charging down a street, while all fleed, only the Buddha remained and the elephant knelt before him allowing the Buddha to pat his trunk.
3. The Buddha walked in mid-air while streams of water and flames shot out of his body shooting out to the edge of the Universe.

4. Kings and Great warriors used to seek his council, but he could not help them. He was powerless against war. His only teaching was that violence leads only to more violence.

Even men and women of his own Temple were killed by these wars that waged day in and day out during the time of Buddha.

5. His quote "Violence in the world comes from Violence in the mind." Again, he taught only to control one's mind - that was always his solution.

6. He grew old and was taken well care of.

7. He was offered food, but it was bad food. He knew it was bad food but said he took it anyways as he did not want to refuse an offering. He just figured it was his time. It turned out to be the meal that led to his death.

Mara, "Lord of Desire" = Satan (In Buddhism)

As you study more about Buddha and Buddhism, you'll learn that Mara, the Lord of Desire attacks the Buddha many times in his journey but Buddha prevails.

Mara is afraid that if Buddha achieves ultimate knowledge and finds the solution to end suffering, he will end all Desire hence destroying Mara.  Especially the last night when Siddhartha is inches away from attaining his answer, Mara attacks him with EVERY pleasure that can be done.

However, Siddhartha remains unmoved and falls for nothing.

If you were to look at this with Christian eyes, it's basically as SATAN or the Anti-Christ was attacking Jesus over and over and Jesus prevailed and never fell for his trickery.  Just an interesting analogy to help you understand. It helped me understand.

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.

The Buddha - Story Continues (Part 3) - His Last Battle with The Demons...

This is minute 40 to 60 of the movie "The Buddha - The Story of Siddhartha" - This is the third post. Please reference post #1 and #2 first.

Post #1 - Click here...
Post #2 - Click here...

In this part, Buddha stops trying to find mentors or "ways" to find his answers. He finally sits down under a tree and decides to look within - to find the answer within himself. It is now that he meets a great "battle" with the Lord of Desire (basically Satan).

He fights off this "Lord" and his Demons without so much as moving, shortly there after, he finds the answers to all his questions. By the end of this, he is now 35 years old and decides (through a tough decision) to share his teachings with the world.

Here are my more detailed notes:

1. During this time of recovering from almost having killed himself, a little girl offers him some rice after seeing him starving. He accepts and this is when he comes to realize what Christians call "Grace."

Except in Christianity, "Grace" comes from the Divine, in the story of Buddha it came from a little girl or any ordinary man with a kind heart.

2. This is when all of a sudden he experienced the feeling of "missing" - he was missing his family, his son, his wife, his step-mother's rice pudding.

3. When he took the food, he returned back to his original question and he was on his way to physical recovery, but his spiritual question remained.

He left the people who taught him to abuse his body after being abused by them for eating, for embracing "pleasures."

4. He now realized that he would no longer seek Masters or seek practices to find his answers, but for the first time - he would look WITHIN to himself to seek his answers.

5. He sat in one spot under a tree and proclaimed that he would not move from that spot at that time until he had received his answer.

6. Almost instantly the same "Lord of Desire" rose to challenge him yet again, with an army of Demons he attacked Siddhartha, but he did not move. 

Their weapons all turned into flowers.

The Lord is afraid that if the Buddha attains his answer, he will do away with Desire all together hence ruining the World.

The Demon even sent his 3 daughters to seduce Siddhartha, however, he remained still and unmoved.

Now the Demon was very frustrated, so he gave one final test. He demanded to know "who would testify that Siddhartha was worthy of obtaining ultimate knowledge."

Siddhartha said nothing, but touched the ground and the earth shuttered and the demons all fled. Siddhartha was basically saying that the earth was his witness.

7. He then meditated throughout the night and all his previous lives passed before him, he remembered all of them and everything. 

He had just gained the power to SEE the process of reincarnation and now had a vision and understanding of the workings of the entire Universe.

8. By morning he said "my mind is at peace" and now he had officially become the "Awakened One" - the Buddha.

9. He then said that we're all enlightened, the capacity, the ability all exists within us - our ability to achieve Nirvana.

10. There is nothing to aim for in the after life - just pay attention to the PRESENT, because that is all that is. 

11. "Pay special attention to your entire surroundings, everything around you"

12. After this moment, he wanted to retire into solitude, rather than going around teaching it. He had his doubts as to whether people would understand him or just call him nuts.

He debated whether he should go out and teach this or not. He admits to being afraid to teach the people.

13. The myth is that a God comes to Buddha, a Brahma, and asks Buddha to please share what he has learned that the Earth and it's People needed his teachings.

