BUDDHIST (563 BC - 483 BC)

                                        BUDDHIST (563 BC - 483 BC)

Michael H. Hart, 1978 

Gautama Buddha, whose real name is Prince Siddhartha, the founder of Buddhism, one of the world's largest religions. Son of king Kapilavastu, northeast India. bordering Nepal. Siddhartha himself (the Gautama clan of the Sakya tribe) is said to have been born in Lumbini, which is now part of Nepal. Married at the age of sixteen to a cousin of the same age. Raised in a luxurious palace, Prince Siddhartha did not like to live a leisurely life, and was filled with great dissatisfaction. From the glittering windows of the palace he looked out and saw that the poor were lying in the streets, not having breakfast in the evening, or not being able to eat at all. Day after day chasing the necessities of life that can not be reached like a bunch of wheat hanging from the muzzle of a donkey. Tarolah is a scumbag. While those who have it often feel dissatisfied, anxious, anxious, disappointed and depressed because they are haunted by all kinds of diseases that every time drag them to the grave. Siddhartha thought, this situation must be changed. The meaning of life must be realized in the true sense of the word, and not just temporary pleasures that are always overshadowed by suffering and death.

When he was twenty-nine years old, shortly after his first son was born, Gautama decided he must leave his court life and devote himself to the pursuit of the true truth that is not old. Thinking is not just thinking, but acting. He left the palace gracefully, without taking his wife and children with him, without taking any goods and possessions, and became a homeless man with not a penny in his pocket. The first step, for a while, he studied from the wise men who existed at that time and after feeling enough to have knowledge, he came to the conclusion of solving the problem of human dissatisfaction.

People think that meditation is the way to true wisdom. On the basis of that assumption, Gautama tried to become a hermit, fasting for years and holding back his passion as much as possible. Eventually he realized that the practice of torturing himself in the end only clouded his mind, instead of leading him closer to the real truth. Thinking and thinking, he decided that it would be better to just eat like a normal human being and stop meditating on all kinds of things because not only is this act useless, but it can make the body shriveled, sluggish, firefly eyes, sleepy, rheumatic, and even close to stupid.

In quiet serene solitude he struggles with life's human problems. Finally one night, while he was sitting under a tree with broad leaves and bearing the shape of a pear full of seeds of all kinds, the riddles of life's problems seemed to fall upon him. All night Siddhartha thought deeply and when the sun broke on the eastern horizon he gasped and at the same time believed that a complicated problem had been solved and he began to call himself the Buddha "the enlightened one."

At that time he was thirty-five years old. The rest of his forty-five years he spent traveling throughout northern India, spreading his new philosophy to an audience who would listen. When he died, in 483 BC, there were hundreds of thousands of adherents of his teachings. Although his words have not yet been written down by people, his advice is memorized by many of his followers by heart, passed down from one generation to the next by word of mouth.

The main points of Buddhism can be summarized in what adherents term the "Four virtues of truth:" first, human life is inherently unhappy; secondly, the cause of this unhappiness is self-interest and being fettered by lust; thirdly, thoughts of self-interest and lust can be suppressed when all passions and desires can be eliminated, in Buddhism it is called nirvana; fourth, weighing right, thinking right, speaking right, doing right, making a living right, trying right, remembering right, meditation right. It can be added that Buddhism is open to anyone, no matter what race he is, (this is what distinguishes it from Hinduism).

Some time after Gautama's death this new religion spread slowly. In the 3rd century BC, a powerful Indian emperor named Ashoka became a Buddhist. Thanks to his support, the spread of Buddhism accelerated, not only in India but also in Burma. From here it spread throughout Southeast Asia, to Malaysia and Indonesia.

The winds of influence spread not only to the south but also to the north, breaking through Tibet, into Afghanistan and Central Asia. It doesn't end there. He embraced China and wielded influence he did not make big on and from there crossed over to Japan and Korea.

Meanwhile, in India itself, the new religion began to decline in influence after around 500 AD and was almost extinct in 1200. On the other hand, in China and in Japan, Buddhism remained as the main religion. Likewise in Tibet and Southeast Asia the religion experienced its heyday for centuries. The teachings of the Buddha were not written down until centuries after Gautama's death. Therefore, it is easy to understand why Religion is divided into various sects. The two major branches of Buddhism are the Theravada branch-the influence is mainly in Southeast Asia and according to the opinion of most Western scholars it is this branch that is closest to the original teachings of Buddhism-. Another branch is Mahayana, the weight of its influence lies in Tibet, China and also in Southeast Asia in general.

Buddha, as the founder of one of the world's largest religions, definitely deserves to be near the top of this list. Because the number of adherents of Buddhism is only 200 million compared to the number of adherents of Islam which is 500 million and one billion adherents of Christianity, by itself the influence of Buddhism is less than that of Muhammad or Jesus. However, the difference in the number of adherents-if used as a measurement that is too tight-can also be misleading. For example, the death or decline of Buddhism in India is not just any decline, but because Hinduism has absorbed many Buddhist teachings and principles into its body. Even in China, a large number of people who no longer openly call themselves Buddhists in their daily practice are actually heavily influenced by religious philosophy.

Buddhism, far superior to both Islam and Christianity, has a very prominent pacifist element. This view of non-violence has played an important role in the political history of Buddhist countries.

Many people say that when one day Jesus comes back to earth he will be amazed at everything that people do in his name, and will be worried about the bloodshed that occurs in the conflict between different sects of opinion that both claim to be his followers. The same will happen to the Buddha. He couldn't help but gape at the sight of so many sects of Buddhism growing everywhere, different from one another even though all of them professed to be Buddhists. However, however chaotic the different sects were, it was not enough to cause a bloody religious war like what happened in the Christian world of Europe. In this connection, at least it means that the teachings of Buddha seem to be much more deeply lived by its adherents than the teachings of Jesus in the same vein.

Buddha and Confucianism have roughly the same influence on the world. Both lived at almost the same time, and the number of followers was not much different. My choice of placing the Buddha's name before Confucianism in order is based on two considerations: first, the development of Communism in China has almost wiped out the influence of Confucianism, while it seems that the future of Buddhism still has more gaps and influences than in Confucianism. Cu; second, the failure of Confucianism's teachings to spread beyond the borders of China shows how closely linked Confucian teachings are with the attitudes and procedures of the old Chinese era. On the other hand, Buddhism does not contain a re-statement or chewing of earlier Indian philosophies, and Buddhism spread beyond the borders of its homeland -India- based on Gautama's genuine ideas and broad philosophical range.