BACKGROUND

Buddhism started in North India about 500 BCE. It spread rapidly in South-East Asia where Indian culture was influential - often picking up features of the pre-existing Hindu religious system on the way. During the following thousand years it spread across Central Asia eventually providing major elements of the religious life of China and Japan. As it spread it had to learn to speak to new peoples in their own way and to tackle new problems; as a result, many different schools of thought appeared and their ways of explaining and presenting Buddhism are very varied. Nevertheless these basic ideas would be generally accepted: Three Jewels, Four Noble Truths, Three Marks of Existence and Five Ethical Rules (see Core Beliefs).

The many hundreds of schools fall into two groups: Theravada and Mahayana.
Theravada means "The Way of the Elders". Its members believe it is the original form of Buddhism. It is the Buddhism of Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Laos, and Kampuchea. It is sometimes called the Southern School. Theravada Buddhism stresses self-discipline and commitment as a route to freedom. The very large body of scriptures found today throughout this part of the world are taken to be the original teaching. The only written texts surviving from these early times are in Pali, one of many Indian languages current at the time of the Buddha, but now not in vernacular use anywhere. They were not committed to writing until the 1st Century BCE (oral recitation being the traditional method of transmission).Mahayana means The Great Vehicle. It is the Buddhism of Tibet, China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Mongolia, Siberia and Russia. It is sometimes called the Northern School.

Mahayana schools stress the need to put our own strivings and pride aside and to open ourselves to perfection as if it came from a power outside ourselves. This is done partly through worship of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, mythic beings who have merit to share with others. Mahayana schools rely in a major way on the inspiration of teachers of more recent times and do not attempt to attribute all their scriptures to the Original Teaching. Buddhist social organisation is significantly different from other major religions. In “Buddhist” countries we find sizeable communities of people (usually male) who spend all or part of their lives as monks. Lay people support these communities and rely on them for teaching and religious service.

In these countries a high proportion of male youngsters will spend some portion of their life in a monastery. Modern world Buddhist activity carries on without this system, sometimes relying on the “Buddhist” countries to supply monks – but this places
some stress on the monastery -based system.In India, the land of its birth, Buddhism collapsed gradually in the first millennium CE, the finishing blows being associated with the invasions of conquerors from Eurasia which brought Islam to India in a major way. However there has been a significant revival in the last half-century – arising from the chance offered to low-caste Hindus, (Dalits), to escape from the domination of religious authority vested in the Brahmanic system.

In Western countries, Buddhists of Indian descent have usually come by this route.ORIGINSBuddhists believe that there are many worlds, and each goes through many ages of history. Each age has its own Buddha - its own bringer of light. The Buddha of our age is a great spiritual teacher who lived over 2500 years ago in Northern India. Buddhists and scholars refer to him by a number of names and titles, e.g. Shakyamuni - because he was one of the Shakyas, a people who lived in what is now the border area of Nepal and the Indian state of Bihar; Gautama - the name of his clan; Siddharta - his own personal name and, most commonly, The Buddha - Enlightened One. Generally, his birth date is given as 563 BCE. He lived for 80 years - to about 483 B.C.E. The traditional account of the Buddha's life portrays him as growing up in a wealthy family.

He was trained for power, cut off from the sufferings of ordinary people. He married and had a son. But at the age of 29, he went through a great crisis. Four sights troubled him and brought him to question the purpose of existence. These Four Signs were an old man, a sick man, a dead man, and a wandering holy man. One night, he left home secretly and set out
on a quest for the truth. He became a wandering holy man - one of the many without home or wealth, who devote their lives to meditation. For many years he fasted and meditated, looking for the answer, trying desperately to make sense of life. But he could not find the truth.Buddhist art often pictures him sitting beneath a great tree at Gaya for fifty days, in one last effort of fasting and meditation. But it was no good. At last, he gave up and had a meal... and then it happened. It came as a sudden flash of insight, the light of understanding dawning suddenly within him. This Enlightenment marked the historical beginning of the Buddhist faith, and it is the experience that marks the peak of a Buddhist life. It led the Buddha to spend the rest of his life working among the people of the Ganga plain, teaching and building up a following of devotees.

CORE BELIEFS

The Three Jewels (or Triple Gem, Tri Ratna in Pali)
Three key words are used to summarise the central institutions of Buddhism. They have supreme value for the Buddhist.
To be a Buddhist is to understand and have faith in the Three Jewels.
The Three Jewels are:Buddha Enlightened One - one who has been filled with the light of understanding, who is awake and living to the full. The historical founder of the Buddhist religion in this age of world history.Dhamma The Teachings of Buddhism - the doctrine, philosophy and ethics.Sangha The Order or Organization - those who have promised to live by a code of conduct so that they can dedicate their lives to the study and teaching of the Dharma. The Three Jewels are contained within a creed, which is recited by all those taking part in any Buddhist gathering. This is called the Triple Refuge - a formula that marks the essential boundary of the Buddhist community.

I take refuge in the Buddha.
I take refuge in the Dhamma.
I take refuge in the Sangha.