He then decided to go teach it.

14. He was now 35 and he would now devote the rest of his life to bringing his teachings into the world.

15. But as he had feared it would not be easy. 

The Buddha - Story Continues - How He Almost Killed Himself!

This continues on from THIS blog post. It's his first few adventures outside the Palace trying to seek his answers. In his search, he tried everything. Literally everything. He even almost killed himself. The following takes place between 20 minutes and 41 minutes of the Movie...

Once he leaves the Palace and is out on his own.

1. He puts on the orange robe, cuts his hair and is now homeless with no possessions or money.

2. At his time, there were THOUSANDS of people who had done the same - gave up all possessions and all belongings to seek spiritual enlightenment.

They were trying to exit the re-incarnation cycle.

3. His time believed in dying and being re-born according to your previous life, your Karma.

4. It is said that Siddhartha had lived many lives before this one as animals, humans and even Gods or Sages. He had experienced life in many different forms.

5. The Buddha himself had a Guru that he lived with early on to learn meditation and to learn how to free his spirit.  Interesting, even the Buddha had a Guru early on! 

Of course, it is said, that soon he himself surpassed even his Guru's knowledge.

6. Yoga is involved in this tradition - it's been around for centuries. This was how the spiritual leaders used their bodies to tame their minds. To meditate.

7. Buddha practiced all these practices and excelled, however, he kept finding himself still stuck in these pains and the suffering. He was not getting his answers. He found them as only a temporary escape from the problems, but not a solution.

8. Siddhartha moved himself to another Guru, but his results were the same.

9. He eventually concluded that "these practices do not lead to what I seek…" - he left this Master as well and continued his search, drifting further South.

10. His question remained "Why do human beings suffer? Is there any escape?"

11. The next practice he took on was punishing his body to hardships and pains - there were believers at that time that felt this would lead to ultimate wisdom and truth.  Siddhartha joined them as well. 

12. He punished himself for 6 years, literally tortured himself trying to destroy anything inside himself that he saw as "bad." 

He was eating one grain of rice a day, he was drinking his own urine, he was sleeping on nails - he tried it all. He was on the verge of death...

13. That's when he remembered something…a day when he was young and sat by the river with his Father (at a Spring planting festival). He remembered seeing the ground and thinking about the ants and their eggs that were destroyed when the field was planted - he remembered feeling great sadness and compassion.

What Is Re-Incarnation?

It's the attempt to gain more and more wisdom with every life to have a day where you finally reach spiritual enlightenment to receive freedom from the re-birth cycle.

It's said that many egos can be so strong that they will just keep being re-born and could do this for a billion life-cycles.

As one scholar put it:

"It's almost as if you're going through Junior High School with every life you live. Over and over again."

"Ooof…sounds trying!"

The Buddha - Story of Siddhartha Before Age 29

I'm watching this documentary movie called: "The Buddha - Story of Siddhartha" and the first 20 minutes focus on his life BEFORE he left his palace (at the age of 29). I learned quite a bit.

For example:

- Did you know he left a wife and new-born son behind?
- Did you know he was a bit of a play-boy in the mansion before marriage?
- Did you know that when he was born it was said he was destined to be a great King OR a very enlightened being?
- Did you even know he left when he was 29 - I thought it was much younger.

** Interesting, even Jesus started his preaching at 30. What's with this age, I almost wonder if there is some significance to it?

Anyways, here are my notes from the movie (the first 20 minutes only so far):

1. Before the birth of Buddha, his mother had a dream (interesting, so did Mother Mary).

2. When experts were asked in that time to analyze her dream, they said she would give birth to a son who was either destined to become a great ruler or a great holy man.

3. The Queen died only 7 days after giving birth to the Buddha.

4. Interesting - Dale Lama says… "You are your own master, the future it depends on you and rests on your shoulders. The Buddha can only show you the path." 

Interesting, this would fall in line with most religions. Even in Christianity, Christ can only show you a path, you have to follow it.

5. Born 500 years before the birth of Jesus.

6. The Buddha's name was "Siddhartha" - he was the son of a King born in a palace with every imaginable luxury. He was a Prince among a clan of warriors.

7. He was brought up very delicately as a child, protected at all times from even the Sun and dust.  

8. His father wanted him to be a great King and be the ruler of India. At that time India had 16 rulers, but his father felt that he could become king of all Kings.

9. His father never wanted him to know that anything was wrong with the world because he wanted him to be a great King, and feared that his son may go the other path (as predicted at his birth) as a enlightened being. 

