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| Buddha was born approximately
560 B.C. in the land of Northern India. Through his life,
Buddha gave the concept of Nirvana an unprecedented exposure
to a large portion of the Eastern world with his achievement
of and subsequent teachings about the state of enlightenment.
As a religion, Buddhism contains the attainment of Buddhahood
or Nirvana as a central tenet of its teachings. Within
the realm of Christianity, the historical Christ echoed
the same teaching, though in a veiled form, by saying
that the Kingdom of Heaven is within us.
In
Buddhist thought the world has but a relative reality
in that it is a Maya or illusion in which we go round
and round the whirlpool of Samsara, the endless cycle
of birth and death, gain and loss, pain and pleasure
until we begin to search for a way out of the maelstrom
of matter. In this objective world nothing is lasting,
everything contained within it is in a state of flux
or constant change. But the real source of all pleasure,
truth, goodness and permanence is not dependent on the
objective world at all but is instead contained within
us. The inner essence or core of awareness of each of
us is the Atma, the real source of all bliss. We experience
a small fraction of this bliss as the senses go out
after objects in the world. The world is illusory and
the pleasures to be had in it are but momentary and
fleeting. Buddha sought the means to attain the inner
bliss of Nirvana which is permanent. |
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