Probably, everyone has questions, the answers to which are not so easy to find. Many think about the spiritual beginning, begin to look for a way to realize their existence. One of the oldest religious denominations - Buddhism, helps in such searches, teaches the comprehension of wisdom and the increase of one's own spirituality.

What is this religion

It is difficult to answer briefly what Buddhism is, since this, its postulates are more reminiscent of a philosophical doctrine. One of the fundamental provisions is the assertion that only impermanence is permanent. Simply put, in our world, only the incessant cycle of everything is constant: events, birth and death.

It is believed that the world arose by itself. And our life is, in fact, the search for the reasons for our appearance and awareness, for which we appeared. Speaking briefly about religion, Buddhism and its path are moral and spiritual, the realization that all life is suffering: birth, growing up, attachments and achievements, fear of losing what has been achieved.

The ultimate goal is enlightenment, the achievement of the highest bliss, that is, "nirvana". The Enlightened One is independent of any concepts, he has comprehended his physical, mental, mind and spirit.

Origins of Buddhism

In northern India, in the town of Lumbini, a boy Siddhartha Gautama (563-483 BC, according to other sources - 1027-948 BC) was born into the royal family. At the age of 29, thinking about the meaning of life, Siddhatrha left the palace and took an ascetic life. Realizing that severe asceticism and debilitating will not give answers, Gautama decided to cleanse by deep.

By the age of 35, he had achieved enlightenment, becoming a Buddha and a teacher to his followers. The founder of Buddhism, Gautama, lived until the age of eighty, preaching and enlightening. It is noteworthy that Buddhists accept enlightened other religions as teachers, such as Jesus and Mohammed.

Separately about the monks

The community of Buddhist monks is considered the most ancient religious community. The way of life of the monks does not imply a complete estrangement from the world, many of them actively participate in worldly life.

Usually they travel in small groups, staying close to the laity who share their faith, since it is monasticism that is entrusted with the mission of preserving, enlightening in the faith, instructing and spreading the teachings of Gautama. It is noteworthy that after making a decision to devote their lives to monasticism, initiates are not required to completely break with the family.

The monks live off the donations of the laity, being content with only the most necessary things. Shelter, and they are provided by the laity. It is believed that a layman who helps a monk in his mission improves his own by working through its negative aspects. Therefore, believing laymen provide the monasteries financially.

The task of the monks is to show by example the right way of life, to study religion, to improve themselves both morally and spiritually, and also to keep religious writings, the sacred book of Buddhism - Tripitaka.

Did you know? Contrary to the existing opinion that only men are monks in Buddhism, there were also women among them, they were called bhikkhunis. A classic example of this is the mother of Gautama Mahaprajapati, whom he himself elevated to the monastic rank.

Fundamentals of Doctrine

Unlike other religions, Buddhism has more philosophy than mysticism or blind faith. The main ideas of Buddhism are based on the "four noble truths". Let's briefly consider each of them.

The truth about suffering (duhkha)

The truth about suffering is that it is continuous: we are born from suffering, during our life we ​​experience it, constantly returning thoughts to some problems, having achieved something, we are afraid to lose, suffering again about this.

We suffer in search of correcting the deeds of the past, we feel guilty for misconduct. Constant experiences, fear, fear of imminent old age and death, dissatisfaction, disappointment - this is the cycle of suffering. Awareness of oneself in this cycle is the first step to the truth.

On the Cause of Suffering (Trishna)

Following the path of self-awareness, we begin to look for the cause of constant dissatisfaction. At the same time, all actions and actions lend themselves to scrupulous analysis, as a result we come to the conclusion that life is a constant struggle with suffering. Striving for something and getting what he wants, a person begins to desire even more, and so on in a circle. That is, the primary source of our suffering is an insatiable thirst for more and more new achievements.

On the cessation of suffering (nirodha)

Rotating in the cycle of struggle with their own dissatisfaction, many mistakenly believe that they can get rid of suffering by defeating their ego. However, this path leads to self-destruction. It is possible to come to an understanding of the path without suffering only by stopping the struggle with it..

Letting go of negative thoughts (anger, envy, hatred that destroy the mind and soul), starting to look for piety in ourselves, we can look at our struggle from a distance. At the same time, an understanding of the true goal comes - the cessation of the struggle is moral purification, the rejection of unholy thoughts and desires.

Truth about the path (marga)

It is important to correctly understand the true path to enlightenment. The Buddha called it the "middle way", that is, self-development and spiritual purification without fanaticism. Some of his students misunderstood the truth about the path: they saw it in a complete renunciation of desires and needs, in self-torture, and in meditative practice, instead of calm concentration, they tried to introduce themselves to bring themselves to.

This is fundamentally wrong: even the Buddha needed food, clothes, in order to have strength for further preaching. He taught to look for a way between severe asceticism and a life of pleasure, without extremes. On the path of enlightenment, meditation practice plays an important role: in this case, concentration is mainly aimed at gaining peace of mind and observing the flow of one's thoughts in the present moment.

By learning to analyze your actions here and now, in the future you can avoid repeating any mistakes. Full awareness of one's "I", the ability to step beyond the limits of the ego lead to the realization of the true path.

Did you know? In the hills east of Moniwa in Myanmar, there are unusual Buddha statues. Both are hollow inside, open to everyone, while inside there are images of events related to the development of religion. One of the statues rises to 132 meters, the second depicting the Buddha in a reclining position, has a length of 90 meters.

What Buddhists Believe: Stages of the Buddhist Path

Followers of the Buddha's teachings believe that each person did not appear on this earth by chance, each of us with each of our appearances (reincarnation) has a chance to clear karma and achieve special grace - "nirvana" (liberation from rebirth, a state of blissful peace). To do this, you need to realize the truth and free your mind from delusions.

Wisdom (prajna)

Wisdom lies in the determination to follow the teachings, the realization of truths, the manifestation of self-discipline, the renunciation of and desires. This is a vision of the situation through the prism of doubts and the acceptance of oneself and the surrounding reality as they are.

Comprehension of wisdom consists in opposing one's "I", intuitive insight through meditation, overcoming delusions. This is one of the foundations of the teaching, which consists in comprehending reality, unclouded by worldly prejudices. The word itself in Sanskrit means "superknowledge": "pra" - the highest, "jna" - knowledge.

Morality (sila)

Morality - maintaining the right lifestyle: renunciation of violence in any form, trafficking in weapons, drugs, people, abuse. This is the observance of moral and ethical standards: purity of speech, without the use of swear words, without gossip, lies, rude attitude towards one's neighbor.

Concentrations (samadhi)

Samadhi in Sanskrit means unification, completion, perfection. Mastering the methods of concentration, awareness of oneself not as an individual, but in merging with the higher cosmic mind. Such an enlightened state is achieved through meditation, calming one's consciousness and contemplation, as a result, enlightenment leads to perfect consciousness, that is, to nirvana.

About the currents of Buddhism

Throughout the history of teaching, many schools and branches from classical perception have been formed, at the moment there are three main currents, and we'll talk about them. In fact, these are three paths to knowledge, which the Buddha conveyed to his disciples in different ways, in different interpretations, but they all lead to the same goal.

Hinayana

Hinayana is the oldest school that claims to accurately transmit the teachings of its founder, Buddha Shakyamuni (in the world - Gautama), based on the teacher's first sermons on the four truths. Followers draw the basic postulates of faith from the most authoritative (according to them) sources - Tripitaka, sacred texts compiled after Shakyamuni's departure to nirvana.

Of all the (eighteen) schools of Hinayana, there is the Theravada today, more of a meditative practice than a philosophy of teaching. The goal of the followers of Hinayana is to get away from everything worldly through strict renunciation, achieve enlightenment, like the Buddha, and leave the cycle of samsara, having gone into a state of bliss.

Important! The key difference between the Hinayana and the Mahayana is that in the first, the Buddha is a real person who has achieved enlightenment, in the second, a metaphysical manifestation.

Mahayana and Vajrayana

The Mahayana movement is associated with Shakyamuni's disciple Nagarjuna. In this direction, the Hinayana theory is rethought and supplemented. This direction has become widespread in Japan, China and Tibet. The theoretical basis is the sutras, the written form of spiritual revelations, according to the practitioners of Shakyamuni himself.

However, the teacher himself is perceived as a metaphysical manifestation of nature, the primary matter. The sutras state that the teacher did not leave samsara and cannot leave it, because a part of him is in each of us.

Fundamentals of the Vajrayana - . The direction itself, along with the practice of Mahayana, uses various rituals and rituals, reading to strengthen the individual and her spiritual growth, and self-awareness. Tantrics most revere Padmasambhava, the founder of the Tantric movement in Tibet.

How to become a Buddhist

For a person interested in learning, there are several recommendations:

• Before becoming a Buddhist, read the relevant literature, ignorance of terminology and theory will not allow you to fully immerse yourself in the teachings.
• You should decide on the direction, choose the school that suits you.
• Study the traditions of the chosen trend, meditative practices and basic postulates.

To become a part of a religious teaching, it is necessary to go through the eightfold path of realizing the truth, which consists of eight stages:

1. Understanding, which is achieved by thinking about the truth of being.
2. Determination, which is expressed in the renunciation of everything that exists.
3. This stage is to achieve a speech in which there are no lies and swear words.
4. At this stage, a person learns to do only good deeds.
5. At this stage, a person comes to an understanding of true life.
6. At this stage, a person comes to the realization of the true thought.
7. At this stage, a person must achieve complete, renunciation of everything external.
8. At this stage, a person reaches enlightenment, having gone through all the previous stages.

Having traveled this path, a person learns the philosophy of teaching and joins it. Beginners are advised to seek guidance and some clarification from a teacher, this may be a wandering monk.

Important!Keep in mind that several meetings will not give the result you expect: the teacher will not be able to answer all the questions. To do this, next to him you need to live side by side for a long time, perhaps years.

The main work on oneself is to renounce everything negative, you need to apply in life everything that you read about in the sacred texts. Give up bad habits, do not show violence and rudeness, foul language, help people without expecting anything in return. Only self-purification, self-improvement and morality will lead you to an understanding of the teaching itself and its foundations.

You can be formally recognized as a true follower by meeting with the Lama in person. Only he will decide whether you are ready to follow the teachings.

Buddhism: differences from other religions

Buddhism does not recognize one god, the creator of all things, the teaching is based on the fact that everyone has a divine principle, everyone can become enlightened and achieve nirvana. Buddha is a teacher.

The path of enlightenment, unlike world religions, consists in self-improvement and the achievement of morality and morality, and not in blind faith. A living religion recognizes and recognized science, smoothly adjusting to it, recognizing the existence of other worlds and dimensions, while considering the Earth a blessed place from where, by purifying karma and achieving enlightenment, you can get into nirvana.

Sacred texts are not an indisputable authority, but only guidance and guidance on the path to truth. The search for answers and awareness of wisdom lies through self-knowledge, and not unquestioning obedience to the postulates of faith. That is, faith itself is based primarily on experience.

Unlike Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, Buddhists do not accept the idea of ​​absolute sin. Sin, from the point of view of the teachings, is a mistake of the individual, which can be corrected in subsequent reincarnations. That is, there is no strict definition of "hell" and "heaven" because there is no morality in nature. Any mistake is correctable, and as a result, any person through reincarnation can clear karma, that is, pay off his debt to the Universal Mind.

In Judaism, Islam or Christianity, the only salvation is God. In Buddhism, salvation depends on oneself, understanding one's nature, following moral and ethical standards, refraining from negative manifestations of one's ego, and self-improvement. There are also differences in monasticism: instead of complete thoughtless submission to the abbot, monks make decisions as a community, the head of the community is also elected collectively. Of course, respect must be shown to elders and experienced people. In the community also, unlike the Christian ones, there are no titles or ranks.

It is impossible to learn everything about Buddhism at once, teaching and improvement takes years. One can be imbued with the truths of the teaching only by devoting oneself entirely to this religion.

The history of the emergence of Buddhism has more than one thousand years. The followers of Buddhism are not defined by ethnicity. Any person, regardless of nationality, race, place of residence, can practice Buddhism.

The history of the emergence and spread of Buddhism

To begin with, let's answer the question - how old is Buddhism? Buddhism is an ancient religion that originated in the middle of the first millennium BC. Christianity appeared later by almost five hundred years, and Islam by a thousand. The birthplace of Buddhism is the northeastern part of modern India, ancient states were located on the territory. There is no exact scientific data about what the society represented in those days. There are only assumptions that were the reasons for the foundation and were the prerequisites for the development of Buddhism in ancient Indian society. One of the reasons is that at that time an acute cultural, economic and religious crisis was brewing in ancient India, which led to the emergence of new alternative teachings that were created by wandering philosophers. One of these philosophers - ascetics was Siddhartha Gautama, he is considered the founder of Buddhism, the history of the religion of Buddhism is inextricably linked with his name. At the same time, the process of strengthening power, the establishment of class relations was carried out, which, in turn, required an increase in the authority of the supreme rulers and warriors. Buddhism, as an opposition movement to Brahmanism, was chosen as the "royal religion", the history of the development of Buddhism as a single religion is closely connected with the development of supreme power.

