Buddhism Begins

Summary

This video introduces Buddhism, focusing on the life and teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, later known as the Buddha. Born into a royal family, Siddhartha left behind a life of luxury after encountering human suffering. He sought spiritual enlightenment, ultimately becoming the Buddha, or 'awakened one.' The video explores parallels between Buddha and Jesus, noting how both challenged the religious authorities of their time. Siddhartha's journey culminates in his resistance to temptations from the demon Mara, emphasizing his commitment to alleviating the suffering of all sentient beings.

Takeaways

• 🧘‍♂️ Siddhartha Gautama, known as the Buddha, was born into the Kshatriya caste around 563 BCE in what is now Nepal.
• 🌅 The word 'Buddha' means 'awakened,' symbolizing the shift from ignorance to enlightened consciousness.
• 🌏 The Buddha drew from Hindu roots but offered a grounded teaching on awareness, distinguishing between sleep (ignorance) and wakefulness (enlightenment).
• ❓ Buddha rejected labels like 'god' or 'prophet,' simply stating, 'I am awake,' indicating that anyone can achieve enlightenment.
• 📜 Both Buddha and Jesus were radicals who challenged the religious authorities of their time, though they came from different traditions.
• ⚖️ A key difference between Buddha and Jesus is that Buddha taught for 45 years, while Jesus only for a brief time before his crucifixion.
• 🙏 Original Buddhism avoided deification, with Buddha urging followers not to worship him but to seek self-transformation instead.
• 🏞️ Siddhartha's life was transformed after encountering the Four Passing Sights: an old man, a sick man, a corpse, and a monk.
• 👹 Siddhartha's journey to enlightenment involved resisting temptations from the demon Mara, including lust, political power, and personal moksha (liberation).
• 🌟 Siddhartha's final awakening came when he chose to stay in the world to help alleviate the suffering of all beings, rather than seeking his own liberation.

Q & A

Who was Siddhartha Gautama, and why is he important in Buddhism?

Siddhartha Gautama, also known as the Buddha, was a prince born into the Kshatriya caste in northeastern India around 563 BCE. He became a spiritual teacher after renouncing his worldly life and is considered the founder of Buddhism. His teachings focus on enlightenment, or 'awakening,' which is central to Buddhist philosophy.

What is the meaning of the word 'Buddha'?

The word 'Buddha' comes from the Sanskrit root 'budh,' meaning 'to awaken.' In Buddhism, it refers to someone who has achieved enlightenment or full awareness, contrasting with the metaphorical state of being 'asleep,' representing ignorance or unconsciousness.

What was Siddhartha Gautama's early life like?

Siddhartha Gautama was born into a royal family and raised in luxury, shielded from the realities of suffering by his father. He was expected to follow a political-military path, but his encounters with the Four Passing Sights (old age, sickness, death, and a monk) led him to question the value of his material life.

What are the Four Passing Sights, and why are they significant?

The Four Passing Sights are key events that transformed Siddhartha Gautama's life. He saw an old man, a diseased man, a corpse, and a monk. These sights revealed the reality of suffering, prompting him to renounce his royal life and seek a spiritual path to end suffering.

What similarities exist between the lives of Buddha and Jesus, as mentioned in the transcript?

Both Buddha and Jesus were born into well-established religious traditions, critiqued their respective religious authorities (Buddha the Brahmins, Jesus the Pharisees), and were seen as revolutionary figures. Despite their differences, both rejected political power and were tempted during their spiritual journeys.

What was Siddhartha Gautama's approach to enlightenment compared to other religious practices?

Siddhartha's approach was rooted in self-transformation and personal experience, rejecting the need for religious rituals or priests. He emphasized self-awareness and the alleviation of suffering through one's own efforts rather than devotion to gods or external authorities.

What challenges did Siddhartha face under the Bodhi tree during his meditation?

