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Buddhism arose out of an early Hindu culture in the 5th century BCE with the birth and teachings of Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha or “awakened one”), a man who most scholars believe was a real person who lived near the Indian-Nepalese border. Buddhism emerged around the time that the last of the Upanishads were written, a period when the Hindu ideal of renunciation of family and social life was becoming more and more widespread. Buddhism would become different from Hinduism in many ways, including a decreased emphasis on Hindu rituals (based on the Vedas) and Hindu deities. Perhaps the biggest difference, however, was a philosophical point. Hinduism focused on the “atman” (the self), which was viewed as a “wave” that is part of the ocean (the Self). In contrast, Buddhism emphasised the “anatta” or “anatman” or the “no self.” The feeling that one has a “self” in Buddhism is viewed as a construction, similar to a dream and not reality. There are many discussions of this in the Pali Canon, such as the Anattalakkhana Sutta (found in the Samyutta Nikaya of the Pali Canon), which is changed by many Buddhists.
The Historical Buddha
Gethin (1998) indicates that we know very little about the historical Buddha with any degree of certainty (which is also true for other religious leaders before and around the turn of the “common era” when written records first become available). What follows about the life of the Buddha below lies somewhere between historical fact and myth. Williams and colleagues (2012, p 21) describe the biography of the Buddha as a “hagiography,” an idealising account of the life of a saint or holy person that illustrates what is important to Buddhists (the Dharma) and what Buddhism is all about (i.e., a change in understanding that “would lead to seeing the way things really are in its fullest transformative sense, and thus to attaining liberation.” Whether history, hagiography, or legend, the Buddha’s story speaks of truths that transcend time.
According to tradition, Siddharta (literally “he who achieves his aim”) Gautama was the son of a local chieftain and grew up in a privileged and wealthy home (an important aristocratic family). After examining him shortly after his birth, Brahmin specialists declared that he would be a great man someday, most likely a king. Wanting his son to pursue this career path, his father shielded him from religious teachings and any exposure to human suffering during his childhood and youth (Thaper, 2002, p 137). At the age of 16, he married his cousin (Yasodhara), who soon gave birth to a son (Rahula). For the next 13 years, prince Siddhartha lived with his family in luxury without want of material possession of any kind. However, as he neared the age of 30, he began to question his life:
“I was delicate, most delicate, supremely delicate. Lotus pools were made for me at my father’s house solely for my use; in one blue lotuses flowered, in another white, and in another red. I used no sandal wood that was not from Benares. My turban, tunic, lower garments and cloak were all of Benares cloth. A white sunshade was held over me day and night so that I would not be troubled by cold or heat, dust or grit or dew … Yet even while I possessed such fortune and luxury, I thought, “When an unthinking, ordinary people who is himself subject to ageing, sickness, and death, who is not beyond ageing, sickness, and death, sees another who is old, sick or dead, he is shocked, disturbed, and disgusted, forgetting his own condition. I too am subject to ageing, sickness, and death, not beyond ageing, sickness, and death, and that I should see another who is old, sick or dead and be shocked, disturbed, and disgusted – this is not fitting.” As I reflected thus, the conceit of youth, health, and life entirely left me.” (quoted from Gethin, 1998, pp 20-21)
He soon began to leave the palace regularly to see how the people in the surrounding community lived. What he saw during these outings confirmed his earlier ruminations. Everywhere he went Gautama found severe human suffering among the common people struggling to survive, poverty-stricken, dealing with painful illness, disability, old age, and inevitable death (Conze, 1959, pp 39-40; Gethin, 1998, p 21). All of this increased his distress, and made him realise that all pleasures in life were transitory, only temporarily covering up the suffering that pervaded all of life. There must be a solution to this suffering, and Siddhartha was determined to find it.
As a result, he renounced his normal role in society as husband and father, left his wife, son, and family home, abandoned his future career as a leader and king, and went away to live as a wandering homeless ascetic begging for his food in the streets. His goal was to search for the truth that would ultimately lead to an end to suffering (his own and others). Soon after he left home, Siddhartha came under the tutelage of several Hindu teachers, learning the practice of yoga and meditation (Narada, 1992, pp 14-20). While what he learned here was important and useful, it was not enough for him. Siddhartha believed that there was more. So he sought Enlightenment through self-mortification and renunciation of food (reportedly eating only a single nut or leaf per day), eventually almost starving to death and drowning after he fell into a river because of his weak physical state. On recovery, he realised that asceticism was also not the answer.