Briefly about what is brahminism. The basis of the teaching is the rebirth of a person, on the basis of karma (for the sins or virtues of a past life). According to this teaching, in ancient India it was believed that a virtuous person is reborn in a person who occupies a high position, and sometimes is a celestial. In Brahmanism, special attention was paid to rituals, rituals and sacrifice.

Let's go back to the history of Buddhism. Buddha Siddhartha Gautama was born in 560 BC, in the south of the territory of modern Nepal. He belonged to the Shakya family, he was called Shakyamuni (sage). The Buddha lived in the luxurious palace of his father, however, faced with the harsh reality, he concluded that in reality there is a lot of suffering and grief in life. As a result, the Buddha decided to abandon life in the palace and began to live the life of a wandering ascetic hermit, trying to understand the truth of being, engaging, among other things, in the practices of torture and bodily mortification. The Buddha met sages, practiced yoga, applied various techniques and concluded that severe forms of asceticism do not free from the suffering that is associated with birth and death, he also concluded that some intermediate compromise should be found between sensual pleasures and the desire to forego life's blessings. The most effective Buddha considered meditation and prayer. At the age of thirty-five, during another meditation, Gautama Siddhartha attained Enlightenment, after which he was called Buddha Gautama or simply Buddha, which means "enlightened, awakened." After that, the Buddha lived for another forty-five years, all the time traveling through the territory of Central India and teaching his students and followers.

The Buddha died, the body of the Teacher, according to custom, was cremated. Messengers from different states were sent with a request to give them at least a piece of the remains. However, the remains were divided into eight parts and placed in stupas - special cone-shaped structures located in the capitals of some ancient states. One of the parts of the remains was found (in 1898) in an Indian village, where they found a stupa from the ancient city of Kapilavatthu. The found remains were placed in the Indian National Museum in New Delhi.

Later, sutras (records of the words of the Buddha) were placed in such stupas. This is the Dharma - a set of norms and rules that are necessary for the "cosmic" order. The word "dharma" literally translates as "what holds or supports".

The followers of the Buddha over the course of four hundred years formed several different schools of early Buddhism with numerous branches. Schools and currents differ from each other sometimes not significantly, and sometimes they differ on very significant issues. The main goal of Buddhism is to achieve enlightenment, this is the path to nirvana, a state of mind that can be achieved by self-denial and the rejection of comfortable living conditions. The Buddha preached the opinion that in life one should look for that very "middle", which gives a balance between satiety and asceticism. Buddhism is often called not only a religion, but also a philosophy that guides a person on the path of self-development.

The history of the emergence of Buddhism in Russia

Considering the vast territory and the number of ethnic groups and peoples living in modern Russia, different religions of the west and east are represented in our country. are Christianity, Islam and Buddhism. Buddhism is a complex religion with various schools and currents; almost all confessions of Buddhism are represented on the territory of Russia. But, the main development is the traditional religion of Tibet.

Due to geographical reasons and cultural contacts, Buddhism first spread among the Tuvans and Kalmyks, in the 16th century. Then these lands were part of the Mongolian state. A hundred years later, the ideas of Buddhism began to penetrate into Buryatia, and immediately compete with the main local religion - shamanism. Buryatia, by virtue of geography, has close ties with Mongolia and further with Tibet. Today it is in Buryatia that most of the followers of Buddhism are concentrated. It is in Buryatia that the Sangha of Russia is located - the center of the Buddhists of Russia, religious buildings, shrines and the residence of the Spiritual Leader of the Buddhists of Russia are also located there.

In the Republic of Tuva, Buddhists profess the same philosophical trend as the Buryats. There is another region where the population professing Buddhism predominates - this is Kalmykia.

Buddhism in the USSR

At first there were attempts to combine Buddhism and Marxism (it is hard to imagine what could come of this). Then they abandoned this direction, repressions began: temples were closed, high priests were persecuted. So it was until the "post-war thaw" began. Now in Russia there is a single unifying center - the Buddhist Sangha of Russia, and Buddhism in our country is represented mainly by three regions - Tuva, Kalmykia and Buryatia. In recent years, observers have noticed the spread of the religion of Buddhism in other regions of Russia, among the youth and intelligentsia. One of the reasons for this can be considered a pan-European passion for the culture and history of the East.

I am publishing a map of the development of Buddhism, everything is pretty clear there.

The American research center Pew Research conducted a social study on the topic of the population belonging to a particular religion. It turned out that 8 out of 10 respondents identify themselves with one or another confession. One of the most ancient and mysterious religions in the world is Buddhism.

About how many Buddhists in the world in 2017, statistics give the following figures: more than 500 million people officially practice Buddhism. This is about 7% of the world's population. It's not very much. But it should be noted that it is the Buddhists who most clearly follow the canons, they have always been an example of humility and following the religious tradition.

Religious map of the Earth. What percentage of Buddhists in the world

Most of the believing population of the planet are Christians. In 2016, their number amounted to 32% of the world's population (about 2.2 billion inhabitants). Muslims - 23% (1.6 billion people). However, according to forecasts, Islam may soon become the most numerous religion. Hindus in the world - 15% (1 billion), Buddhists - 7% (500 million) and 0.2% (14 million) Jews.

It should be noted that only official figures are presented above. In fact, it is impossible to say exactly how many Buddhists there are in the world. The population sometimes ignores the census and does not participate in the compilation of statistics. Following fashion trends, many carry out various Buddhist practices and share the Buddhist ideology.

About 400 million people profess relatively young confessions, such as Shintoism, Sikhism and others. 16% of the population does not identify themselves with any confession, this is 1.1 billion people.

Buddhism is one of the oldest religions

Today Eastern religions have more and more followers. For some, this is a tribute to fashion, for others - a way of life. How many Buddhists are there in the world? This is a pressing issue related to the popularity of Siddhartha's teachings.

Buddhism is called "bodhi", which means "teaching of awakening". It originated in the 1st millennium BC. e. In fact, Buddhism is a complex religious and philosophical doctrine. Followers call it "Dharma", which means "Law", or "Buddhadharma", referring to the founder - Prince Sidhartha Gautama, later to this day called Shakyamuni Buddha.

How many Buddhists are there in the world? How many branches and schools of Buddhism are there? There are 3 main areas: Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana.

Theravada

The most ancient school, preserved in its original form from the beginning of the preaching of the Buddha. Initially, Buddhism was not a religion, but a philosophical doctrine.

The main feature of Theravada is the absence of an object of universal worship, with the exception of the Buddha. This determines the simplicity of rituals and external attributes of religion. Original Buddhism is not a religion, but a philosophical and ethical teaching. The Buddha taught that it is equivalent to denying one's own responsibility for one's actions. According to the adherents of Theravada, a person should be responsible for his own actions, and therefore does not need a large number of controlling laws.

For the same reason, Theravada does not assume its own pantheon of gods, therefore, in places of distribution, religion exists in symbiosis with local faith, if necessary, turning to local gods for help.

The Therravada followers live in Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia.

Mahayana

The most numerous branch among all Buddhists in the world. No matter how many Buddhist schools there are, Mahayana remains the main one to this day. The teaching of the Great Chariot can be called a full-fledged religion. Its adherents live in Vietnam, Korea, Japan, China and Taiwan. How many Buddhists there are in the world can be judged by the population of these countries.

The Buddha is perceived by followers of the Mahayana as a divine figure and primary teacher, capable of taking on various forms.

One of the main postulates of the Mahayana is the doctrine of bodhisattvas. This is the name of the saints who preferred endless rebirths in the form of divine personalities or missions to Nirvana. So, for example, everyone is considered a bodhisattva. Catherine II patronized the Buddhists of Buryatia, for which she was ranked among the bodhisattvas.

The Mahayana pantheon includes many deities and entities. It is about them that a large number of fairy tales and myths have been written.

Vajrayana or Tantrayana

The doctrine called the Diamond Chariot originated in Tibet under the influence of the Mahayana and Indian Tantrism. In fact, it is an independent religion. The direction contains complex tantric practices that can lead to enlightenment in one earthly life. Fertility cults and erotic practices are revered. Vajrayana has a close relationship with esotericism. The basics of the teachings are passed on by the teacher - Lama to the student.

Tantrayana is practiced in Mongolia, Bhutan and eastern Russia.

Buddhism in Russia

Traditional adherents live today in the eastern regions of the country, such as the Republic of Buryatia, Kalmykia and Tuva. In addition, Buddhist associations can be found in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other cities. The percentage of Buddhists living in Russia is approximately 1% of the total population of Buddhists in the world. How many followers of the teachings of Siddhartha live in Russia, it is impossible to say for sure. This is explained by the fact that Buddhism is not an official religion, and many of its adherents did not officially declare their religious affiliation.

Buddhism is one of the most peaceful religions. Bodhi followers call for peace and love. Recently, the number of adherents is slowly but surely growing. The statistics on how many Buddhists there are in the world in 2017 show that their number is increasing by about 1.5% every year.

Buddhism is a world religion that originated in the northeast of India (on the territory of the modern Indian state of Bihar) and named after its founder, who lived and preached in the middle of the 1st millennium BC. e.

The very word "Buddhism" of European origin and in scientific use first appears in the 19th century as a technical term for this religious phenomenon. The followers of this religious tradition themselves call it Dharma, or Buddhadharma, which in Sanskrit means, respectively, "law", or "teachings of the Buddha".

Ancient India in the middle of the 1st millennium BC. e. experienced, as we remember, a deep spiritual and cultural crisis, accompanied by the decline of Brahminical religiosity. At this time, a number of new teachings arise, some of which stand on the positions of a radical denial of the Vedic heritage and offer their own path to comprehending the Truth. Many itinerant ascetics appear, preaching these new doctrines. One of these teachers was the founder of Buddhism - Siddhartha Gautama.

At the same time, in the northeastern regions of Ancient India, the position of the Brahminical religion was less stable compared to other regions, and the social structure of society was also less rigid.

At the same time, active transformations are taking place in the northeastern region associated with the strengthening of the power and influence of the secular ruling elites, that is, kshatriyas. Therefore, it is not surprising that under the circumstances, the people who were at the helm of the administration of the states located here, sought to support the teaching, as far as possible, which rejected the highest social and religious status of the Brahmin priests.

It was the support of the secular authorities that helped Buddhism get on its feet in the first decades of its existence, provided protection, allowed it to grow stronger and develop into an independent and influential teaching with a special system of views on the world. However, in the long term, as history shows, this support turned out to be very fragile and short-lived.

In the 7th-13th centuries A.D. e. a period of unprecedented decline of Buddhism begins. The crisis of Buddhism was associated with the growing influence of Hinduism on the life of society. The rulers, who gradually returned to the traditional culture and beliefs of their ancestors, begin to refuse patronage and state assistance to the teachings of the Buddha. This had the most serious consequences for the fate of the teaching: having lost the highest patronage, Buddhism experienced the same rapid extinction as its formation was bright and stormy.

Nevertheless, being virtually ousted from the life of society in its historical homeland, Buddhism successfully developed a mission in new territories. In its various variations, Buddhism has spread widely in the countries of the Far East (China, Mongolia, Japan, Korea), Southeast (Bhutan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand) and South Asia (Nepal, Sri Lanka).

For three regions of Russia, Buddhism is also a traditional and, moreover, the dominant religion (Buryatia, Kalmykia and Tuva).

In the 19th-21st centuries, Buddhism once again revealed its enormous missionary potential to the world, spreading its influence to new regions, including the countries of the Christian tradition, in Europe and America.

Buddha: legend and reality

Problems of dating the life of the founder of Buddhism

The personality of the founder of Buddhism is covered with many myths and legends, so for a long time there was no consensus in European science whether to consider Siddhartha Gautama a real historical person or a fictional cultural hero and legendary character. Today, most researchers believe that such a person actually existed. As the Russian historian M.F. Albedil, "now no one doubts that the Buddha was a real historical figure, although his life is surrounded by many legends and obvious exaggerations" .

However, there is still no agreement in the scientific community regarding the lifetime of the Buddha. In Western historical science, the idea has been established that the founder of Buddhadharma ended his earthly path in 486 BC. e. And since it is believed that he lived for 80 years, then, accordingly, the year of his birth should be considered 566 BC. e.