10. His father married him to his cousin and he fell deeply in love with her. 

11. He indulged himself for 29 years before the bubble of pleasure finally burst. One day he went outside as he traveled through the Kingdom and had his first foreign encounter.  He saw an old man and wanted to know what that was. His attendant explained that men get old.  He eventually saw a sick man and attendant said "oh everyone gets sick - even you will one day."

Now he goes out multiple times, seeing more horror. On his 3rd trip, he sees a corpse and he immediately he sees the suffering, the death - the real world he had been kept from.

He was shocked and he realized that this is my fate, I will become old, ill and I will also die - how do I deal with these things. These are Universal questions in almost all beings.

12. His 4th trip outside, he sees a spiritual seeker, someone who has decided to live a life other than his to escape suffering and all. 

13. At 29 he resolved to leave the palace and seek the answer to suffering.  His wife had just given birth to a son.

14. When he tried to leave the God of Desire tried to get him to go back by telling him that he would one day rule a great Empire. Siddhartha refused. 

** The desire of God almost resembles some kind of DEMON in this story. Once I finish watching this movie I really want to draw some parallels between this story and the story of Jesus. There seem to be uncanny matches.

10 Questions For The Dalai Lama

I watched a Documentary called "10 Questions For The Dalai Lama" - my first touch with Buddhism. This movie is less about religion and more about Tibet and the political battle. However, still an engaging movie. You can learn about how Buddhists THINK - which is a big part of understanding Buddhism.

Here's a trailer of the movie:



  

Out of the 10 questions asked, I chose the following to reveal to you. I don't want to reveal all 10 as that would be disrespectful to the actual film :)

Question #1: Why does it seem that people are RICHER in India than even in the West. Obviously, wealth wise, the West is far wealthier. Why is that the Poor smile more than the Rich?

Answer #1: [Paraphrased] "The poor have very little to lose, very little stress. The rich have much to lose and always absorbed in wanting more, more, more. They're never happy because of greed. The poor simply want enough to make their daily needs then they are very happy. The more possessions, the more we have to lose, the less happy we will be."

Question #2: Why is the crime rate so much less in India, even with a higher population than places like the United States?  Why are people in the West so much more prone to anger than the East? The East is so much more prone to patience, is it because they have just accepted their faith?"

Answer #2: [Paraphrased] "It has to do with self discipline and being aware of consequences. The East separates desire with the right/wrong better. In the West you grow up in a society where people are more emotional and more reactive. The East you're trained to be more aware of consequences and of what is right or wrong. It's mostly cultural based."

Question #3: What do we do about religious differences and the fights it creates, especially in places like the Middle East?

Answer #3: [Paraphrased "There needs to be more personal respect, that's all. We need to simple respect the beliefs of another and not impose our own onto them. Two should first participate in festivals and mutual celebrations and become PERSONAL friends, THEN, they should discuss serious matters such as land...especially in the Middle East."

The movie was a good overall watch. But I guess I don't specifically recommend it if your only goal is to learn about Buddhism. I. however, am glad I watched it because I had NO understanding of the Tibet issue - now I do!
 

Is Buddhism Even a Religion?

Wow. Never knew this was a debate? A close friend and wise mentor had a 4+ hour discussion on religion with me a few days ago. He's a learned mind, having spent months studying religion prior to choosing Christianity.

We spoke that night mostly about Christianity and Buddhism, tiny some on Islam. He made a statement that amazed me:

Buddhism is not even a religion. It's just a way of thinking.

Sounded like an argument waiting to happen so I turned to Google. Surely enough, there are many reasons to support my friend.

Check out this excerpt I took from this website - "Buddhism in a Nutshell:"

A Buddhist does not seek refuge in the Buddha with the hope that he will be saved by his (i.e. the Buddha's own) personal purification. The Buddha gives no such guarantee. It is not within the power of a Buddha to wash away the impurities of others. One could neither purify nor defile another. The Buddha, as teacher, instructs us, but we ourselves are directly responsible for our purification. Although a Buddhist seeks refuge in the Buddha, he does not make any self-surrender. Nor does a Buddhist sacrifice his freedom of thought by becoming a follower of the Buddha. He can exercise his own free will and develop his knowledge even to the extent of becoming a Buddha himself.  

- Buddha is NOT "God" (he specifically makes that clear).
- Buddha does not save you, or clear your sins.
- There are no specific prayers.
- There are no idols (many use Buddha's statute but only to pay respect to a wise man).
- There is much free will and freedom.

It seems to be a strong way of THINKING only? I'm confused right now. So, can I be a Christian Buddhist? I'll read more on this later. Just a side-track I took because that little voice in my head was talking again.

Sometimes I feel that voice has no path, it's just hopping around! :)