Buddhism History
Summary
TLDRThis introduction to Buddhism covers its origins from Hinduism and how it became a distinct tradition. It discusses the Buddha's life, from his sheltered upbringing to his enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree, where he discovered the 'middle way' between indulgence and deprivation. The Buddha's teachings, the spread of Buddhism, and the formation of early Buddhist communities are explored. Additionally, it outlines Buddhism’s expansion across Asia, its introduction to the U.S. through immigration and cultural movements, and the key milestones in its historical development.
Takeaways
- 🪷 Buddhism originates from a Hindu context, specifically emerging when the Upanishads were challenging the Brahmin class.
- 🌟 Buddhism, unlike Hinduism, has a founder – Siddhartha Gautama, also known as the Buddha, who sought new ways to achieve liberation.
- 📜 Buddhism’s scriptures were written in Pali, a language spoken by common people, making it more accessible than Hinduism's Sanskrit texts, which were mostly for the Brahmin elite.
- 👁️ Buddha’s early life was one of luxury, but after seeing old age, disease, death, and an ascetic, he became determined to seek a life of renunciation and find liberation.
- 🌳 The Buddha achieved enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree, realizing that the path to liberation lay in the 'Middle Way,' avoiding extremes of indulgence and asceticism.
- 🧘♂️ The Buddha’s teachings spread after he gave his first sermon at Deer Park, establishing the Sangha, or Buddhist community, which expanded after his death.
- 📅 Following the Buddha’s death, Buddhist councils were held to formalize his teachings, leading to the creation of different branches like Mahayana and Theravada Buddhism.
- 🌏 Buddhism spread widely over centuries, reaching places like Sri Lanka, China, Korea, Japan, and Burma, though it declined in India due to various factors like conquests and Hindu assimilation.
- 🛤️ Buddhism was introduced to the U.S. through immigration and became more prominent during the 1960s and 70s with the counterculture movement’s interest in Eastern religions.
- ✈️ Anagarika Dharmapala played a significant role in spreading Theravada Buddhism to the U.S., particularly through the World Parliament of Religions in the late 19th century.
Q & A
What is the historical context from which Buddhism emerged?
-Buddhism emerged from a Hindu context during a time when the Upanishads were challenging the authority of the Brahman class. The Buddha sought new paths to liberation, diverging from Hindu traditions.
How does Buddhism differ from Hinduism despite some shared ideas?
-While Buddhism shares many ideas with Hinduism, such as concepts of liberation, it redefines them. Buddhism developed its own identity rather than remaining a branch of Hinduism, becoming a distinct tradition over time.
What is significant about the language in which Buddhist texts were written?
-Buddhist texts were written in Pali, a language spoken by common people, unlike Hindu texts written in Sanskrit, which was a language of the religious elite. This made Buddhism more accessible to the general population.
Who was Siddhartha Gautama, and what were the key events that led to his Enlightenment?
-Siddhartha Gautama, born into a wealthy family in the 6th century BCE, was sheltered from suffering. After witnessing old age, disease, death, and an ascetic, he renounced his life of pleasure, became an ascetic, and eventually discovered the 'Middle Way,' achieving Enlightenment and becoming the Buddha.
What is the significance of the 'Middle Way' in Buddhism?
-The 'Middle Way' is a key concept in Buddhism that rejects extremes of pleasure and self-deprivation. The Buddha realized that balance between these two paths leads to Enlightenment and liberation from suffering.
What are the four sights that led to Siddhartha Gautama's renunciation of his previous life?
-The four sights were old age, disease, death, and a religious ascetic. These experiences of suffering deeply affected Siddhartha and led him to renounce his life of luxury in search of spiritual truth.
What was the role of the Buddha's first sermon at the Deer Park?
-The Buddha’s first sermon at Deer Park, after his Enlightenment, introduced the core teachings of Buddhism, including the Four Noble Truths. His audience included five former ascetics who became his first disciples, forming the early Buddhist community or 'Sangha.'
How did Buddhism spread after the Buddha's death?
-After the Buddha’s death, his teachings were formalized through Buddhist councils. Buddhism spread across various regions, notably through Emperor Ashoka's efforts in the 3rd century BCE, who sent missionaries to spread the religion across India and other countries.
What factors contributed to the decline of Buddhism in the Indian subcontinent?
-Buddhism’s decline in India was due to several factors, including its pacifistic nature, the assimilation of Buddhist elements into Hinduism, and invasions like the Muslim and Hun conquests.
How did Buddhism first arrive in the United States?