However, according to another rather common version of the date of the life of the Buddha 624-544 BC. e .

Only the upper conditionally acceptable limit of the life of the Buddha is unequivocally accepted by everyone: it is obvious that the founder of the teaching died before the 20s of the 4th century BC. e., when the Indian campaign of Alexander the Great took place.

The problem of dating the life of the Buddha is further complicated by the fact that written sources testifying to Siddhartha Gautam are centuries apart from any of the supposed periods of his life.

At the same time, for the study of a particular religious tradition, it is rather not so much the real characteristics and reliable facts from the life of its founder that are important, but rather his ideal image in the minds of the adherents of the doctrine. It is this ideal that believers strive to imitate, while the images of any religious teacher, compiled on the basis of available historical evidence, in the words of one of the outstanding Russian Buddhist scholars S. F. Oldenburg, are “only shadows and nothing more.”

The origin and early years of the Buddha

So, having combined myths with facts, what can we say about the founder of Buddhism?

The future Buddha was born in the northeast of India in the city of Kapilavastu in a family of Kshatriyas from the Shakya tribe and clan (gotras) Gautama. His father's name is Shuddhodana, and mothers Mahamaya.

Before conceiving her son, Mahamaya had an amazing dream: she dreamed that a white elephant entered her right side. The next morning she told the dream to her husband, and he called astrologers to ask them about the meaning of what they saw. Astrologers told him that the child born from his wife would become a great man. If he strives in the field of acquiring power, he will be a great ruler of the whole world, that is chakravartin(Skt. cakravartin - lit. "one who turns the wheel"). If, however, he directs his forces to spiritual searches and renounces the blessings of the earthly world, he will become a great teacher - the Buddha.

Buddhists do not insist on the supernatural nature of the birth of the founder of their teaching, believing that it happened in accordance with all the laws of nature.

When the time came for Mahamaya to give birth to her son, she was on the road. The woman descended from the wagon and, entering a grove of salwood trees, relieved herself of her burden while standing. The baby came out of the womb through the right side, took seven steps on his own and issued a victory cry, proclaiming himself the highest being.

Despite the miraculous nature of childbirth, they had tragic consequences for the woman in labor - after a short time she died.

At the request of the father, the newborn was examined by an astrologer, who found a number of physical features on his body and interpreted them as an indication of the special purpose of the child. The second time the baby was prophesied that he should become either a ruler of the world chakravartin or Buddha.

Five days after the birth, the rite of naming was performed, and the boy received the name Siddhartha(Skt. Siddhārtha - lit. “finally reached the goal”).

Shuddhodana, who lost his wife, tried to make every effort to ensure that his son adequately continued the service of the kshatriyas and gained the glory of a great king, and would not follow the path of ascetic work. To do this, he settled his son in a beautiful palace surrounded by magnificent gardens. Many young servants and maids breathing with health and strength were ready to fulfill his every desire. took place in entertainment, diluted with intellectual exercises to master the sciences of that time and the practical skills necessary for a young kshatriya. As befits a great man, he put everything he taught into his mind and heart easily and naturally.

One day, a boy, left by the fault of the servants without vigilant care, fell into a state of such a deep trance that he sat in one place, cross-legged, for several hours. This incident was another proof of Siddhartha's inclination towards a contemplative life.

Marriage and family of Siddhartha

When Siddhartha was sixteen years old, he was supposed to marry a girl from an aristocratic family. This corresponded to the ideas of that era about the periods of life of each person. A representative of a Kshatriya family was chosen as the bride Yashodhara(lit. "bearer of glory").

The parents of the chosen one found it necessary to arrange a special marriage ceremony swayamvars(Skt. Svayamvara - lit. "at will"), in which a marriageable girl herself chose her groom among several applicants for marriage who competed with each other.

Siddhartha managed to draw a string on an ancient bow of enormous size, which the other participants in the contest could not even lift from the ground. The choice was made in favor of the strongest and most dexterous.

In marriage, Siddhartha had a son Rahula(Skt. Rāhula - "connection"). In accordance with ancient Indian traditions, this meant that Shuddhodana could transfer the burden of power to his son, while he himself retired. However, his father's intentions never materialized.

Fateful meetings

One day, when Siddhartha was 29 years old, he traveled outside his palace and experienced four fateful meetings that changed his life forever.

First he saw the decrepit old man and realized that youth and fullness of bodily strength is a temporary state that should soon cease.

Then Siddhartha turned his attention to seriously ill of a person, and this led him to the idea that health is not eternal and can be easily lost.

After that, he got in the way funeral procession who accompanied the corpse to the place of cremation. This plunged the prince into complete sadness, for he understood the end of the life of every person and every living being.

However, the feeling of the unbearable heaviness of being was softened by the fourth meeting with sannyasin hermit in meditative concentration. This meeting helped the inquisitive mind of the young kshatriya to understand that there is still some way out of the cycle of troubles and sorrows that await every person on his life path. And even though the path itself was still unknown to him, from now on there was no doubt that it exists.

In order to find this path leading to deliverance from suffering, Siddhartha flees from his father's house at night, accompanied by his only faithful servant. In an effort to achieve his goal, he cannot be stopped even by the sight of a sleeping son, whose name was supposed to remind of the bonds that bind a person to his family.

The deities who assisted Siddhartha in his spiritual quest drowned out the clatter of horse hooves so that no one in the palace was awakened by the sound of a galloping horse.

Renunciation of the past life

Having reached the forest, Siddhartha cuts his hair with a sword as a sign of renunciation of his past life (cf. the practice of monastic tonsure in Orthodoxy) and retires alone into the thicket.

The next six years were devoted to the search for a guru teacher who would introduce the novice hermit to true knowledge, educate him in the skills of working on himself and guide him on the path of inner perfection and knowledge of the truth. From that moment on, Siddhartha becomes Shakyamuni, which literally means "hermit", or "wise man" from the Shakya clan.

It is not known exactly how many mentors Siddhartha had. The names of at least some of them are known: Udraka Ramaputra and Arada Kalama, who preached doctrines close to Sankhya, who were famous for their mastery of meditation and used the method of a special psychotechnics, which, in particular, involved working with breathing.

Shakyamuni successfully mastered the teachings taught to him and mastered all the necessary practical skills. However, this did not bring him a sense of freedom and did not bring him closer to a state of non-susceptibility to suffering. Despite flattering offers to head the school, Siddhartha leaves his teachers and joins a group of hermits. They profess the idea of ​​gaining liberation through radical ascetic exercises, in particular extremely severe fasting.

At the same time, Gautama, who was used to bringing everything to the end, had a physical condition in which, putting his palm on his stomach, he could feel his vertebrae under his fingers.

However, here, too, Siddhartha did not find what he was looking for. Not without the help of the god Indra, who appeared to him in a vision, the ascetic decided to stop self-torture. He ate some rice from a local woman. His strength has been strengthened. However, five of his comrades in ascetic work immediately left Siddhartha as a renegade who had betrayed the common ideals.

Achieving enlightenment - bodhi

Having made a promise to himself not to leave his place until he gained the truth, Shakyamuni sat cross-legged (assumed the “lotus position”) under a ficus tree and plunged into meditation.

During his spiritual search, Gautama had to face various obsessions and temptations. So, evil and demon-like creature Mara(Skt. māra - “destruction”, “death”) tried to turn the ascetic from his path, offering him the gaze of seductive beauties, creating visions of natural disasters and attacks of furious animals. But Siddhartha remained adamant in his aspirations until he finally made his spiritual breakthrough. He attained enlightenment (bodhi) and became buddha. This happened on the forty-ninth day of meditation, when the ascetic was thirty-five years old.

From that moment on, he became a being that surpassed not only all people, but also all deities. He ceased to be a man in the proper sense of the word, for every man is in the captivity of samsara, which has no power over the Buddha.

The Buddha realized that life is suffering, that the cause of suffering is desire and attraction, that there is a special kind of being that is not associated with suffering, and that there is a path leading to the acquisition of this being.

Out for a sermon

Having achieved enlightenment, Siddhartha faced a dilemma: to leave the world, having received eternal liberation, or to remain in it in order to make the path he had traveled available to other living beings? At an important moment of choice, the god Brahma was forced to intervene in the situation, calling on Gautama to openly preach the truths he had acquired. The heart of the Awakened One was filled with great compassion for all living things that are in the chains of samsara, and he decided not to leave our world until the teaching was sufficiently spread here.

Having made this fateful decision, the Buddha went to the nearby city Benares, which was a major spiritual center of India and an object of mass pilgrimage. In a place called "Deer Park", he delivered the first sermon, which remained in the history of Buddhism under the name "Sermon on Turning the Wheel of Doctrine"(Skt. Dharmacakrapravartana Sutra).

"Three Treasures" of Buddhism

Among the listeners were also former associates who broke off relations with Gautama at the time of his refusal from the extreme forms of asceticism. Thanks to the penetrating words of the preacher, they realized their mistake and became followers of the new teaching proclaimed by him. Thus, at the very first moment of Siddhartha's public service, three principal objects of worship, as well as an object of faith, arise: Buddha, dharma(teaching) and sangha, that is, a community (Skt. saṃgha - “meeting”). Taken together, these three "things" make up "three treasures", or "Three Jewels" Buddhism (Skt. triratna).

Over the next forty-five years, the Buddha was actively spreading his teachings, and thanks to his sermons, often accompanied by various signs and wonders, the size of the community constantly increased.

The growth in popularity of Buddhadharma was greatly facilitated by the support of the authorities, as well as many wealthy people. One of these benefactors presented the community with a piece of land in the kingdom of Koshala with a grove located on it. This place has become one of the centers of attraction for adherents of the new teaching. Here, members of the community often gathered together, listening to the words of the teacher.

The fruit of the missionary efforts of Siddhartha was the conversion to a new faith and the closest relatives: his wife and son, who entered the monastic community.

It is believed that by the end of the Buddha's stay on Earth, the number of his disciples reached 12.5 thousand people.

Completion of the earthly path of Gautama

At the age of eighty, Shakyamuni, realizing that he had done everything possible to help all living beings, completed his wandering. It happened in the place of Kushinagar. After eating a treat prepared by one of his devotees, the Buddha fell ill (it is quite possible that this was just ordinary food poisoning). Before his death, he called his disciples to him, gave them the last instructions, after which he plunged into meditative concentration, culminating in the transition to a different form of being, not subject to suffering.

In accordance with tradition, the body of the Buddha was cremated. The followers of his teachings, who were at the head of various states, asked the disciples to give them some of the ashes left from the funeral pyre. On the places of the reverent position of these remains, special architectural structures were created - stupa(Skt. stūpa - "hill"), which eventually became objects of pilgrimage and worship for many Buddhists.

In Buddhist literature, Buddha Shakyamuni has adopted several epithets, the most significant of which are the epithets Tathagata(Skt. Tathāgata - lit. "thus came" or "thus gone"), Gina(Skt. jina - "winner") and Bhagawan(Skt. Bhagavān - "Lord").

Buddhist sacred canon

Shakyamuni Buddha did not leave a single written text behind him. And after a very short time after the death of the founder, the doctrine was divided into many directions. This largely determined the further difference between the fundamental texts of the religious tradition.

Pali Canon and its divisions

Sacred Texts of Buddhism Tripitaka(Skt. Tripiṭaka - lit. “Three baskets”), consisting of three sections, was, according to legend, “sung” (recited) by authoritative members of the Sangha at the First Buddhist Council in the 5th century BC. e. However, it was recorded much later - in 80 BC. e. in the territory of Sri Lanka. The material for written fixation was palm leaves, the traditional written material of that era in the region. The records were stacked in three baskets, which gave the name to the entire corpus of texts. The fixation language was fell, therefore it is customary to call this literary code Pali canon.

The structure of this three-part collection is as follows:

2 . Since morning(pal. sutta- “thread”) - in this case, it means a “thread” of stories from the life of the founder, a description of his actions, a retelling of his teachings (compare with the literature of the Upanishads, as well as with collections of hadiths). One of the famous and most popular texts of this cycle is the collection "Dhammapada", compiled from sayings attributed to Buddha Shakyamuni.

3 . Abhidharma(pal. abhidhamma- "superdharma") - a collection of texts of speculative (philosophical) content, interpreting the categories that are most important for the Buddhist worldview. The complexity of the language of presentation and content indicate that quite early consideration of such issues became the lot of selected persons who constituted the intellectual elite of that time.

It was in the edition described that the Buddhist canonical code was known in Europe and for a long time was considered the only normative sacred text of Buddhism. Since the Pali canon is inextricably linked with the direction of Buddhism, called in Pali Theravada(on the directions of Buddhism, see below) or in Sanskrit Sthaviravada, then it was this version of Buddhism that began to be considered the original and most orthodox, believing that the other versions developed from it as a result of distortion of the original teaching and layers that arose as a result of outside influences.

