Buddhism, Christianity and Islam are called the three major religions in the world. Broadly speaking, it is a religion, including its classics, rituals, habits, the organization of religious order and so on; But Buddhism is very special among the major religions and thoughts in the world. All religions believe in God's creation and domination, but Buddhism is a complete atheist. So Buddhism is like religion but not religion, like philosophy but not philosophy, but science but not science. This is the greatest feature of Buddhism. In a narrow sense, it is what the Buddha said. In Buddhist terminology, it should be called Buddhism. In the preface of the Buddhist scripture "One Plus One agama", it is said: "All evil things should be avoided, and all good people seek purity, which is the Dharma". In a word, Buddhism is a teaching method and an education of Buddhism, which makes people stop evil and promote good.
The history of Buddhism
Buddhism originated in ancient India 1500 years ago. When Aryans developed from Indus Valley to Ganges Valley, the main mode of production changed from animal husbandry to agricultural production. Due to the favorable climatic conditions, people have learned to grow rice with high yield, and the productivity has been greatly improved by using iron tools. The social structure entered the slave society. At that time, the social crowd was divided into four grades: ① Brahmins (religious priests, who mastered theocracy and educational rights, religious classics and cultural knowledge), ② Khshatriya (warrior class, later including kings and military nobles, who held military and political power. (3) Vedas (farmers, craftsmen, and later industrial and commercial owners and usurers). ), (4) sudra (composed of civilians from non-Aryan indigenous tribes, with low status). In addition, there are slaves with no social status and no caste. They are called "untouchables" and "untouchables". At that time, the main religion in Indian society was Brahmanism, which was a polytheistic religion, worshiping natural gods and ancestor gods, and believing in gods such as God, Thor, Justice God, Sun God, Vulcan, Wind God and Rain God. Brahmanism was the religion that maintained the slave society at that time. It advocates the idea of reincarnation of karma, and believes that the good and evil of human behavior (karma) in this life will bring different karma in the afterlife; If you don't believe in the Vedic classics of Brahmanism, or violate the rules of caste, or kill animals, you will be reincarnated as an inferior caste untouchable or animal after death, while if you study the Vedic classics and do good deeds, you can be reincarnated as an upper caste after death, or even become a god and become one with Brahma. Brahmanism preaches the supremacy of the Brahmin caste, saying that Brahmins build Brahmans with their mouths, Kashatri with their hands, Vedas with their legs, and sudra with their feet, and stipulate social occupations for them, which will never change. Brahmanism emphasizes offering sacrifices to gods, and many sacrificial ceremonies are held every year, including horse sacrifice, ancestor sacrifice, Tenjin Matsuri, Brahman sacrifice and elf sacrifice. During the sacrifice, a large number of livestock were slaughtered, believers spent a lot of property, and even the land was sacrificed to God-actually belonging to Brahmins.
In the 5th-6th century BC, with the development of economy and the rise of city-states, the wealth and power of industrial and commercial owners and usurers with large population in Khrushchev caste and Vedic caste increased. They are dissatisfied with the old caste system of Brahmanism, and the tyranny and corruption of Brahmanism are also opposed by all walks of life. In this case, a new religious trend of thought has emerged, that is, Shamanism, which opposes and criticizes Brahmanism. Among them, among the Sakyamuni people in southern Nepal, there is a young man Gautama. 6? 1 Siddhartha (that is, Sakyamuni), who also accepted the Samoan trend of thought. Determined to establish a new religion-Buddhism, which absorbs the idea of reincarnation and karma of primitive Brahmanism, but it opposes people deciding their own destiny according to their birth caste, but believes that everyone can achieve Buddhism-meaning enlightened people through their own cultivation. Therefore, Buddhism pays more attention to self-cultivation than other religions in cultivating people's sociality, and is more suitable for the philosophy that orientals live in harmony with nature, so it has been widely spread in the eastern world. Of course, the restrictive effect of Buddhism, which originated and spread in feudal society, on human sociality also needs to be realized by preaching the reincarnation and karma that conform to Buddhist moral rules.
Although Buddhism originated in ancient India, it developed and spread widely in ancient China and some eastern countries deeply influenced by China culture, such as Japan, Korea and Southeast Asian countries. On the contrary, in its birthplace of India, Buddhism did not become the main religion. The largest religion in India is Hinduism, which developed after the reform of Brahmanism. Even Islam and Christianity may spread more widely in India than Buddhism. The reason may be that Hinduism is more in line with India's national culture and has a deeper social foundation. In modern times, India became a British colony. With the introduction of western culture, Hinduism has also carried out extensive religious reforms, such as abolishing the caste system, idol worship and widow martyrdom in ancient Brahmanism, and simplifying complicated religious ceremonies. Hinduism has become the most influential religion in India, and most people in India believe in it, but many bad habits in the old religion, such as unequal treatment of caste and martyrdom of widows, still exist in some areas. Islam and Christianity spread with the invasion of India by the Arab Persian Empire and western colonialists, which has a long historical foundation. Especially in Pakistan and other countries separated from India, Islam is the main religion. Although Buddhism became the state religion from ancient India to the peacock dynasty, it was greatly promoted. However, after the 9th century, Hinduism gradually flourished after the reform, while the factional disputes within the Buddhist monk group continued, thus gradually declining. By the12nd century, Arabs invaded on a large scale, Islam entered India with Arabs, the rulers rejected Buddhism, and many important Buddhist temples were destroyed. By the beginning of13rd century, Buddhism in India finally collapsed and tended to die out. Until the end of 19, Buddhism, which had been silent for about 700 years in India, revived. 189 1 year, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) David Hewawitarne launched the Mahabodhi Society in India, restored some Buddhist resorts and re-established some monasteries. Especially after India's independence in 1947, Buddhism has made new progress. 1956, the Indian government held an international large-scale commemoration of Sakyamuni's nirvana in 2500. In June+10 of the same year, the first Indian Minister of Justice and the drafter of the Constitution, Ambedogar, organized a movement to convert 500,000 Park Jung Su people to Buddhism in Nagpur, and later millions of Park Jung Su people converted from Hinduism to Buddhism. In India, although Buddhists account for only 0.6% of India's population, Buddhist thoughts are quite influential in Indian ideological and cultural circles. Especially the lower class people are deeply influenced by Buddhist thought.