Spirituality (Buddhism)

By the time the Buddha attained Mahaparinirvana (final extinction) at the age of 80 years, the teachings he had propounded had a large following in north India, especially between the warrior and the merchant classes.

Buddhism's appeal lay in its vision of a world where

deliverance from the caste-ridden and ritualistic Brahmanical Hindu order was possible.Above all, the enlightened one preached that salvation was in one's own hands, possible in this world, by freeing oneself from desire. In his first sermon the Dharmachakrapravrtana (Turning of the Wheel of Law) at Sarnath the Buddha put forth, The Middle Way, The Four Noble Truths and The Eightfold Path.

The message of the Buddha spread rapidly, penetrating caste and class barriers. The Buddha preached that the way to salvation was not dependent on God of Divine Grace but on understanding the way things really are. It is essentially concerned with all living, suffering beings caught in the treadmill of desire and craving.

Sakyamuni's message encapsulated complex issues of existence in a lucid manner, punctuated with anecdotes from day-to-day life.

One day the Buddha encountered a woman who begged the Lord to save her dead child. The Lord asked the woman to get a mustard seed from a household that had not experienced death. The woman came back after a while, unsuccessful but sobered and fell at the feet of the Master. The Buddha then expounded to her the transitory nature of human existence.

In the 8th century ad  Buddhism comes to Tibet

In the 8th century AD Santarakshita from Nalanda Mahavihara went to Tibet to spread Buddhism. Facing hostilities from the local populace, he was forced to return. Soon after, Acharya Parmasambhava, the great Buddhist Tantric Master from Kashmir, was more successful, and established Buddhism in Tibet. Tibetan Buddhists revere him as Guru Rinpoche.

A new school of Buddhism, Vajrayana (vajra meaning thunderbolt), arose in Tibet around the 8th century. It is often described as the 'completed Dharma' because it absorbed the doctrines of both Theravada and Mahayana and also embraced tantra.

From Tibet, Buddhism spread to Mongolia and the fierce Mongols were converted to one of the gentlest faiths ever propagated. The genius of Buddhism was that local specificities were taken into account and thus Buddhist Dharma became thoroughly integrated into the culture of each country, from the islands of Japan to the landlocked mountains of Tibet and Mongolia.

The Buddhist faith in India

The resurgence of devotional Hinduism, incorporating popular cults and Buddhist practices like ahimsa, puja worship and vegetarianism, narrowed the differences between Hinduism and Buddhism in everyday life. The Turkish invasions beginning in the 10th century dealt a further blow to Buddhism in India and the major monasteries of India were wiped off the map. Thereafter, Buddhism has never come back as major force in the land of Sakyamuni's birth.

In modern India, Buddhism survives only in isolated pockets among the peoples of Ladakh, Lahaul, Spiti, Kinnaur in the western Himalayas and the Monpas, Shedukpens, Lepchas, Bhutias and Chankmas in the eastern Himalayas. The conversion of some sections of depressed class Hindus under the leadership of Dr B R Ambedkar in the late 1950s and 1960s is an instance of Buddhist revival in India.

The flight of his Holiness the XIVth Dalai Lama from Tibet in 1959, led to the establishment of his government in exile in Dharamsala in North India, where there is a thriving Tibetan Buddhist community. The Tibetan influence has led to the founding of more than a hundred monasteries all over India, besides reviving older ones, especially in the Western Himalayas.

Buddhism in Europe

Europe was initiated into Buddhist philosophy with early 19th century colonial administrators, linguists and scholars taking an active interest in the ancient texts of the Orient. The works of Col Henry Olcott, the American co-founder of Theosophical Society, and Edwin Arnold's poem, 'The Light of Asia' , published in 1879, further spurred this intellectual curiosity. However, it was not till the middle of this century that Buddhism as a religion espousing non-violence was firmly entrenched in the consciousness of post-war Europe. Travellers who had been to the East returned to Europe and North America immersed in Buddhist philosophy. Asian teachers arrived in Europe, often on teaching visits. Some of them established Buddhist centres with communities of monks and lay people living under the guidance of Dharma masters.