Other variants of the Buddhist canon

However, later it became obvious that this position does not correspond to the historical truth. Texts from another branch of Buddhism - Mahayana - are not inferior in antiquity to the occurrence of texts formed in the bosom of Theravada.

As Professor E. A. Torchinov, one of the most authoritative researchers of Buddhism, testifies, “uncritically identifying the Pali canon with the teachings of early Buddhism, and even more so with the teachings of the Buddha himself, would be gullible and completely unscientific.” Regarding the time of occurrence of the key texts for the two listed traditions of Buddhism, Torchinov directly indicates that by 80 BC. e. “The Pali Theravada Canon is being formalized; around the same time the first Mahayana sutras begin to appear.

Thus, we have three main variants of the Buddhist canon of sacred texts:

1) Pali canon, revered as a sacred text in Theravada;

2) Chinese version of the canon, formed in the Celestial Empire in line with the Mahayana tradition;

3) Tibetan version of the canon, very close to the Chinese version. Its distinctive feature is an additional two-part division into Kanjur(actually Tripitaka) and Danjour- a multi-volume collection of comments on the text of Kanjur. It consists of works of various nature - from literary to philosophical, and not only Tibetan in origin, but also translated ones.

In addition, there is also a Korean canon called tripitaka korean, whose historical value lies in the fact that it represents the most complete collection of Buddhist texts.

Lives of the Buddha

Separately, it should be said about the texts that are the biographies of the Tathagata (Buddha). Formally, these works are not included in the canon, but their significance for the Buddhist tradition is very great.

As mentioned above, the written biographies of Gautama appeared only several centuries after the end of his earthly journey. Let us point out two key texts of this kind.

The first one is " Buddha life"(Skt. Buddhacaritam), compiled by an Indian poet and preacher Ashwaghoshi believed to have lived in the 2nd century AD. e .

The second major text lalitavistara(lit. “A detailed description of the games [of Buddha]”) is a sutra in which the Buddha is likened to Indian gods and appears before the readers as “playing”, that is, acting with his immeasurable power easily and naturally and making various changes in the Universe. The text was written in Sanskrit and in the 4th century AD. e. translated into Chinese, which indicates the upper limit of the appearance of this written monument.

Buddhist literature sutras and shastras

In conclusion of the review of the sacred texts of Buddhism, let us also say about literature sutras And shastra. We have already met with these concepts when we talked about texts. smriti in Hinduism. As we remember, sutras in Hinduism were called collections of maxims of a philosophical or moral nature, and shastras were, as a rule, commentary texts on them, explanatory literature.

In the history of Buddhism, the situation looked somewhat different.

The first monument of Buddhist literature sutras is a treatise of the 1st century BC. e. Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita Sutra This text served as a model for future writings of this kind, which imitated it even in the title, retaining an indication of perfect wisdom and belonging to the sutras.

These works, most of which arose in the period from the 1st century BC. e. to the 6th century AD e., claim to preserve the words of the Buddha himself and have the most important doctrinal significance in the Mahayana. It reflects the elements of the worldview specific to this trend of Buddhism, which will be discussed below. At the same time, the exposition of the doctrines is devoid of systematicity, since it claims to be a retelling of the live conversation of the teacher.

According to the content, all sutras can be roughly divided into three main categories:

1) sutras expounding the Buddhist theory of being;

2) doctrinal (doctrinal) sutras;

3) sutras of a cult nature.

Unlike sutras, Buddhist shastras, on the contrary, represent a consistent development of philosophical positions, derived mainly from the words of the Buddha, recorded in the sutras.

Doctrines of Buddhism

"Religion without God" and Buddhist deities

A distinctive feature of Buddhism, which sharply distinguishes it from a number of other religions, is the absence in it of not only the idea of ​​the Eternal and Unchanging God - the Creator or Creator of the Universe, but even God as a demiurge, organizing and shaping the world according to his tastes and preferences. This circumstance was, in particular, the reason for the appearance in the special literature devoted to Buddhism, the definition of it as "religion without God".

However, the very fact of the existence of deities in Buddhism is not denied. Moreover, there is even a cult of their worship, widespread among believers and even partly encouraged by spiritual leaders. However, in terms of dogma, the worship of the gods is aimed not so much at gaining help from them, but at stimulating the correct states of consciousness of the adept himself, who performs this worship (for more details, see below).

The practice of worshiping deities without striving to connect with them, to become like them, is primarily associated with the idea of ​​their status in relation to the status of a person. Buddhism claims that a person is in a better position compared to the gods, because he has a chance to find nirvana, to be freed from suffering forever. While for the deities, this perspective opens only in the context of subsequent lives, and then only in the case of a human birth.

It is significant that the majority of Buddhist deities are of non-Buddhist origin. Many of them are borrowed from folk beliefs integrated into the Buddhist tradition, and subsequently even turn out to be endowed with a different meaning. This testifies, first of all, to the flexibility of the tradition, its universality and ability to assimilate, "absorb" and "digest" elements of other teachings without deviating from its own ideas.

The exception is such a significant branch of Buddhism as the Mahayana, where the Buddha himself is endowed with features that bring him closer to the Absolute and put him in the place of the Supreme Being (see below).

Such a difference in views is due to the fact that the keepers and disseminators of the Buddha's teaching, starting from the moment of his exit from this world, were and remain various religious groups, the doctrinal ideas of which have quite noticeable differences. Sometimes these branches of Buddhism are even called sects, which, however, does not carry an estimated load, but only indicates their plurality.

Thus, it is hardly worth talking about the sterility of the doctrines of classical Buddhism, which sacredly and invariably preserves the original commandments, for the reason that such a thing simply did not exist.

Nevertheless, it is undoubtedly possible to identify a certain set of provisions, traceable to the Tathagata himself, which are considered basic for all variants of Buddhism.

Buddhist ontology

From the point of view of Buddhism, everything that has being, every thing in the Universe, not excluding man and the Universe itself as a subject of consideration, there is nothing else than flow of dharmas.

Dharma

Dharma is important in Indian culture in general, including in Buddhism. As we remember, in Hinduism there is even a special category dharan- social bonds that regulate the life of society and its individuals in accordance with social and religious duties and the purpose of the group. It's easy to guess that dharana And dharma are single words. Both words have a common root dhr with the meaning "keep". In both the first and second cases, the idea of ​​holding and gathering together is present in the words.

But what is meant by dharma when the word is used in the context of Buddhist cosmology? What is being “retained” here, and most importantly, who or what is carrying out the process of “retention” itself?

In Buddhism dharma is a basic element of psychophysical experience, elusive for consciousness, just as the atomic structure of matter is not perceived by our senses. Once again, I would like to emphasize: in this case, we are not talking about particles of matter, but specifically about the atom of psychophysical experience, since for Buddhism it is not the thing in itself that is important, but its reflection in the mind of the perceiver.

The existence of dharmas is extremely unstable, because any of them is nothing more than an experience that lasts a fraction of a second, the smallest moment. The next moment it is no more, it is replaced by another dharma. That is why any thing, as mentioned above, is a stream of dharmas. However, the totality of all these psychophysical quanta is always self-identical and constitutes everything that a person thinks under the word "Universe". The process of mutual substitution of dharmas is absolutely determined by the law of cause and effect relationships (see below).

Moreover, since dharma is the elementary particle of experience, it has only one quality with which it can be fully identified.

Thus, the whole reality perceived by a person is a cycle of dharmas, which every moment is a new combination of new quanta of psychophysical experience. This, from the point of view of the adherents of Buddhism, allows us to feel the illusion of changes taking place around. Moreover, in the process of self-objectification, a person becomes aware of himself as a living and personal being due to this unceasing flow.

In Buddhist terminology, this doctrine of impermanence is referred to as the term anitya(Skt. anitya) or in another variant – kshanikavada(from Skt. ksanika - "instantaneous" and väda - "doctrine"), that is the doctrine of instantaneity.

Skandhas

A separate dharma, due to its elementary nature, cannot be perceived by a person. He perceives dharmas in groups, and if the corresponding Buddhist term is literally translated, then in “heaps” - skandhas(Skt. skandha).

In total it is possible to distinguish five types of skandhas. They are also considered five attachment groups, each of which has its own name. The classification of skandhas reflects the stages of the process of perception of any object:

– Rupa(Skt. rūpa - “form”) - corporality, materiality, materiality, something that can take any form whatsoever and be perceived as such by a person. Four components can be distinguished in this "heap": earth, water, wind, fire.

– Vedana(Skt. vedanā - "sensations") are the sensations that a living being can experience. Feelings are of three types: pleasant, unpleasant and neutral.

– Sanjna(Skt. saṃjñā - “perception”) is a product of the activity of our senses. Buddhism distinguishes six types of perception: forms, sounds, smells, tastes, tactile sensations and ideas (!).

– Samskara(Skt. saṃskāra - “decoration”) - awareness, that is, the manifestation of mental abilities, volitional acts, as well as the correlation of what is perceived with existing experience. It is significant that in this case, unlike the previous ones, consciousness is connected to the process of cognition of the object. In addition, since the will manifests in this skandha, striving for the object or turning away from it, this action gives rise to karma.

– Vijnana(Skt. vijñāna - “recognition”) are pure, instantaneous acts of consciousness, due to which experience is comprehended and accumulated.

These five skandhas represent a closed list of everything that exists in our world and, accordingly, the only possible way of perceiving the Universe as a whole and any of the objects it contains separately. Only through these five skandhas can one perceive oneself and the world around. Therefore, these five types of skandhas are the only possible way of self-objectification, that is, self-perception. In other words, it is from these groups of dharmas, both in the material and in the spiritual dimension, that a person consists, who may mistakenly believe that he has a certain carrier of a personal principle - “I”, capable of existing after the physical death of the body.

What is "I"?

Since everything that exists is just a stream of dharmas, presented and perceived in the form of five groups - skandhas, then, accordingly, within the framework of the Buddhist tradition, it is impossible to raise the question of the existence of an immortal soul, an eternal personal principle, a permanent “I”, which is the subject of actions.

This position of Buddhist teaching is called anatman(Skt. anātman - lit. "there is no Atman"), or anatmavada(Skt. anātmavāda) – "the doctrine of 'no soul'".

"A person is just a name"

From the very name of this dogma, it is clear that Buddhism fundamentally insists on the non-existence of what is called Atman, the individual "I" in orthodox Indian darshans. Instead, the concept of the multi-component nature of what we perceive as a person is proposed. It is simply the five skandhas that we perceive as a whole.

The classic figurative explanation of the Buddhist perception of the individual was an example from the text "Questions of Milinda", compiled around 100 BC. e. This work is part of the Pali canon and is a dialogue between the preacher of Buddhism - the monk Nagasena and Milinda. During the discussion, the monk gives a chariot as an example, listing its components one by one and asking the interlocutor if this is a chariot. Having received a number of negative answers, Nagasena asks if the chariot is a set of these elements, the king again indicates that this is not so. In the end, it turns out that only the ordered composition of all elements, which are united by a common name, makes these details a chariot.

Summing up, the monk Nagasena says: “Excellent, sir. You know what a chariot is. It’s exactly the same with me: due to hair, due to hairs on the body and other things, due to figurative, due to sensations, due to recognition, due to terms, due to consciousness, the name, sign, designation, everyday word is used, just the name Nagasena, but in the highest sense, personality is not represented here.

Six possible birth forms

At the same time, according to Buddhist ideas, a person as a living being is not the only form of subjectivity.

Traditionally in Buddhism there are six possible birth forms and, accordingly, being:

– People; – devas(Skt. deva) - gods; - asuras(Skt. asura) - lower, "demonic" deities,

usually opposed to the devas and characterized by a violent disposition, anger and extreme strength;

– animals;

– pretas(Skt. preta - lit. "gone") - hungry ghosts, tormented by their deeds in a past life. The most common description of the preta points to him as a being whose throat is the size of an eye of a needle and whose belly is the size of a great mountain;

– naraki(from Sanskrit naraka - "hell") - these are the inhabitants of the hellish depths (see below for a description of Buddhist cosmology).

It is indicative and not at all accidental that this enumeration begins precisely with a person who, in this way, turns out to be placed above not only the asuras, but also the blessed gods. This is explained by the fact that a person has the prospect of overcoming suffering and achieving a state that is not subject to either illness or sorrow, while the deities, inspired by the consciousness of their own power and illusory bliss, are not able in their actual state to find an endless being desired by every living being, alien to any kind of suffering. In order to accomplish this, they need to live an incredibly long life, but still limited by a certain boundary, and be born human.

