Buddhism

Buddhism has probably the best image of any world religion. This arises in general because of Buddhist emphasis on peace, serenity, and compassion. More specifically, Buddhism has great appeal because of the singular impact of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, renowned for his great character, humility, and humor. Buddhism goes back to an Indian reformer named Gautama, who is now known to us as the Buddha.

The different traditions in Buddhism do not agree on the details about his life and teachings. In fact, there is no uniformity among Buddhists or among scholars of Buddhism even about when he lived. However, his life is often captured in twelve crucial acts, the first having to do with his preincarnate state.

1.         Waits in Tushita (the eternal realm)

2.         Grows in the womb of Queen Mayadevi, his mother

3.         Is born out of her side

4.         Attains intellectual and physical skills

5.         Marries Yashodhara and birth of son (Rahula)

6.         Renounces royal life and departure from palace

7.         Chooses ascetic path of extreme denial

8.         Seeks enlightenment at the bodhi tree

9.         Defeats Mara (the lord of Samsara)

10.         Attains enlightenment

11.         Teaches Buddhist dharma

12.         Enters Nirvana

Buddhas life story includes alleged supernatural elements. When he was in his mothers womb, his father could see him sitting in a meditation posture inside a wonderful box. After Gautama was born, he took seven steps and proclaimed, I alone in the world am the Honored One.When Gautamas mother died, she became a goddess and her womb is preserved in the heavens. Gautama escaped from the royal palace on his horse Kanthaka. The horse died of a broken heart when Gautama had to leave him, but Kanthaka became a god. When Gautama defeated Mara, he did so, in part, by turning demons into flowers.

Christian critique of Buddhism begins with questions about the historical reliability of Buddha and with contradictions among various forms of Buddhism. For example, the Dalai Lama states in his book The Opening of the Wisdom-Eye that Tibetan Buddhist teachings and rituals were taught by Lord Buddha in person.This claim has two serious weaknesses.

First, there are crucial differences in belief and ritual between the late Buddhism of Tibet and the earlier Buddhisms of India and Sri Lanka. There are similar differences between Tibetan Buddhism and the forms of Buddhism practiced in China and Japan. Some critics, indeed, argue that Zen is so different from any other type of Buddhism that it deserves to be treated as a separate religion.

Second, there is the more serious issue of the historical integrity of the earliest documents about Buddha. These texts, in Pali and Sanskrit, were written between four and five centuries after the death of Gautama. In A Short History of Buddhism, Edward Conze, a devout Buddhist scholar, dismisses any confident assertionsabout what the Buddha really said as mere guesswork.Conze wrote in the introduction to Buddhist Scriptures: Buddhists possess nothing that corresponds to the New Testament.

Christians have always objected to notions of karma and reincarnation in Buddhism. The Dalai Lama writes in one of his books that a person killed by a lightning bolt has earned that fate by some misdeed in a previous life. That example, though grim, does not address the deeper implications of the Buddhist view. What of the many Buddhist nuns raped by Communist soldiers during the purge of Tibet? Was this their karmic debt? Some Buddhist teachers have even contended that those who died in the 2004 tsunami disaster were victims of their misdeeds in previous reincarnations.

Stephen Batchelor, a famous Western Buddhist, has argued that it is not necessary to believe in karma and reincarnation in order to be faithful to Buddhism. He expressed this in his 1998 work Buddhism Without Beliefs. He says there is symmetry between humanistic, agnostic Western culture and Buddhism. While Christians share his moral and intellectual objections, it is hard to imagine that a faithful reading of virtually every Buddhist tradition can allow disbelief in karma and reincarnation.

Buddhist teachers in Southeast Asia, Japan, Tibet, and other areas of the world where Buddhism is dominant often have little interest in Jesus Christ. Buddhist teachers who have come to the West, however, have frequently incorporated an appreciation of Jesus into their own teachings about Buddhism. This is particularly true of the Dalai Lama and Thich Nhat Hahn. Thich Nhat Hahn was born in Vietnam in 1926 but was forced to leave in 1966. He now lives in exile in France. He contends that Jesus and Buddha are spiritual brothers. In fact, they could have taken each others hands and practiced walking meditation, so why not the two of you, one as a Buddhist and one as a Christian? You are the continuation of the Buddha, and you are the continuation of Jesus Christ.

While every agreement between Jesus and Buddha should be recognized, the gaps between Buddhism and Christianity remain enormous. Buddhism is about salvation through self-instruction. It is largely a works-based system, contrary to the Christian emphasis on salvation through grace alone through Christ alone. Buddhists do not believe that Jesus is the only Son of God, since they either deny or are indifferent to affirmation of God. The Buddhist teaching that the self is not ultimately real is distinct from the Jewish and Christian teaching that the human self, created by God and made in His image, is very real.

Claims that Buddhism is a rational or scientific religion can be sustained only by offering a Westernized version of Buddhism that pays far more attention to science than do more traditional versions of Buddhism. In the forms of Buddhism dominant in Tibet, Japan, Thailand, Korea, China, and Vietnam, for example, the oral traditions and scriptural material contain miracle stories that defy rationality. Likewise, paths to liberation from karma often involve rituals that seem to make no common sense. The elaborate cosmologies in Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism are distinct from the discourse of modern science.

Buddhism 101

        The current universe has evolved through natural law.

        Truth has been given through countless ages by various Buddhas, or enlightened beings.

        Gautama Buddha, who lived twenty-five hundred years ago, is the teacher for our time period.

        While salvation depends on individual effort, the Buddhist is to take refuge in the Buddha, his teaching (dharma), and the Buddhist community (sangha).

