Most of us look Buddhism as an alien Religion like Christianity and Islam which came to
When Siddhaartha started his education at the age of 7 , he began with the study of Gayatri mantra; the most important mantra of Rigveda. This mantra had been his guide till his demise at the age of 80.
In the Dasavatara stotra section of Gita Govinda, Jayadeva Goswami includes the Buddha amongst the ten principal avatars of Vishnu. This viewpoint of the Buddha as an avatar who primarily promoted non-violence (ahimsa) remains a popular belief amongst a number of modern Vaishnava organisations, including ISKCON.
Dr.S Radhakrishnan and Swami Vivekananda, consider the Buddha as a teacher of the universal truth that underlies all religions of the world. Swami Vivekananda said " No Hindu dared to throw stones to flee him from
Buddhism is a spiritual tradition that focuses on personal spiritual development and the attainment of a deep insight into the true nature of life. This makes Buddhism different from many other faiths. Buddhists do not believe in a personal creator God. It does not have the concept of a Saviour, nor of Heaven and Hell in the popular sense.
Buddhism doesn't demand blind faith or belief, and says that people should test its teachings against personal experience.
Mahatma Gandhi kept with him 3 books for his reading daily, Bhagavad Gita, Sermon on the Mount of Bible and Dharmapada of Buddha
The Buddha taught that the human tendency is to avoid the difficult truths of life and this in turn leads to suffering. By enabling the mind to be at peace through meditation a human being can confront reality and overcome hatred and craving.
Sri Jayadeva’s Gita-Govindam which articulates the Vaishnava philosophy of Love sings the glory of the Buddha as an incarnation of Vishnu and personification of compassion (karunya) towards all beings.
Srimad Bhagavatham explains the teaching of the Buddha as: The Buddha taught that material existence is dukha; and that there is samudaya, a cause of material existence; and because there is a cause, there is also nirodha, a way to remove material existence. That way is marga, the path of righteousness”.
Matsya Purana mentions that the Buddha preached ahimsa, discouraged sacrifices, and supported nivrtti (non-attachment) and jnana-marga (the path of knowledge) of the Vedas.
Naradiya Samhita describes the Buddha as a great sage with limitless compassion and self restraint (muni varo vasi).
The early representations of the Buddha were through symbols such as: the Bodhi-tree; the wheel of Dharma; the throne of exposition; sacred foot-prints; and so on. His representation as a perfect human being came about much later, perhaps through the influence of the Greek. His images were meant not merely to please the eyes but also spark pious and noble thoughts in the hearts of the onlookers. The Buddha image personified compassion, wisdom, enlightenment and tranquility. The artists, generations after generation spread over the centuries and across the continents have strived to give expression the beauty and virtue of the Buddha and his message.
The raise and popularity of Buddhism and the Bhakthi cult brought forth highly idealized Buddha icons meant for worship.
The Buddha is the comprehensive representation of intellect, wisdom and non-attachment; and above all of pathos, grace and boundless compassion, in absolute.
His image is the universal principle of compassion (karuna) and wisdom solidified into a visible form. The forms discussed are those as described in Hindu and Shilpa texts, as also in the Dhyana slokas. They are meant for worship with the prayer they lead to tranquility and salvation. They are not decorative pieces of mere aesthetic appeal.
The Panchratra Agama texts such as Hayastrasa Samhita and Naradiya Samhita provide the iconographic details of the Buddha icons. He is described as sitting in lotus-position (padma-asana), covered in ascetic garments (chira- alankara). As regards his features: His face is radiant like lotus and his eyes too are wide and full like lotus (padma lochanam).His ears are long (lamba karnam) .His navel should be adorned with a gem. His body must be lustrous like molten gold (taptha hema prabha). He must be shown having two arms. He must be shown deeply absorbed in meditation or bestowing protection and assurance (varada- abhaya - hasta) or his hands close to his heart indicating movement of dharma-chakra (the wheel of dharma). The Buddha image should be scaled in uttama dasha tala measure
The other Hindu texts which accept the Buddha as an avatar, such as - Brihat Samhita, Agni purana, Vishnudharmaottara purana and Rupamandana- specify the features of the Buddha image in Dhyanamudra – in meditation posture.