The fate of other living beings, ranging from animals to naraki, is even more sad. Animals cannot realize the very need to get out of the cycle of suffering, and pretas and narakas are not able to do this due to the consequences of vicious deeds of past lives weighing on them. As a result, they are forced to endure for an insanely long (but not infinite!) period of time the suffering measured by them, the impact of which prevents them from even realizing the need to find a way out.

Nevertheless, it is conventionally customary to distinguish between “happy” and “unhappy” forms of birth. The first includes the first three, and the second - all the rest.

Buddhist cosmology and sacred geography

In Buddhism, there is a rather detailed cosmological concept that explains the structure of the Universe, as well as the stages of its existence.

Buddhist idea of ​​the structure of the world

Traditional Buddhism does not deny the reality of the existence of the visible world, but does not insist on the absolute accuracy of its description. This allowed this religion to integrate into its worldview the cosmological elements of those peoples among whom the sermon was carried out.

The traditional Buddhist view of the structure of the world is as follows. "Our" Universe has a tripartite division (compare with the cosmology of shamanism) or, in other words, consists of three spheres(Skt. tridhatu):

1) the realm of the sensual(Skt. kāmadhātu) is the world given to us in experience through sensory perception, that is, “our” world. All living beings live here, possessing sense organs: sight, hearing, smell, touch, taste sensations, and chained through them to objects that give pleasure to the listed sense organs. However, some lower-level divine characters also reside here;

2) sphere of forms(Skt. rūpadhātu) is a world in which, as the name implies, forms continue to exist, which in the terminology of Buddhism means the presence of materiality. However, beings living in the realm of forms have overcome the gross bodily attachments imposed on us by the senses. This is a gigantic world in every respect: it is inhabited by giant deities, whose lifetime is huge, but still limited. Therefore, this alone points to the fact that this world is also imperfect. Beings staying here are in a state of special concentration (trance), which gives them peace and inner "spiritual" pleasure and distracts them from the need to obtain absolute liberation;

3) realm of non-forms(Skt. ārūpyadhātu) - a world where there is no materiality, matter that could take on any volumes, and, consequently, there are no objects for the delight of the senses, just as they themselves are not. Accordingly, the entities inhabiting it (gods and once-human ascetics) are devoid of bodily outlines, these are beings that exist solely through consciousness, which nevertheless has not overcome the craving for samsaric existence, and therefore retain their self-identity, a sense of their "I".

Let's make a reservation that there are an infinite number of such "three-sphere Universes". This statement is true for both time and space.

The device of the world of forms

Separately, it should be said about the structure of the world of forms, as well as about the periods of its existence, since it is in it, from the point of view of Buddhism, that we reside.

At the center of our world is a mountain Sumeru (Meru)(Skt. Sumeru - lit. "Good Measure") - Buddhist axis mundi. Its name, like many other cosmological elements, is borrowed from the all-Indian religious and cultural heritage. The foot of Sumeru is submerged in the endless waters of the ocean, and the top is inaccessible to human vision. Here, on its ledges, the deities of the material world, such as Brahma, live. The Sun and Moon revolve around Sumeru, supported from falling to the Earth by the movement of dharmas, similar to the wind generated by the combined energy of beings who have lived and live in the world.

The World Mountain rising from the water is surrounded by rings of several rows of impregnable mountain ranges, between which there are also seas with sweet and light waters. Each subsequent sea is half the size of the previous one. The penultimate mountain range is surrounded by a salty ocean, where four continents are located on the cardinal points, and it is believed that we live on one of them.

In addition, all four continents, together with the oceans that contain them, are located within the largest of the eight mountain ranges. It is she who serves as the boundary, the ultimate boundary of "our" world.

Buddha Shakyamuni was born on the continent Jambu, from which it follows that we also live on this continent. However, it is believed that all other continents are also inhabited by people with different face shapes and skin colors. A distinctive structural feature of "our" continent - Jambu - is the presence of hellish abodes under its earthly surface, eight circles of hell, in the form of a truncated pyramid.

These eight circles, or floors, of hell are located one below the other. Their size, as well as the degree of torment and the time the prisoners spend in them, increase as they deepen. In the center of each infernal floor is the main, central hell, and on each of its four sides there are four additional ones, where the sufferers move after they have served their time in the main prison.

Beings living here (pretas and narakas) appear immediately in an adult state, that is, they do not go through periods of growing up and aging. Buddhist literature contains many vivid and colorful descriptions of the torment that awaits here those who lived in the past in an improper way. It is important to keep in mind that no matter how long the period of stay in any of the hells is, it is still limited and implies the need for a subsequent birth and the possibility of gaining eternal liberation from the hardships of life.

The idea of ​​the laws of being and time

The order of the existence of the world described above is not eternal, just as, however, it does not differ in uniqueness and initially given meaning. It exists by virtue of the laws of nature, the main of which is karma. This concept was actively developed by the followers of various Brahmin darshans. Buddhism inherited this concept from the religious movements that preceded it, endowing it, however, with a special meaning.

Karma

In Buddhism karma- this is actually an act, consisting of a certain good or affective (that is, " wrong") state of consciousness and the action associated with it. And nothing else. The change in the world caused by this state of consciousness is no longer karma, but its consequences. It is important to keep in mind that karmic consequences occur automatically and have nothing to do with the will of the gods or even the desire of the person himself. Strictly speaking, in relation to the existence of living beings, this is samsara- the cycle of births and deaths, which are the cause and effect of each other.

The doctrine that, in accordance with karmic norms, each phenomenon or action has a reason, and it in turn is the cause of the next phenomenon or action, was called pratitya-samutpada(Skt. pratītyasamutpāda) – doctrine of causation.

Since karma depends on the state of consciousness, outwardly good actions can have negative consequences and vice versa. Thus, while the principle itself is clear, its operation within the framework of the empirical world is not entirely obvious. Therefore, it is generally believed that only the Buddha himself could understand the action of the karmic principle to the end, other beings are able to come closer to understanding it as they progress spiritually.

Genesis of the Universe

But what can be said about the universe? What is the reason for its existence? Buddhism claims that such is the total karma of all living beings who lived in the worlds that were before the present.

The former ones, in turn, were generated by the karma of the inhabitants of the worlds preceding in time, and so on ad infinitum. In other words, the Universe exists cyclically, collapsing and re-emerging. This process has no beginning and probably no end is expected.

Said cyclic process is traditionally described as follows. After the completion of all cycles of existence of one of the worlds, only empty space remains in its place. After some time, determined by karmic laws, the movement of the wind arises in this space, growing stronger with each new moment. Gradually, his strength reaches such a power that he becomes in its density similar to a crystal, which then takes on a round shape.

This dense circle is the future foundation of the earth's firmament, from which Mount Sumeru arises. After that, the formation of the entire hierarchy of the world gradually takes place (according to the descending principle), therefore the very process of its emergence can be described by the formula “from the heavenly to the underworld”.

In our world, the abodes of the god Brahma are the first to appear on the top of Sumeru. Following him, the rest of the deities of the world of desires appear, who, seeing the greatness of Brahma, immediately fall down before him, singing his praises and mistakenly glorifying him as the creator of the universe. From this moment, a false, from the point of view of Buddhism, faith in the Creator and Provider of the world arises.

Beautiful clouds appear, irrigating the earth with rain and thus creating the world ocean, in the middle of which Mount Sumeru with the mountain ranges around and the four continents mentioned above with the people inhabiting them remain rising above the water.

The last cosmogonic act is the emergence of hellish abodes and "birth" in them. preta And narakov.

So the world is finally taking shape.

Having passed the period of formation, stay and destruction, the world comes to non-existence, after which everything repeats itself in a new cycle.

Despite the elaborate cosmology, Buddhism has never accepted it as dogmatically unchanging. This made it possible to include elements of various worldviews in it.

This, in particular, gives him the possibility of an effective mission in the modern world.

Indicative in this regard is the example given in his book by Professor E.A. Torchinov: “Such an authoritative figure of modern Buddhism as the Dalai Lama XIV, and in general once said that if being a Buddhist means believing in the world mountain Sumeru, the continents located around it and the hell located underground, then he is not a Buddhist at all.”

Time periods

The full cycle of the existence of the world (including the time of emptiness, emergence, stabilization and degradation, leading to complete destruction) is called mahakalpa(Skt. mahākalpa - lit. "great period").

The whole mahakalpa consists of four kalp(Skt. kalpa - "period") of approximately equal duration:

- a kalpa of the emergence of the world;

– a kalpa of relatively stable existence of the world;

- kalpa of destruction;

- a kalpa of emptiness, that is, the absence of the world.

Each kalpa contains twenty periods of waxing and waning. Accordingly, the entire mahakalpa has eighty such periods.

During the period of increase, the flowering of being in all its manifestations occurs, and during the period of decrease, extinction occurs. All this from the standpoint of Buddhism may be obvious in the era of the existence of the world, but for the era of emptiness it is rather a theoretical distinction between time and space. s x segments.

Anthropology and Humanity Perspectives

Special mention must be made of traditional Buddhist anthropogony. The appearance of the first people dates back to the time when the formation of the continents was completed. At the same time, human nature itself is radically different from the present.

At the beginning of their existence on Earth, people are like Buddhist deities: they radiate light, move through the air and generally live carefree and blissfully, and their life span is very long and amounts to tens of thousands of years (more than 80,000).

The first serious temptation that people face at this time is related to food. In general, they do not need it and do not even have fully formed digestive organs as they are unnecessary. The problem, however, is that the Earth at the dawn of its existence is completely covered with food, like the sweetest and most fragrant cake, which is almost impossible to resist. And people start eating it. The consequence of this is the formation of the digestive organs, as well as a steady and irresistible need for nutrition. Finally, the cake is eaten, the digestive organs are formed, and it is no longer possible to do without food.

Then agriculture appears, or rather, agriculture in the form of the practice of rice cultivation. However, this does not allow defeating hunger, a desire arises in society to divide the cultivated plots, as well as a desire to violate the boundaries drawn, which inevitably leads to enmity and chaos.

Exhausted by instability and constant conflicts, people decide to elect a ruler. The monarch appears, organizing his court and selecting the most capable people for his comrades-in-arms. A varna of kshatriyas arises, and the first buddhas are also born.

However, the royal power is unable to keep people from degradation: morals are still coarsening, relations between people are deteriorating to the point that people, in principle, are unable to communicate, they are driven only by the desire for mutual murder. At the same time, physical strength is depleted, and with it the duration of human life. At the limit of decline, the lifespan of people from birth to old age is only ten years, but for many, even this lifespan is unattainable, since all withering enmity reigns in the world. Thus ends the period of decline.

The ascending period that replaces it begins with the fact that the survivors of the brutal massacre begin to emerge from their hiding places. The wisest man appears, striving to establish a fair order of life among his fellow tribesmen.

The period of growth is marked, in particular, by the appearance of ideal rulers - chakravartins(Skt. cakra-vartin - lit. "turning the wheel"). These people are similar in appearance to the Buddhas, but the distinguishing features are not so striking. There are three types chakravartins according to their degree of perfection:

– chakravartin with golden chakra, accepted by all people with readiness and joy at its appearance;

– chakravartin with silver chakra forms his army, but people anticipate his actions, asking him to accept the lot of power; – chakravartin with iron chakra collects an army and goes on a campaign to conquer people, but does not have time to join the battle, as all potential opponents surrender to his mercy. It is significant that in all three cases the royal power is exercised without the use of physical force, which is of great importance in the framework of Buddhist ethics (see below).

The moral state of society is gradually improving, the health of people and their life expectancy are strengthening, until it again reaches the maximum possible period of several tens of millennia.

Then a new period of degradation begins, and the situation repeats itself. After the twentieth cycle of increase and decrease, the consequences of wrong deeds lead to the fact that the accumulated karmic energy necessarily destroys the world to the ground.

First, new creatures cease to appear in the hells, then the hellish abodes themselves are destroyed, the last to die is Mount Sumeru along with the palaces of the god Brahma.

In place of the world remains an empty space. A period of emptiness begins, which continues until the wind begins to blow again - a harbinger of a new cycle of creation. Then everything described above is repeated again.

Human existence: current state, its causes, purpose and ways to achieve it

The enlightenment attained by Siddhartha Gautama made him a Buddha. The truths he realized are formulated in the form of four postulates, which are traditionally called Four Noble Truths.

Let's expand on their content.

First Noble Truth: The Truth of Suffering

This truth can be described by the formula: "All samsaric existence is suffering". The main content of being is a painful experience, enduring. This state, usually translated into Russian by the word "suffering", in Sanskrit is called duhkha(Skt. . duḥkha). It should be borne in mind that the Russian term does not contain the fullness of the meanings that the original Sanskrit term carries. In addition to the direct meaning of torment, duhkha also implies incessant dissatisfaction with the current state, a painful experience associated with the inability to fully satisfy one's desires and aspirations. Since Buddhism has a pronounced psychological aspect, it can be said that duhkha there is permanent frustration.

