| The Buddha was born in a religiously rich environment: | | | | look back into the early Vedic literature that we talked |
| India. India is still considered today one of the most | | | | about in other articles, the tradition particularly of the |
| religious places in the world. We must understand that | | | | early Vedic hymns, we find that the view of the |
| Buddhism was originally an Indian religion. The Buddha | | | | afterlife is really quite similar to the view that is found in |
| tried to solve problems that were present in Indian | | | | some of the European traditions familiar to us. It is a |
| religious thought at the time. He wasn't isolated trying to | | | | view that probably belonged in some way to all the |
| achieve enlightenment as we might want to think. He | | | | people who called themselves Arya and who migrated |
| was really influenced by his environment. To really | | | | across Europe and down into India. |
| understand the teachings of the Buddha, we must | | | | This view is that the people who live a virtuous life in |
| know his background, we must understand the | | | | this world, play by the rules, express themselves in |
| problems he was attempting to solve. | | | | some sort of heroic way, and perhaps achieve some |
| To understand the religious history of India, we must | | | | kind of eminence, go to live to the land of the |
| return first to a body of texts known as the Vedas. | | | | ancestors when they die. This believe persists in some |
| The Vedas are a collection of hymns that date back | | | | aspects in Hinduism today. |
| to about fifteen hundred to one thousand years BCE. | | | | Sometime during the first half of the first millennium |
| These hymns were composed in an early form of the | | | | BCE, this ancient view began to be replaced by |
| Sanskrit language. This is a language that is closely | | | | another one. Most Indians took the position that human |
| related to Latin and Greek and to many of the | | | | beings didn't live just one life, but cycled around again |
| languages in Europe. The people who spoke Sanskrit | | | | and again, life after life, death after death, in a process |
| called themselves the Arya. Much of European | | | | of death and rebirth. |
| civilization, like the civilization of India, is derived from the | | | | Sanskrit, the language of ancient India, this phenomenon |
| traditions of these ancient people, who might had | | | | is called by another word: "Samsara". The word |
| migrated out of central Asia in the middle of the | | | | Samsara means simply to wander from one life to the |
| second millennium BCE and settled as far West as | | | | next. And it already begins to suggest to you what |
| Ireland and as far South as India. | | | | emotion is associated with this idea in classical India. |
| One of the last hymns of the Vedic collection poses | | | | Here we are not talking so much about a direct, |
| what I like to think of as the classic Vedic question. | | | | straight line, as marching from one life to another in |
| This hymn asks about where we came from, where | | | | order to achieve a particular goal. But actually the |
| the diversity of the world arose. And the questions are | | | | experience of wandering, as you go from one life to |
| taking them beyond the gods, this is rather curious for | | | | the next not knowing fully how it is that you got where |
| us in the Western world. Where all of this comes | | | | you are, or where it is you are really going to end up. |
| from? Including the diversity of the gods themselves? | | | | Samsara is the most serious problem of life. Samsara |
| This thought has a crucial influence in Buddhism. The | | | | is the problem of life. It is the problem to be solved. |
| gods are considered part of the universe. They are | | | | This is the problem that the Buddha tried to solve. He |
| more powerful than us in some way, but they will also | | | | says that Nirvana is the solution and the end of the |
| pass away. | | | | problem. In other articles we'll study these concepts in |
| Another point we must bear in mind is the Indian view | | | | more depth. |
| of the afterlife and the doctrine of reincarnation. f we | | | | |