Buddha
Publié le 22/02/2012
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Buddha, the A title meaning "awakened" or
"enlightened." It is most commonly applied to Siddharta
Gautama (c. 560–c. 480 B.C.E.), the person
who founded the religion of BUDDHISM. Buddhist
mythology actually identifi es many different Buddhas.
Siddhartha Gautama is the historical Buddha,
that is, the Buddha who has appeared in our
world's history. In some traditions he is known as
Sakyamuni, "sage of the Sakyas," because he was
born in northeast India among a people known as
the Sakyas.
LIFE
Buddhists believe that when people die, they are
reborn (see SAMSARA). In keeping with this belief,
they believe that Siddhartha Gautama had many
births prior to the birth in which he became the
Buddha. Texts known as jatakas, "birth stories,"
recount events from some of these prior births.
Siddhartha's birth into our world was to be his
last. It is said that he carefully chose the time and
location of that birth, to a princely family in northeast
India in the sixth century B.C.E. According to
legend, his mother, Queen Maya, dreamed that
four deities were carrying her bed to the Himalaya
Mountains. They were followed by a white
elephant. The white elephant circled the bed,
then plunged his tusk into Maya's side. When she
awoke, she discovered she was pregnant.
During the sixth month of her pregnancy,
Maya went to visit her cousin. Along the way, she
stopped in a grove at Lumbini (today in Nepal).
There she gave birth to Siddhartha prematurely.
Astrologers who read the body marks predicted a
double destiny for the baby: He would either conquer
the world or renounce it. Siddhartha's father
wanted to ensure that his son chose to conquer the
world, so they protected him from the EVILS of the
world and saw that his every wish was fulfi lled. As
a result, Siddhartha lived the life of pleasure that
many people only dream about, but in living that
life, he found that it was insuffi cient.
Siddhartha married and had a son. Then,
at the age of 29, he made the fateful decision to
explore the world outside his palaces. On successive
trips he encountered four new "sights": an
older person, a sick person, a decaying corpse,
and a wandering ascetic. Siddhartha had fi nally
confronted the realities of duhkha or suffering: old
age, sickness, and death. He resolved to renounce
his life of pleasure and search for the solution to
these problems.
First he tried various techniques of MEDITATION.
He mastered the skills quickly but found that
they did not provide the answers he was seeking.
Then, for fi ve years he practiced various ascetic
exercises, denying his body until he was so thin
it was said one could feel his backbone through
his abdomen. Close to death from these exercises,
Siddhartha resolved to fi nd a middle way
between indulgence and denial. After sitting for an
extended period under the so-called bodhi-tree in
Bodh Gaya (today in Bihar state, India), he spent
an entire night in meditation. During that night he
discovered the principles that govern the processes of rebirth (see KARMA) as well as the path to release
from suffering (see NIRVANA). As morning dawned,
he achieved enlightenment (bodhi) and became
the Buddha.
Out of compassion for the sufferings of all
sentient, or conscious, beings and at the urging
of a Hindu god, the Buddha remained in his
human body to teach others the path he had discovered.
He gave his fi rst sermons at the deer
park in Sarnath (near BANARAS, India) to ascetics—
persons who deprive themselves of luxuries
for religious purposes—with whom he had been
living. Hearing his teachings, they too quickly
attained liberation (nirvana) and became the fi rst
Buddhist ARHATS.
During the remaining years of his life, the
Buddha wandered widely over northeast India,
teaching his path and ordaining followers—men at
fi rst, later women, too—into the SANGHA, the order
of wandering mendicants. At the age of 79 he ate
some spoiled food offered by a lay (unordained)
follower and died or, as Buddhists say, entered
the ultimate nirvana (parinirvana) in Kushinagara
(today Kasia, India). His closest followers
decided to treat his body the way they would a
royal corpse: They cremated the Buddha's remains
and gave portions of his ashes to several kings.
Portions of these remains were later enshrined in
STUPAS throughout the Buddhist world.
TEACHINGS
Unlike MOSES, JESUS, and MUHAMMAD, the Buddha
did not advocate the worship of any particular
god. He did not deny that gods existed, but he
thought that because gods are living beings, they,
too, ultimately need to escape from suffering. (In
the Buddhist view nothing is eternal, not even
gods.) Like a compassionate physician, the Buddha
diagnosed and prescribed the cure for the suffering
that plagues all sentient existence.
The Buddha's diagnosis and prescription
are formulated most compactly in his FOUR NOBLE
TRUTHS. The Buddha identifi ed the symptoms of our
illness as duhkha, suffering, but suffering in the
sense that ultimate satisfaction is unavailable in
this life. The cause of duhkha is craving, longing,
or desire, brought about by ignorance of reality.
The disease, however, can be cured. The Buddha
taught that duhkha disappears once one eliminates
craving. But that requires an entire transformation
of one's thought, practice, and perceptions,
a transformation that results from practicing the
Buddha's eightfold path.
Several principles underlie the Buddha's teaching.
One of them is "no-self" (Sanskrit, anatman).
This principle denies that people have an eternal
soul or an unchanging self or essence, such as one
fi nds, for example, in the teachings of CHRISTIANITY
and HINDUISM (see ATMAN). A related principle, "nopermanence"
(Sanskrit, anitya), emphasizes that
change characterizes all existence. A third principle,
"co-dependent origination" (Sanskrit, pratityasamutpada),
highlights the interrelatedness of all
things. According to this teaching, everything is
tied together in a complex net of causes, so that
there can be no "fi rst cause" from which all beings
derive.
Many religions have worried about the origin
of the universe or the fate of human beings after
death (see COSMOGONY and AFTERLIFE IN WORLD RELIGIONS).
The Buddha urged his followers to ignore
these questions, not unlike the teachings of JUDAISM.
In the image of his famous "Fire Sermon,"
human beings have awakened to fi nd themselves
in a house on fi re. They should not worry about
how the fi re started, nor should they be concerned
with what they will do after the fi re has been extinguished.
They should direct all their efforts to putting
the fi re out.
SIGNIFICANCE
The Buddha is known as the Tathagata, Sanskrit
for "the one who went that way." The historical
Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, is important not
because he revealed the messages of a god but
because he discovered and taught the path that
human beings can follow to attain release from
suffering. He is most revered in the tradition of
Buddhism known as Theravada, predominant in
southeast Asia. A formula that Theravada often
invokes signals the Buddha's importance: "I take
refuge in the Buddha. I take refuge in the teachings [Sanskrit, DHARMA]. I take refuge in the monastic
community [Sanskrit, sangha]."
The other major tradition of Buddhism, predominant
in east Asia, is Mahayana; it assigns
the historical Buddha a somewhat lesser place.
It reveres the Buddha Sakyamuni principally for
having revealed the teachings and deeds of other
Buddhas and BODHISATTVAS, such as AMIDA and
AVALOKITESVARA, known in Chinese as Kuan Yin.
ZEN BUDDHISM goes so far at to caution people
against becoming overly attached to the person
of the Buddha. (Recall that attachment and craving
produce suffering.) A well-known KOAN or
Zen riddle states: "If you meet the Buddha on the
road, kill him."
Liens utiles
- DISCOURS (Les) de Buddha. (résumé et analyse)
- MAHA-PARINIBBANA-SUTTA du Buddha
- La méditation du Buddha
- The Buddha Of Suburbia
- Buddha.