-Buddhism arrived in the United States primarily through immigration, especially from Asian laborers working on railroads and in mines. It gained further prominence during the 1960s and 1970s with the 'hippie generation's' interest in Eastern religions.
Outlines
🔍 Overview of Buddhism's Historical Context
The first paragraph introduces the historical context of Buddhism as a religion emerging from Hinduism. The instructor highlights that this is a high-level introduction, covering the major religions while briefly discussing the Hindu influence on Buddhism. It emphasizes that Buddhism, unlike Hinduism, has a clear founder—Buddha—and distinguishes itself from Hinduism while sharing some overlapping beliefs. The paragraph also touches on the origins of Buddhism in response to the Upanishads and the Brahman class.
👁️ Buddha's Realization and the Four Sights
This section describes the early life of Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama) and his sheltered upbringing. Despite living a life of luxury, Buddha eventually sneaks out of the palace and encounters four significant sights: old age, disease, death, and an ascetic. These experiences expose him to human suffering, prompting him to pursue a life of renunciation in search of deeper understanding and enlightenment, rejecting the path of pleasure and opting for a spiritual path.
🌳 The Middle Way and Buddha’s Enlightenment
In this paragraph, Buddha's journey toward enlightenment is explained. After trying both the path of renunciation and asceticism without success, Buddha sits under the Bodhi tree where he discovers the Middle Way. This middle path rejects both extreme pleasure and extreme deprivation. He attains enlightenment and becomes the 'Buddha' (the Enlightened One), achieving Nirvana (liberation) and realizing the non-dualistic nature of existence. The paragraph also details his subsequent seven-week period of meditation and reflection.
🦌 The First Sermon at Deer Park
Buddha's first sermon at Deer Park is outlined here, where he shares his newfound insights, specifically the Four Noble Truths, with five former ascetics who become his first disciples. This moment marks the beginning of the Buddhist sangha (community). The significance of Deer Park as the site of this religious turning point is emphasized, as is Buddha's ongoing teaching and the eventual spread of his message.
📜 Buddha’s Life and Spread of Teachings
This paragraph summarizes key events in Buddha's life, including his death and the spread of Buddhism. After his death, his remains are spread to pilgrimage sites, and Buddhism grows into a significant movement. The paragraph also briefly describes Buddha's key life events as depicted in a 10th-century stele from India, showing the importance of his birth, enlightenment, and final Nirvana in the Buddhist tradition.
🏛️ Early Buddhist Councils and Mahayana-Theravada Split
The formation of Buddhist councils and the gradual spread of Buddhism are discussed here. The first and second Buddhist councils, which attempted to formalize Buddhist teachings, are outlined, as well as the third council led by Emperor Ashoka, which helped spread Buddhism across India and neighboring regions. The division between Mahayana and Theravada Buddhism, originating from differences in interpretation of the Buddha's nature, is also introduced.
⚔️ Decline of Buddhism in India
This section covers the decline of Buddhism in India due to several factors, including its pacifist nature, the assimilation of Buddhist elements into Hinduism, and external invasions such as the Muslim conquests. Despite this decline, Buddhism continued to spread beyond India to places like Sri Lanka, China, and Japan, where different forms of Buddhism, such as Zen and Pure Land, emerged.
🇺🇸 Introduction of Buddhism to the U.S.
The final paragraph discusses the spread of Buddhism to the United States, starting with laborers and immigrants, particularly from Asia, and picking up after World War II. Notably, Anagarika Dharmapala is credited with introducing Theravada Buddhism to the U.S. at the World Parliament of Religions. Buddhism gained more followers in the U.S. during the 1960s and 1970s, influenced by the countercultural embrace of Eastern religions. Immigration played a significant role in the introduction of various forms of Buddhism to the U.S.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Buddhism
💡Siddhartha Gautama
💡Upanishads
💡Nirvana
💡Four Noble Truths
💡The Middle Way
💡Sangha
💡Theravada and Mahayana
💡Bodhi Tree
💡Ashoka
Highlights
The history of Buddhism is presented at a high level due to the introductory nature of the course.
Buddhism emerged from a Hindu context during the time when the Upanishads challenged the Brahman class's authority.
Buddhism has a founder, the Buddha, and though it shares concepts with Hinduism, it redefines them to form its own distinct tradition.
Buddhist texts are written in Pali, a language accessible to the common people, contrasting with Hindu scriptures in Sanskrit, a language limited to the religious elite.
The story of the Buddha's life is perceived through later accounts and tales, such as the Jataka tales, which recount the Buddha's past lives.
