Over the next six years, Siddartha would renounce many more pleasures. First, he studied meditation for a year under two Hindu holy men. When he did not find what he was seeking, he joined the sect known as the Jains (JYNZ). The latter were ascetics (uh-SET-ikz), meaning they renounced all earthly pleasures, even such basic ones as food and shelter, in their search for spiritual truth.
After five years of study with the Jains, Siddartha's body had shrunk to mere skin and bone, but he had not reached the enlightenment he sought. Finally he left the Jains, and five ascetics left with him. One night, as his body and mind were recovering from all the stress of the years, he went to meditate under a fig tree near the town of Gaya (guh-YAH) in northeastern India.
Over the course of a single night beneath the tree, during which time he was tormented by demons, Siddartha came
Kanishka
Kanishka (kuh-NISH-kuh; c. a. d. 78-103) became the greatest ruler of the Kushan (koo-SHAHN) dynasty that ruled most of northern India for a short but very crucial period. The Kushans provided an important link between East and West. to Kanishka, the Kushans aided immeasurably in the spread of Buddhism from India to China.
The roots of the Kushans go back to the unification of China and the building of the Great Wall by Emperor Shi Huang Ti. This displaced two great nations, the Hsiung-Nu (shung NOO) or Huns, who ultimately went west; and the Yueh-Chih (you-WAY CHEE).
The latter, after a defeat by the Hsiung-Nu, wound up in what is now Afghanistan in about 120 b. c.. The Yueh-Chih consisted of five tribes, and one of
These, known as the Kushans, became the most powerful. They invaded India. Under their third ruler, Kanishka, they controlled a vast territory that stretched from the southern end of modern-day Russia to the Ganges River valley in southeastern India. Between the arrival of the Aryan invaders in 1500 B. C. and India's conquest by Muslims more than 2,500 years later, no conqueror controlled more territory on the Indian subcontinent.
The Kushans stood at the crossroads of the world. They controlled the Old Silk Road, established in about 100 B. C., a vital trade route between China, India, western Asia, and ultimately Europe. Theirs was a multinational empire, with a variety of Eastern and Western belief systems. Thus they appear to have been strongly influenced both by Greece and Rome and by the cultures of the East.
To understand the meaning of existence. As he did, he was enlightened; hence his new name, Buddha.
He sat under the tree for many days and nights, during which time he came to a deeper understanding of what he had discovered. Then he preached his first sermon to the five ascetics, in a deer park—something like a forest preserve—near the town of Benares (bu-NAHR-uhs) in southeastern India.
The sermon contained what Buddhists know as the Four Noble Truths: that life is painful; that desire is the cause of pain; that only through a state of inner peace, or nirvana (nuhr-VAHN-uh), can one overcome desire; and that the key to nirvana is what he called the Eightfold Path. The Eightfold
Kanishka, Kushan King of India, praying to a statue of Buddha. Illustration. Corbis-Bettmann. Reproduced by permission.
Kanishka embraced a type of Buddhism called Mahayana (mah-ha-YAH-nuh; "Great Wheel"), which held that
Others could become buddhas by following the teachings of the Buddha. With Kanishka's blessings, a group of Buddhist monks came together to formalize the doctrines of Mahayana. Through his control of the Silk Road, the faith spread north and east, to China, and from there to most of eastern Asia.
The spread of Buddhism was perhaps Kanishka's greatest contribution to world civilization. His empire also helped transmit Greek ideas about art to India, where sculpture began to take on a distinctly Hellenistic cast. In addition, he built a 638-foot (194.5-meter) stupa in his capital, Peshawar (peh-SHOW-uhr), now in Pakistan on the Afghan border. The tower was one of the few structures built before modern times that exceeds the Great Pyramid of Egypt in height.
Path is a series of steps, such as facing the realities of life, that one must take in succession on the road to enlightenment.
World History