Siddhartha faced three temptations from the demon Mara while meditating under the Bodhi tree: lust, political power, and the offer of immediate personal enlightenment. He rejected all these temptations, showing his commitment to seeking enlightenment not just for himself but for all sentient beings.

How does Buddha's rejection of Mara's temptations compare to Jesus' experience with Satan in the Bible?

Both Buddha and Jesus faced three temptations during their spiritual journeys. Buddha was tempted by Mara with lust, power, and individual salvation, while Jesus was tempted by Satan with similar offers, including political power. Both resisted these temptations, demonstrating their commitment to their higher spiritual missions.

What is the significance of Buddha’s final rejection of Mara's offer of personal enlightenment?

Buddha’s rejection of Mara’s offer of immediate enlightenment signifies his selfless dedication to helping others. He refused to pursue enlightenment for his own benefit, choosing instead to remain in the world to teach and guide others in their spiritual journeys.

What does the transcript suggest about the role of myth and archetype in religious stories?

The transcript highlights how religious stories, like those of Buddha and Jesus, often share common archetypes, such as miraculous births and trials involving demons. These archetypes reflect universal themes in spiritual growth and the human experience, as noted by scholars like Joseph Campbell.

Outlines

00:00

🧘‍♂️ The Life of Siddhartha Gautama: From Prince to Buddha

This paragraph introduces Siddhartha Gautama, the historical figure known as the Buddha. It highlights his birth in northeastern India, around 563 BCE, into the Kshatriya (military-political) caste, and how he was groomed to follow in his father's footsteps as a military leader. However, Siddhartha took a different path, becoming a spiritual teacher who traveled and taught for 45 years. Central to Buddhism is the metaphor of 'awakening,' rooted in the Sanskrit word 'budh.' The Buddha's teachings focus on the transition from ignorance to enlightenment, and he often described himself as simply 'awake.' This paragraph also draws a comparison between Buddha and Jesus, noting how both challenged the religious authorities of their time.

05:02

🙏 Buddha vs. Jesus: Divinity and Devotion

This section compares the rapid deification of Jesus to the Buddha's emphasis on self-transformation rather than worship. Jesus was deified early on, with the Apostle Paul claiming his divinity, which was a revolutionary idea in Jewish tradition. In contrast, the Buddha discouraged his followers from worshiping him, advising them to 'be lamps unto themselves.' However, later developments in Buddhism did lead to devotional practices. The paragraph also introduces the Buddha's origin story, including mythological elements like him orchestrating his own birth, paralleling the miraculous birth stories of other spiritual leaders, such as Jesus.

10:03

🌄 Siddhartha’s Transformation: The Four Sights and the Break from Worldly Life

This part narrates the turning point in Siddhartha's life when he left his privileged palace life after witnessing 'The Four Passing Sights': old age, sickness, death, and a monk. These revelations led him to question the value of his materialistic life and realize the impermanence of worldly pleasures. Determined to find answers, Siddhartha renounced his wealth and status to seek enlightenment, meditating and learning from various Indian philosophical traditions. However, neither extreme asceticism nor his initial spiritual practices brought him peace, leading him to the path of moderation or the 'Middle Way.'

15:05

👹 Temptations and Enlightenment: Mara’s Three Challenges

Here, Siddhartha’s final steps toward enlightenment are described, focusing on the three temptations he faced under the Bodhi tree. The demon Mara tries to sway Siddhartha with lust, political power, and finally, the promise of individual moksha (liberation). Siddhartha rejects all these temptations, particularly the third, as he is committed to helping alleviate the suffering of all sentient beings, not just achieving his own bliss. This mirrors the temptation of Jesus in the Gospels. The paragraph ends with Mara’s defeat and Siddhartha’s awakening, marking the moment when he becomes the Buddha.

🔔 The Meaning of Awakening: A Preview

This brief paragraph introduces the concept of 'awakening,' which will be explored further. It hints at a deeper exploration of what it means to be awakened in the Buddhist tradition, setting the stage for a more detailed discussion in the next part of the study.