        The Buddha taught Four Noble Truths: (1) suffering is real; (2) suffering is caused by selfish desire; (3) suffering will cease when selfish desire is eliminated; and (4) selfish desire will cease through following the Noble Eightfold Path.

        The Noble Eightfold Path that leads to nirvana involves having the (1) right view, (2) right resolve, (3) right speech, (4) right action, (5) right livelihood, (6) right effort, (7) right mindfulness, and (8) right concentration.

        All living things are subject to the law of karma, the principle of cause and effect, which controls the cycle of reincarnation.

        The Buddhist is to abstain from killing, stealing, forbidden sex, lying, and the use of illicit drugs and liquor.

        There is no God or Supreme Creator.

        According to Buddhists, their religion is neither irrational, pessimistic, nor nihilistic.

 Time Line of Buddhism

 566486/490410 bc        Siddhartha Guatama, the historical Buddha

486 bc        First Buddhist Council at Rajagrha

386 bc        Second Council at Vaisali

367 bc        Noncanonical Council at Pataliputra

272231 bc        King Asoka converts to Buddhism

c. 250 bc        Asokas son Mahinda goes as missionary to Sri Lanka

250 bc        Third Council at Pataliputra

250 bc        Pali Canon finished

247 bc        Mahinda takes Buddhism to Sri Lanka

200 bc        Beginnings of Mahayana Buddhism

Second century bc        Nagasenas famous dialogue with King Milinda

25 bc        Pali Canon written in Sri Lanka

First century ad        Fourth Buddhist Council at Kagmir

First century        Lotus Sutra composed

First century        Buddhism spreads to Central Asia

Second century?        Asvaghosa composes Buddha-Carita

Second century        Nargarjuna forms Madhyamika school

Third century        Buddhism spreads to Southeast Asia

31090        Life of Asanga, founder of Yogacara school

Fourth century        Vajrayana Buddhism starts in India

372        Buddhism spreads to Korea

334416        Life of Hui-yuan (translator of Chinese texts)

344413        Life of Kumarajiva, founder of Madhyamika in China

405        Fa-hsien, Chinese monk, arrives in India

420500        Life of Vasubandhu, author of Vijnaptiimatra Sutra

Fifth century        Nalanda monastery founded in India

Fifth century        Buddhaghosa composes Visuddhimagga (Path of Purity)

Fifth century        Amitabha (Amida) Pure Land school starts in China

520        Bodhidharma goes to China

538        Buddhism reaches Japan

60264        Life of Hsan-tsang (Chinese translator and pilgrim)

638713        Life of Hui-Neng, sixth patriarch of Chan Buddhism

Eighth century        Hosso, Jojitsu, Kegon, Kusha, Ritsu, and Sanron schools

Eighth century        Padmasambhava travels to Tibet to help spread Buddhism

Eighth century        Nyingma-pa sect in Tibet begins

767822        Life of Saicho (founder of Tendai school)

774835        Life of Kukai (founder of Shingon school)

845        Buddhism under attack in China

Ninth century        Diamond Sutra written in China

983        Szechuan Canon printed

100864        Life of Bu-ston, Tibetan textual scholar

101296?        Life of Marpa, founder of Kargyupa sect

10401103        Life of Milarepa, disciple of Marpa

c. 1040        Atisha (9821054) starts Kahdam-pa school in Tibet

c. 1050        Sakyapa Tibetan school begins

1123        Death of Milarepa (b. 1040), Tibetan saint

11331212        Life of Honen, founder of Jodo, focus on Amitabha

11411215        Life of Eisai, founder of Rinzai Zen Japanese sect

11731263        Life of Shinran, founder of True Pure Land Japanese sect

1200        Nalanda University destroyed

12001253        Life of Dogen, founder of Soto Zen Japanese sect

122282        Life of Nichiren

Thirteenth century        Vajrayana spreads to Mongols

Fourteenth century        Bu-ston edits Tibetan Buddhist canon

1360        Theravada becomes state religion in Thailand

13551417        Life of Tsongkhapa, founder of Gelugpa Tibetan sect

Fifteenth century        Dalai Lama lineage in Tibet begins

1587        Altan Khan gives Gelugpa leader title of Dalai Lama

16861769        Life of Hakuin, famous Rinzai teacher of koans

1862        Sri Lankan monks get reordained in Burma

1862        Western translation of Dhammapada

1870        Birth of D. T. Suzuki, Japanese Zen teacher

1871        Fifth Buddhist Council in Mandalay, Myanmar

1891        Anagarika Dharmapala (18651933) starts Maha Bodhi

1893        Buddhist monks at Parliament of Religions in Chicago

1904        Birth of Ven. U. Sobhana (Vispassana reformer)

1907        Birth of Ven. Walpola Rahula, Sri Lankan reformer

1926        Founding of Buddhist Society by Christmas Humphreys

1926        Birth of Thich Nhat Hanh, famous Vietnamese Buddhist

192829        Tai-Hsu (b. 1889), Chinese monk, travels in Europe

1932        Buddhadasa establishes Suan Mokkhabalarama in Chaiya

1935        Birth of Dalai Lama

1950        Communist persecution of Tibet

195456        Sixth Buddhist Council at Rangoon, Myanmar

1956        Ambedkar (18911956) espouses Buddhism

1959        Dalai Lama flees Tibet

1966        D. T. Suzuki dies

1989        Dalai Lama receives Nobel Peace Prize

1997        Hollywood focus on Buddhism

2004        World Buddhist summit held in Myanma.