“Well-being creates an atmosphere of trust; on the other hand,
eating meat creates an aura of aggressiveness.”
(from Lankavatra-sutra)
“The consumption of meat kills the seed of great mercy toward all living beings.”
(from Mahaparinirvana-sutra)
Kathmandu, Nepal — Buddha’s thoughts and teachings are often described as philosophical dialectical thoughts, pacifist religion and stoic teachings.
Fredreich Engels, the co-author of “The Communist Manifesto” called Buddha “one among the earliest dialecticians in human history.” All the descriptions are about the philosophical or religious aspect of Buddha’s teachings. Read the rest of this entry »
It is now clear that those who are born in this land and believe in this sutra when its propagation is undertaken in the Latter Day of the Law will suffer persecutions even more severe than those which occurred in the Buddha’s Read the rest of this entry »
Victor Daniels’ lecture notes, May 6, 2005.
AS MUCH A PSYCHOLOGY AS A RELIGION. Buddha was the most psychological of history’s noted spiritual teachers. When asked about the existence and character of God, he replied that he did not concern himself with that question, but that the nature of suffering and how to decrease it, in this life, was the essence of his teachings. How to make this life a good and satisfying one, beneficial to ourselves and others. We could as well call it an ethics, or a psychological system. But psychology did not exist in his day, and religion was the available vehicle for transmitting his teachings.
|
|
||
| The founder of Buddhism in this world was Buddha Shakyamuni who lived and gave teachings in India some two and a half thousand years ago. Since then millions of people around world have followed the spiritual path he revealed.
The Buddhist way of life of peace, loving kindness and wisdom can be just as relevant today as it was in ancient India. |
||
Turing the Wheel of Dharma
Forty-nine days after Buddha attained enlightenment he was requested to teach. As a result of this request, Buddha rose from meditation and taught the first Wheel of Dharma. These teachings which include the Sutra of the Four Noble Truths and other discourses, are the principal source of the Hinayana, or Lesser Vehicle, of Buddhism. Later, Buddha taught the second and third Wheels of Dharma, which include the Perfection of Wisdom Sutras and the Sutra Discriminating the Intention respectively.
These teachings are the source of the Mahayana, or Great Vehicle, of Buddhism. In the Hinayana teachings Buddha explains how to attain liberation from suffering for oneself alone, and in the Mahayana teaching he explains how to attain full enlightenment, or Buddhahood, for the sake of others. Both traditions flourished in Asia,
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Buddhism Buddhist foum