Matsya Purana describes the Buddha as Deva-sundara-rupa , handsome like a god, pale-red or fair in complexion. The foot soles and palms of the Buddha should be graced with auspicious signs of the lotus (padma). His body should be healthy and well developed; and glowing mellow and bright like moon light. He should have adorable thick curly hair (kundala kesha).The eyebrows should mold into a ring called urna, an insignia of the emperors. His long suspended earlobes should have holes. He should be adorned in kashaya (saffron) garments. He should wear across his right shoulder a piece of cloth (valmala) as upper garment. He should be sitting in lotus position (padma asana).His hands should gesture protection and assurance (varada abhaya mudra). The countenance on his broad, smiling face should radiate peace. The love and compassion emanating from his face should kindle a feeling in the viewers’ heart that they are looking at the father of all existence.
Another text Manasara offers a graphic description of the Buddha images which are depicted either as standing or seated. He should always be two armed and two-eyed, with long arms and wide chest; his body muscular (mamsala) and well developed. He must be shown wearing yellow garments (pitambara-dhara) and adorned with a brilliant head dress (ushnisha-ujwala-maulikam). His body must lustrous like moon and his face large (vishala anana).His ears should be long and hanging (lamba karna), his eyes long or elongated(ayataksha) and his nose aquiline (tunga ghona).The smile on his face should be like a lamp that has just been lit - bright and pure.
As regards the seated Buddha: The Buddha must be placed upon a throne or under the Ashwattha (peepal) tree or in the vicinity of the wish-fulfilling (kalpa vriksha). The Buddha image should be scaled inuttama dasha tala measure.
The reference to the brilliant ushnisha of the Buddha icon is truly interesting. Ushnisha in its etymological sense means “protection from sun or a sun-shade”; but, it is generally taken to mean a turban, a royal turban –one of the royal insignia.
The images of the Buddha found at
The later Pali Nikayas and Sanskrit texts like Lalitavistara preferred to treat the Buddha as a royal personage endowed with all the auspicious signs of a maha-purusha. Two of such signs were having a head like “royal-turban” (usnisa –sirasa) or having hair “arranged in ringlets turning to the right” (pradakshina-vrata-kesha).This tradition gained popularity in the later depictions of the Buddha images.
Generally, all Hindu iconographic representations of the Buddha are the worship-worthy idealized representation of a god incarnated as a Raja-rishi (king-seer). He is a Chakravarthin endowed with thirty-two auspicious signs (lakshanas) of a maha-purusha, a noble and a gracious person .
Accordingly the Buddha is depicted as a young , handsome, healthy, well formed god-like person (Deva - sundara - rupa ) with long arms reaching up to his knees; having lustrous body; thick glossy hair; long earlobes; happy , peaceful countenance with wide eyes full of love , compassion and wisdom; and seated or standing on a lotus pedestal. The devout have a faith the worship of such auspicious icon bestows peace and liberation.
Seated beneath the Bodhi tree the Buddha experienced the four noble truths and the Noble Eightfold Path
Ethics: To live one’s life in a way that helps, rather than causes harm
Meditation: Transforming the mind through meditation practice
Wisdom: Understanding the truth pointed to by the Buddha through listening, reflection, and meditation
Nidānas
Avidyā "ignorance".
Ignorance of the Four Noble Truths, the Three marks of existence, the Five Skandhas, Karma, and Pratītyasamutpāda results in a wrong assessment of reality. This narrowness of experience is the primary cause of duḥkha (suffering dissatisfaction, pain, unease, etc.)
Saṃskāra mental formations"
The impulse accumulations of saṃskāra are characterized by the energetic direction of the first motif, manifesting through body, speech, and mind as structuring forces of our being. This relationship forms the basis of our character and our personal karmic patterning.
