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Example research essay topic: Noble Eightfold Path Siddhartha Gautama - 1,604 words

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Buddhism of Siddhartha Gautama Supreme Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, founder of Buddhism, was a spiritual teacher in North India. His birth and death dates are not definite, but are believed to be 563 BCE to 483 BCE or 20 years either side of 400 BCE for the Buddha's death. He was the sage of the Shakyas and the key-figure in Buddhism. His teachings were memorized and passed down by oral tradition.

Buddhist texts are the primary source of information regarding his life. A council held shortly after his death and one a hundred years later established authenticate accounts of his life and teachings. His teaching was divided into four distinct but overlapping bodies recorded one hundred years after his death. The monks recorded the scriptures three or four hundred years after the Buddhas death magnifying his figure, altering material. The ancient Indians focused on philosophy, and the texts contain descriptions of the culture and daily life of ancient India from Jain scriptures. Siddhartha was born in Lumbini, principality of Kapilvastu, in modern day Nepal beyond the boundary of Vedic civilization.

His community did not have a caste system, nor was it Brahminical. It was an oligarchy, a form of republic. His father was King Suddhodana, the chief of the Shaky nation. Gautama was the family name. Queen Maya gave birth to him on the way to Kapilvastu at Lumbini, in a garden beneath a sal tree. Siddhartha means "he who achieves his aim." Asita, announced that the child would either become a great king (cakravartin) or a great holy man.

Kaundinya (Pali: Kondanna), the first arahant (teacher), predicted that Siddhartha would become a Buddha. Prince Siddhartha had three seasonal palaces. King Suddhodana, his father, wished for Siddhartha to be a great king and shielded his son from human suffering. His father arranged his marriage to Yasodhara when he was 16 years old. Siddhartha spent 29 years as a Prince, but he felt material wealth was not his ultimate goal. The Departure and Four Passing Sights The Great Departure, when Siddhartha was 29 years old, was leaving his palace.

He met an old man, a diseased man, a decaying corpse, and an ascetic. Siddhartha left his royal life behind. Siddhartha began his ascetic life in Rajagaha. King Bimbisara offered him the throne, but Siddhartha rejected the offer.

Siddhartha left Rajagaha and practised Alarm Kalama under two hermit teachers. He next became a student of Udaka Ramaputta and achieved high levels of meditative consciousness, a concentrated and focused state, the Jan. He tried to find enlightenment through total deprivation of worldly goods, including food. He nearly starved to death. The Renunciation The Prince returned to palace life briefly, but took no pleasure in it. Yasodhara gave birth to his son, Rahula.

In the palace alone, the luxuries once pleased him now seemed grotesque. Prince Siddhartha reflected on old age, disease, and death and realized he could no longer be content living the life of a prince. That night he left the palace, shaved his head, and changed to a beggar's robe to begin the quest for enlightenment. Prince Siddhartha Gautama after meditation and deep breathing discovered the Middle Way, a path of moderation away from the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification.

Under a Pipal, sacred fig (Ficus religiosa) tree or Bodhi tree in Bodh Gaya, India, he vowed to find truth. At the age of 35, he attained Enlightenment in the fifth lunar month and was known as the Buddha or "Awakened One. " Upon hearing of the enlightenment, Suddhodana dispatched royal delegations to ask the Buddha to return to Kapilavastu. Nine delegations were sent in all, but the delegates joined the sangha and became arahant's. Neglecting worldly matters, they did not convey their message.

The tenth delegation, led by Kaludayi, a childhood friend, resulted in the message being successfully conveyed as well as becoming an Arahant (teacher). He found insight into the nature and cause of human suffering, the 'Four Noble Truths', and the state of supreme liberation, Nirvana. He then possessed the Nine Characteristics of a Buddha and hoped to teach the Dharma to others. True Dharma was deep and hard to understand. With great compassion to all beings in the universe, the Buddha agreed to become a teacher. The Teacher The first sermon depicted at Wat Check Like in Thailand shows two merchants, Tapussa and Bhallika, his first lay disciples.