Siddhartha then began to meditate (Conze, 1959, pp 47-51). After 49 days of meditation (at the age of 35), he reached a deep state of perfect equanimity and awareness (Jhana) where he awakened (bodhi) and attained Enlightenment. Although the time between the beginning of his search and enlightenment took only six years, the Buddha is thought to have lived many, many prior lives culminating in the present one. His past lives are described in the Jataka tales, which are part of the Pali Canon (Khuddaka Nikaya of the Sutta Pitaka) (Babbitt, 2009).
Having reached enlightenment , the Buddha taught what he had discovered about the cessation of suffering to everyone he could. He had realised that avoiding extremes of both self-indulgence and self-mortification (extreme asceticism) was the best way to achieve liberation from suffering. This way, known as the Noble Eightfold Path, was soon to be called the “Middle Way” (Thanissaro, 2010; Williams et al., 2012, p 21). The Buddha acquired more and more followers as he wandered along the banks of the Ganges, eventually forming a monastic order. The Buddha became viewed by followers as one who had achieved perfection in wisdom and compassion. They came to revere him and began to spread his message of hope that suffering could be ultimately done away with. By his death around the age of 80, the Buddha has acquired a large group of individuals, lay and monastic, dedicated to his teachings.
Speculations
The following musings are highly speculative, based on the present author’s interpretation and limited understanding of Buddhism as a non-Buddhist scholar. The development of Buddhism from Hinduism is a topic of major scholarly interest and the discussion below may not do it justice. However, these thoughts provide a bridge to help explain why the Buddha eventually moved on from the Hindu religion of his day. That the Buddha moved on from Hinduism cannot be denied. Paul Williams, Professor of Indian and Tibetan Philosophy at the University of Bristol (England) says:
“The Buddha rejected the final religious authority directly, indirectly, or ideologically, of the social class of Brahmins in their primordial Scriptures, the Vedas, so important to Hinduism throughout history” (Williams et al., 2012, p 6).
How did the experiences of the Buddha before and after leaving his family influence his departure from Hinduism? this question is compelling because it may help to explain his departure from Hinduism and some of his later teachings.
According to Gethin (p 20), Siddhartha as a young man had two destinies before him: become a great king or become a buddha. His father wanted very much for Siddhartha to pursue the former path. Consequently, he sheltered Siddhartha from “all things unpleasant and ugly such as old age, sickness, and death.” This might have been to prevent his choosing a religious path rather than pursue the life of a leader or a king. Although we certainly do not know for sure, this may have limited Siddhartha’s understanding of the role that religious faith could play in the relief of suffering, since he may have had little exposure to either. After realising the immense suffering that was the reality of the common people of his day, he first tried the religious path. Siddhartha sought training in yoga and was a student under several Hindu teachers, including Arada Kalama, a well-known hermit saint and teacher of yogic meditation, and Udaka Ramaputra, a meditation teacher with a Brahmanical background. What he learned from them was helpful, but it was not enough. This may be why Siddhartha felt the need to go beyond Hindu teachings that emphasised the existence of God/Brahman and other deities, focusing instead on his own thoughts, mind and action – to reach a state of peace and tranquility, and once having achieved this, to teach it to others to relieve the suffering that he saw all around him.
A big question remained, though. The Buddha was certainly a remarkable man who had disciplined himself over years of intensive practice to control his mind through meditation. Was this way of living – the Eightfold Path – even possible for most of the people who lived during the Buddha’s time? Not all the people of his day may have felt impoverished or distressed. However, there is no doubt that there were many who struggled to scrap together enough resources to survive. Did those who were not wandering ascetics and renouncers like the Buddha have the time, the circumstances, the self-discipline and fortitude to detach themselves from their relationships, possessions, pleasures, even their own selves, and engage in meditation that would lead them to that deep tranquil state? This way of living butted up against natural impulses, the biological makeup that motivates the human species. Most of the population had to work for a living, produce the food, the shelter, marry and have children, take care of their elders, and organise and protect the community against outside invaders seeking to take over their lands, homes, and few resources. Many could not even read and so did not have access to the Buddha’s teachings, which were written down only hundreds of years after his death in different local languages.