Keywords

💡Buddha

The term 'Buddha' means 'the awakened one' and refers to Siddhartha Gautama, who became the founder of Buddhism. The video describes the transformation of Siddhartha from a prince into a spiritual leader, and his teachings on awakening from ignorance into enlightenment. This term is central to the theme of spiritual awakening, and the idea that all humans can potentially become Buddhas through their own path to enlightenment.

💡Awakening

Awakening, derived from the Sanskrit root 'budh,' is the process of transitioning from a state of ignorance to full consciousness. In Buddhism, it is the ultimate goal—achieving wisdom and understanding about the nature of reality. The Buddha refers to himself as 'awake,' implying that everyone else is still in a state of ignorance. The video discusses how awakening involves realizing the truth behind the illusion of life.

💡Maya

'Maya' refers to the illusion that obscures the true nature of reality. In the video, it’s explained as a cloud preventing people from realizing the oneness of existence, which is a key concept in both Hinduism and Buddhism. Overcoming Maya is part of the journey toward awakening. Buddha’s teachings focus on seeing beyond this illusion to understand the impermanent nature of the world.

💡Siddhartha Gautama

Siddhartha Gautama, the historical figure who became the Buddha, was born into a royal family in the Kshatriya caste. The video outlines his journey from being a sheltered prince to a spiritual leader who renounced worldly pleasures. His life's story, including his witnessing of 'The Four Passing Sights,' led him to seek enlightenment and develop the foundational teachings of Buddhism.

💡Kshatriya

Kshatriya is the warrior and ruling caste in the traditional Indian caste system. Siddhartha Gautama was born into this caste, which shaped his early life as he was trained to be a political and military leader. However, he ultimately rejected this path in favor of spiritual pursuits, a significant shift that set the stage for his teachings on renouncing material ambitions.

💡The Four Passing Sights

These are four encounters that changed Siddhartha's life and set him on the path to enlightenment: an old man, a sick man, a corpse, and a monk. These sights introduced him to the realities of aging, sickness, death, and the possibility of spiritual life, which shattered his previous understanding of the world and led him to seek answers beyond worldly pleasures.

💡Mara

Mara is the demon that attempted to prevent Siddhartha from attaining enlightenment by presenting him with temptations—lust, power, and personal salvation. This is similar to the Christian story of Jesus being tempted by Satan. Mara symbolizes the forces that try to distract or deter individuals from achieving spiritual awakening.

💡Asceticism

Asceticism is the practice of extreme self-denial, often in the form of fasting, celibacy, or other disciplines. Siddhartha experimented with asceticism during his quest for enlightenment, but eventually rejected it as too extreme, choosing instead the 'Middle Path,' which balances self-discipline and healthy living. The video highlights his realization that neither indulgence nor asceticism led to enlightenment.

💡Middle Path

The 'Middle Path' is a key Buddhist teaching that advocates moderation in all aspects of life, avoiding both extreme indulgence and extreme asceticism. Siddhartha adopted this approach after years of trying both luxury and severe self-denial, realizing that balance was essential to reaching enlightenment. This concept is fundamental to Buddhist philosophy.

💡Enlightenment

Enlightenment in Buddhism is the state of full understanding of the nature of reality, achieved by transcending ignorance, desire, and suffering. Siddhartha reached enlightenment while meditating under the Bodhi tree, which allowed him to understand the causes of human suffering and the way to overcome it. The video emphasizes that the goal of Buddhism is to help all sentient beings reach this state.

Highlights

Siddhartha Gautama, known as the Buddha, was born around 563 BCE in northeastern India, in what is now Nepal, to the Kshatriya caste.

The Buddha's teachings center around awakening, derived from the Sanskrit root 'budh,' meaning to wake up, symbolizing a transition from ignorance to enlightened awareness.

Buddha's foundational teachings draw from Hinduism, particularly Vedanta, with the belief that illusion (Maya) prevents humans from realizing their oneness with the divine.

