This blog contains the insights, questions, and reflections of college students from various institutions in Atlanta: currently, the members of the Spring 2014 Introduction to Sacred Texts at Spelman College and, previously, the members of the Fall 2012 Introduction to Sacred Texts class at Emory University.
Sunday, September 9, 2012
My view of Sakyas/Blessed Buddha
I didn't realize this until I did the reading that Buddha was a title rather than a name. Being raised as a Christian, I was so intolerance and ignorant of other religions, but now I find so much similarities between these two religions. I think the fact that Lord Buddha is an arhat seems really interesting. The word "arhat" translates to "perfectly and completely awakened one," and the title Buddha also translates to "one who has woke up." This idea of "waking up" from ignorance parallels with the Christian idea of Revelation. In my religion class last year, I learned that believers and Christians achieve such revelation through the Word of God, and the denotation of the word "revelation" means that the "truth" is hidden, and it is up to us as the followers to uncover and find that truth. These two religions focus to achieve revelation/awakening through various physical/mental/spiritual journey. What I found to be a little different was that from what I read, it seems that believers of Buddhism achieve their enlightment/awakening personally and through self endurance, while Christianity seems to focus on the spiritual assistance to reach that revelation.
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The Buddha is not just an arhat. "Arhat" does not translate to "perfectly, fully awakened one." Rather, it literally translates as something like "worthy one" and is the name for a follower of a buddha who has become awakened and reached nirvana, but does not become a full buddha by teaching. This is the key difference between the two: Buddhas teach the path to awakening, a path they discovered on their own. Arhats listen to a buddha's teaching and reach awakening that way. The phrase "perfectly and completely awakened one" translates "samyaksam-buddha"; this is what we normally mean when we say "buddha." As one additional note: arhats are also sometimes called śrāvaka-buddhas or just śrāvakas (which means 'hearers'). Review p. 32-34 in Gethin.
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