Buddhism : a religion & philosophy that repudiates the authority of the Vedas & the existence of a soul or God, & in which rebirth & karma cease when one extinguishes their root-cause, namely Desire. They are based on the Four Noble Truths & the Noble Eightfold Path enunciated by the Buddha. “The first Buddhist Council met Rājagriha (present Rājgir in present Bihar), soon after the death of Buddha. It was attended by the Theras (Buddhist elders) & presided over by their senior Mahākassapa. As Buddha had left none of his teachings in writing so at this Council three of them, Kashyapa – the most learned, Upāli – the oldest, & Ananda, the Buddha’s favourite disciple, recited his teachings which were thereafter transmitted orally by teachers to disciples. A century later the Second Council met at Vaishāli to settle a dispute on questions of discipline; it decided on rigid discipline & revised the Buddhist scriptures which were still unwritten. (In Buddha’s lifetime, Vaishāli was the capital of the Lichchhavis who had an aristocratic republican form of government in which every noble had an equal role. It is believed that it was on this form of administration that the Buddha, who visited the city several times, had organised his Buddhist Saṇgha.) The Third Council met under the patronage of Emperor Ashōka, according to tradition, 236 years after the Buddha’s death. It is believed to have drawn up the Buddhist canon in the final form of Tripitaka or Three Baskets. The Fourth & last Council met during the reign of the Kushān king Kanishka (c.120-144 AD) & adopted authorised commentaries on the Buddhist canon. It was attended mainly by the followers of Hināyāna (Theravada), & also those of Mahāyāna which included eminent Buddhists like Ashwaghosha, Nāgārjuna & Vāsumitra who enjoyed the patronage of Kanishka, had gained greater followers. [S. Bhattacharya: 185, 538, 583, 889] Sri Aurobindo: “Every time the Light has tried to descend it has met with resist¬ance & opposition. Christ was crucified…. Buddha was denied. Sons of Light come, the earth denies & rejects them; afterwards, accepts them in name to reject them in substance. Only a small minority grows towards a spiritual birth, & it is through them that the Divine manifestation takes place…. If kings & emperors had left Buddhism to those people who were really spiritual it would have been much better for real Buddhism. It was after Constantine embraced Christianity that it began to decline…. The same thing happened to Mohammedanism (see Islam)…. When kings & emperors try to spread religion they become like Asoka, i.e., they make the whole thing mechanical, & the inner truth is lost.” [Purani, Evening Talks with Sri Aurobindo, 2007:576-79]
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... Buddhism ~ idea of Fate and, Page 230 ...
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