As everyone knows, gods differ from humans in that they are immortal. The Egyptian Osiris, killed and dismembered by Set, is resurrected and becomes the ruler of the kingdom of the dead. The Son of God Jesus, crucified and dead on the cross, is resurrected and ascended into heaven. But the Indian Buddha goes into nirvana without a trace …
"Buddha" literally translates as "awakened." Brought up in a palace, Prince Gautama knew nothing about the world around him. He lived in hothouse conditions, protected from everything that makes a person unhappy, until one day, at the age of 30, he found himself outside the gates of the palace and saw poverty, illness, old age and death. What he saw shocked Gautama so much that he could no longer lead the old life. The prince left the palace and began to wander in search of truth.
The insight of Prince Gautama
After about five years, the hour finally came when Gautama attained enlightenment. Not far from Gaia, he sat down under a ficus tree, vowing that he would not rise until the truth was revealed to him. The meditation took 49 days.
But on the night of his birth, which fell on the full moon of May, Gautama suddenly understood everything - how this world works, why people are unhappy, how to eliminate the cause of human suffering. Gautama became a Buddha that night.
And when the next morning he met with the brahmana Dona, he in amazement asked the traveler who he was. After all, the face of Buddha shone with happiness, and the radiance surrounded him like a god. So Dona wondered if this traveler was not a god, not a heavenly sweet-voiced messenger, not a proud spirit of the forest? But the traveler answered in the negative. Surprised, Dona exclaimed: "So you are human?" But the traveler also answered this question in the negative … At this point Dona was completely at a loss. And the traveler explained that he is neither a man, nor one of the supernatural beings, since he eliminated the reasons why he could be one of them, and from that time he considers himself a Buddha.
Subsequently, Gautama received other names: Bhagavan (Blessed); Sugata (Walking towards good); Gina (Winner); Lokajyeshtha (World Honored); Tathagata (So come / So gone).
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Go through meditation
The Buddha devoted the next 45 years to promoting the true teachings to the masses. Simply put, he tried to convey his experience of attaining enlightenment through meditation to everyone. "Enlightenment" sounds like "nirvana" in Sanskrit. You can achieve nirvana only if you observe a kind of "rules of spiritual hygiene" - not to commit acts that lead to the deterioration of the karma received at birth. This is very important, because after the death of a person's body, his soul receives a new body, and this body is not always complete, and it is not always human. Gautama himself, as Buddhists believe, was able to be born and receive enlightenment only after a long processing of the soul of a certain brahmana Sumedhi in the wheel of samsara. Sumedhi repeatedly reincarnated in human and animal bodies, until he was born among the gods, which is why he could already choose himself,in whom he would like to incarnate at the last rebirth. Sumedhi chose the body of Prince Gautama. And Gautama was destined to eventually achieve nirvana and become a Buddha. Nirvana, which a Buddha attains during his lifetime, is otherwise called "enlightenment with a remainder," that is, enlightenment in the physical body. Every buddha would like to have "nirvana without a remainder", that is, to completely dissolve in the spirit, but this requires death. Then it will be "nirvana without residue" or parinirvana.but it requires dying. Then it will be "nirvana without residue" or parinirvana.but it requires dying. Then it will be "nirvana without residue" or parinirvana.
Gautama Buddha attained parinirvana after living for 80 years - quite a respectable age, obviously. It happened on February 15, either 483 BC, or 543 BC.
Although Buddha was not a man in the full sense of the word, his body was an ordinary human body. This body was in pain and ailment, and it was prone to illness and injury. By the age of 80, the body of the Buddha had developed the resource allocated to him. And Buddha understood this perfectly. In any case, in the last year of his life, Buddha began to suffer severe pains. While wandering with his disciples near the town of Vaishali, he felt so bad that he had to stop for a while in a nearby village. It was there that Buddha told his beloved disciple Ananda that his time on earth was drawing to a close and he wanted to take the last journey. Barely recovering, he got to his feet again and tried not to notice the excruciating pain. On the contrary, he tried to have time to do as much as possible while he could still move and speak. Buddha met with many people and preached to them,and then he himself asked to be asked questions. Leaving most of his disciples in Vaishali, he accepted new disciples all the time while traveling, and gave them instructions, clarified what they do not understand. Conversations and wanderings greatly tired him, but he was still friendly with everyone, rejoiced at the kindness of the inhabitants, admired the beautiful views of nature. Once he told Ananda that he could have postponed his death if he wanted, but Ananda did not understand the hint and did not beg Buddha.that if he wanted to, he could postpone his death, but Ananda did not understand the hint and did not beg Buddha.that if he wanted to, he could postpone his death, but Ananda did not understand the hint and did not beg Buddha.
How to prepare to leave
According to legend, Buddha died of poor quality food. Allegedly, when he and his students ended up in the village of Pava, the local blacksmith Chunda served the guests either rotten pork or the so-called "pork mushrooms" (the Indian analogue of truffles). Buddha did not allow anyone to touch the food and ate everything himself, and after a few hours he began to have severe stomach pains. With great difficulty, the Buddha reached Kushinagar, a small and dirty town with poor houses, where he stopped to rest on the bank of the river, in a grove, on the very outskirts. In this grove, the inhabitants of Kushinagar held popular gatherings, and a stone bench was set up for the elders. Buddha reclined on this bench under a large tree. He felt very bad, he could not go further and perfectly understood that he was dying, which he told Ananda. He burst into tears and wanted to leave,but Buddha urged him to return and began to give orders. First, he took Ananda's word to calm the poor blacksmith, who was the unwitting cause of his death. Secondly, he forbade indulging in despondency and ordered to continue meditating. Third, he explained how the laity should dispose of his body. In addition to Ananda, many monks and followers of the Buddha gathered around the dying man. With a firm voice, he gave them instructions and led the conversation as he usually did. The only deviation from the usual conversation was that Buddha asked them to ask questions that confuse followers, because soon he will not be able to give them answers. His last instruction were the words: "Everything is short-lived, strive with all your might for the earliest possible liberation." After that, Buddha closed his eyes and plunged into meditation. During meditation, he attained parinirvana - that is, death.
The Buddha's followers were very worried about the question: what will happen to him after death, and is death even possible for Buddha? Whenever the Buddha had to talk with his disciples, he was asked exactly about this. The question was: "Master, does the Tathagata exist after death or not, or both, or neither?" The Buddha's answer was very blunt: it would be wrong to say that Buddha exists after death; if you say that Buddha does not exist after death, and that would be wrong; if we say that after death the Buddha both exists and does not exist, and this will be incorrect: if we say that after death the Buddha neither exists and does not exist, and this will also be incorrect; because all these criteria are not applicable to Buddha. In other words, the Tathagata admitted that he was like Schrödinger's cat, or, more simply, that he had no idea,what awaits him in nirvana without a trace.
The followers perceived the death of Buddha at the same time as great sadness and great joy. There was even a special iconography of the scene of the death of Buddha, which is reproduced by artists to this day. Buddha lies on a stone bench, surrounded by monks, disciples, residents of Kushinagar of different classes, birds, animals, insects, as well as gods and goddesses hovering in the clouds. In a word, a scene of a universal scale. Everyone is crying, except for the Buddhist students who dream of attaining parinirvana.
According to legend, the body of the Buddha was burned at a funeral pyre, and the body flared up on its own. The ashes were divided among the monastic communities, townspeople and rulers. And then in honor of the Buddha, they began to erect stupas, establish holidays and build temples. Buddha, who did not consider himself a god, turned into a deity.
Nikolay KOTOMKIN