Buddhists do not deny that there are pleasant moments in life, in our language, "pleasant experiences." However, their nature is also suffering: even enjoyment implies a painful expectation of it, a passionate desire for this moment. In addition, it is associated with the fear of losing the achieved illusory pleasure and always ends in suffering caused by the cessation of pleasant sensations. Thus, suffering is co-dissolved with every existence of living beings (not only human) just as sea salt is present in every drop of ocean water, giving it a certain taste.

The Second Noble Truth: The Truth of the Origin of Suffering

This truth points to the cause of suffering. Latently, this indication is contained in the very spectrum of meanings of the term duhkha listed above. Since the key understanding of suffering for Buddhism is related to the impossibility of satisfying desires, it becomes clear that cause of suffering And there is a desire in the broadest sense of the word. Lust for anything, attraction to any objects, and even more broadly - the thirst for life, attachment to one's personality, one's "I", which, as we know from the doctrine anatmavada, is nothing more than an error of consciousness - all this gives rise to suffering.

It is significant that even hostility, disgust, antipathy from the point of view of Buddhism is also a desire, only with a negative sign, which does not fundamentally change things.

Drives in accordance with the principle of interdependence of causes and effects (see pratityasamutpada) induce to perform certain actions and at the same time change the karma of a living being, giving rise to new desires, drives in it. This situation can be compared to the behavior of a drunkard who, having gained access to wine, cannot satisfy his passion once and for all, but, getting drunk, only generates new bouts of thirst for alcohol. Another example is a greedy person who, acquiring new wealth, cannot calm down, but only thereby stimulates his greed.

If all external objects are excluded, the person's own "I" still remains, which for most people is the most valuable object. The elimination of this incongruity is possible through the realization of the falsity of the very idea of ​​the existence of a person, a permanent "I" (see above the anatmavada doctrine).

The Third Noble Truth: The Truth of the End of Suffering

This truth testifies to the possibility of exhausting bad karmic consequences and attaining a state of everlasting joy and bliss. This state, in which there is neither bodily nor mental suffering, is called nirvana(Skt. nirvāṇa). It is extremely difficult to give an exhaustive definition of it, since there is no complete analogue of this concept in European languages.

In addition, the founder of the doctrine did not give any intelligible answer about the nature of nirvana, preferring to keep a “noble silence” about this. Subsequent authoritative texts contain references to nirvana, formulated for the most part in an apophatic way and denying nirvana as anything that is known to a person from his profane experience. The reason for this is quite obvious. For as soon as there is a mental identification of nirvana with something empirical, at the same moment a false object of attraction, a mirage, will arise. Desires will be directed at him, which, as you know, are the main cause of suffering. And samsara will acquire a new impetus for its movement.

The term itself nirvana Literally means "extinction, fading". The key question naturally arises: who or what should fade? Orthodox scholars of Buddhism in the 19th and 20th centuries were inclined to believe that we are talking about the extinction of human life, all its manifestations, and even simple acts of mental activity, since the very desire to live is recognized in Buddhism as the cause of suffering. In this case, it should probably be, as they argued, about a special spiritual practice of suicide.

However, the Buddhist tradition insistently emphasizes that extinction does not refer to life as such, but only to improper, incorrect states of consciousness from the point of view of achieving the ultimate goal of being - affects, or flares(Skt. kles "a -" disaster "). There are three such improper states: greed, hostility(hate) and ignorance. Just as the flame of a lamp dies out in which the oil has dried up, so must the enumerated wrong states of consciousness that serve as food for duhkha.

Fourth Noble Truth: the truth of the path

This truth determines the means to achieve the goal (nirvana), thereby indicating the desired path to liberation. This path contains three steps: stage of wisdom, stage of morality And stage of concentration. Together, all stages include eight steps of perfection. Therefore, the way to achieve nirvana is called in Buddhism.

Religious practice in Buddhism

Noble Eightfold Path there is a certain algorithm that must be followed in religious practice in order to achieve nirvana. To do this, methods of ethical and psychophysical nature are used.

Schematically, it looks like this:

I. Stage of Wisdom

1 . Right View

At this stage, the adept must learn the Four Noble Truths and other fundamental provisions of the Buddhist teachings as the basic postulates of his worldview. Among them, the theory of the Eightfold Path itself is assimilated.

2 . Right Determination

Here, a person who has adopted Buddhism must firmly resolve to advance along the path that leads to nirvana.

II. Stage of morality

3 . Correct speech

At this stage of spiritual development, a Buddhist must learn to speak only the truth, avoiding lies, idle talk, gossip, blasphemy and slander.

4 . Proper Behavior

Further, a person striving to follow the teachings of the Buddha is faced with the need to take certain vows that regulate his actions. The number of vows will be different for a member of the monastic community and for a lay person. In any case, correct behavior leads to overcoming negative karmic consequences and the acquisition of certain benefits that will be actualized in the future. The following acts can be considered as basic restrictions:

- from everything that can harm other living beings;

- from incorrect speech acts (in this case, we are talking about what was listed above, in the previous paragraph, but now all this is comprehended as an action performed by the speech apparatus);

- from the unrighteous appropriation of someone else's (robbery, theft, bribery, etc.);

- from actions that violate bodily purity and chastity;

– from the use of mind-altering substances (alcohol, drugs, etc.).

The list of restrictions and their corresponding vows for monks and nuns is much longer, and the supposed measure of their observance is much stricter.

5 . Right lifestyle

At this stage of spiritual growth, the norms listed above should be reflected in the social activity of a person. In particular, this means the inability to engage in certain work, to belong to certain professions. A person who has reached this level cannot slaughter livestock, poultry, and even profit from the sale of other living beings. He cannot do anything that can harm other living beings, therefore, the trade in weapons, drugs, alcohol and generally dangerous substances (for example, poisons), service in law enforcement agencies, distribution of drugs or alcohol is excluded. It is significant that since deception is regarded as a way of harming others, activities associated with fraud and charlatanism (including mystically colored ones) are also regarded as unacceptable.

III. Concentration Stage

This is the final, finishing stage, which, due to its specificity, is fully accessible exclusively to monastics.

6 . Right Diligence

At this level, a Buddhist indulges in the performance of psychophysical exercises, engages in a kind of Buddhist psychotechnics, similar to Brahminical yoga. This should contribute to the acquisition of a special self-profound state of consciousness, without which it is impossible to achieve nirvana.

7 . Right Mindfulness

An adept who has reached this stage of perfection must learn to fully control all the processes occurring in the body, both physical and mental, which is possible only with constant spiritual wakefulness, vigilance of consciousness. Accordingly, a person is assumed to have the absence of incorrect (in the context of common efforts to achieve the ultimate goal) states of consciousness - flares and, on the contrary, it is required to warm up in oneself the feelings and states of the psyche necessary for further spiritual advancement.

8 . Right concentration (trance)

At the final stage of the path, a Buddhist acquires a special state of mind, the essence of which is such self-deepening that the opposition between the content of the mind and the external world disappears. Waking consciousness completely eliminates the very possibility of distinguishing between the perceived object, the perceiving subject, and even the process of perception itself. This allows you to achieve victory over your own "I", which can no longer be contemplated as something different from the rest of reality. Accordingly, the feeling of individuality disappears, which, as mentioned above, is a key problem in overcoming samsara. The described state of consciousness is called in Buddhist psychopractice by the term "samadhi". It should be noted that in the Buddhist tradition there are many different types of it, but not every one is correct, that is, it ends with awakening and liberation.

Religious and philosophical currents in Buddhism

Almost immediately after the death of the founder of Buddhism, his followers formed several separate religious and philosophical movements. In this regard, the initial stage of the formation of Buddhism is often referred to as the "sectarian period", when, according to traditional ideas, there were eighteen known schools (directions).

All schools are divided into two large groups:

1 . Sthaviravada(Skt. sthāviravāda – lit. “teachings of the elders”)

Members of the communities belonging to this group claimed to be the guardians of the original teaching of the Buddha, which was distorted by the followers of another group.

2 . Mahasanghika(Skt. mahāsāṃghika – lit. “big community”)

In modern science, there are two main opinions regarding the origin of the term. According to one version mahasanghikas thought it possible or even necessary to include sangha laity along with monastics. According to the second version, the Mahasanghikas, in comparison with other currents, had a numerical superiority at an early stage in the existence of Buddhism.

Over time, these religious groups became the foundation for the formation of two main branches of Buddhism, which exist to this day and are called respectively Theravada(from Pali - lit. "teaching of the elders"), or Hinayana(Skt. hīnayāna - lit. "small chariot"), and Mahayana(from Sanskrit mahāyāna – lit. “great chariot”).

Flow Theravada (Hinayana) spread primarily in South and Southeast Asia: in Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand. In addition, it dominated the territory of Indonesia before the establishment of Islamic domination there.

Mahayana took a strong position in China, Korea, Vietnam, Japan, Mongolia, Tibet, as well as in the territories with a predominantly Buddhist population that are part of Russia: in the republics of Buryatia, Kalmykia and Tuva.

Smaller currents emerged within the Mahayana, popularized in particular by Western popular culture: Zen Buddhism(mostly known to a wide audience in its Japanese version) and Chan Buddhism formed in China. Both names are derived from the Sanskrit dhyana which means "contemplation". Both the first and second teachings are clear examples of vajrayana(Skt. Vajrayana - "Diamond Chariot"). This flow will be discussed below.

Both traditions are Theravada And Mahayana(with included Vajrayana) - go back to a common source - the teachings of the Buddha. The time of formation of the basic texts of these traditions is approximately the same. Since the main content of any religious tradition is its dogma and worldview, it is necessary to determine the doctrinal differences between the two main currents of Buddhism.

In the doctrinal realm, the differences between Theravada And Mahayana can be reduced to the solution of the following fundamental questions:

– What is the ideal person and what is the meaning and purpose of her life? What is the essence of Buddha?

What is the ideal person and what is the meaning and purpose of her life?

Theravada describes the ideal person in the image arhat(Skt. arhat - lit. "worthy"). This is a perfect monk who found nirvana thanks to his own titanic labors and left our world at some point. Since it is impossible to achieve enlightenment in a single lifetime, any ascetic who aspires to become an arhat must go through the following stages:

1 . "Entered the stream". Having decided once and for all to follow the path to nirvana, the ascetic is unable to abandon his intention and “turn back”;

2 . "once-returning". The ascetic, who must visit this world, the "world of desires" one more time, before he reaches the finish line and acquires the desired state;

3 . "no longer returning“The ascetic who has reached the final stage of his work, at which he remains in a constant trance, contemplating other spheres of being (forms and non-forms) . The result of these efforts for the ascetic should be the entry into nirvana and, as a result, the complete abandonment of this world.

Obviously, the described sequence of actions can only be implemented by a monk. And the founder of Buddhism himself is perceived in this case as the first monk who found nirvana and created the first monastic community of his followers. Lay people who, due to their position and living conditions, are unable to fulfill all of the above, are invited to take care of achieving a more modest goal: improving their karma so that in the next life they will be born a person who should become a monk. The main means for this are the veneration and material support of monastics ( sangha), as well as refraining from deeds that worsen the future fate, and the creation of deeds that improve karma.

IN Mahayana the ideal person is called bodhisattva(Skt. bodhisattva - lit. "aimed at awakening"). Obviously, one of bodhisattvas Shakyamuni Buddha himself should be considered. His biography says that he overcame the temptation of total immersion in nirvana, driven by concern for other beings in samsara. Therefore, the hallmark bodhisattvas imitating the Buddha in everything, is the all-encompassing desire for the good of all living beings.

In the early days of Buddhism, the term "bodhisattva" was applied to a person who has yet to become a Buddha.

In a later era, the term "bodhisattva" began to be used in Mahayana in relation to monks and even lay people who have a firm intention to achieve awakening ( bodhi). This desire itself was called bodhichitta(Skt. bodhicitta - lit. "enlightened consciousness"). The post-canonical texts even contain a special formula describing this desire: “Yes, I will become a Buddha for the benefit of all living beings.”

However, the mere desire to follow the footsteps of the Buddha is not enough to become bodhisattva, for genuine bodhisattva distinguish wisdom(Skt. prajñā) and compassion(Skt. karuṇā). In their ultimate manifestation, these qualities should lead a person to the ability to perceive absolutely all living beings as their mothers.

