A PILGRIMAGE TO INDIA
The Buddha's Enlightenment.
The Buddha's Enlightenment
The Buddha
I can understand why many westerners find it hard to accept the gods, idols and strange ways of Hinduism. The very idea of chanting before a graven image reeks of heresy but scratch a little deeper and you soon discover that Hinduism is not so worried about outer form but urges us to seek the God that lies beyond the form.
Hinduism is generally regarded as the world's oldest organized religion and believes in one God called Brahman which is the unchanging reality of all things in this universe. God to the Hindus is not remote but can be discovered by looking within. Some may know God as omnipresent and impersonal, the infinite light of existence that is the true nature of the Self, whereas others need to experience God on an intimate human level. Yogananda tell us that God is both personal and impersonal and explains that Jesus was a personal manifestation of God. When Jesus said “I and my Father are one” and “These things that I do, you can do also” He was revealing to us that we are all made in this image of Divinity.
Hinduism believes in One God, but asserts that the One God can appear to humans in multiple names and forms. For the Hindu chanting the name of or worshiping the forms of God is a valid way to experience contact with the divine. They may chant the names of Shiva, Krishna, Ram and the many thousands of names of God but would equally feel at home chanting the name Jesus or Buddha as all holy personages are valued by this faith. Where they differ from other religions is that they do not consider their path to be the only way to God.
For westerners who dislike the ‘idolatry’ of Hinduism, the simple clarity of Buddhism has more appeal. In India Buddhism all but disappeared because of the Muslim invasions and what remained was easily assimilated back into Hinduism. For many Hindus, Buddha is a valid teacher and some recognises him as an incarnation of the god Vishnu but there are many differences as well as similarities between the two faiths. As a Spiritualist the most important differences to me is their attitude to the immortal spirit. Buddhism does not believe in the existence of souls and the continuation of the identity after death in the way a Spiritualist would understand this. According to Buddhism form changes but the
life goes on but not as the same "person" as we understand a "person"
to be.
It also does not believe in a creator God. Hinduism believes in the existence of Atman – the individual soul, the Jiva - the embodied soul which as I understand equates to our concept of spirit, and Brahman - the Supreme Creator. When Buddha was asked whether there was life after death he remained silent perhaps indicating that this could not be answered because it was beyond the listeners comprehension or as Carl Jung noted he may not have known the answer! (On the occassions the Buddha was asked about life after death he would often tailor his answers to the level that could be understood by his audience. He said on many occasions that there are an infinite number of lives. ) |
BUDDHA IN THE DEER PARK
It is a comparatively short journey from Varanasi to one of the most important holy sites of Buddhism: the ‘Deer Park’ where the newly enlightened Gautama Buddha gave his first sermon about the basic principles of Buddhism. This is a site comparable to the Mount of Beatitudes in Israel where Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount.
 The Deer Park at Sarnath is surrounded by many temples build by Buddhists from around the world. We enjoyed visiting the Tibetan, Chinese and Japanese temples as well as the main temple at the centre of the complex that housed beautiful frescoes that illustrated the Buddha’s life and his temptations beneath the Bodi Tree. And dominating the skyline is the hundred-foot-high Dhamakh Stupa from the 5th Century, built in brick in the shape of an upturned begging bowl to mark the exact spot where Buddha had preached. In the grounds an open air temple and ceremonial bell had been built around a tree grown from a cutting of a cutting of a cutting of the original Bodi tree. I picked up a fallen leaf from the ground to add to my collection of precious things. Beneath the tree were carved the words of the Deer Park sermon which first explained the Four Noble Truths about the cause and cessation of suffering and the Eight Fold path of Right Understanding, Right Thought, Right Speech, Right Action, Right
Living, Right Effort, Right Awareness, Right Samadhi or
Wholeheartedness.
Continue The Pilgrimage ...
NEXT:Paramahansa Yogananda
|