Buddha emphasized that anyone can become a Buddha, as all beings possess the potential for enlightenment.

A parallel between Buddha and Jesus is drawn: both were born into established religious traditions but challenged the authorities of their time.

While Jesus was deified quickly after his death, the Buddha discouraged personal worship, encouraging followers to be 'lamps unto themselves.'

The Buddha’s origin story involves a celestial pre-existence, where he chose his mother for his birth, drawing parallels to other spiritual leaders like Jesus.

Siddhartha’s father hoped he would become a world ruler, but Siddhartha was drawn toward the path of enlightenment after encountering 'The Four Passing Sights.'

The Four Passing Sights—an old man, a sick man, a corpse, and a monk—shifted Siddhartha's worldview, leading him to renounce worldly pleasures and pursue enlightenment.

Siddhartha spent six years meditating and learning from various gurus but realized extreme asceticism did not lead to enlightenment.

Siddhartha's enlightenment under the Bodhi tree was marked by overcoming three temptations from the demon Mara: lust, political power, and selfish liberation.

Mara’s third temptation promised Siddhartha personal bliss and moksha, but Siddhartha refused, choosing instead to stay and alleviate the suffering of all beings.

This moment of defeating Mara and his temptations marks Siddhartha’s awakening, officially making him the Buddha.

Joseph Campbell's 'Hero's Journey' archetype is applied to Buddha's story, noting that spiritual figures often face a 'threshold guardian' before achieving transformation.

The contrast between Buddha’s long teaching career and Jesus’ brief ministry highlights differences in how their respective religious traditions evolved.

Despite later deification in some forms of Buddhism, original Buddhist teachings focus on self-transformation and direct experience rather than devotion to a divine figure.

Transcripts

So today we begin our study of Buddhism and every study of Buddhism begins with

the Buddha, which is a title given to a guy called Siddhartha Gautama of the

Shakyamuni clan, born in northeastern India way up there in the corner, in the

foothills of the Himalayas in today what we call Nepal. Born about 563 BCE

died about 483. And he was born into the Kshatriya caste, that's the second cast

down, the the military political caste, and his father was a military political

leader and so Siddhartha was to be raised in that tradition. But it didn't

quite work out for a couple of reasons. He ended up becoming a spiritual teacher

and he taught for forty-five years and traveled throughout the region and

gathered a community of students and left behind this body of work that came

to be known as Buddhism. And at the center of it all is this word Buddha

which comes from the Sanskrit root "budh," to awaken. Every time you wake up

you budh, so it's a metaphor isn't it. At the center of Buddhism --

in plain English Buddhism would be called "Awakenedism" and I suppose the

metaphor is drawing the distinction between sleep and wakefulness or between

a state of a kind of ignorant, conditioned unconsciousness and wise, liberated full

consciousness. So coming right out of his Hindu roots this Indian teacher took the

essential insights of Vedanta that all is one, but there's a cloud of Maya or

illusion that prevents us from realizing our oneness and taught in a very

grounded, down-to-earth way as being asleep or being awake. And as he taught

and as he traveled people often asked him, "What are you? Are you a God, are you

an avatar, you know an incarnation? Are you a

prophet?" And he would just answer "I am awake" which I suppose implies that we

are not. But the good news in Buddhism is that all of us are Buddhas in waiting.

All of us could experience the transformational shift in awareness and

in consciousness and understanding that the Buddha experienced. That's what the

tradition teaches and that's what we're going to explore. So there's also an

interesting set of parallels between Buddha and Jesus and let's think about a

couple of those. You know both Jesus and Buddha were born into already ancient

and well established religious traditions. Jesus of course born into

Judaism many, many, many centuries after Moses and Abraham. So Judaism is in the

air in Jesus's world, that's where he gets his understanding of everything, and

yet Jesus will go on, as the Gospels tell us anyway, to butt heads with the

religious authorities of Jerusalem the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