Because the the good of another is thought in Mahayana as the main goal of spiritual efforts, then the value orientations also shift: the attention of a Buddhist should be riveted not to nirvana in itself, but to the act of awakening, leading the ascetic to a state in which he can benefit all living things.

That is why the Mahayana is critical of the efforts of the followers of Theravada to get out of our world into nirvana. Such ascetics are not able to comprehend the main truth, which is the need for compassion for all living beings, which should encourage the enlightened one to help others, using the wisdom also acquired at the moment of enlightenment. And if there is no genuine compassion and wisdom, then the very possibility of achieving nirvana is called into question by the Mahayanists.

In this regard, the term "arhat" - the key to understanding the ideal person within the Theravada tradition - is not widely used in the Mahayana. On the contrary, the Hinayana ascetics are referred to by the Mahayanists with rather pejorative words: Shravakas(Skt. çrâvaka - "hearing") and pratyekabuddhas(Skt. pratyekabuddha - lit. "Buddha for himself") .

Shravakas are traditionally called the disciples of Buddha Shakyamuni, who turned out to be unable to realize the most important truth of compassion and who perceived the idea of ​​awakening as a selfish act of escape from suffering.

Pratyekabuddhas are people who have independently found the path to liberation without regard to sangha and even with the teachings of Buddha Shakyamuni. Despite the fact that they have traveled the same path as the Tathagata, they cannot be compared to him, because they have renounced the needs and aspirations of sentient beings and have not begun to preach the truth.

What is the essence of the Buddha?

For Theravada A Buddha is a person who is like us in everything, but who achieved awakening through his own spiritual efforts over several lifetimes. At the moment of gaining the truth, he becomes the one who is on the other side of life and death. At the same time, he is above all people and even gods. That is why it cannot be called either a god or a man, since people are the inhabitants of the sensual world, and the gods have not left the circle of samsara. It cannot even be called simply a being (Skt. sattva - lit. "being", "existence"), since this term can only be applied to subjects residing in the spheres of samsaric existence. He is the Buddha, and those who follow his path will become the same.

He completely left our world, is not connected with it in any way, and therefore any attempts to communicate with him through prayers or sacrifices are meaningless. He cannot provide any help to the questioner and give him blessings.

However, in tradition Theravada the practice of sacrifice became widespread. However, the meaning of the sacrifices is to honor Bhagavan. This instills in a person the virtue of sacrifice and contributes to the achievement of states of consciousness that improve karma, since sacrifice is opposed to greed.

For Mahayana Buddha is not just a person. Buddha is a concept denoting absolute reality, a metaphysical substance that is the true essence of all dharmas, that is, everything that exists. There is even a special term "Buddha's cosmic body". This substance was manifested in our world in the form of Buddha Shakyamuni, which, however, is not a unique event: similar phenomena have happened before, they will happen in the future for the benefit of all living beings.

In an effort to integrate into various national cultures, Mahayana Buddhism declared many different deities to be incarnations of the Buddha. These were the Hindu gods Brahma, Shiva, Vishnu; Shinto Amaterasu, Chinese Guanyin. Along with them, some legendary historical figures were included in the pantheon, for example, Genghis Khan in Mongolian Buddhism.

Tantric Buddhism

By the middle of the first millennium A.D. e. inside Mahayana tradition developed a special trend of Buddhism, called tantric. Word Tantra, as mentioned above, denotes a set of texts of an esoteric nature and is applicable not only to Buddhism, but also to mystical Hindu practices.

Vajrayana

The followers of this branch of Buddhism themselves prefer to use another term to refer to it - Vajrayana(Skt. vajrayana - lit. "Diamond Chariot"). The main territories of its distribution: Tibet, Nepal, Mongolia, partly China and Japan ( Chan And Zen Buddhism respectively), as well as the Buddhist regions of Russia.

In terms of dogma, the Vajrayana does not go beyond the Mahayana tradition, sharing the entire set of Mahayana doctrines. Therefore, their opposition is incorrect. However, the fundamental feature of Tantric Buddhism is setting to achieve liberation "in this body", that is, in one actual life for which a whole system of methods and means is proposed.

Note that the usual Mahayana path to liberation is not denied, but only the existence of a shorter and more effective path, which at the same time is the most dangerous, is pointed out. The Vajrayana path is like crossing an abyss on a tightrope, where every wrong step threatens disaster, while the ordinary path involves avoiding risky areas and finding safe moving techniques.

In order not to harm himself, not to suffer a crash and not to end up in the next life in the most terrible of hells, the adept must be guided in his work not by an egoistic desire for success, but solely by the desire to serve the good of all living beings, to gain liberation. In addition, it is necessary to remain in unconditional obedience to your spiritual mentor Uguru, called in the Tibeto-Mongolian tradition lama(Tibet. blama - lit. "highest").

In the 19th-20th centuries, in the literature devoted to Buddhism, one could come across the term "Lamaism" to refer to this religious direction. However, at present it is recognized as incorrect and has actually fallen out of scientific use.

Vajrayana Methods

Let us designate the main methods offered by the Vajrayana to achieve the goal:

– performing complex symbolic rituals

Many of the rituals are of a pronounced occult nature and cannot be described in detail within the framework of this publication due to their special nature. As an example, we indicate only some of the most famous of them. Such, in particular, are rituals of an overtly sexual nature, similar to those of Shakta and called maithuna(Skt. maithuna - "fusion"). The union of a man and a woman is conceived in them as a symbol of the union of opposites (for example, the systematically implemented Buddhist method and the spontaneous acquisition of wisdom, the dharmic emptiness of being and great compassion).

Another one of the specific Vajrayana rituals of one of the highest levels of tantra is called Anuttara yoga tantra(Skt. anuttara-yoga-tantra). Among other things, offerings of garbage and sewage to the Buddha are made here in order to clearly demonstrate the idea of ​​“the non-dichotomy of reality and the illusory nature of oppositions such as “beautiful - ugly”, “sacred - profane” ” . This indicates the uniqueness of truth and the identity of samsara and nirvana, which the unenlightened consciousness perceives as opposites.

– mantra practice

Mantras as sacred texts constitute the corpus of Vedic samhit. They are used both in Hinduism and in Mahayana Buddhism proper. However, unlike the classical Mahayana, Vajrayana claims that mantras have a mystical ability to directly, as it were, “magically” influence the one who pronounces and listens to them. Through sounding, beneficial changes occur in the consciousness, mental and physical state of the adept, as a result of which a person gains the opportunity to more deeply assimilate the sacred meaning of mantras and understand the mechanism of their influence.

- deity visualization technique

Having mastered this technique, the ascetic can learn to objectify any of the incarnations of the Buddha (bodhisattva) in such a way that communication with him is identical to communication with a person. In particular, if desired or necessary, a direct verbal conversation with the object of worship is possible. This practice is closely related to the previous one - reading mantras dedicated to a sacred figure, which is necessary for the implementation of its visualization.

- contemplation of mandalas

Mandala(Skt. Maṇḍala - “circle”) is a schematic representation of the Universe in the form of a circle, its graphic model, reflected in the mind of one of the Buddha or bodhisattva. Often the image of this Buddha is located in the center of the mandala. An adept of the tantric school, meditating on a mandala, is called upon to assimilate this reflection of the world, make it his own, and thereby identify his consciousness with the consciousness of a Buddha or a bodhisattva. And as mentioned above, consciousness cleansed of affects is alien to the division into subject, object, and the process of contemplation itself.

To this day, the practice of creating mandalas from colored sand exists in Buddhist monasteries. As a rule, having spent a huge amount of effort and time to create a multi-colored sand circle, Buddhists destroy it after a while with a wave of their sleeves, which serves as evidence of belief in the emptiness of any being, which is a stream of dharmas.

Architectural mandalas are also known in history, which is considered, for example, the Borobudur monastery on the island of Java in Indonesia.

Fenugreek

Separately, mention should be made of the specific form of sacralization of the idea of ​​the center that exists in the Vajrayana and, first of all, in Tibetan Buddhism. This is an idea of ​​Shambhala (Skt. Sham-bhala) - a country of righteousness and light, hidden from the eyes of imperfect people. It is mentioned in the Kalachakra Tantra text (Skt. Kālachakra Tantra – lit. “Tantra of the wheel of time”) dating back to the 10th century.

It is believed that this country became invisible after Buddhism was oppressed by Islam. There is a belief that at the end of the current period of time, under the twenty-fifth king of this state, there will be a world battle between the troops of Shambhala and the forces of evil. After the victory of the Buddhist army, the era of universal prosperity will come, which will be marked by the arrival of the next incarnation of the Buddha - Maitreya(Skt. maitreya - lit. "kind", "loving"), revered by all areas of Buddhism as the embodiment of absolute compassion.

Statistics on the number of Buddhists

According to 2008 statistics, depending on the counting technology, the number of Buddhists in the world ranges from 600 million to 1 billion 300 million people. According to data for 2011 provided by Central Intelligence Agency, the ratio of Buddhists to the rest of humanity is 6.77%.

About 900 thousand people live in Russia, ethnically belonging to the Buddhist peoples (Buryats, Kalmyks, Tuvans). However, according to opinion polls, only slightly more than half of them (550 thousand people) can be classified as Buddhists on the basis of self-identification. At the same time, in large cities, only 1% of the population identifies with Buddhism.

Buddhism is a world religion that originated in India in the 6th century BC. e. as an alternative teaching to Brahmanism.

From the very beginning of its existence, Buddhism received serious support from the secular authorities. It was from the environment of the aristocracy (kshatriyas) that the legendary founder of the doctrine came - Siddhartha Gautama who later became known as Buddha Shakyamuni. In search of ways to liberate himself from the bonds of suffering, Siddhartaha experienced exhausting ascetic methods, but came to the conclusion that it was necessary to seek liberation within himself.

In meditative concentration, he gained Enlightenment and discovered Four Noble Truths: 1) about life as suffering, 2) about desire as its cause, 3) about nirvana as being, alien to suffering, and 4) o way To her.

The method proposed by the Buddha to achieve liberation from the bonds of samsara is related to the last, fourth truth and is called Noble Eightfold Path, which sets the algorithm for improvement on the path to achieving nirvana.

Buddhism does not have a single canon of sacred texts (cf. with Christianity, as well as with the Muslim tradition). There are three main variants of the Buddhist canon: Pali, Chinese And Tibetan.

The texts of the biographies of the founder of the tradition were compiled centuries after his death, which raises the question of the reliability of the presented biographical data.

The worldview of Buddhism is alien to the idea of ​​worshiping God the Creator, which makes this creed a kind of religion without God. However, the very existence of deities is not denied. It is significant that within the framework of the Buddhist creed, a person occupies a more advantageous position than the gods, since only he has the opportunity to get out of the wheel. samsara and find the desired being, alien to suffering.

The key doctrinal tenets of Buddhism, along with the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path, are:

Anitya- "the doctrine of the impermanence of being", also called kshanikavada(“the doctrine of instantaneity”). This is the doctrine of being as a stream dharm perceived by consciousness in the form of "groups" - skandha.

Anatmavada, or anatman, that is, the doctrine of unreality atman, the immortal soul, the bearer of personality. Along with human and divine, the existence of other forms of consciousness is recognized, in particular, animals, pretas, and similar mythical characters. Unlike Hinduism, the new birth is determined solely by the energy of completed actions in a past life, and not by a violation of divine will (cf. Hinduism).

Buddhism also has its own cosmology, many of whose features are borrowed from the general Indian tradition. However, the idea of ​​the structure of the world does not play an important role here, which allowed him to easily assimilate the worldview elements of different cultures. Nevertheless, the three-part division of the Universe into three parts is recognized as the basic cosmological scheme. realm of desires, sphere of forms And the realm of non-forms. All of them, however, are parts samsara. At the same time, the infinite multiplicity of worlds and the infinity of the cycles of their emergence and destruction are affirmed, which is reflected in the teachings on kalpach(cf. a similar teaching in the Hindu tradition). The cyclic nature of the existence of the world is also reflected in the history of mankind, which alternately experiences moral and spiritual ups and downs. Every new world is organized at the stage of its formation hierarchically: from top to bottom. The hierarchical principle of the emergence of the world (on a descending line) from the standpoint of Buddhism is, in particular, the reason for the emergence of a false belief in God the Creator, since the highest god Brahma appears first, and other beings, starting with minor gods, perceive him as the Creator and Provider.

The governing law of these processes recognizes the principle karma, the doctrinal reflection of which is pratityasamutpada- the doctrine of the causal origin of all things.

However, Buddhism is not homogeneous. Within it there are two major areas: Theravada(Hinayana) And Mahayana, fundamentally different from each other in the doctrine of the ideal personality and nature of the Buddha.

