Introduction
It is a philosophical understanding of life that was discovered 2500 years ago in Nepal by Siddhartha Gautama in his research on what could end suffering. It is majorly practiced in Southeastern Asia. The statue of Buddha is found in places of worship and at home, even if it is believed that Buddha insisted that he was not a god, instead, he advised people to take time and look deeply into themselves and think on matters of life and death.
Origin
Siddhartha Gautama was the son King Suddhodana of Himalayas kingdom, which is found in today's Nepal and India. At 29 years, he gave up the lavished life and comfort by leaving his father's palace to go find out what caused suffering. He starved himself for yeas while trying to research. At 35, he realized that this was not the way that was going to give him the answers he was looking for, so he resumed back to eating. He meditated for seven days under the tree when he got enlightened and hence the name Buddha which means "the one who is really awake". He made himself go through all that suffering in search of what caused suffering, how one can live a life full of happiness, wisdom, compassion, joy and equanimity. The symbol of Buddha today, shows him holding a begging bowl which signified the last times when Buddha was going through the last times of enlightenment. There was a belief that during this time, Buddha was once offered a bowl of milk rice by a woman and despite his stand to refuse, he finally accepted it because he needed the energy to enter the final steps.
After his enlightment
Siddhartha Gautama concluded that people are not evil by themselves, instead it is life that is hard and is full of suffering but how each person faces this suffering is what defines a person. It is part of this suffering that cause division.
The sacred writings of Buddhism
The sacred writings of Buddhism are written by his followers so as to spread his teachings. The major bearers of Buddhism are monks and nuns who make up the Buddhist community that only existed 100 years after the death of Gautama. His teachings exist in form of texts known as "Tripitaka" meaning the three baskets. The teachings are to be considered with extreme respect.
Basic Buddhism teachings and practices
Rebirths and Karma
The early teachings of Buddhism included rebirth cosmology where humans were supposed to be re-born whether they like it or not. Another teaching is the law of Karma where Buddha explained a person is reborn depending on the quality and nature of their actions. past actions. All actions whether good or bad matter. According to this teaching, a person's actions moulds their conscientiousness which pretty defines a person. The type of life one lives determines the type of rebirth one gets; either good or bad rebirth. Examples of the teachings were that hurting other human beings would lead to illness, being stingy will result to being poor and being angry will result to being ugly. The karma law is inherent in ways people relate with each other. The good and bad rebirths refer to the rewards and punishments of human actions.
Meditation
Meditation in Buddhism is regarded as a form of prayer. The silent meditation aims at cultivating the mindfulness and attention to the present moment. One focuses on their breath, counting exhalations in a quiet room without distractions. An advanced type of meditation is known as metta, a loving-kindness meditation where loving and kind thoughts are first directed to oneself, then to a benefactor, then to a friend, then to a neutral person and finally to an enemy
The four noble truths
The first one is dukkha which refers to the unenlightened life that is full of pain and suffering. The second truth is that this pain is caused by ego-based desires. The third truth is that it is possible to overcome these ego-based desires and attachments. The last one describe that the way to end pain is through the eightfold path i.e.
Right views
Right thoughts/right intentions
Right speech
Right action
Right livelihood
Right effort
Right mindfulness and
Right concentration
The ten precepts
These ae set of ten don'ts guidelines for a real Buddha. One involves warning that people should value all life and respect some of the Buddhist traditions.
Chanting
Chanting of Buddha teachings are recited by chanting and are usually dedicated to the sick or the hungry
Implications of Buddhism today
Even though Buddhism has ceased to be popular, the religion has crossed beyond the borders of India which means the culture has spread itself in the world. Also, because Buddhism focuses much on spiritual development, it has been able to co-exist with other forms of religion like Shinto from Japan and Confucianism from China
The teachings of karma seem to come in today's life. At some point, karma explains the repeated suffering that befalls people who have done nothing to warrant this life. However, rebirth has been challenged with the question of the new world that a person has to go before being reborn. The new world does not exist (Peter, 2012).
