The Buddha and his Dhamma – The Deepest Truths of Existence!
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Buddhism originated with an Indian prince known as the Buddha, who taught in northeastern India in the fifth century BC. Two centuries later, with the support of Emperor Asoka, Buddhism spread across most of India and from there traveled the full breadth of the Asian continent. In several tidal waves of missionary zeal it rose from its Indian homeland and swept other regions, providing the peoples among whom it took root with a firm foundation of faith and wisdom on which to build their lives and a source of inspiration on which to live their lives could focus on. hopes. At various points in history, Buddhism has gained followers in countries as geographically, ethnically and culturally diverse as Afghanistan and Japan, Siberia and Cambodia, Korea and Sri Lanka; yet they have all looked to the same Indian sage as their master.

Although Buddhism eventually disappeared from India for historical reasons around the twelfth century, it had profoundly transformed Hinduism before its disappearance. In our own time, Indian thinkers such as Swami Vivekananda, Tagore, Gandhi and Nehru have looked to the Buddha as a model. Even in the twentieth century, while Buddhism has lost much of its following in the East, it is beginning to have a greater influence on an increasing number of people in the West, and in its own, quiet way it is sending firm roots into the world . various countries in the Western Hemisphere.

Over its long history, Buddhism has taken a wide variety of forms. Because of its peaceful, non-dogmatic nature, it has always adapted easily to the pre-existing cultures and religious practices of the people among whom it has spread, and in turn has become the source of a new culture and worldview. Buddhism has been so successful in integrating a country's indigenous culture that it is often difficult for us to discern the common thread that connects the various forms of Buddhism as branches of the same religion. The external surfaces vary so greatly: from the gentle, ceremonial Theravada Buddhism of Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, to the contemplative and devotional practices of Far Eastern Mahayana Buddhism, to the mysterious ritual of Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism. But while the outward appearance of these Buddhist schools may differ drastically, they all remain rooted in a common source: the life and teachings of the man we know as the Buddha.

Surprisingly, even though the Buddha is so far removed in time, further back than any of the later teachers who have risen in the river of Buddhist history, it is still his voice that speaks most directly to us, in a language we can understand immediately. understand, in words, images and ideas to which we can immediately respond. When we juxtapose the texts of the Chandogya Upanishad and the Buddha's Discourse on the Four Noble Truths, which may be separated in time by only a hundred years, the former appears to come from a cultural and spiritual milieu so distant that we can hardly understand it. understand, while the latter sounds almost as if it were spoken last week in Bombay, London or New York. In attitude and perspective the Buddha comes so close to us that it is difficult to believe that he is separated from us by a gap of some 2,500 years.

That the Buddha's teachings must remain eternally relevant throughout the changing eras of human history, that his message must not be obscured by the passage of time, is implicit in the title by which he is best known. For the word 'Buddha', as is commonly known, is not a proper name, but an honorific title meaning 'the Enlightened One', 'the Awakened One'. This title is given to him because he has awakened. rising from the deep sleep of ignorance in which the rest of the world has sunk; because he has penetrated the deepest truths about the human condition; and because he proclaims these truths for the purpose of awakening others and enabling them to share his realization. Despite the changing scenarios of history over twenty-five centuries, despite the change in world views and mindsets from one era to another, the fundamental truths of human life do not change. They remain constant and recognizable to those mature enough to think about them and intelligent enough to understand them. For this reason, even today, in our age of airplane travel, computer technology, and genetic engineering, it is entirely appropriate that the One who is Awakened should speak to us in words as powerful, as compelling, and as illuminating as That was so when they were first proclaimed in the towns and villages of Northeast India long ago.

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