Buddha what? What is Buddha? When did Buddha appear?

Buddhism, broadly speaking, is a religion, including its classics, rituals, customs, organization of religious groups, and so on; but Buddhism is very special among the world's major religions and ideas. All religions believe in divine creation and divine sovereignty, but Buddhism is a complete atheist; therefore, Buddhism seems to be a religion but not a religion, a kind of philosophy but not a philosophy, through science but not science. This is the greatest characteristic of Buddhism. Narrowly speaking, it is the words and teachings of the Buddha; if we use the terminology inherent in Buddhism, it should be called Buddha Dharma, as stated in the preface to the Zen 1 Ahan Sutra: "Do not do all evils, practise all the good deeds, and purify one's own mind; this is all Buddhism". In a word, Buddhism is the Buddha's teaching of stopping evil and promoting good deeds and purifying one's own mind, the Buddha's education.

The education of the Buddha includes an infinite number of things, more than the content of a modern university course. In time, it talks about the past, present and future; in space, it talks about our immediate life all the way to the endless world. So it is teaching, it is education, not religion; it is the education of wisdom, of realizing the universe and life. The education of Confucius in China is the education of one life (one life - from birth to death). Buddhism is the education of the three lives, of the past, the present and the future. Is Buddhism really education? If we look closely, this doubt is dispelled. In daily life, only teaching is referred to as teacher and student. We call Shakyamuni Buddha the fundamental teacher (the original teacher), which means that this education was initiated by him, and that he was the first founder. A Buddhist student calls himself a "disciple", which is an ancient Chinese term for a student. From these titles, we know that our relationship with the Buddha is that of teacher and student. As far as religion is concerned, God is not in a teacher-student relationship with his followers. In the case of Buddhism, it is clearly stated that the Buddha is in a teacher-student relationship with us; we are in a classmate relationship with the bodhisattva-the bodhisattva was the Buddha's early student, and we are the Buddha's present student. We are former and later classmates with the Bodhisattva, and the Bodhisattva is our senior. In our daily life we call monks "monks", but in fact there is only one monk in a monastery. "Monk" is an Indian word, which is translated as "pro-teacher". It means the teacher who teaches me personally, just like the supervising professor in a school nowadays, who teaches me directly and has a very close and intimate relationship with me. If he doesn't teach me directly, he is called "Dharma Master," just as there are many teachers in the school, but he hasn't been in my class, hasn't instructed me. Therein lies the difference between a "monk" and a "master". These titles are only found in education, not in religion. This proves that Buddhism is an education and not a religion. In terms of the organization of Buddhist monasteries (Chinese Buddhist monasteries), a monastery is an educational institution that combines Buddhist teaching with Buddhist art, just as a school is now combined with a museum. This form of teaching is what is known in modern times as art teaching. Modern people talk about art everywhere, and Buddhism practiced art teaching two or three thousand years ago. The organization of the monastery also shows that it was roughly the same as a modern school. The "monk" is the equivalent of the principal of the school, the one who presides over the teaching policy, who sets the curriculum, who hires the teachers, and this is the monk's duty. Below the monk are three helpers, known in Buddhism as program deacons, who are in charge of three departments: the head of teaching affairs is known as the "head priest"; the head of instruction is known as the "venerator"; and the head of general affairs is known as the "supervisor". "The name was not the same as that of the school. The name is not the same as a school, but in fact the affairs they manage are the same as the teaching, supervising and general affairs of a modern school, so it can be seen that the organization of the monastery institution is indeed a school, a very complete school. China used to call it a "jungle", and a "jungle" was a Buddhist university. From the origin of Buddhism to the establishment of Buddhism in China, we can see that it is indeed a teaching system, and this fact we must realize clearly so that we can understand Buddhism correctly!

The founder of Buddhism is Shakyamuni Buddha, this name is the Indian Sanskrit transliteration, Shakyamuni is the meaning of mercy, Muni is the meaning of silence, silence is the meaning of purity, Buddha is enlightenment. Siddhartha Gautama was from North India, now Nepal, which is in the north of India and south of Tibet. According to Chinese historical records, he was born in the 26th year of King Zhao of the Zhou Dynasty, which is not the same as that of modern foreigners, and there is a big difference between the ages. The Buddha entered into extinction in the fifty-third year of King Mu of the Zhou Dynasty in the year of non Shen, the life span of seventy-nine years, we usually say that Sakyamuni Buddha lived eighty years, the actual is seventy-nine years old, because we Chinese people talk about the virtual age, the virtual age of eighty years old, the actual age of seventy-nine years of age to pass away. If according to this record, Shakyamuni Buddha into the demise of this year, it should be three thousand and fifteen years, Xuyun old monk, as well as our former Chinese ancient masters, are using the Chinese record.

China has a long and colorful history of national culture. Although the culture of the Chinese nation originated in Chinese society, in the course of its development it has also continued to draw nutrients from other national cultures and transform them into its own constituent aspects. Buddhism originated in India, spread to China and China's traditional culture, mutual influence, absorption, the development of one of China's national religions, became an important part of Chinese feudal culture, the history of ancient Chinese society, philosophy, literature, art and other forms of culture, have had a far-reaching and multifaceted impact.

