The Buddha’s teachings were preserved through a strong oral (spoken) tradition for five hundred years before being written down in Sanskrit and Pali. The Pali Canon (more than 26 times the length of the Bible) is the only surviving complete collection of this oral tradition. The Pali Canon does not contain a complete, sequential account of the life of the Buddha, but the Buddhacarita, or ‘Acts of the Buddha’, a Sanskrit work composed about 100 years later, also provides a basis for accounts of his life.

The Buddha was born Siddhartha Gautama, a member of a wealthy aristocratic family of the Shakyan clan, in what is now Nepal, around the year 560 BCE (Before Common Era). For twenty-nine years, Siddhartha had lived a well-to-do existence, but increasingly found a life devoted to material pleasures empty and unfulfilling. He experienced a deep sense of dissatisfaction and also a desire to find meaning in life. The legend of the Four Sights represents, in dramatic form, a spiritual crisis or turning point. His response to this spiritual experience was to ‘Go forth’; to leave behind security and comfort in order to seek an answer to his questions about life. The Going Forth and the Enlightenment are key incidents in the life of the Buddha.

In the Indian subcontinent there was, and still is, a tradition of wandering holy men and teachers. It was then commonly believed that the way to find spiritual truth was through self-mortification and extreme asceticism. After six years, Siddhartha realised that extreme self-denial was not a useful spiritual practice. Instead, he advocated a middle way between the two extremes of denial and self-indulgence.

Many people have suggested Siddhartha was selfish to leave his wife and child. It is possible that he had no wife or child and that they appear in the story as symbols for things which stop us from making progress in life; but suppose he really did have a wife and son. If he thought that finding an end to suffering for all human beings was even more important than staying with his family, could we accept that?

• Could there ever be a good reason for leaving one’s family?

The process of growing up is, to some extent, one of leaving things behind. In order to move on we sometimes have to leave things behind. Changing classes at the end of a year, or moving from junior to secondary school are examples of this.

• Have you ever had to make a big change in life?
• Why did you make the change?
• What did you have to leave behind?

Making up your own mind

When Siddhartha gave up the ascetic life and began to take food again, his five friends left him. However, he was not afraid to admit that he had made a mistake and that he must carry on alone.

• Are there any occasions when you have had to admit that you have made a mistakeCan you relate an experience when you have had to make up your own mind?
• In what situations do you experience group pressure?
• How do you deal with group pressure?

Impermanence

When the Buddha became Enlightened, he understood that all things are impermanent.

• What signs of impermanence and change do you see in your life and the world around you?
• Can you think of anything that is permanent and will not change?
• What effect does thinking about impermanence have on you
• How might recognising impermanence affect the way you live your life?

Wisdom and kindness

• Do you know anyone you consider wise?
• How can you tell they are wise?
• What is it they know?
• How did they become wise?
• Is it possible to be wise but not kind, or kind but not wise?
• What might be the dangers of being kind without enough thought?

Human potential

The Buddha taught that all human beings have the potential to grow and change and eventually become Enlightened.

• What things do you think can and can’t be changed
  about yourself?
• Do you believe that everyone can change for the better? Can you give examples from your own experience?
• Are there some people who cannot change? If so, why do you think this is?
• What do you think causes people to change?
• Do you think there is a limit to the positive changes a person can make in themselves? If so, can you say what that limit is? What prevents people going beyond it?

Action – ourselves

The scripture, the Dhammapada, says that our lives are shaped by our minds: we become what we think. (see below)

• Do you think this is true?
• In your experience, what has shaped who you are now?
• Does what you do and say affect you?
• How does what you think affect you?
• Who is responsible for how you feel?
• What are ‘positive’ actions?
• What are ‘negative’ actions?
• How can you change the way you think and feel? 􏰀What things might affect the sort of person you
  become in the future?

Action – the world

The Buddha’s Law of Karma states that actions have consequences.

• Do you agree?
• Can you think of anything that you do that has no consequences?
• In what way do our actions affect the environment?
• Why care for the environment?
• What can you do that will make a difference?
• In what way does the environment we create affect us?

Defining the undefinable!

Enlightenment is beyond words. Nevertheless, people do need to know something about it in order to move towards it! Traditionally, Enlightenment is described in four ways: negatively, positively, paradoxically and symbolically.

Negatively

As cessation: an Enlightened being is free of the unhealthy mental states of greed, hatred and ignorance. These are sometimes known as the Three Poisons or Fires. Nirvana/nibbana is known as the extinguishing of these fires. (Nirvana/nibbana = blowing out.)

