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Since the dawn of civilisation,
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the forces of nature
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and the whims of gods
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held sway over humanity.
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But 2,500 years ago,
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humankind experienced a profound transformation.
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Suddenly, there were new possibilities.
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This is a time when rationality overrode superstition and belief.
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This is an ethic which does not rely on the gods.
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The world is now explained in terms of natural forces.
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We're now responsible for our own destiny.
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Upheavals across the globe sparked an ambitious vision
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of what humans could achieve -
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spearheaded by three trailblazers.
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Socrates, Confucius and the Buddha.
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Great thinkers from the ancient world,
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whose ideas still shape our own lives.
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Is wealth a good thing?
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How do you create a just society?
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How do I live a good life?
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By daring to think the unthinkable,
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they laid the foundations of our modern world.
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I've always been intrigued by the fact that these men,
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who lived many thousands of miles apart,
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seemed almost spontaneously,
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within 100 years of one another,
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to come up with such radical ways of thinking.
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So, what was going on?
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I want to investigate their revolutionary ideas
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to understand what set them in motion.
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In this episode,
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I'm on the trail of that most enigmatic of philosophers -
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the Buddha.
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The wandering seeker of truth
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who challenged religious orthodoxy.
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Caste was not a barrier.
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Priests were not required.
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Analysing his thoughts and desires
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sparked game-changing insights.
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This is the teaching of Buddha.
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Everything's subject to change.
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Setting the Buddha on his path to enlightenment -
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a whole new way of being
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and an escape from the suffering of life.
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Technologically, the world has progressed immensely -
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but psychologically, I don't think we've moved very far.
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CHEERING
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Around 2,500 years ago,
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a young man made a life-changing decision.
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We're told that in the dead of night, he left home.
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Pausing, just once, to take a last look at his wife and newborn son.
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He then slipped out silently into the darkness.
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It was the start of a journey
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that would take him from the foothills of the Himalayas
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and end here, on the plains of northern India.
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His mission was to make sense of human life.
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For me, it's genuinely exciting
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that what the Buddha discovered 25 centuries ago
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continues to inspire hundreds of millions of people
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across the globe.
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As a religion or belief system, Buddhism has evolved,
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taking diverse forms within different cultures.
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And as a philosophy, its relevance is undiminished by time.
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The fact it's still on the rise
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shows it's a potent way to navigate our modern times.
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Passed down from the ancient world
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that the Buddha inhabited.
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Most of what we know about the Buddha is based on oral accounts
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that were written down a few centuries after his death.
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They tell us he was born
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sometime between the sixth and fifth centuries BC
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in what's now southern Nepal.
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We're told he was a prince,
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Siddhartha Gautama -
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good-looking, skilled in weaponry
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and prophesised to achieve great things.
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But his father, the king, was worried
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because, it was predicted, his son would do one of two things -
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stay in the King's palace, and become an emperor,
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or leave home,
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and become a great religious leader.
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The King, preferring his son to be a more conventional emperor,
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surrounded the Prince with luxury, to attach him to a worldly life.
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The streets were cleared of all unpleasant sights,
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so he was blissfully unaware of the suffering in the world.
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But the plan backfired.
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One day, whilst out in his carriage,
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he unexpectedly saw an old man.
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Later, he saw a sick man...
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..and then a corpse.
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Witnessing the pain and frailty of human existence
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shook him to the core.
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When the Prince saw a holy man,
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he was inspired,
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and his destiny was sealed.
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I have to say this colourful account of the Buddha's early palace life
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does have more than a ring of fable to it.
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It feels like a kind of textbook heroic story -
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but it does also seem to reflect
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a real existential crisis.
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The Buddha observed that our lives
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were permeated by suffering.
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His quest was to find out if there was a way to overcome it.
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He left the remote Himalayan foothills and headed south,
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abandoning everything -
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his privilege, his family,
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his homeland.
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A small tribal state, it was run by a council of prominent men,
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from one clan, called the Sakyas.
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Now, it looks as though his father was probably a clan leader,
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from a prosperous family -
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not the great king that we always hear about.
