Camphor Fountain BBS, Tulare, California (209) 685-9143 ================================================================== GAUTAMA BUDDHA 563-483 B.C.

The name, "Buddha" means "The Enlightened One" or "The Awakened One Who Awakens the Sense of Truth in His Fellow Man". Buddhism is conceived of as the possession of perfect wisdom and supernatural powers. According to Buddhist doctrine, there is a line of Buddhas who appear in the course of human history from the time of remote antiquity to the distant future. The man who, in world history, is known as Buddha, was originally named Siddhartha (he who has accomplished his aim) or Sakyamuni (sage of the Sakya tribe). He belonged to the Gautama family, a warrior caste that ruled over the Sakya tribe. According to some scholars, the earliest reports of his life were written some two hundred to four hundred years after his death. But all these reports undoubtedly are rephrasing of verbal traditions based upon his life which appear in the detailed summaries of his original doctrines. With the exception of a few radical skeptics, most scholars agree that he married his cousin, Yasodhara, at the age of nineteen, and that a son, Rahula, was born of this union. There is no agreement as to the character of his activities. In all probability, Buddha began to meditate upon the meaning of life in his early years, and became so disturbed by his awareness of human misfortunes and sufferings that he resolved to find the ways by which mankind could be comforted and redeemed. In India, and throughout the East, the path to knowledge that would enable him to rescue humanity, meant a nomadic life in order to obtain the advice of wise men, who themselves where wanderers, and to meditate in isolation. After six years of studying mankind, life, and doctrines, he was convinced that he had discovered Truth, and thereupon devoted the remainder of his lifetime to converting others to his ideas. He renounced his fortune and family and traveled through the valley of the Ganges surrounded by an everincreasing host of disciples. Buddhism teaches four "Noble Truths": (1) Suffering, (2) Knowledge of its cause, explained by the twelvefold Chain of Causation, (3) Getting rid of passions as the means of deliverance from suffering, and (4) Truth, the way of removing suffering by a system of moral discipline. Buddha called his truths "noble" because he regarded nobility as moral. Whether rationalist or mystic, Buddha was a teacher of moral behavior. BUDDHIST SCRIPTURES (These scriptures were not recorded until about 2 centuries after the passing of Gautama Buddha.) FROM THE TRIPITAKA THE SERMON AT BANARAS (Purported to be Buddha's first sermon) There are two ends not to be served by an wanderer... the pursuit of desires and of the pleasure which springs from desire, which is base, common, leading to rebirth, ignoble, and unprofitable; and the pursuit of pain and hardship, with is grievous, ignoble, and unprofitable. The Middle Way of the

Tarhagata avoids these ends. It is enlightened, it brings clear vision, it makes for wisdom, and leads to peace, enlightenment and Nirvana. What is the Middle Way? It is the Noble Eightfold Path - Right Views, Right Resolve, Right Speech, Right Conduct, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration. And this is the Noble Truth of Sorrow. Birth is sorrow, age is sorrow, disease is sorrow, death is sorrow, contact with the unpleasant is sorrow, separation from the pleasant is sorrow, every wish unfulfilled is sorrow -- in short, al the five components of individuality which leads to rebirth, which brings delight and passion, and seeks pleasure now here, now there, the craving for sensual pleasure, the craving for continued life, for power. And this is the Noble Truth of the Stopping of Sorrow. It is the complete stopping of that craving, so that no passion remains, and this is the Noble Truth of the Way which Leads to the Stopping of Sorrow. It is the Noble Eightfold Path. COMPASSION No brahmin is such by birth. No outcaste is such by birth. An outcaste is such by his deeds. A brahmin is such by his deeds. Never in this world is hate appeased by hatred. It is only appeased by love. This is an eternal law. Victory breeds hatred for the defeated lie down in sorrow. Above victory or defeat the calm man dwells in peace. KARMA (Conversation between a Buddhist sage and King Menander of Greece, 2nd century BC) "Venerable Nagasena," asked the King, "Why are men not all alike, but some short-lived and some long, some sickly and some healthy, some ugly and some handsome, some weak and some strong, some poor and some rich, some base and some noble...?" "Why, your Majesty," replied the Elder, "Are not all plants alike, but some astringent, some salty, some pungent, some sour, some sweet?" "I suppose, your Reverence, because they come from different seeds." "And so it is with men! They are not alike because of different Karmas. As the Lord said, 'Beings each have their own Karmas. They are born through Karma, they become members of tribes and families through Karma, each is ruled by Karma, it is Karma that divides them into high and low.'" "Very good, your Reverence!" THE LAST INSTRUCTIONS I am old now, Ananda, and end, and I have reached my sum years old. Just as a worn out is tied up with thongs, so the kept going by bandaging it. full of years: my journey nears its of days, for I am nearly eighty cart can only be kept going if it body of the Tathagata can only be

Only when the Tathagata no longer attends to any outward object, when all separate sensations stops and he is deep in inner concentration, is his body at ease. So, Ananda, you must be your own lamps, be your own refuges. Take refuge in nothing outside yourselves. Hold firm to the truth as a lamp and a refuge, and do not look for refuge to anything besides yourselves. A monk becomes his own lamp and refuge by continually looking on his body, feelings, perceptions, moods, and ideas in such a manner that he conquers the cravings and depressions of ordinary men and is always strenuous, selfpossessed, and collected in mind. Whoever among my monks does this either now or when I am dead, if he is anxious to learn, will reach the summit. (Tathagatha means, "One Who Has Come to Teach You the Way".