Only a privileged few, then, had the time, ability, and motivation to pursue training as a monk, holy person, and disciple of the Buddha (bhikkhu or bhikkhuni). These individuals often left their homes, detached from their families, and went about begging for food since it took time and unhindered practice to strictly follow the Buddha’s teachings. They were dependent on everybody else carrying out their roles (in work, family, and government). Otherwise, society could not function. In Hinduism, the Bhagavad Gita around the same time proposed a compromise that involved an emphasis on activity, work, and doing one’s duty (as assigned by their caste), while detaching oneself from the results of these efforts (Johnson, 1994). Without the hope of reward, pleasure and success at the end of the day, however, what would keep people motivated to do the hard work that needed to be done? This is probably why the caste system was so important in India this this time. Everyone had their role, and it was imperative that they follow that role for society to function. There were the brahmanas (and later bhikkhus) who were considered holy men, ascetics, those who had the time to meditate, study the Vedas or the Buddha’s teachings. Next, there was the ksatriyas – the ruling class and warriors who organised and protected the community. then there were the vaisyas – the farmers, builders, and merchants who provided the food and the shelter. Finally, there were the sudras – the workers who took care of the fields, the business, and the households. This system functioned well as long as everyone did what they were supposed to, which was determined by the family into which they were born. Thus, the Buddha’s solution to the suffering he had observed among the common people of his day was really available only to one particular class of citizens, the wandering renouncers who were supported by the masses around them and had time on their hands.
Interestingly, Gethin (1998) indicates that the largest branch of Buddhism today, Mahayana Buddhism, may have begun as a “popular religious protest against the elitist monasticism of early Buddhism” (p 4). While he refutes this view by noting that Mahayana Buddhism actually began as a minority monastic sect, it is clear that “mainstream” Buddhism was far from monastic in the way it developed for most Buddhist lay persons – particularly those in the Mahayana tradition.
The speculations above need to be tempered in light of what some experts in Buddhism have stressed in their writings. First, from the earliest known times, the Pali Canon sutras and historical documents describe followers of the Buddha that included laymen and laywomen. For example, there are many sutras in the Pali Canon in which the Buddha teaches lay people (Bodhi, 2005), a point also underscored in the writings about the Buddhist emperor Ashoka (Nikam & McKeon, 1978). Second, while it is true that not everyone could lead the life of a renunciate monk or nun, following the Eightfold Path did not require becoming a monk or nun. Indeed, it was a teaching for all Buddhists, monastics or lay. In other words, those in monastic orders may have become a “privileged class” but it was not necessary to be a monastic to be a Buddhist. Buddhists could be of any caste or class. Whether they had the time and the discipline to follow the Path, though, remains an issue. Thus, this is a complex subject which requires more space than available here to fully discuss.
For now, however, as I begin to examine Buddhist beliefs and practices, it is important to differentiate what Buddhist monks, scholars and theologians say Buddhists should believe and do from what Buddhist laypersons today actually believe and do in real life (admittedly, a challenge faced by the followers of Christianity and other major world religions as well). The way Buddhists believe and practice varies depending on region of the world and the extent to which core Buddhist beliefs have been integrated with local religious, cultural, and family or community traditions, handed down from generation to generation (see research on Buddhism in Asians, Chapter 4). Many of the Buddhist beliefs and practices described below are strictly practiced primarily by monks, nuns, or dedicated laypersons with the resources, education, and time to study, meditate, and think about such things. Nevertheless, the ethical values, wisdom, and meditative practices taught by the Buddha have had a tremendous influence on Buddhists of all traditions and time periods (many of whom may have not read a single word of any of the Buddhist canonical scriptures).
Conclusions
The Buddha, whether historical or not, was the individual responsible for the emergence of Buddhism from Hinduism in India during the 5th century BCE. The story of his life illustrates what is important to Buddhists (the Dharma) and what Buddhism is all about (i.e., the renunciation of the world leading to a view of reality as it truly is and therefore a transformation that produces liberation from suffering.