Positively

in terms of the characteristics of an Enlightened being, which are:

• supreme bliss
• profound wisdom (seeing into the nature of reality)
• infinite compassion, springing from a love for all life
• a radiant, unlimited consciousness
• boundless energy

Paradoxically

The Mahayana texts employ paradox to describe Enlightenment in order to emphasise that it is beyond words and concepts. For example, it is said that a Buddha abides in a state of ‘non- abiding’, or that Nirvana is attained by means of ‘non-attainment’.

Symbolically

Enlightenment is also represented through metaphor, poetic description or symbol. For example, it is described as the Cool Cave, the Island in the Flood, the Further Shore or the Holy City. There are elaborate Mahayana accounts of the Happy Land, or the Pure Land. There are also symbolic forms, including the stupa (reliquary) and symbolic images of the Buddha and other Enlightened beings.

The Law of Conditionality

The fundamental insight gained by the Buddha at his Enlightenment was that all phenomena whatsoever – from a tsunami to your every passing thought – arise in dependence upon existing conditions. When those conditions change, so do the phenomena they gave rise to. This is the teaching of pratitya samutpada (in Sanskrit; paticcasamupada in Pali). It follows from this that all phenomena are seen as interdependent and constantly liable to change. 

The Law of Karma

The word karma literally means ‘action’. The Law of Karma states simply that human willed actions have consequences.

This is an important Buddhist teaching. Although it can be difficult to grasp fully, some appreciation of this law is essential to an understanding of Buddhism.

The Law of Karma springs from the Buddha’s Law of Conditionality, which states that all phenomena are subject to change, dependent on conditions. The Law of Karma is the Law of Conditionality applied to human actions.

Some Buddhist traditions teach that everything which happens to us is the result of karma. According to the earliest scriptures, however, there are other kinds of causation too. Thus not everything that happens to us is the result of Karma. The Law of Karma does not attempt to explain all cause and effect processes to which we are subject.

The Law of Karma is like a scientific law; it merely explains how things happen. It does not indicate the existence of a law-giver. Buddhists believe there is no-one who rewards or punishes us.

Because of the Law of Karma, Buddhism teaches that people can change themselves through their own actions.

Rebirth

Karma continues throughout the process of death and rebirth. According to the Law of Conditionality, all things change. However, Buddhism says there is continuity, a connecting flow, not only from moment to moment but from life to life. One traditional illustration of the death-rebirth process is of a new candle being lit from the flame of a dying candle. The ‘second’ flame is neither a new flame nor the old one, but has arisen in dependence upon the ‘first’ one.

Reminders

The Buddha image reminds Buddhists of the Buddha and all he represents for them. When we love and admire someone a great deal we sometimes keep pictures or mementoes to remind us of them.

• Do you have any pictures, posters or reminders of people you like or admire?
• What do you like or admire about these people?
• How does the picture or memento help keep them in mind?

Body language

The Buddha image communicates particular qualities to Buddhists. We communicate our- selves to others through the way we dress, sit and move.

• How do you dress to express personality?
• Does what you wear affect how you feel?
• Does what you wear affect how other people respond to you
• Can you tell what a person is like from looking at them?
• We communicate through ‘body language’ all the time. Does how we move and hold our body affect how we feel about ourselves? Does it affect the way others respond to us?

Perfection

Buddhists believe that the Buddha perfected himself.

• What qualities would you most like to develop?
• What qualities would a perfect person have?
• Is it possible to be perfect?
• If not, what stops us?
• If you think it is possible, how can it be achieved?

During the Buddha’s lifetime, his followers would venerate him by making offerings and coming to sit silently in his presence. After his death, the Buddha’s remains were divided and housed in funerary mounds called stupas. Early Buddhists visited stupas to worship. Making offerings, and chanting verses of praise, they renewed their undertaking to strive for Enlightenment. The holy sites connected with the Buddha became places of pilgrimage.

The earliest existing Buddha-figures come from Gandhara, today in Afghanistan. The image, while being a reminder of the historical Buddha, was primarily a symbol of Enlightenment. Gandharan artists copied local images of the Greek god Apollo, an athlete with long hair tied up in a topknot. Gradually in India a code developed showing the ‘marks of a superior being’; for example, the long ear lobes and the ushnisha, or point on the top of the head. As time passed other symbolic features developed, such as mudras, posture and colour, based on the visionary experience of Buddhist meditators.

Some figures from the Mahayana and Vajrayana schools of Buddhism represent Enlightened archetypes, rather than the historical Buddha. They can be in male or female form, look peaceful or wrathful, have coloured skin and wear the clothes and ornaments of royalty. All seek to convey particular qualities of the Enlightened mind and have symbolic and ritual significance to the devotees of particular traditions of practice.