Vijñāna . "consciousness"
Vijñāna represents the partially structured consciousness that results from the action of saṃskāra and the shaping of that energetic activity into a less flexible and more stagnant form.
Nāmarūpa "name and form"
Vijñāna has a quick grasping tendency, moving from sensory objects to objects of imagination rapidly. This energy may therefore crystallize and take shape into mental functions, called Nāma, or it may be represented as material forms, called Rūpa.
Ṣaḍāyatana "six sense gates"
The close relationship of bodily and mental functioning is differentiated into the six-fold bases of awareness, which contribute to the arising of all sensory experiences that make up our interpretation of reality. The six-fold bases are divided into an internal grouping (ādhyātmika) with corollary external (bāhya) supports.
Sparśa "contact"
The sparśa motif refers to the relationship or rapport between the internal and external āyatana. Impressions of tone arise in conjunction with the specific modality of awareness that is operating.
Vedanā "sensation"
There are six types of feeling tone awareness that arise from contact of the āyatana. The feeling tone or sensation of each of the six āyatanais uniquely different. For example, the feeling tone and felt experience of sensations in the body are distinct from the feeling tones generated from experiencing sight or sound.
Tṛṣṇā "craving" or "desire" or "thirst":
Following the arising of tone-awareness is an unconditioned or habitually patterned experience of craving or attachment. The type of craving or attachment that follows depends upon which of the six āyatanas is involved, and which of the following three "motivations" is present.
Upādāna "attachment"
If the object of one's desires comes to fruition, then these craving desires of tṛṣṇā may solidify and manifest as the quality of attachment, or upādāna. This condition of fulfilled desires and attachment is always fleeting and momentary, as new cravings arise once old cravings are satisfied.
Bhava "becoming"
"Once the direction of situational patterning has proceeded to the point of overt clinging, a process of becoming, termed bhava, is initiated. It refers to the new formation of karmic tendencies."
Jāti "birth":
The jāti motif refers to the process of karmic tendencies of bhava coming to fruition, through the birth of new patternings. That which was desired and conditioned now comes to be.
Jarā-maraṇa "aging (old age), decay and death"
"Once a new situation or a new being has emerged, it is inevitable that the conditions which brought about its appearance will change. This, the last of the twelve motifs, points to the inevitability of decay and death. Decay affects all structures, which are but fleeting stabilizations fed by the energy flow of habitual patterning. When the cessation of the continuity of experience occurs, we speak of death. It is the total breakdown and dissolution of experience and experiencer.
Conditions, reason, source, are described by the Visuddhimarga as the same. Conditioning an agent means to cause it, being taken as an object by it, to occur in the same time. The full list helps to consider many sorts of conditions as the causal condition is only one of them.
Buddhism received significant theoretical grounding from Nagarjuna (150–250 AD), arguably the most influential scholar. Nagarjuna's primary contribution to Buddhist philosophy was the systematic exposition of the concept of śūnyatā, or "emptiness", widely attested in the Prajñāpāramitā sutras which were emergent in his era. The concept of emptiness brings together other key Buddhist doctrines, particularly anatta and pratītyasamutpāda (dependent origination), to refute the metaphysics of Sarvastivada and Sautrantika For Nagarjuna, it is not merely sentient beings that are empty of ātman; all phenomena (dharmas) are without any svabhava (literally "own-nature" or "self-nature"), and thus without any underlying essence; they are "empty" of being independent; thus the heterodox theories of svabhava circulating at the time were refuted on the basis of the doctrines of early Buddhism. Nagarjuna's school of thought is known as the Mādhyamaka. Some of the writings attributed to Nagarjuna made explicit references to Mahayana texts, but his philosophy was argued within the parameters set out by the agamas. He may have arrived at his positions from a desire to achieve a consistent exegesis of the Buddha's doctrine as recorded in the Canon. In the eyes of Nagarjuna the Buddha was not merely a forerunner, but the very founder of the Mādhyamaka system.