Siddhartha Gautama, born in the 6th Century BCE, lived a sheltered life of luxury until he encountered suffering outside the palace.
After seeing old age, disease, death, and an ascetic, the Buddha decided to leave behind his luxurious life to seek liberation.
The Buddha tried both the guru path and extreme asceticism but found no liberation until he discovered the 'Middle Way' under the Bodhi Tree.
The Buddha attained enlightenment and realized the nature of non-dualism and nirvana, which in Hinduism is referred to as moksha.
The first sermon at Deer Park to five of the Buddha’s former ascetic companions marked the establishment of the Buddhist community, or Sangha.
The spread of Buddhism was aided by Emperor Ashoka in the 2nd Century BCE, sending missionaries to different regions.
Buddhism spread to Sri Lanka by the 3rd Century BCE, China in the 6th Century CE, and eventually to Japan with Zen and Pure Land Buddhism in the 12th and 13th centuries.
Buddhism declined in India due to factors like pacifism, Muslim conquests, and assimilation into Hinduism.
Anagarika Dharmapala played a significant role in introducing Theravada Buddhism to the U.S. during the World Parliament of Religions in the late 19th century.
The spread of Buddhism in the U.S. began with immigrant laborers in the 19th century and gained momentum with the 1960s and 70s countercultural movement.
Transcripts
all right well we are going to jump into
the history of Buddhism and again
um keep in mind this is a pretty
high level history of Buddhism because
this is an intro course we're talking
about four major world religions and
we're also trying to leave some time at
the end of the course to talk about some
other religious Expressions around the
globe and so we'll
do this at a pretty high level we also
have your reading and feel free to ask
any questions along the way
but um
we talked about in our intro video how
Buddhism flows out of a Hindu context
and so if you remember
different time periods of Hinduism
Buddhism is coming out right at the time
when the upanishads are challenging the
authorities of the Brahman class
and so the Buddha is looking for new
ways to Liberation and so um whereas
Hinduism is a mixture of numerous
cultures religions
Buddhism has a Founder it starts with
the Buddha according to traditional
accounts so that's important to keep in
mind as we talk about this
and so um Buddhism we'll find out use as
many of the same ideas as Hinduism but
it can redefine them or tweak them and
so
you could make an argument that Buddhism
is a development of Hinduism that in
some ways becomes its own tradition
and so instead of just becoming an
aspect of Hinduism it ends up as its own
tradition
and as you look at the kind of the
history of Indian religions in general
Buddhism is not unique in that way there
are a lot of different kind of ways that
things take Hinduism and start to become
their own Expressions but then they
either die out or maybe they're
still existing in a smaller scale such
as Jainism or something like that and so
it's not unheard of and that in the
context of Indian religions and Hinduism
for other movements to come out of them
and
um one thing that's interesting about
Buddhism and we see this in other
religions is that
Hindu scriptures for the most part were
composed of Sanskrit and Sanskrit is a
language that wasn't spoken very often
and it really is kind of like a
religious Elite language that only the
Brahmin class and maybe not even all of
them but the trained ones could read
and so what is unique about Buddhism is
that the texts of Buddhism are written
Paley and Paley is one of the languages
that people actually spoke and it wasn't
a high cast language and so it was
accessible
and so Buddhism even from the get-go you
can learn something about it just by the
language it's in written and composed in
is that it was meant to be except
accessible to people and who not just
High cast people so there you can see
how it's starting to split from its
Hindu Origins
and now when we talk about the Buddha
there are stories about the life of the
Buddha but none of these are considered
super highly reliable
instead the stories really tell us how
the Buddha was later perceived
and so Buddha lived allegedly Buddha or
tradition lived through many existences
in the past and so you can find the
different existences previous existences
of the Buddha and uh
uh they're recorded recorded in
something called the jakata tales so if
you look at the jakata tales you can
Google it but you'll see the different
lives the Buddha lived before he became
the Buddha
but again the source material is really
late here we're talking hundreds and
hundreds of years after the Buddha
lived and so the reliability of it we
just don't know what we do know is how
the Buddha was later perceived
and so according to what we think
happened what's what's been passed down
is that Siddhartha gutama is believed to
be unborn in the 6th Century BCE and
like I said last time it's dated 6 to
4th century and he was from the
Christiana cast near the Ganges River
and his father was a wealthy ruler
and um
we see things like he he wasn't
conceived from sexual relations and they
was born kind of on the side of his
mother
um The Story Goes that he lived a very
protected life his father tried to
really protect him to keep him from Pain
and death and the Buddha was given all
the pleasures anything he could want he
was given him as he grew up inside of
the palace and so you know all the
different Pleasures that we talked about
