More Discussions on Buddhism

So now we have the Buddha and his Arhats, as well as a plan to achieve liberation from suffering, or Nirvana.

So, these Arhats proceeded to missionize others with the Buddha's wisdom, as the Buddha himself died at the ripe old age of 80 from eating bad pork. As these Arhats spread this liberating message, more and more people joined the Sangha that the Buddha had sanctioned before his death, because he knew how hard it was to actually live his programme. The Sangha was a COMMUNITY of like-minded Buddhists who committed themselves to the Eightfold Path and held each other accountable.

Some years after the Buddha's death, those who survived him took some honors upon themselves, for they were further on the path to Nirvana than those to whom they ministered, and called themselves Theravadin Buddhists, that is, Buddhists in "the way of the Elders." Now, these Theravadins put the Buddha's thoughts, as they perceived them, down in a book, known as the Abhidharma. Now, this book tried to make explicit the teachings of the Buddha from his second sermon concerning "An-Atman," or the teaching of "No-Self." You see, the Buddha rejected Hindu notions of any kind of eternal, abiding essence in people (such as a soul), since these could neither be seen nor proven. Instead, the Buddha discerned that we are simply a conglomeration of SKANDHAS, or PROCESSES that are assembled and harmonized in such a way that we APPEAR to be permanent.

In order to understand this doctrine of "no-self," two examples seem helpful: the car and the human.

These I will lay out in detail in the next post...