The Buddha’s First Sermon What was the insight contained in the moment of Enlightenment? Buddhists accept that
the experience itself is beyond words. But the first words used by the Buddha to embody it are nevertheless treasured by all schools of Buddhism. That first sermon was delivered to a group of five holy men, whom he found sitting in a wood at Sarnath, near the Hindu holy city of Varanasi. It is said that it "set moving the Wheel of the Dhamma". It had two parts:First the Buddha pointed to the two extremes, which he had experienced and rejected.
Neither the life of pleasure nor that of asceticism had helped him in his quest for truth.

This is “The Middle Way”Next he tried to put into words his new understanding of the human situation. He made four simple points, “The Four Noble Truths”… The Noble Truth of Suffering is this. - Birth is suffering. Ageing is suffering. Death is suffering. Sorrow and mourning, pain, grief and despair are suffering. Getting unpleasant things is suffering. Being cut off from pleasant things is suffering.The Noble Truth of The Cause of Suffering is this. It is desire, passion and greed. It is looking for enjoyment, first here, then there. It is desire for the pleasures of the senses, desire for life, desire for death.The Noble Truth of The Ending of Suffering is this. It is completely ending that desire –
giving it up, disowning it, being freed from it, breaking away from it.The Noble Truth of The Path, which Leads to the End of Suffering, is this. It is the Noble Eightfold Path. It is:right views,

Right intentions,
Right speech,
Right action,
Right livelihood,
Right effort,
Right awareness,
Right concentration

The Three Marks (Characteristic Features) of Existence is another of the formulae, which form the core of the Buddha's teaching.
These are:Dukkha –(Suffering, sometimes translated asun-satisfactoriness)
Suffering marks the whole of our existence, as mentioned above – but can be risen above.Anicca – (Impermanence)
The world is a complex of interacting processes. There are constantly evolving chains of cause and effect. Nothing lasts: nothing stays the same, even for a moment. Everything is in the process of taking shape or disappearing. It makes no sense to think in terms of things, but only of events.Anatta – (No-self)

We are a part of this shifting, dissolving world. Most people accept that our bodies change all the time but find it harder to accept that is equally true of the mind. Going further, it is usual to find that people think that beneath the shifting patterns of perception, thought and imagination is a basic and unchanging thing - a self, a soul, a real ME – the Buddha taught that there is no evidence for this. There is no such thing: just a complicated series of events that is named a self. The doctrine of Anatta is vitally important. It has implications for the whole way we see our lives and our relationships with others. This view radically departs from all other major “religions” - notably Hinduism, with which it is in many other ways inextricably mixed.SCRIPTURE AND WORSHIPETHICS (Five rules of conduct, Panch Sila)Lay Buddhists repeat this promise at all meetings and ceremonies. “I undertake the rule of training to avoidharming living things;taking what is not given;sexual misconduct; lying or offensive speech, drugs, which cloud the mind."These promises are designed to provide a guide and a spur to thought, not an inflexible moral code.

There is much room for thought and debate about exactly how to apply the principles in a given situation. However, certain principles of behaviour have become widely accepted across a wide spectrum of the Buddhist community. For example, converts to Buddhism almost always give up meat, alcohol, tobacco and gambling.
The rules for monks are much more extensive (227 rules for Theravada monks).

MEDITATION

Deriving from the widespread practices of religious India at the time of the Buddha Gautama, his teaching stresses development of mind by the practice of meditation. At the simplest level the aim is calming the mind. There are a great variety of traditions of various techniques and objectives. The idea of training oneself to be fully alive and, at the same
time, free from craving, hatred and delusion is behind much meditation practice. In some traditions there are offered the possibilities of magic powers. The word Nirvana is used to describe the highest achievement of a disciplined life.

It is not possible to describe Nirvana. It is easier to say what it is not. It is not the Buddhist heaven, not a place. It is part of here and now. There are other words and phrases for Nirvana, but these too mostly tell us what it is not: It implies the ending of desire, the ending
of hatred, the ending of illusion and the ending of becoming or change.
Note that the Buddha, having achieved Nirvana, continued to work in the world.

MILESTONES

Social practices (on marriage, death etc) follow local culture; but it would be common to find incorporated in the ceremonies the core formulae referred to above.
DIET Vegetarianism is common (the first moral precept refers to not killing)– but is not explicitly part of central doctrine.
LANGUAGES

Theravada Buddhist scriptures have survived in Pali – and North Indian language no longer in vernacular use (see introductory paragraph). Mahayana developments in India used Sanskrit – but the Buddhism of Central Asia, China and Japan (and later in Europe and America) developed in their own languages and scripts.FESTIVALS Annual festivals may take on local customs.

In Theravada Buddhism it is usual to celebrate the Enlightenment, Death etc. of the Buddha at certain times of the year. Kathina is an occasion for the presentation to the Bikkhus (monks) of new robes.

LOCAL PLACE OF WORSHIP

Buddha Vihara
Upper Zoar St
WV3 0AAset up by Dr Ambedkar Memorial Committee of Great Britain (opened in 1991).
Theravada monks in residence.