and that are available in the
householder stage those are the types of
things that the Buddha was given but but
interesting love because of the
Sheltering of his parents he wasn't
allowed to leave on the palace and so
all these things were brought into him
he wasn't allowed to go out and leave
and see any of the suffering
but as he grows up he says he decides he
wants to see the outside world and so he
sneaks out of the palace and he has four
experiences
um four things that he sees when he
leaves the palace so the first one is
old age so he sees he'd never seen
anybody like that before because he was
so sheltered nobody ever grew old in
front of him the next one is disease
anybody who was sick or had some kind of
disease was removed from the palace he
never had a chance to see him
and then the third one was death he saw
somebody dead against something he had
never seen because he was completely
sheltered in the palace living just a
complete life of pleasure and then the
fourth one really had an impact on him
and that was an ascetic who had deprived
himself someone who religious ascetic
who had kind of shunned all desires and
likely was like we had seen in some of
those pictures in Hinduism you know very
very thin
very meditation oriented something like
that so those are the four things he
sees and so you can kind of all wrap
this up under the heading of suffering
so he sees some real suffering for the
first time in his life
and so that causes a time of reflection
and he decides that he really doesn't
have a full understanding of the world
just through pleasure and so
um he sets out to live a life of
renunciation remember we had the two
pass in Hinduism
and so he says I'm going to take the
renunciation path
and that's what he goes into does so he
finds a guru and he follows it after
them and he does everything they say he
should do
no Liberation in fact he almost feels
worse about life
so that didn't work out
and then he goes after it himself by
becoming an ascetic himself
and basically as you can see from this
statue
and it's part of Buddhist iconography
you see Buddha was good at being
aesthetic but you can see I'm kind of
from his facial expression here even
though he's a like maybe the best
aesthetic of all time it didn't lead to
Liberation for him and so again now he's
tried the guru route he's tried the
aesthetic route and so it's like well
what's it going to do you know what's it
going to take
and so um in some ways he kind of goes
and sits under a Bodhi Tree
um
and basically is trying to figure out
you know whether he's going to keep
living or not
because he's so you know kind of at that
aesthetic
and he really is out there like I'm
either going to discover I'm not
and
um while he's there he does Discover it
he realizes he has this kind of
experience where he encounters
Enlightenment and realizes it's not the
way of pleasure or the way of
deprivation but a middle way and so
Buddhism is really about this middle way
and so during his Enlightenment this is
when he becomes the Buddha because
Buddha means enlightened one
and he also encounters Nirvana which in
Hinduism would be Moksha but it's
liberation
and so he is liberated from his
attachment and he realizes the
non-toolistic nature of the world and so
he realizes that there isn't you know a
spiritual and a physical reality but
there's just kind of this this only one
reality and um
and so it's a non-dualistic way of
living and so the Buddha stays in his
enlightened state for seven weeks and
um just experiencing the freedom that it
offers and The Liberation that offers
and
um here's kind of a an artist rendition
of
um
that experience there's the Bodhi Tree
and kind of just some animals around him
as you can see now he is an enlightened
being
and then um he travels from there to the
Deer Park and this is a famous site near
Varanasi in India and this is where he
breaches his first kind of sermon after
he's been under the Bodhi Tree in his
seven weeks of Liberation and the people
who listen to him the first time are
actually five of his former Co
Aesthetics
and so these are people he had been
striving for Liberation with
and he preaches teaches the four noble
truths we'll talk about that more later
and then these five former
um people that he had been working with
to gain Liberation they become his first
Community which a Buddhist Community is
known as a singer
and so um Deer Park is where he takes it
from kind of like a personal experience
to now becoming the start of a religious
movement and this is a picture I believe
of the Deer Park
um there and
um you can kind of see it obviously has
significant you know it's not a part
significantly a park anymore but I'm
more of a religious location
and so um but the Buddha continues to
teach and the saying it grows
and eventually the Buddha leaves his
body near a place in I believe Northern
India called kushinagar
and his body is cremated and spread into
eight stupas that become pilgrimage
sites you could see the stupa was the
large Mound at the kind of at the far
side of that picture from the Deer Park
so these spread out eight spaces and now
they're pilgrimage sites for some
Buddhists
so she's Enlightenment under the Bodhi
Tree preaches at the Deer Park continues
to preach
the community grows around him and then
he leaves his body chooses to leave his
body
and kind of just meld into the
nothingness
um
and the saying it continues to grow and
so recently last fall I was down in the
Art Institute of Chicago
and I stumbled across this this is a
steel
um from around the 10th Century it was
