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Wayshowers® Community Fellowship | ||||||||||||
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The story of Buddha is the life story of Siddhartha Gautama. He was born in a household of many riches and privilege. Only after he married and wandered outside the holdings of his parents did he observe the suffering in the world. He became interested in working with the masses and at age 29 decided to give up being a prince and became the wandering ascetic. This is called the Great Renunciation. One day Siddhartha went to meditate beneath a papal
tree, now known as a bodhi tree. He went into trance and the four noble truths came to
him. Following
his enlightenment, the Buddha gathered five of his companions
and delivered his first sermon.
He preached that those searching for enlightenment
should not look to find the two extremes of self-indulgence
and self-mortification, but should also avoid them.
He taught instead that they should discover the middle
path that leads to vision, to knowledge, to calmness, to
awakening and to nirvana. Nirvana is the aim of a Buddhist’s
religious practice. It
is said to be ridding oneself from the delusion of ego,
freeing oneself from the claims of the mundane world. Buddha
taught the concept of no self.
The central beliefs of Buddhism stem directly from the mind, life, and personality of its founder, the Buddha. The teachings of his first sermon were the Four Noble Truths. The
Four Noble Truths All
life is suffering.
The Eightfold Path Right
views - knowledge and understanding of the Four Noble Truths. The teachings
of Buddha were first passed down orally and eventually were
written down and became the Pali Canon.
In popular bookstores the book is called the Way of
Truth or “The Path of Truth”. There are also other books written attributed to the
Buddha’s teaching called the Three Baskets, so called
because the original palm leaf manuscripts were kept in three
woven baskets.
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Buddhism Metaphysical Contributions All
particular things surrounding us come from one ultimate
source, which is all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-loving.
The world is the expression or manifestation of this source. Oneness: one is
the many and the many is the one. God does not dwell in the
heavens. Buddhists keep
on removing selfishness and seeking the lights that is
everywhere, practicing loving kindness.
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Followers of
Buddhism have a number of practices.
One of the most popular is veneration of the Buddha.
The devotions are carried out in a shrine room, and most
Buddhists have a shrine room in their homes.
In addition, meditation and chanting are an important
part of Buddhist devotional practice.
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On some browsers such as Internet Explorer, the sound of a Zen Bell can be heard on this web page. Bells and gongs are frequently used during meditation or as a call to meditation. more
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Meditate
of one of the following prayers: Discourse
on Loving Kindess With
Every Breath
Participate
in the following Walking meditation: Take a moment
to center yourself, tune into your breathing.
Notice where you are.
Take a moment to discern which direction you would like
to move in. Observe
around you and pick a target as your final destination.
Observe your balance on your feet, is your weight
physically equally on both feet.
Now choose a foot to lift and take your first step.
Notice how it feels to be moving in a direction that
you choose. Take
a moment and have one foot out in front before you; bring up
the other foot to join the first.
How does it feel to be in the past and the present at
the same time? There
is no right or wrong answer, just how you feel with your
actions and decisions. Now
take the next step. With
deliberate action, step by step, move toward your target.
Notice your breathing; did you stop your breathing? Now
imagine that there is some obstacle to your goal; you have to
move around the object. Which
way do you choose to move toward your goal? How does it feel?
Having cleared the object, adjust your direction and move now
rapidly toward your goal.
How goes it feel to move toward your target without
hampering? You
have now reached your goal destination.
Tune into the sense of accomplishment.
Tune into how it feels to reach your goal. Regroup your
total experience. Share
with a partner or group what you learned from your
participation in this exercise and also what your highlight
was in participating in the exercise.
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Movies/videos
suggestions Suggested
reading:
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(C) Copyright 2001-2008 W.C.F., All Rights Reserved
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