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The
three greatest religions in the
world is Buddhism, Christianity
and Mohammedanism. Buddhism,
however, is the oldest of the
three. It was founded 2,500 years
ago by Lord Buddha. Buddha was a
son of an Indian king. Buddha was
the name he called himself after
his Enlightenment, meaning “ The
Enlightened”. His real name was
Price Siddhattha. His father was
King Suddhodana of Kapilavasdu,
and his mother Queen Siri
Mahamaaya, formerly a daughter of
the King of Devadaha.
Like other Indian Princes,
Siddhattha married Princess
Yasohara Bimba, also a daughter of
the King of a neighboring state,
who had soon afterwards born him a
son named Rahula. But unlike them,
instead of allowing himself to be
chained all his life to his wife
and son, Siddythatha broke up all
these worldly fetters. At the age
of twenty-nine, he stole out of
his palace one night, set out on a
long solitary journey, and left
all his possessions behind.
He did so, known also as “ His
Great Renunciation”. Because he
grew tired of all worldly
pleasures, realizing that all
these never lasted long and that
life was in fact full of
sufferings. By doing so, he
intended to discover the Ultimate
Truth of the whole existence, so
as to find a sure way out of all
suffering.
He spent his time meditating in
solitude, and doing everything
which he believed to lead him to
success, for instance, starving
and torturing himself until he
become so weak and thin. After his
self-mortifications, his finally
found that the best way to success
was” The Middle Way”, or
Majhimapatipada”, that is avoiding
the two extremes: indulging
oneself in pleasures or torturing
oneself to the utmost. At last he
became enlightened in one
full-moon night under the Bodhi
three on the bank of Nerunjara
River, in the state of Magadha,
when he was thirty-five years old,
after spending six years
altogether in search of truth.
What he discovered was “ The Four
Noble Truths” : Dukkha” or
sufferings, “Samudaya” or the
causes of suffering, “Nirodha’ or
the extinction of all sufferings.
“Dukkha” means that the whole
human life, from birth to death,
is nothing but sufferings, as it
is always changeable, that is “Aniccam,”
and uncontrollable, or “Anatta”.
“Samudaya” means the main cause of
all sufferings called “Tanha” or
desire. All of our sufferings
according to Buddha, spring up
from nothing but our ever-
increasing desire, the desire to
posses what seem to us pleasurable
and to avoid what seem to us
unpleasurable. “Nirodha” means
that by giving up “Tanha” or
desire, which is the mainspring of
all sufferings, we can get rid of
all these sufferings themselves.
“Magga” means the Noble Eightfold
Path which leads to the extinction
of the sufferings, comprising
Sammadithi or Right View,
Sammasankappo or Right Motives,
Sammavaca or Right Speech,
Sammakammanto or Right Action,
Sammaajivo or Right Means of
Livelihood, Sammavayamo or Right
Effort, Sammsati or Right
Mindfulness, and Sammasamadhi or
Right Concentration.
Buddha preached “ The Four Noble
Truths” to his disciples, who in
turn preached them to the people
of their time. Thus the seeds of
Buddhism were sown and began to
spread far and wide as the years
passed by, and when the Great
Teacher passed away at the age of
eighty, Buddhism had been firmly
established in India.
The Indian king who did most in
patronizing Buddhism and spreading
it into foreign lands was King
Asoka. Thanks to this great king,
Buddhism came to be established in
Suwannadhumi, where it was finally
embraced by the Thai people, and
under the benevolent rule of King
Ramkhamhaeng of Sukhothai,
Buddhism became the Thai state
religion.
Ever since the foundation of the
Kingdom of Sukhothai, Thailand has
been a stronghold of Buddhism,
which has, no doubt, a great
influence over the Thai people.
Under its good influence, the
Thais have become peace- loving
nation, with unrivalled tolerance
and hospitality to the people of
different races and creeds. It is
not too much to say that, in the
past, this admirable
characteristic of our nation
helped a great deal in preserving
our national independence while
the neighboring countries all
around us were losing theirs.
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