Theravada recognizes the Buddha as an ordinary person who achieved by his own strength nirvana and left our world. Mahayana also contains the doctrine of the cosmic body of the Buddha, which is the true nature of all things, all dharmas.

The ideal personality in Theravada is arhat, that is, a person who followed the Buddha and reached, like him, nirvana; in Mahayana it is bodhisattva, for the sake of great compassion for all living things, striving for enlightenment.

There is also a special current within the Mahayana Tantric Buddhism– Vajrayana, offering special effective and at the same time dangerous methods of spiritual self-improvement, allowing you to achieve nirvana for one life cycle.

Currently, about 6.77% of the world's population practice Buddhism.

Literature

Monier Monier-Williams. Buddhism in its connexion with Brahmanism and Hinduism and in its Contrast with Christianity, London: John Murray, 1889.

Albedil M.F. Buddhism: a religion without a god. St. Petersburg: Vector, 2013.

Ashwaghosh. Life of the Buddha / trans. K. Balmont. M., 1990.

Bongard-Levin G. M. Buddha and the foundations of his teaching // Ancient India: history and culture. M.: Nauka, 2008.

Questions of Milinda (Milindapanhya) / transl. from Pali, foreword, research. and comment. A. V. Paribka. Moscow: Nauka, 1989.

Kozhevnikov V. A. Buddhism in comparison with Christianity: in 2 vols. Moscow: Grail, 2002.

Oldenburg S. F., Vladimirtsov B. Ya., Shcherbatskoy F. I., Rozenberg O. O. The Life of the Buddha, the Indian Master of Life: Five Lectures on Buddhism. Samara: Agni, 2010.

Torchinov E. A. Introduction to Buddhism: a course of lectures. St. Petersburg: Amphora, 2005.

Torchinov E.A. Philosophy of Mahayana Buddhism. St. Petersburg: Petersburg Oriental Studies, 2002.

Trubetskoy N.S. Religions of India and Christianity // Literary studies, 1991, November - December.

Instead of an afterword

Concluding the stories about various religions, I would like to sum up some results of our review of spiritual traditions.

In one ancient, still pre-Christian text, there are wonderful words: “The faith of creatures is consistent with their inner essence; Man consists of faith: whatever his faith is, such is he. This just thesis is of particular relevance in the light of the various processes that are taking place in the modern world today and of which we are all witnesses.

Indeed, being carriers of certain beliefs, voluntarily or involuntarily, people are guided primarily by worldview principles when performing actions and deeds, when assessing certain life situations, or when determining methods and methods for solving problems and achieving designated goals. Thus, contrary to the often present in the socio-political field, the desire to declare beliefs, including religious ones, a private, internal matter of the individual, such attempts are doomed to failure, since it is the human personality that is the main transformer of the surrounding world in all its manifestations.

In this regard, the question of understanding what a person’s heart is filled with, what constitutes his cherished aspirations and needs, and what are the motives for the formation of these, is of extreme importance. For as it is said in the gospel, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. A good man brings forth good things from a good treasure, and an evil man brings forth evil things from an evil treasure.().

This "treasure of the human heart", often called simply "faith", is inextricably linked with the hope of its fulfillment and is characteristic of all people without exception. According to the wise patristic judgment, “not only among us, who bear the name of Christ, faith is revered as great, but everything that happens in the world, even people who are strangers to the Church, is done by faith: by faith, marriage laws unite persons distant from one another , and a stranger through faith, which happens in marriage unions, becomes a participant in the possession<...>wealth. Farming is also established on faith, for whoever does not believe that he will collect the fruits that have grown, he will not endure labor. Navigators are found in faith when, having entrusted their fate to a small tree, they prefer the unstable aspiration of the waves to the hardest element - the earth, betray themselves to unknown hopes and have with them only faith, which is more reliable for them than any anchor. So, very many human works are based on faith.

If we generally tend to act in accordance with our inner conviction, then this is all the more true if we are talking about religious faith, which in its aspirations is turned primarily to the main goal of human existence - life and abundant life(). Therefore, it can be said without exaggeration that faith, reflected in various religious teachings, is of paramount importance for the formation of the human personality, its relations with the world and people around.

In other words, faith is also the only possible way to communicate with God, and at the same time an effective method of changing oneself and the surrounding reality. This is precisely what the apostle Paul testifies to, citing to the memory of readers the images of people who “by faith they conquered kingdoms, did justice, received promises, blocked the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, avoided the edge of the sword, were strengthened from weakness, were strong in war, drove out the regiments of strangers; wives received their dead resurrected; others were tortured, not accepting liberation, in order to receive a better resurrection ... "().

As follows from the above quotation, even physical death is not capable of defeating faith and, on the contrary, can only be defeated by it. Awareness of these important properties of religion encourages us to take seriously the very fact of its presence in the life of human communities, regardless of the time and place of their residence.

God grant that acquaintance with this book will help all interested readers to be imbued with respect and reverence for the faith that fills and transforms human hearts seeking their Creator and Provider, thereby contributing to the establishment of peace and civil harmony in our society.

Buddhism, along with Islam and Christianity, is considered a world religion. This means that she is not defined by the ethnicity of her followers. Anyone can profess it, regardless of race, nationality and place of residence. In the article we will briefly consider the main ideas of Buddhism.

Summary of the Ideas and Philosophy of Buddhism

Briefly about the history of the emergence of Buddhism

Buddhism is one of the most ancient religions in the world. Its origin took place in opposition to the then dominant Brahminism in the middle of the first millennium BC in the northern part of India. In the philosophy of ancient India, Buddhism occupied and occupies a key place, closely intertwined with it.

If we consider the emergence of Buddhism briefly, then, according to a separate category of scientists, certain changes in the life of the Indian people contributed to this phenomenon. Approximately in the middle of the VI century BC. Indian society was overtaken by a cultural and economic crisis. Those tribal and traditional ties that existed before that time began to gradually undergo changes. It is very important that it was during that period that the formation of class relations took place. There were many ascetics roaming the expanses of India, who formed their own vision of the world, which they shared with other people. So, in opposition to the foundations of that time, Buddhism appeared, which earned recognition among the people.

A large number of scholars believe that the founder of Buddhism was a real person named Siddhartha Gautama , known as Buddha Shakyamuni . He was born in 560 BC. in a wealthy family of the king of the Shakya tribe. From childhood, he knew neither disappointment nor need, he was surrounded by boundless luxury. And so Siddhartha lived his youth, being ignorant of the existence of disease, old age and death. The real shock for him was that he once encountered an old man, a sick man and a funeral procession while walking outside the palace. This influenced him so much that at the age of 29 he joins a group of wandering hermits. So he begins the search for the truth of being. Gautama tries to understand the nature of human troubles and tries to find ways to eliminate them. Realizing that an endless series of reincarnations is inevitable if one does not get rid of suffering, he tried to find answers to his questions from the sages.

After spending 6 years wandering, he tested different techniques, practiced yoga, but came to the conclusion that such methods of enlightenment cannot be achieved. He considered reflections and prayers as effective methods. It was while he was spending time meditating under the Bodhi tree that he experienced enlightenment through which he found the answer to his question. After his discovery, he spent a few more days at the site of a sudden insight, and then went to the valley. And they began to call him Buddha ("enlightened"). There he began to preach the doctrine to people. The very first sermon took place in Benares.

Basic concepts and ideas of Buddhism

One of the main goals of Buddhism is the path to nirvana. Nirvana is a state of awareness of one's soul, achieved through self-denial, rejection of the comfortable conditions of the external environment. The Buddha, after spending a long time in meditation and deep reflection, mastered the method of controlling his own consciousness. In the process, he came to the conclusion that people are very attached to worldly goods, overly worried about the opinions of other people. Because of this, the human soul not only does not develop, but also degrades. Having reached nirvana, you can lose this addiction.

The essential four truths underlying Buddhism are:

1. There is the concept of dukkha (suffering, anger, fear, self-flagellation and other negatively colored experiences). Everyone is affected by dukkha to a greater or lesser extent.
2. Dukkha always has a cause that contributes to the appearance of addiction - greed, vanity, lust, etc.
3. Addiction and suffering can be overcome.
4. It is possible to be completely free from dukkha through the path leading to nirvana.

The Buddha was of the opinion that it is necessary to adhere to the "middle way", that is, each person must find the "golden" mean between the well-to-do, satiated with luxury, and the ascetic, devoid of all the benefits of humanity, way of life.

There are three main treasures in Buddhism:

1. Buddha - he can be both the creator of the teaching himself, and his follower who has achieved enlightenment.
2. Dharma is the teaching itself, its foundations and principles, and what it can give to its followers.
3. Sangha is a community of Buddhists who adhere to the laws of this religious teaching.

In order to achieve all three jewels, Buddhists resort to fighting three poisons:

• removal from the truth of being and ignorance;
• desires and passions that contribute to the emergence of suffering;
• intemperance, anger, inability to accept anything here and now.

According to the ideas of Buddhism, every person experiences both bodily and mental suffering. Sickness, death and even birth are suffering. But such a state is unnatural, so you need to get rid of it.

Briefly about the philosophy of Buddhism

This doctrine cannot be called only a religion, in the center of which is God, who created the world. Buddhism is a philosophy, the principles of which we will briefly discuss below. The teaching involves assistance in directing a person to the path of self-development and self-awareness.

In Buddhism, there is no idea that there is an eternal soul that atones for sins. However, everything that a person does and how, finds its imprint - it will definitely return to him. This is not divine punishment. These are the consequences of all actions and thoughts that leave traces on one's own karma.

In Buddhism, there are basic truths revealed by the Buddha:

1. Human life is suffering. All things are impermanent and transitory. When it arises, everything must be destroyed. Existence itself is symbolized in Buddhism as a flame that devours itself, and fire can only bring suffering.
2. Suffering comes from desire. Man is so attached to the material aspects of existence that he craves life passionately. The more this desire is, the more he will suffer.
3. Getting rid of suffering is possible only with the help of getting rid of desires. Nirvana is a state upon reaching which a person experiences the extinction of passions and thirst. Thanks to nirvana, a feeling of bliss arises, freedom from the transmigration of souls.
4. To achieve the goal of getting rid of desire, one should resort to the eightfold path of salvation. It is this path that is called the "middle" one, which allows you to get rid of suffering by refusing to go to extremes, which is somewhere between the torture of the flesh and the indulgence of physical pleasures.

The Eightfold Path of Salvation suggests:

• right understanding - the most important thing to do is to realize that the world is full of suffering and sorrow;
• right intentions - you need to take the path of limiting your passions and aspirations, the fundamental basis of which is human egoism;
• correct speech - it should be good, so you should watch your words (so that they do not exude evil);
• right deeds - one should do good deeds, refrain from non-virtuous deeds;
• the right way of life - only a worthy way of life, not harming all living things, can bring a person closer to getting rid of suffering;
• right efforts - you need to tune in to good, drive away all evil from yourself, carefully following the course of your thoughts;
• right thoughts - the most important evil comes from our own flesh, getting rid of the desires of which you can get rid of suffering;
• correct concentration - the eightfold path requires constant training, concentration.

The first two stages are called prajna and suggest the stage of attaining wisdom. The next three are the regulation of morality and right conduct (sila). The remaining three steps represent the discipline of the mind (samadha).

Directions of Buddhism

The very first who supported the teachings of the Buddha began to gather in a secluded place for the period while it was raining. Since they renounced any property, they were called bhiksha - "beggars". They shaved their heads, dressed in rags (mostly yellow) and moved from place to place. Their life was unusually ascetic. When it rains, they hide in caves. They were usually buried where they lived, and on the site of their graves a stupa was built (structures-crypts of a domed shape). Their entrances were made blindly immured and buildings of various purposes were built around the stupas.

After the death of the Buddha, a convocation of his followers took place, who canonized the teaching. But the period of the greatest flourishing of Buddhism can be considered the reign of Emperor Ashoka - III century BC. BC.

Can be distinguished three main philosophical schools of Buddhism , formed in different periods of the existence of the doctrine:

1. Hinayana. The monk is considered the main ideal of the direction - only he can get rid of reincarnations. There is no pantheon of saints who could intercede for a person, there are no rituals, the concept of hell and paradise, cult sculptures, icons. Everything that happens to a person is the result of his actions, thoughts and lifestyle.
2. Mahayana. Even a layman (of course, if he is pious), along with a monk, can achieve salvation. There is an institution of bodhisattvas, who are saints who help people on the path to their salvation. The concept of paradise, the pantheon of saints, images of buddhas and bodhisattvas also appear.
3. Vajrayana. It is a tantric teaching based on the principles of self-control and meditation.

So, the main idea of ​​Buddhism is that human life is suffering and one should strive to get rid of it. This teaching continues to spread steadily around the planet, gaining more and more supporters.