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The founder of Buddhism and the primary enlightenment guiding light to the Buddhist was Siddhartha Gautama Buddha. Siddhartha became a wandering ascetic which was an esteemed and well traveled path in India during those days. After he studied Yogic meditation with two Brahmin hermits, Gautama Buddha succeeded in attaining high meditative states. Know after his enlightenment as the Sakyamuni Buddha and Gautama Buddha, Buddha eventually left all teachers and sat under a Bodhi Tree facing east. He remained there in meditation until he attained enlightenment on the night of the full moon, ascending the Dhyana, the four trance stages, to become Gautama Buddha or the "Enlightened One". Buddha’s teachings were recollected by his followers and transmitted orally as Buddhism and Buddhist teachings. It was not until many years after his death that the Buddhist principles of Buddhism were written down. The Pali dialogues or sutras are believed to be the closest approximation to what Gautama Buddha actually taught. Gautama Buddha taught a new spiritual path which he called "The Middle Way". If one followed the Buddhism Pathway it would bring a spiritual pilgrim clear vision, insight, wisdom, tranquility, awakening, Enlightenment, and Nirvana.
Meditation or Concentration
was the essential ingredient needed for one to reach the exalted state of Nirvana. By
contemplating universal truths and one’s essential beingness, growing Buddhic
consciousness nurtured detachment and abstract understanding.
Wisdom came from cultivating "Right Views" and "Right Intentions". To promote a happy harmonious life for both the individual and society and to build a foundation for higher states of consciousness, the Buddhist must perform only enlightened moral actions. Enlightenment and peace result from training and study of this path of upward spiral movement. Aspirants begin with a small spark of wisdom which inspires them to moral action and meditation which expands the wisdom which bolsters the morality and leads to higher levels of meditative concentration and so on. There are many types of meditation and concentration. Vipassana meditation was self-possessed, mindful concentration on the mind, emotions, thoughts, and dharmic principles. Another recommended type of meditation was to charge the four corners of the earth with pure thoughts of compassion, empathy, friendliness, nonviolence, and generosity and then to see them in one's mind's eye, rippling out to the ends of the universe.
Other forms of
meditation included contemplating the beauty of a flower, a tree, or some aspect
of the natural landscape.
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