Zen buddhism1/17/2024 ![]() ![]() He then experienced a great awakening, which gave him insight into human suffering and how to end it. Still, he didn’t find the answers he was looking for.Įventually he remembered a simple kind of meditation he had spontaneously entered as a child, and decided to give up the ascetic practices in favor of something he called “the middle way” between asceticism and indulgence. Siddhartha lived this kind of life for six years, and according to the stories he was one of the most devoted and ascetic of them all, mastering several different kinds of practices and starving himself until he looked like a skeleton. Instead, Siddhartha followed a marginalized and yet somewhat traditional path for that time in India: that of a homeless, ascetic spiritual seeker who lived in the forests, survived on alms, and devoted himself full-time to practices meant to bring about spiritual perfection, insight, or liberation. OK, he was a grown man by the time he did it, but his father wanted him to stick around and take over as the local ruler. Obsessed with these kinds of questions, Siddhartha took the radical step of running away from home. Basically, he got a strong case of existential angst: What does it all mean? What is it all for? Are we just doomed to enjoy things for a little while, but then eventually lose everything? Isn’t there something we can do besides just wait for the ax to fall? Even though he was young, healthy, and fortunate, he noticed the suffering of others – in particular those suffering from old age, illness, and death – and realized that everyone, even he, would eventually experience those kinds of things. According to the traditional stories, he belonged to the warrior caste and his father was a wealthy ruler.ĭespite growing up in luxury, Siddhartha was dissatisfied with life. ![]() ![]() We don’t have much hard evidence about who he was or the kind of life he lived, but he later became very famous so we have all kinds of stories – myths, if you will – about him and the things he did. Over 2500 years ago in India, somewhere around 500 BCE, a man named Siddhartha Gautama was born. It All Begins with the “Awakening” of Siddhartha Gautama It All Begins with the “Awakening” of Siddhartha Gautama Įmergence of the Zen (Chan) School of Buddhism When and how did Zen Buddhism arise, and what is unique about it? Zen is a type of Buddhism, which is a 2,500-year-old tradition. 2 - The Three Treasures of Buddhism: Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha ![]()
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