Siddhartha Gautama (563/480-483/400BCE) Early life and Sramana movements Flashcards
Who is Siddartha Gautama and who are his parents?
Siddartha Gautama was a Kshatriyas (noblemen) who was born of Queen Maya and King Shuddhodana. He is the ‘Buddha’ which means enlightened one.
What is the story of Siddarthas Gautama birth?
At his birth a seer, Asita, predicated that he would be the greatest king and warrior the world have ever seen or the greatest religious teacher. Shuddhodana wanted to raise a king and made sure that he did everything in his power to make that happen.
What is Siddartha Gautama early life like and what were the four passing sights?
Shuddhodana decided that the best way to bring his son up would be to train him and keep him hidden from any death and suffering. When he was 29 he began to have serious doubts and left the castle, on his journey he saw the Four Passing Sights. These were an old man; a diseased man; a dead person and a Sramana (priest).
What did Siddartha Gautama so when he left home?
Siddartha left and joined a group of Sramanas and stayed with them for 6 years. These Sramanas were attempting to achieve enlightenment through means of asceticism. . He left the Sramanas and sat under a Bodhi tree until he attained enlightenment, which he did; seeing all past lives and achieving Moksha.
What historical truth is there to the story of Siddartha Gautama?
Nearly all scholars believe that he existed. He could not have been the son of a king, as the Shaka clan had no king in Buddhas lifetime. Many accept that the story of Gautama is a hagiography, a spiritual biography.
What is the difference between rebirth (punabbhava/ punarbhava) and reincarnation?
Whereas the Brahmanism atman is a spiritual substance that is properly part of the one universal spirit, Buddhism teaches that the human person is always changing, so what passes from one body to the next can never be the same thing.
What similarities are there in Brahmanism and Buddhism?
They both believe in Karma, the Law of Karma, the Law of Cause and Effect.
In both religions the aim is to escape the wheel of reincarnation and gain moksha (in Brahmanism) and nirvana (Buddhism).
They both have a system of being in Brahmanism the caste system, and in Buddhism you have the 6 realms
What are the differences between Brahmanism and Buddhism?
Brahmanism Buddhism
- believes in a creator God - doesn’t have a creator god
- believes in reincarnation. - believes in rebirth
- believed in one changeless - rejects this belief
being
- emphasis on religious rituals - also rejected the
and rights importance of this
What teachings has Buddhism borrowed of the Sramana schools.
That there is no creator god from Jainism
that knowledge derived from the senses has priority, from the Ajana and Charvaka schools of Sramana
The Buddha may have been influenced by the Ajivika school to set up groups of Buddhists - monks and nuns.
What is one of the most important things the Sramana schools taught the Buddha which he then went on to teach?
The Buddha took on, in a modified way, asceticism. While he was an ascetic and after his enlightenment, he realised you had to take the middle path. Using the analogy of a guitar, if you string the strings too tight they break, too loose and they don’t produce sound; tighten them somewhere in the middle and it is right. too much self-indulgence and too much self-denial are both equally injurious.