found in India and you can see different
life events we won't go through them all
here but we see his birth down at the
bottom from the side of his mother
there's also a moment of Enlightenment
there's this sermon
at the Deer Park and at the top you can
see kind of his spot when he
leaves the Earth and fully experiences
Nirvana
and which is Liberation freedom and so
you can see how something like this that
I've just stumbled upon at the Art
Institute of Chicago
shows the different elements of the
Buddha's life and how core the Buddha's
life is to some versions of Buddhism
that's the kind of a traditional account
of the life of Buddha but then when we
look at and say okay well what's
what happened after that well honestly
we don't have a lot of good details
about what happens next there are no
real records from that time period what
we believe happened is Buddhism begins
to spread among all the different levels
of society
again that's something unique from
Hinduism
where it wasn't limited to the upper
levels and then different teaching
different versions of the Buddhist
teachings emerge
and then different people start to begin
to establish monasteries and develop
codes or rules monastic codes for those
things based on their interpretation of
the Buddhist teaching
and then
um
we start to get some records around the
fourth Century BCE and this is part of
the reason why we don't know was that
6th Century 4th Century that the Buddha
lived because this is when you start to
get kind of raw records
and so what you have happened are some
Buddhist councils where they pull
together these communities and they're
attempting to formalize the teachings of
the Buddhists by compiling his sayings
so the first one meets early fourth
Century second meets later in the fourth
century
and it's even here in this fourth
Century that we can begin begin to see
The Divide between Mahayana teravada
Buddhism
begin and a lot of that has to do with
the nature of the Buddha
and then the third council is called by
the emperor at the time period Ashoka in
the beginning of the second century and
this leads to the spread of Buddhism
around India and then also kind of
around that region as well as Ashoka
since the missionaries to nine different
countries
and so you have these first kind of two
councils are trying to formalize things
and then the third council is doing that
as well but it's called and
um is beginning to look at spreading
actively spread Buddhism around India
and the
that part of Asia
um but then
we also see a decline in the Indian
subcontinent of Buddhism and there are
numerous factors involved here one of
them is a pacifistic nature of Buddhism
does it lend itself well
um
what it's kind of encounters a more
militaristic religion
you also see Hinduism kind of begin to
assimilate some of the elemental
Buddhism we talked about that
about hinduism's ability to assimilate
different beliefs when we talked about
it then you also see things like Muslim
conquests in the Hun Conquest sweeping
through India as well they play a factor
in that
but it does spread and we talked a
little bit about that with the third
Council but it's spreading to places
like Sri Lanka by the third Century BCE
um
but in the first century we see Mahayana
Buddhism really taken off the fourth
Century we see Buddhism go to Korea the
6th Century CEO we see Buddhism go to
China 10 centuries in Burma
and in the 12th and 13th century we're
beginning to see things like Zen pure
land Buddhism in Japan
so it's spreading now it's taking a
while right that's
1400 years from Sri Lanka to Japan where
it's Zen and pure land Buddhism but I'm
spreading around Asia
okay so that's kind of the spread and
we're moving up toward the modern times
this guy is somebody that somebody can
jump into and take for a video but on
nagarika Dharma Pala
um what's interesting about him is that
he brings Buddhism to the U.S through
the world parliament of religion and
this is the version that he brings is
taravada Buddhism and so he's you know a
big enough deal that they put him on a
stamp in India in 2014. I won't say much
I won't say more about him than that let
somebody grab him for a city person
video but uh he plays a big role in our
perception of Buddhism
um
another thing to keep in mind
is that like many religions in the U.S
the Buddhism comes to the U.S primarily
through immigration and this starts on
the west coast with things like labors
brought in to build the railroads work
in the mines and things like that it
picks up significantly after World War
II
um
and then starts to really gain a
foothold through the kind of what is
kind of known as the hippie generation
in the 60s and the 70s and they're um
kind of there embracing of Eastern
religions
and when you think about
immigration
um
you know this is how this is the story
of religion in the U.S
you have all kind of the religion that
gets imported the US is through
immigration and it's starting right with
the pilgrims essentially
and so I'm here are some of those labors
that we talked about as bringing some of
the first forms of Buddhism to the U.S
um so that's a brief overview of the
history of Buddhism it's very much an
overview because it's an intro course
but we'll get I'll be able to dive into
some of those people and the important
cities in Buddhism
uh through your videos of course if you
have any questions feel free to shoot me
an email
but hopefully you now have a little
better understanding of the history of
Buddhism
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