The story in the Gospels is not pretty. That Jesus is often critical of their

tight hold on Jewish life. And the same thing in the story of the Buddha he is

often critical of the Brahmins, you know the highest caste in the Hindu world. I

suppose his question to the Brahmins, the priests, would be something like this:

"So wait you're telling me that all is Brahman-atman, all is one. Then what do I

need you for?" Ouch. "What do I need priests for? Why

should I pay you money to perform a ritual to connect me to the divine when

your bedrock philosophy teaches me that all is already divine?" And so both

teachers are in their own traditions radicals,

iconoclasts, thorns in the side of the authorities. That's an interesting thing

to notice and I'm afraid it's something you see over and over again in world

religions right? That these spiritual founders are often revolutionaries that

are part of the undoing of the old order and then give it a couple centuries they

become the centerpiece of a new order. That's always been the case isn't it

true in political revolutions and in religious revolutions. There are

some big differences between Jesus and Buddha. Jesus only taught for two and a

half years before he was killed. Siddhartha had this long teaching career.

Another big difference is Jesus was deified rather quickly. We see in the

writings of Paul in the first century the claim that Jesus is divine. What an

outrageous claim especially in Paul's largely Jewish audience that God would

take corporeal form as a man, an idea unheard of in Islam and Judaism until

Paul started to teach it and preach it and of course it became the central

pillar of Christianity that Jesus is the incarnation of God. Well, all of that is

missing in Buddhism at least in original Buddhism. The Buddha in fact told his

followers, "Don't worship me. Be lamps unto yourselves." Let's avoid the

whole devotion thing. Now fast-forward to later Buddhism of course it all came

rushing back in, but initially the Buddha taught a program of self transformation

and that's where we're gonna start our study of Buddhism. There's another nice,

fun piece about this and that is the story of the Buddha himself, his origin

story. How did this kind of wealthy prince become such a profoundly

influential spiritual teacher? Well the story of course was

covered over with layers and layers and layers of apocrypha, you know, legends and

and mythologies, but it's a beautiful and powerful tale of a transformational

figure and his origin. So the story goes that that Buddha before he was born

existed in the celestial sphere and he orchestrated his own birth. He picked his

mother and put himself in her to be born as a human being, and that's a nice twist

on the old virgin birth or miraculous birth story, a ubiquitous archetypal idea.

So many of these spiritual teachers come about through non-biological events most

famously of course Jesus especially in the Gospel of Luke. But we have something

very parallel here that Siddhartha comes not from the ground up but from

the sky down. That's a common theme isn't it in these origin stories, and his

father heard the prophecy that Siddhartha was going to be either a

world redeemer and bring wisdom and enlightenment to the world or a world

ruler and bring all of the empires together into one incredibly powerful

Kingdom. Well his father being a Kshatriya, being a political military guy

really favored that political option, and so he set about to create these secluded

palaces where Siddhartha would grow up protected from the suffering of the

world. He never got to see sickness or old age or death or anything. Everything

inside the compound was pretty and young and beautiful. And it worked. Siddhartha,

the story goes, grew up very worldly. You know he loved his toys, he loved his

pleasures and so he was a worldly, materialistic, ambitious guy but of

course you know it's all gonna fall apart. He snuck out of the palace with

the help of one of his servants one day and they rode a wagon into town.

Siddhartha was a curious young man, he wanted to see the world, and he saw what

in the tradition is called The Four Passing Sights. He saw an old man

barely able to walk down the road. He saw a diseased man sick with all kinds of

health challenge. He saw a funeral, the pallbearers carrying the corpse, and he

asked his driver, "What is that? What is that? What is that?" And the driver

tried to catch him up on what you and I already know. Yeah

old age is a thing, yes people get sick, and yes people die. And the fourth thing

that Siddhartha saw was a monk. He saw a wandering mendicant in his orange robe,

shaved head, owning nothing but a bowl with which he received a little rice

from people who were feeding him, and Siddhartha said to his driver,

"What is that guy?" and the driver said "That's a monk," and explained to him what

