Marriage

Author(s): Natubhai Shah
Publisher: UK Jain Academy

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BUD
BUDDHIST BELIEFS AND CUSTOMS
Origin
Buddhism means 'path of the Enlightened One', was founded by Gautama Buddha (566 to 486 BCE), born as a prince to the parents, who were believed to have followed the Sramana tradition of Parsvanath (23rd tirthankara of Jains). It has 151, 816 followers in Britain according to the 2001 census and about 376 million followers worldwide. The two main Buddhist sects are Theravada Buddhism and Mahayana Buddhism, but there are many more. Beliefs:Buddhism is a spiritual tradition that focuses on personal spiritual development and the attainment of a deep insight into the true nature of life. It teaches that all life is interconnected, and the path to Enlightenment is through the practice and development of morality, meditation and wisdom. Nothing is permanent; everything is transitory; the world is a chain of interdependent momentary events; everything derives from an antecedent condition, which ceases after producing its consequence. The soul is impermanent; it is a stream of consciousness; and attachment to the world produces suffering. Buddhism does not believe in God, the Supreme Being, but believes in a state of godliness, nirvana, which any person can achieve; however, later Buddhists seem to accept Buddha himself as God. The basic characteristics of Buddha's teachings are four noble truths and the eightfold path.
Four noble truths
There is untold suffering everywhere in the world. The sufferings are due to a twelve-fold chain of causation involving the old age, death, birth, rebirth, sensory enjoyments, attachment, actual sensual pleasures, the senses, the psycho-physical being, initial consciousness of the embryo, past karma and ignorance. Ignorance is the root cause of suffering, which is in fact selfcreated. Ignorance causes evil: desires, greed and hatred. There is an eightfold path to remove suffering and obtain happiness:
Eightfold path
is based on ethical conduct (sila), mental discipline (samaadhi) and wisdom (prajnaa). Ethical conduct by: right speech, right action (avoiding harm to living beings, stealing, false speech and inappropriate sexual relations, intoxicants) and right living; Mental discipline by: right effort (prevention of evil and stimulation of auspicious thinking), right mindfulness (total vigilance over the activities of mind, body and speech) and right
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