Sarvastivada teachings—which were criticized by Nāgārjuna—were reformulated by scholars such as Vasubandhu and Asanga and were adapted into the Yogacara (Sanskrit: yoga practice) school. While the Mādhyamaka school held that asserting the existence or non-existence of any ultimately real thing was inappropriate, some exponents of Yogacara asserted that the mind and only the mind is ultimately real (a doctrine known as cittamatra). Not all Yogacarins asserted that mind was truly existent; Vasubandhu and Asanga in particular did not. These two schools of thought, in opposition or synthesis, form the basis of subsequent Mahayana metaphysics in the Indo-Tibetan tradition.
Besides emptiness, Mahayana schools often place emphasis on the notions of perfected spiritual insight (prajñāpāramitā) and Buddha-nature (tathāgatagarbha, meaning "Buddha embryo" or "Buddha-matrix"). According to the Tathāgatagarbha Sutras, the Buddha revealed the reality of the deathless Buddha-nature, which is said to be inherent in all sentient beings and enables them all eventually to reach complete enlightenment, i.e. Buddhahood. Buddha-nature is stated in the Mahayana Angulimaliya Sutra and Mahaparinirvana Sutra to not be śūnya, but to be replete with eternal Buddhic virtues. In the Tathāgatagarbha Sutras the Buddha is portrayed proclaiming that the teaching of the tathāgatagarbha constitutes the "absolutely final culmination" of his Dharma—the highest presentation of truth (other sūtras make similar statements about other teachings) and it has traditionally been regarded as the highest teaching in East Asian Buddhism. However, in modern
Nirvana means "cessation", "extinction" (of craving and ignorance and therefore suffering and the cycle of involuntary rebirths (saṃsāra), "extinguished", "quieted", "calmed"; it is also known as "Awakening" or "Enlightenment" in the West. The term for anybody who has achieved nirvana, including the Buddha, is arahant.
Bodhi is a term applied to the experience of Awakening of arahants. Bodhi literally means "awakening", but it is more commonly translated into English as "enlightenment". In Early Buddhism, bodhi carried a meaning synonymous to nirvana, using only some different metaphors to describe the experience, which implies the extinction of raga (greed, craving), dosa (hate, aversion) and moha (delusion). In the later school of Mahayana Buddhism, the status of nirvana was downgraded in some scriptures, coming to refer only to the extinction of greed and hate, implying that delusion was still present in one who attained nirvana, and that one needed to attain bodhi to eradicate delusion:
Buddhist meditation is fundamentally concerned with two themes: transforming the mind and using it to explore itself and other phenomena. Buddha taught two types of meditation, samatha meditation and vipassanā meditation. Whenever Buddhism has been healthy, not only monks, nuns, and married lamas, but also more committed lay people have practiced meditation.
The Buddha in Hinduism is sometimes viewed as an Avatar of Vishnu. In the Puranic text Bhagavata Purana, he is the twenty-fourth of twenty-five avatars, pre figuring a forthcoming final incarnation. Similarly, a number of Hindu traditions portray Buddha as the most recent (ninth) of ten principal avatars, known as the Daśāvatāra (Ten Incarnations of God). The Buddhist Dasharatha Jataka (Jataka Atthakatha 461) represents Rama as a previous incarnation of the Buddha as a Bodhisattva and supreme Dharma King of great wisdom.
The Buddha is described in important Hindu scriptures, including almost all the Puranas. However, not all of them refer to the same person: some of them refer to other persons, and some occurrences of "buddha" simply mean "a person possessing buddhi". Most of them, however, refer to the founder of Buddhism. They portray him with two roles: preaching false views in order to delude demons or others, and criticizing animal sacrifice as prescribed in the Vedas. A partial list of Puranas mentioning the Buddha is as follows:
§ Harivamsha (1.41)
§ Vishnu Purana (3.18)
§ Bhagavata Purana (1.3.24, 2.7.37, 11.4.23)
§ Garuda Purana (1.1, 2.30.37, 3.15.26)
§ Agni Purana (16)
§ Narada Purana (2.72)
§ Linga Purana (2.71)
§ Padma Purana (3.252) etc. (Dhere Ramchandra Chintaman)
In the Puranic texts, he is mentioned as one of the ten Avataras of Vishnu, usually as the ninth one.
