World religions. Рахимбергенова М.Х. - 58 стр.

     to be brought into being – the truth of the eightfold ariya path leading to         Festivals – days of the full moon, and three other days during the lunar cy-
the cessation of suffering.                                                         cle are celebrated. There is a new year’s festival, and celebrations tied to the ag-
     His Eightfold Path consists of:                                                ricultural year;
     1. right understanding,                                                             Pilgrimages – particularly to Buddhist sites in Sri Lanka and India.
     2. right thinking,                                                                  Eastern Buddhism is the predominant religion in China, Japan, Korea and
                                                                                    much of Vietnam. Buddhism’s Mahayana tradition entered China during the
     3. right speech,
                                                                                    Han dynasty (206 B.C.E. to 220 C.E.). It found initial acceptance there among
     4. right conduct,                                                              the workers; later, it gradually penetrated the ruling class. Buddhism reached
     5. right livelihood,                                                           Japan in the 6th century. It underwent severe repression during the 1960’s in
     6. right effort,                                                               China during the Cultural Revolution.
     7. right mindfulness,                                                               Eastern Buddhism contains many distinct schools: T’ein-t’ai, Hua-yen,
     8. right concentration.                                                        Pure Land teachings, and the Meditation school. They celebrate New Years,
                                                                                    harvest festivals, and five anniversaries from the lives of Buddha and of the
                                   Buddhist Sects                                   Bodhissattva Kuan-yin. They also engage in Dana, Sila, Chanting, Worship and
      Buddhism is not a single monolithic religion. Many of its adherents have      Pilgrimage.
combined the teachings of the Buddha with local religious rituals, beliefs and           Northern Buddhism has perhaps 10 million adherents in parts of China,
customs. Little conflict occurs, because Buddhism at its core is a philosophical    Mongolia, Russia and Tibet. It entered Tibet circa 640 C.E. Conflict with the
system to which such additions can be easily grafted. After the Buddha’s death,     native Tibetan religion of Bon caused it to go largely underground until its re-
splits occurred. There are now three main systems of thought within Buddhism        vival in the 11th century. The head of the Gelu school of Buddhist teaching be-
which are geographically and philosophically separate. Each tradition in turn       came the Dalai Lama, and ruled Tibet. It has been, until recently, wrongly dis-
has many sects. One source (J.R. Hinnels, A Handbook of Living Religions,           missed as a degenerate form of Buddhism.
Penguin, 1991) divides the religion into three main groups by their location:            Ceremony and ritual are emphasized. They also engage in Dana, Sila,
      Southern Buddhism (known as Therevada Buddhism) has 100 million fol-          Chanting, Worship and Pilgrimage. They developed the practice of searching
lowers, mainly in Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Sri Lanka and Thailand, and parts          out a young child at the time of death of an important teacher. The child is be-
of Vietnam. It started in Sri Lanka when Buddhist missionaries arrived from         lieved to be the successor to the deceased teacher. They celebrate New Years,
India. They promoted the Vibhajjavada school (Separative Teaching). By the          harvest festivals and anniversaries of five important events in the life of the
15th century, this form of the religion reached almost its present extent.          Buddha. Buddhist and Tibetan culture suffered greatly during the Cultural
      Concepts and practices include:                                               Revolution when an attempt was made to destroy all religious belief.
      Dana – thoughtful, ceremonial giving;
      Sila – accepting Buddhist teaching and following it in practice; refraining                               Buddhism in the West
from killing, stealing, wrong behavior, use of drugs. On special days, three ad-         Southern Buddhism became established in Europe early in this century.
ditional precepts may be added, restricting adornment, entertainment and com-       The Zen Buddhist tradition of Eastern Buddhism has also developed a large fol-
fort;                                                                               lowing, particularly in North America. Canadian Buddhists totaled 163415 in
      Karma – the balance of accumulated sin and merit, which will determine        the 1991 census.
one’s future in the present life, and the nature of the next life to come;
      The Cosmos – consists of billions of worlds grouped into clusters; clusters                                  History of Buddha
are grouped into galaxies, which are themselves grouped into super-galaxies.             Siddhartha (Buddha) was born around 563 B.C.E. in the town of Kapi-
The universe also has many levels: four underworlds and 21 heavenly realms;         lavastu (located in today’s Nepal). Siddhartha’s parents were King Shuddho-
      Paritta – ritual chanting;                                                    dana and Queen Maya, who ruled the Sakyas. His history is a miraculous one...
      Worship – of relics of a Buddha, of items made by a Buddha, or of sym-        One night, Queen Maya dreamed that an elephant with six tusks, carrying a lo-
bolic relics;                                                                       tus flower in its trunk, touched her right side. At that moment her son was con-

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