Tibetan Buddhism

Prince Gautama or Buddha life.

550 years before the Christ birth, in Kapilavastu, in a small State located at the south of current Nepal, was born Prince Siddharta, the future Buddha. His parents gave him as adolescent, a life free of vexations (a situation similar to our current Youth). As, an adolescent, disguised as a servant, he came into town and discovered all the miseries of the world. One evening, he met an old man, a dying man, then a man who had the plague, crying in pain and a corpse covered with blood. He had such a shock, he decided to change his fate. One night, he left the Palace for ever and joined a group of monks who preached fine speeches in town.
He changed sects several times. One preached mercy but the monks benefitted from this to feast with the takings, an other preached fasting and privations, but that brought nothing positive, neither for the body, nor the spirit. Then he decided to leave and was joined by some friends.
One evening close to Gaya, he felt the revelation of what he had been seeking for a long time and which has since been called the "Illumination". He sat under a fig tree and decided not to rise until the revelation he was seeking came to him = Indeed, in the world, there are animals, creatures deprived of conscience and thus responsible for their acts, for whom misfortunes in their existence are without explanation. There are individuals deprived of moral who are able to perpetrate the darkest deeds to satisfy their desires. There are others who, although non-evil, are greedy who work to get rich (and often without success) and finally there are those who like him wish to have an existence where the individual, transgresses his personal case, seeks a healthy life, in harmony with nature, animals and especially people. Moreover, this moral objective must place the conscience on a level where earthly misfortunes are controlled by the spirit and with no effect on our minds. Thus the pain and all terrestrial miseries can be dominated. The spirit of conscience will rise to the level of the gods such as imagined at the time = unburdened by human vicissitudes and away from time.
That day, he defined the twelve stages which mark the life of an individual = the discovery of the 5 senses, knowledge, love, founding of a family, getting property, etc. Moreover life is no more than an uninterrupted succession of births and rebirths. This conscience which is given to us at birth, if it is well used, if is gradually enriched by knowledge, humanism and generosity, it still transcends mankind towards a level of higher happiness. Thus any action, any word, corresponds to an energy which will be either positive (towards godness or the ideal of man), or negative (as the animal) according to whether we achieve good or evil deeds. In the same way, our soul will leave an inprint on the spirit of future generations. Thus, it can be said it does not die.
When Buddha had defined the distress of men, their causes and how to cure them, he rose and joined his disciples near Benares. Buddhism spread to all Asia. This religion, or thinking, without any precise dogma, nor prohibited sectarism, was little encouraged centuries later when new conflicts rose in North-India. Hindouism and vindication of warlike gods drove out the Buddhist idea towards the north in Tibet, China and Japan, and towards South-East Asia.
Buddhism propagates to the North with a Pantheon which includes local Saints and Gods.
To the South-East of Asia it keeps its simple and crude form. In both case the practice is identical.

The following tanka (or tibetan painting) called "Wheel of Life" summarizes the main parts of the doctrine and of the practice.




Buddhism practice.

To be Buddhist you have to recognize the reality of the 4 Noble Truths with the objective to understand, support and fight the Life Pains.

The basic law is Pure Thinkings, Pure Speaches and Pures Acts - toward the good direction! This is the result of a personal choice and make us heartless of others' conduct.

Others rules are simple:

Shown by the cock, the pig and the snake in the "Wheel of Life" tibetan paintings.

The problems the International Community is facing at the beginning of the third millenium are the fight for peace, the adaptation of man to new technologies and the respect of the environment related to the sharing of the earth's wealth.

Which other way of thinking could be better adapted to our future way of life if we have a minimum of humanity?

We will find there even a synthesis between ways of thinking which, yesterday, were opposed (atheism and religion).


Here is a valuable Indian website :http://www.buddhist-temples.com/buddhist-religion.html

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