Siddhārtha Gautama: So watch the thought and its ways with care

The thought manifests as the word;

The word manifests as the deed;

The deed develops into habit;

And habit hardens into character.

So watch the thought and its ways with care,

And let it spring from love born out of concern for all beings.

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Gautama Buddha [c. 563/480 – c. 483/400 BCE], also known as Siddhārtha Gautama, Shakyamuni Buddha, or simply the Buddha, after the title of Buddha, was an ascetic (śramaṇa) and sage, on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. He is believed to have lived and taught mostly in the eastern part of ancient India sometime between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE.

Gautama taught a Middle Way between sensual indulgence and the severe asceticism found in the śramaṇa movement common in his region. He later taught throughout other regions of eastern India such as Magadha and Kosala.

Gautama is the primary figure in Buddhism. He is recognized by Buddhists as an enlightened teacher who attained full Buddhahood and shared his insights to help sentient beings end rebirth and suffering. Accounts of his life, discourses and monastic rules are believed by Buddhists to have been summarized after his death and memorized by his followers. Various collections of teachings attributed to him were passed down by oral tradition and first committed to writing about 400 years later.

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Wandering Ronin commentary: For the more scholarly-minded among you, there is a question that I have. Why and how did Zen become an offshoot from the prior religion of Buddhism? What is the historic and technical reason for the new branch? I realize the differences between the two religions, but what was the specific purpose in history for creating something new such as Zen away from Buddhism?

Submitted March 12, 2018 at 04:10AM by WanderingRonin77 http://ift.tt/2FIJLnT