The Buddhist Path to Enlightenment (study)
by Dr Kala Acharya | 2016 | 118,883 words
This page relates ‘Religious Background Sixth Century B.C.’ of the study on the Buddhist path to enlightenment. The Buddha was born in the Lumbini grove near the present-day border of India and Nepal in the 6th century B.C. He had achieved enlightenment at the age of thirty–five under the ‘Bodhi-tree’ at Buddha-Gaya. This study investigates the teachings after his Enlightenment which the Buddha decided to teach ‘out of compassion for beings’.
1. Religious Background Sixth Century B.C.
Throughout human history in different civilizations, man has tried to find the meaning of life and seek salvation beyond death. Various forms of religions in different civilizations and cultures thus came into being to fulfill this need. One common thread among most religions is the belief that there is a creator god who overseas everything in this world (and beyond).
The Brāhmaṇas were dominant in society during the period of the Nigaṇṭha nātaputta and the Buddha. Their ritualism was represented by the priest who “vigorously claimed that the welfare and indeed, the very existence of the world, including even the gods, depend upon the maintenance of their systems of sacrifice which grew to immense size and complexity.”[1] Their rites and ceremonies multiplied and absorbed man’s mind to a degree unparalleled in the history of the world and literature occupied itself with the description or discussion of the ceremonial.[2]