Buddhism occupied an important position in the ideology of Chinese feudal society, and it influenced various cultural fields such as philosophy, morality, literature, music, sculpture and art. On a large scale, the Buddhist doctrine of infinite time and space, the harmony of body and use, the purity and dyeing of the mind (good and evil), and the detailed analysis of the psychological effects had inspired and promoted the development of Chinese philosophy, while its pessimism, the idea of karma and the superstitious beliefs in Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, gods and ghosts had a serious anesthetic corrosive effect on the spirit of the ancient people.

Buddhism formally came to China is the Han Dynasty, unofficially earlier, in the Zhou Dynasty has been passed over one after another, but not formally, formally is the country sent envoys to the Western region to welcome, courtesy of the over, which is formal, formally came to be in the latter Han Yongping ten years (67 years AD), in China has a history of more than 1,900 years, to China, after the Chinese, because the emperor of China to welcome him, so it is a state guest of honor, so it is a state guest of honor, so it is a state guest of honor. When he came to China, because he was invited by the Emperor of China, he was treated as a state guest, and after his arrival, he had a very good conversation with our people in the government and the public, and we very much welcomed him and hoped that he could stay in China permanently. The first two Venerable Masters who came to China were Zhufan and Morten, who brought Buddhism, Buddha's statues and classics to China for the first time, and were accepted by the Chinese court. After coming to China, they were entertained by the state, as if they were received by the Protocol Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs nowadays. The former Foreign Ministry was not under the administration of the Chancellor, and diplomacy was directly under the Emperor's jurisdiction. Therefore, you should understand where the Buddhist temple comes from. The temple was a governmental office during the Han Dynasty, it was not a temple, but a first-class unit under the authority of the emperor, belonging directly to the emperor's supervision, and there were nine temples under the emperor, and the chief of the temples was called the minister, which we call the minister of public affairs, and the minister of the Honglu Temple was the equivalent of the foreign minister of the present time, and so was received by the Honglu Temple. Add a unit, that is, from nine temples increased to ten temples, this temple is the Buddhist temple, Buddhist temple is from here, and the name of the original Buddhist temple is the White Horse Temple, the capital at that time in Luoyang, so the White Horse Temple in Luoyang is the first temple of Buddhism in China, to know the origin of this temple? It was an organ under the emperor, what did it do? The first point we have to realize that Buddhism is really education, it is not a religion, this point must be clear, Buddhism is the education of Shakyamuni Buddha, as with our Chinese Confucianism, is the education of Confucius, the past Chinese for education is very important, since ancient times, we that is, we know that the importance of education, the Book of Rites, the Book of Learning, the 'building of the country, the people, teaching first! The most important thing for a country to get on track politically and for its people to lead a truly peaceful and happy life is education. The reason why China has suffered so much in the last hundred years is that education has failed and the education policy has been wrong, and that is why there has been so much suffering. China's past emperors attached great importance to education, the Ministry of Education in all political facilities in the first, called the Ministry of Rites, the prime minister of the following six ministries is to the Ministry of Rites as the first, put the education in the first, Buddhism is also education, is a foreign education, but the ideological basis of its education, and our ideals of China's education is completely corresponding to the Chinese Confucianism education is based on filial piety, filial piety parents and respect for the teacher, Shakyamuni Buddha's education is also based on this foundation, and the education is also based on this foundation. education was also founded on this basis. In this way, the saints of the East and the West coincided with each other, as the Chinese say, 'what the heroes see is roughly the same'. At that time, the Ministry of Rites was responsible for general education and selecting talents for the country. The emperor added a Buddhist education department below, the White Horse Temple is really the Buddhist education department, is under the emperor's control, not the prime minister's jurisdiction, so China has two departments of education, and Buddhist education later than the Confucian education is even more popular, this is due to the emperor advocated, the upper line and the lower line, it did not take long, the Buddhist education spread throughout the country, for our life and culture of thought played a fusion of ideas, with our It was not long before Buddhist education spread throughout the country and became an integral part of our life, culture and thought, merging with our Confucianism and Taoism and becoming the foundation of China's unique culture. In fact, the development of Buddhism in China is far more than that of India, and the number of people who have achieved success in Buddhist education is very large, much larger than that of India, which is the glory of the Chinese nation. Therefore, from the Han Dynasty until the Qing Dynasty, Buddhist education was very much loved by the state and society, as well as the common people of the country and studied it seriously, and it has brought long-lasting peace and stability to China over thousands of years, and it is a very great stabilizing force, and this is what we should recognize and should not ignore. This is a great stabilizing force that we should recognize and not ignore. At that time, Buddhist temples were the organs of Buddha's education; before the Tang Dynasty, the main work of Buddhist temples was to engage in translating the classics, explaining the classics, and guiding the public to practice. The above is the situation of the arrival of Buddhism in China, and after we understand it, we will introduce the interpretation of the word Buddhism.