Earlier we mentioned in On History the development of Jainism as a reaction to the excesses of the Brahmin religion in the India of the sixth century.
Next to the Jainism , the other great reformist religion of the time appeared: the Buddhism .
According to tradition, its founder, Gautama Buddha (566-478 BC, approximately), he wanted to initially reach the illumination based on extreme mortifications according to the model of other ascetics, but failure in his attempt.
Therefore, he totally retired to solitude to surrender to meditation and I manage to overcome the temptations of the demon Mara , who tried to dissuade him from the search for eternal truth.
One night, being under a fig tree, came "enlightenment." from this moment, Buddha consecrated his life to teach his doctrine accompanied by a group of disciples and, until his death, he toured the north of India preaching.His followers affirm that he performed miracles and that, when he died, he entered Nirvana (the total absence of desire, the end of the reincarnation cycle).
The similarities, in many points, with Christianity, are not mere coincidence.The movement led by Jesus in the Near East, was strongly influenced by this type of oriental thought currents.
The doctrine Buddhist part of human pain and is based on the liberation of it.It predicts that, since all life is suffering, it is necessary to suppress that suffering through the elimination of desire, which is a source of pain, although without resorting to extreme solutions, but by adopting a necessary moderation that will lead to salvation ( moksha ).
In the sum of the acts of an individual, good and bad, charity acquires great importance, and accumulates from one life to another.There is, therefore, a possibility for the individual to stop the course of the samsara , the cycle of the reincarnations.
Buddhism is presented as a liberation of the individual, who thus becomes the owner of his salvation.This is the goal that man must set, and it is only It is possible to reach it through personal purification.
The individual achieves catharsis in the course of countless existences.Today, Buddhism has little impact on India , but it is the dominant religion in Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand, Sri Lanka (Ceilan), or Burma.
After the death of the Buddha , the teachings of the prophet were set doctrinally in several councils.After a century, there was a split in the Buddhism from which two branches would emerge: orthodox Buddhism hinayana , or of the "Small Vehicle", and Buddhism mahayana , or the "Great Vehicle".Both branches differ in several respects, one being, for example, the idolatry of Buddha ( mahayana ) or its prohibition ( hinayana ).
The importance of Buddhism began to decline at the end of the fourth century, coinciding with the arrival at power of the gupta dynasty.Taking advantage of the fact that the population that identified Buddhism with foreign monarchies, the Gupta turned to Hinduism in their eagerness to recover Indian national identity and they returned to traditions originals, which had been preserved by the brahmanes.
Finally, Hinduism recovered the Brahmanic tradition, but attenuated its rigidity, leaving open the hope of Salvation: This religion lives in the desire to escape the inescapable cycle of samsara through the daily practice of individual, family or collective religious rites.But the influence of Buddhism , in aspects such as nonviolence, respect for life, and asceticism, were forever etched in the dogma of Hinduism .
Comments
Post a Comment