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Radical change agent Assessment

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Artists rendition of Buddha

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Buddha, originally Siddhārtha Gautama was born into royalty in the province, Lumini (Now Nepal) in a clan called the Shakyas. He was the son of the king at the time and when he was born he was prophesied to be a magnificent warrior or king or spiritual leader. To shield his son from seeing the atrocities of the outside world. His father kept him in his own custom built palace but one day when he was older he finally went outside the gates and saw the world for what it really was. Filled with death and pain it was then that he decided to leave his wealth and take on the life of prayer and going to the extreme to get the most out of prayer. But one day while fasting and meditating he was offered a bowl of rice it was then that he released you didn't need to go to extremes to be as holy as the ones who do. He decided to shave his head and meditate under a tree until he found inner peace, he ended up staying there for seven days while he was doing this he saw his entire life and previous ones eventually he saw the answers to all the suffering in the world. While at first hesitant to teach what he had learnt due to the fact what he had learned couldn't be put in words. He was convinced by the king of gods to spread the word of enlightenment and that’s what he did for the rest of his life. He spread of the word of dharma giving people a path to follow to become enlightened and even today people still follow his lessons.

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It's defined that truly radical people are people who encourage out of the box thinking and open-mindedness, stimulate us all to see potential in some vision of the way life could be that benefits all and is inclusive and invites people ‘in’, challenges the ‘status quo’ in order to see power shared and better outcomes for those without power, challenges presumptions about how the world should be, works for the wellbeing of others to improve their circumstances and transforms old worldviews to realise their visions of a better and more developed world. And if you research Buddha you will see that he fits these descriptions perfectly he encouraged out of the box thinking by giving people a alternative to being on the extreme of religion fasting, self tormented. He guided people through life with a beneficial end [enlightenment (possibly)] and gave people a goal to strive to through their life. He challenged the status quo of religion since before he became religious people had one way of showing their connection to god but after him there was the middle ground where people still prayed but could go on with life normally. While he didn't directly change the world through political or physical pathways he changed it subtly through religion since someone following his lessons would change their lifestyle meaning the world around the would change and if enough of them followed his way the world would change to accommodate for them and he changed the world in the fact he opened peoples minds to a new world of thinking.

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Before Buddha there was the belief that only through extreme measures one could be close to god which by its self is a closed view since it was seen as the only way to get close to god but through Buddha and his teachings it showed the world that there is an entire plethora of ways to reach inner peace and enlightenment so he opened the world to open minded thinking.

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Of course with every new idea in the world there are sceptics and haters and those who try to shut them down and it's no different with Buddha and the teachings he employed since he was "fighting" against his past religion Hinduism he was bound to have people who discredited his ways and beliefs and try to stop him from spreading what they believed to be lies now in this case no one in particular tried to stop him but he would possible be faced with sceptics that try to stop him form preaching by telling him it's unholy and he will be damned for it.

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The way in which Buddha worked for a transformation in society rather then demanding conformity, I belief is through the fact he was a pacifist. He didn't spread lies/propaganda against Hinduism he just let them do their thing while teaching the word of enlightenment and how to live your life normally and still be close to god without having to go to the extreme. He didn't force people to listen to his teachings he simple went out in public and started talking to those who would listen and want to know more about his teachings and philosophy.

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As mentioned numerous times at the time of his living he followed Hinduism and followed the lessons of it rigorously and like many others around him he followed them to the extreme (fasting, super long prayers, etc.) and since Hinduism was such a widespread religion it was excepted as the social norm but when he became enlightened he challenged the "status-quo" of society by giving people an alternative and a middle ground to the extremes of Hinduism and at first nobody saw it as acceptable but through time and public speaking and teaching for crowds he challenged the norm and gave an alternative to Hinduism along with the fact he gave people the option to follow a plethora of ideas from different religions.

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"Buddhism does not prevent anyone from learning the teachings of other religions" this sentence signifies that Buddhism is not your average run of the mill religion in fact it’s barely a religion. To clarify Buddha once said "Religion is not a law, but a disciplinary code which should be followed with understanding" "if there are reasonable and rational teachings in other religions, His followers are free to respect such teachings" meaning for example if a Buddhist was to learn about they way of Jewish people and found they don't eat pork and the reasons behind that made sense they were free to cut pork out of their diet and not be classed as someone who left their religion. Buddhism is to simplify a mix match bag of lessons from all different religions and they way it's different from a religion say "over the top" Christianity is that if a person from Christianity decides to take on lessons from other religions the others in their "circle" would shun them and accuse them of abandoning the way and being deceived by the devil or other worldly forces whereas as mentioned before Buddhism is built on the belief of exploring the world and the lessons other religions hold and taking them on and learning from them to become more and more peaceful until finally reaching enlightenment. While Buddha himself didn't follow his own religion as to speak he did follow the lessons and mantras that later formed the pillars of Buddhism and by following these lessons he helped others but ultimately helped himself by helping others (if that makes sense). The way he achieved that was through spreading the teachings of the gods and the way to live your life by living through multiple religions by in-turn living through Buddhism.

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Through my research i have found that Buddha’s' life and his teachings are inspirational to those he directly taught but also to me, before doing this task i thought religion was a set of life long rules of conduct and if you changed you leave the old ones behind and take on the new ones but through my research of Buddhism i found that he (Buddha) believed that religion was a loose set of rules and you follow them naturally and that you can mix and match rules and beliefs to accommodate for your life. After going through this task i have found that i have a more open mind to religion and what it is and the idea of religion to me is no longer the fixed rules of life and one religion at a time it is giving someone life purpose and a goal to strive to and for some people Buddha and his teachings are the one they do it through even though he was alive more then 2617 years ago which means his lessons and teachings still have relevance and support behind them.

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Article Title

Buddha Biography

Author

Biography.com Editors

Website Name

The Biography.com website

URL

http://www.biography.com/people/buddha-9230587

Access Date

April 3, 2017

Publisher

A&E Television Netw

Last Updated

January 24, 2015

Original Published Date

n/a

"What Buddhists Believe - Religion Of Freedom". Budsas.org. Web. 10 Apr. 2017.

The Story Of Buddha. India: Chelsea L Shelton, 2014. video.