Hairs from the Buddha's head are enshrined in the Shwe Dagon Temple in Rangoon, Burma. The Wheel of Dharma was his first sermon. The first formation of Triple Gem (Buddha, Dharma and Sangha) was completed. He gained 1, 000 disciples who became arahant's, who taught the Dharma. The Supreme Buddha's entry into Parinirvana according to the Mahaparinibbana Sutta of Pali canon was at the age of 80. He announced he would soon reach Parinirvana or the final deathless state abandoning the earthly body.

After his last meal received as an offering from a blacksmith named Cunda he fell violently ill. The Buddha doesn't really become ill or old but purposely presents an appearance to teach about impermanence and pain and to encourage them to strive for Nirvana. The noble eightfold path is the standard Buddhist practice with two major implications. First, the image implies that these factors are means to an end, not an end in themselves; second, they lead to, rather than cause, the goal. On the beginning level, the path is a series of qualities that one must develop to bring oneself to the goal. On the ultimate or "noble" level, the convergence of the qualities, fully developed, within the mind leads to Deathless.

On the beginning level, one must work at following the path, but on the noble level the path delivers one to the goal. In Buddhist symbolism, the Noble Eightfold Path is often represented by means of the dharma wheel, whose eight spokes represent the eight elements of the path. All eight elements of the Path begin with the word "right", which means completion, togetherness, and coherence, or perfect or ideal. The eight factors of the noble eightfold path are "aggregates" of discernment, virtue, and concentration (panna-kkhandha, sila-kkhandha, samadhi-kkhandha). The right view and right resolve fall under the discernment aggregate. Right speech, right action, and right livelihood under the virtue aggregate, and right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration under the concentration aggregate.

Advanced development distinguishes mundane and noble levels for each factor of the path. One must first nurture the mundane levels of the eight factors before they can develop into their noble counterparts. On the mundane level, the first five factors of the path correspond to the faculty of conviction. Right view on this level means believing in the principle of kamma and trusting those who truly understand the workings of kamma in this life and the next. When the noble eightfold path is attained, the mind reaches the level of stream-entry, the first of the four levels of Awakening, the noble eightfold path represents the culmination of all seven sets in the Wings to Awakening.

The noble eightfold path, like the seven factors of Awakening, is explicitly explained and is a causal loop. There is merit in generosity. The moral qualities of good and bad are in the cosmos. There is life after death. One has a true moral debt to one's parents. Right concentration, in turn, provides a basis for insight into the four noble truths.

Once right view reaches the noble level, it brings the remaining factors to the noble level. Part of the discernment aggregate, consists of directed thought, evaluation, and mental singleness, all of which are factors of jan. A though noble levels of right effort, mindfulness, and concentration seem to be equivalent to the fifth factor of noble right concentration in which all three of these factors converge with right view and right resolve in a state of full development. Whereas on the mundane level the path factors, though interconnected, were separate, on the noble level they form a single, unified path.

The great expanse of water stands for the fourfold flood: the flood of sensuality, the flood of becoming, the flood of views, and the flood of ignorance. The near shore, dubious and risky, stands for self-identity. The further shore, secure and free from risk, stands for Unbinding. The raft stands for just this noble eightfold path, right view concentration. According to tradition, the Buddha emphasized ethics and correct understanding. He questioned the average person's notions of divinity and salvation.

He taught that there is no division between mankind and the divine. The Buddha is a guide and teacher for the others to tread the path of Nirvana to attain the spiritual awakening or bodhi to see truth and reality. The Buddhist system of insight and meditation is not believed divine, but an understanding of the mind to be discovered personally on the spiritual path of the Buddha's teachings. Gautama Buddha with his protector Vajrapani traveled in the Gangetic Plain, now southern Nepal, teaching doctrine and discipline to a diverse range of people, from nobles to outcaste street sweepers, mass murderers or Angulimala, and cannibals or Alaska. The Buddha founded the community of Buddhist monks and nuns (the Sangha) to continue teaching "complete Nirvana" and converting others. He was open to all races and classes without caste structure.

He was subject to attack from opposing religious groups, even attempted murders. His five chief disciples were Sariputta, Ananda, Mahamoggallana, Mahakasyapa, and Anuruddha. His ten foremost disciples were completed by Pali, Subhoti, Rahula, Mahakaccana and Penn. Retrieved on May 11, 2009 from DahliLamaQuotesDaily. com 1242083109 Retrieved on Mary 11, 2009 from web


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