a monk was. And Siddhartha said, "Hold on a minute. You mean to say there are

actually people who give all their money away on purpose, who aren't concerned

with ambition or power or reputation? They spend all their time on

contemplative prayer and meditation and in service?" And the driver said, "Yeah,

there's guys like that, there's women like that. There's one right there." Now

Siddhartha was completely shot. He went back to the palace. Everything that he

had been investing his life in -- pleasure, possessions, power, worldly ambition -- he

saw now all of that as fleeting, as impermanent, as without lasting value. He

left the palace and spent six years in the forest meditating, practicing yoga,

Raja Yoga particularly, studying with guru after guru, learning all of the

wisdom of the philosophical traditions of India -- Vedanta -- all the wisdom of the

Upanishads: Brahman, Atman, Maya, karma, Dharma, samsar,a moksha, Sat-Chit-Ananda, all

all that great stuff. But it didn't get him where he wanted to go and

he grew increasingly ascetic or extreme in his self mortifications. That didn't

work either. So he stopped starving himself. He came back to his ordinary,

healthy, middle path weight, and he sat down under the Bodhi tree and he began

to meditat, and he vowed not to get up until he had attained enlightenment. And

now come the demons. The story goes that a particular demon called Mara came down

to interfere with Siddhartha's progress. And Mara gave to Siddhartha three

temptations to try to lure him away from the path of awakening, and if you're

thinking, man this is just like what happened to Jesus, you're right. 500 years

later in the Gospels we get the same story. It's again an archetype. As Joseph

Campbell points out, when our hero is about to go from one level of existence

up to a higher level of existence there's always what Joseph Campbell

calls a threshold guardian, a demon, three riddles, three tests, some kind of

challenge, and the threshold demon's job is to keep you out of the next stage

because you're not ready. But when you pass the three tests you prove your

readiness. So the threshold demon is kind of doing you a favor because if you

don't pass those tests you aren't gonna make it up ahead anyway. Well, we know

what happens to Jesus. Satan appears to Jesus when he's fasting in the desert

and gives him three temptations. Same thing happens to Siddhartha. In the

Buddhist story the first temptation is lust. Mara produces these two strippers

and they go into their act right in front of this young man meditating under

this tree and you know Buddha grew up in a harem, it doesn't have the kind of

impact on him that Mara thinks it might. First temptation's a fail.

Second temptation Mara says, "Hmm, I know, political power." Which by the way is

exactly the same temptation Jesus gets from Satan when Jesus is whisked to the

top of mountain by Satan and Satan says "If you bow down to me I will make you

king of all you survey," and of course Jesus and Siddhartha, they don't want

political power, (although I bet Siddhartha's father of would have really liked that

second option). It was the same thing Mara said, "If you give up this quest for

enlightenment I'll make you ruler of the whole world," and that's a hard no from

Jesus and Siddhartha. Then comes the third temptation. There are different

versions of this in different stories, I'll go with this one.

Buddha is about to awaken and the demon Mara says to says to

Siddhartha, "Look, I see you're pretty good at this and I see you're serious about

this. Fine. I'll tell you what. Let's just get right to it.

I will whisk you immediately, fast-track, to your own moksha, your own

Sat-Chit-Ananda, your own Samadhi, your own eternal celestial bliss beyond all forms."

And Siddhartha says, "No. I'm not in it for myself. I'm not looking for my bliss. I

need to stay here in this body in the world of embodied creatures. My job is

not the alleviation of my own suffering. my job is the alleviation of the

suffering of all sentient beings, and so I need to stay here in this embodied

form." Now it's Mara's turn to be afraid. Now its Mara's turn to flee. He's never

met anyone with these kinds of powers, and convictions, and vision, and Mara

flees. And it's at this point in the story when the Buddha awakens and

becomes, properly speaking, the awakened one or the Buddha. Our next question is

"What is awakening?" and we'll get to that on the other side.