Today, Indians are vegetarians as a way of obeying one of the ten precept that instructs them not to kill and that to value all lives
Confucianism
Confucianism refers to sacred teachings about the way of life by a Chinese man called Confucius (Kong Fuzi). These teachings are sometimes viewed by philosophers as a religion, a tradition, sometimes as a philosophy. But in general, it involves the manner in which humans think and live. In general, we can say that Confucianism refers to the tradition and doctrine of literati scholars containing the values of a group of people, as well as a socio-political program, an ethical system and a religious tradition. It describes the way of life of people of China and other East Asian countries. However, the doctrines have enriched, extended and been extended to several generations even though the interpretations of these doctrines changes with time
Origin of Confucianism
Its existence goes way back in 6th-5th century BCE. Xinzhong (2000) in his scholarly research explained that Confucianism existed 2500 years ago even though the English word "Confucianism" was discovered in the 16th
century when a philosopher known as Nicholas Tigualt, published his journals on Jesuits missionaries. According to Tigualt, Confucianism was discovered by the Jesuits only that they referred to it as 'the sect of the literati'. The name has ever since taken root as the proper name for the East Asian tradition while Confucius was the Latinized name of the Kong Fuzi. Kong Fuzi's teaching were first adopted in the 6th century when conflicts, chaos and disorder between dynasties in ancient China and as thinkers explored the cause as well as find solutions for them, they became pioneers of schools and Confucius was one of them and probably the most popular from the times (Kees, 2008). It was believed that Confucius had over three thousand students, and among them were 72 disciples. The followers continued to spread his teachings. Ru was the name given to these followers.
The scared writings of this religion are believed to have been written by Confucius himself. The books are divided into two. Si Shu (Four books) and Wu Jing (Five classics). The Si Shu books cover the Confucius' analects, Doctrine of the mean, Great learning and writings of a man called Meng Tzu who was believed to be more like Confucius.
The popularity of Confucianism however declined in 220 CE after both Buddhism and Daoism were developed during the fall of Hun dynasty. In 1980s when china was undergoing great economic evolution, the way of living among people changed. The communist rule had relaxed and properties were being owned by individuals. People feared for the failure of government and decided to hold pro-democracy demonstrations at Tiananmen which led to many civilians being shot. The government was more concerned with economic development rather than political reforms. As a result, the Chinese people stated to experience moral vacuum thereby renewing their interest in Confucianism (Peter Kees 2008). It was known as the "Confucianism fever" and apparently the "fever" is becoming even stronger with more research being conducted in the Chinese academics and the Confucianism scholarship that has now become even more popular than the western scholarship. Also, the PRC government is now active as more government officials seems to attend conferences celebrating Confucius birthday and speeches of them advocating for the reclamation of the Chinese culture. It seems the government wants to maintain Confucius' teaching on harmony. It believes that harmony is a potential ally in the attempt to maintain social stability. Recently, a statue of Confucius was erected at Tiananmen square. However, it is not yet clear if Confucianism is being revived back as a religion or a philosophy.
The Confucian values and teachings
Harmony
Confucius was majorly concerned with humans and the principles of humanity. He believed that the principles were the roots for relationships, foundation for peace and stability of state, family and individuals. According to him, goodness could be taught and learned and that for the society to live in peace, people needed to be guided by wisdom to live in peace and harmony
Education in societal level
According to Confucius, there are four social strata that were based on occupations; the scholars, farmers, workers, and businessmen. the scholars were at the highest and their main work was to make decisions that influenced the society. The lowest class, the businessmen were self-centered men who focused on their own interest. Confucius said that while scholars cared about the society, the businessmen only thought about their own comfort. He taught that great leaders should fight to have the integrity, should have high standards of ethics and learn about scholarly work. To be a scholar, one had to go through an education system. The education was hierarchical such that no woman was allowed to enroll to school and only those who passed the national examination were regarded as successful. Until today, many Chinese like the American Chinese have the successful education path already define for them.
The role of family
Confucianism describes five types of relationships; father-son, emperor-subject, friend-friend, elder-younger, husband-wife. Among them, three of them are based on families. Family hierarchy and harmony are important concepts of Confucianism, because the virtues that are taught to children becomes core values in education, citizenship and leadership. Just as the education has hierarchy, the same is family, and the structure influences the decision-making and behaviors of an individual. Chinese parents were dedicated to acquiring education for their children such that failure to put children through school was considered as failure in the society this culture was known as filial piety. Confucianism was dedicated to build harmony in families just as it intended to do in other relationships.
Implications of Confucianism Today
Some of the Confucian values like the importance of families, education system and interpersonal relationships based on harmony still influences the culture of Chinese people. The structured education system and the filial piety value continue to be practiced. Likewise, the world picks some cultural values advocated by Confucius
Summary
Both Confucianism and Buddhism were realized with an aim of finding harmony in midst of chaos and conflicts
Work Cited
Bol, Peter Kees. "Neo-confucianism in history." (2008).
Harvey, Peter. An introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, history and practices. Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Yao, Xinzhong. An introduction to Confucianism. Cambridge University Press, 2000.