Another important scriptures that mentions him as an Avatar is Rishi Parashara's Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra (2:1-5/7).
He is often described as a yogi or yogācārya, and as a sannyāsi. His father is usually called Śuddhodhana, which is consistent with the Buddhist tradition, while in a few places the Buddha's father is named Añjana or Jina. He is described as beautiful (devasundara-rūpa), of white or pale-red complexion, and wearing brown-red or red robes.
Only a few statements mention the worship of Buddha, e.g. the Varahapurana states that one desirous of beauty should worship him.
In some of the Puranas, he is described as having taken birth to "mislead the demons":
mohanārthaṃ dānavānāṃ bālarūpī pathi-sthitaḥ । putraṃ taṃ kalpayām āsa mūḍha-buddhir jinaḥ svayam ॥
tataḥ saṃmohayām āsa jinādyān asurāṃśakān । bhagavān vāgbhir ugrābhir ahiṃsā-vācibhir hariḥ ॥
—attributed to Brahmanda Purana, quoted in Bhāgavatatātparya by Madhva, 1.3.28
Translation: To delude the demons, he [Lord Buddha] stood on the path in the form of a child. The foolish Jina (a demon), imagined him to be his son. Thus the lord Sri Hari [as avatara-buddha] expertly deluded Jina and other demons by his strong words of non-violence.
In the Bhagavata Purana Buddha is said to have taken birth to restore the devas to power:
tataḥ kalau sampravṛtte sammohāya sura-dviṣām ।
buddho nāmnāñjana-sutaḥ kīkaṭeṣu bhaviṣyati ॥
—srimad-bhagavatam 1.3.24
Translation: Then, in the beginning of Kali-yuga, for the purpose of confusing the enemies of the devas, [he] will become the son of Anjana, Buddha by name, in the Kīkaṭas.
In many Puranas, the Buddha is described as an incarnation of Vishnu who incarnated in order to delude either demons or mankind away from the Vedic dharma. The Bhavishya Purana contains the following:
At this time, reminded of the Kali Age, the god Vishnu became born as Gautama, the Shakyamuni, and taught the Buddhist dharma for ten years. Then Shuddodana ruled for twenty years, and Shakyasimha for twenty. At the first stage of the Kali Age, the path of the Vedas was destroyed and all men became Buddhists. Those who sought refuge with Vishnu were deluded.
According to Wendy Doniger, the Buddha avatar which occurs in different versions in various Puranas may represent an attempt by orthodox Brahminism to slander the Buddhists by identifying them with the demons. Helmuth von Glasenapp attributed these developments to a Hindu desire to absorb Buddhism in a peaceful manner, both to win Buddhists to Vaishnavism and also to account for the fact that such a significant heresy could exist in
The times ascribed to one "Buddha" figure are contradictory and some put him in approximately 500 CE, with a lifetime of 64 years, describe him as having killed some persons, as following the Vedic religion, and having a father named Jina, which suggest that this particular figure might be a different person from Siddhārta Gautama
Srimad Bhagavatha Purana accept the Buddha as one of the avatars of Vishnu.
The Buddha is addressed in the scriptures with titles asserting his divinity: as Buddha-deva (Padma purana); Buddha-rupa (Brahma purana); and Siddhartha (matsya purana) ; and , as Bhagavata (supreme person), Lokavid (knower of all worlds), Anuttara (the unsurpassable), Shasta Deva Manushyanam (Lord of men and demigods) and Buddhir Buddhimatam (the enlightenment of the enlightened ones), which are similar to the titles addressed to Vishnu.
In a few passages (in Matsya, Skanda and Devi Puranas) he is described as a yogin , yoga-charya as one whose ideas are pure, as one having a pacified mind free from attachments and hatered. Vishnudharmottara pictures the Buddha as a sanyasin adorned in brown or achre robes , full of compassion towards all beings.
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