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As the Buddha headed south,
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he experienced the cultures
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of neighbouring states for the first time.
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Arriving here,
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he'd have seen everything with the eyes of a curious stranger.
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Just like those other ground-breaking philosophers
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of his day, Socrates in Greece and Confucius in China,
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he was the very definition of what it is to be a questioning human.
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He refused to be constrained by convention
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and complacent belief.
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He would follow wherever his enquiry led him.
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One of the first things the Buddha would have encountered
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was the religion of the Brahmans.
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A priestly caste,
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who dominated the cultural landscape of the Indian world.
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THEY CHANT
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They're going to offer rice and flowers to...
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Evoking the gods now.
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Brahmans were responsible for reciting the Vedas,
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an ancient body of divine teachings and hymns,
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in sacred spaces and in people's homes, just as they do today.
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HE CHANTS
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Another key role was to perform sacrifices...
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to persuade the gods to sustain the order of the cosmos
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and deliver prosperity.
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CHANTING
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They memorised all the old scriptures.
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You've seen how the Brahmans here have been just chanting
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one after the other and they can go on, like,
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for three or four hours.
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They memorised all the rituals,
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they knew what vibrations,
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what food,
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how the water should be,
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how the earth should be,
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what space is required -
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they had all the understanding of how to communicate with the gods.
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What kind of ritual were they in charge of?
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If somebody had died and you need to do the last rites,
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it was the Brahman who'd come to do it.
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If there was a drought, you'd get the Brahman to evoke the rain god.
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The whole life depended then on the priest,
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the Brahman, who had the knowledge.
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That must have given them real power?
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They've always dominated the rest
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whether you call it the caste system, or the different levels.
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They had the highest top position,
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then came the warrior community -
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the Rajputs, the fighters, the rulers.
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Then came the business community - which is the Vaishnavs.
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And then came the community that did the service -
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the cobblers, the blacksmith.
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And that was the Brahmanic society.
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CHANTING CONTINUES
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For the Buddha, the rigid hierarchy of the caste system
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and sacrifice to the gods
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relied on blind faith and received wisdom,
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not any kind of rational explanation.
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He passionately thought that there must be a more robust,
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a more credible way, to understand and explain our place in the world.
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The Buddha's journey continued on,
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down to the Ganges plain.
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It was a world in the midst of rapid transformation.
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New cities and prosperous, centralised kingdoms had emerged.
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The Buddha's said to have entered one,
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the kingdom of Magadha,
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and spent time here in the royal capital - Rajagriha.
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Along these rampart walls,
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you can still experience the ancient city
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as the Buddha would have known it.
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The streets of the city here would have been crowded with
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brightly painted carriages
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bringing gold and silver,
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pearls and blue lapis lazuli,
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sandalwood and rich cloths.
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And then, in the distance, you'd have seen great caravans
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carrying in more fabulous goods, from the Bay of Bengal
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and what is modern-day Afghanistan.
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There's a lot of evidence in the literature for this time
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that cities were expanding, but do we get evidence in archaeology, too?
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We get lots of evidence.
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This is the period when
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cities are emerging and expanding
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all over the country.
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These are lovely little belongings, here.
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Did these all come from cities?
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All of them did. You can imagine the people who used them.
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Look at this for instance. This is a razor.
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That's great, I love it. I love it when design doesn't change.
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- That's true!
- That's exactly the same as a razor today.
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That is one heck of a doornail!
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So, that's quite some door that that's holding together!
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And these are lovely, as well.
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Is this...? It looks like very fine dining ware is it?
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It is. This is a very special kind of pottery that must've been
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used only by very rich people for very special occasions.
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So, do you think? I mean, this kind of different
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way of living is affecting how people feel about their lives?
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Yes, absolutely.
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And the city must have been a very exciting
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and also unsettling experience
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for somebody who'd walked into one of these cities from a village -
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because something new is emerging
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but the old ways of life
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and the old kinds of social relationships...
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are dissolving.
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This is a time when you have unprecedented
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and, I think, unparalleled
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level of questioning about
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what it means to live in the world
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and how one should live one's life
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and all kinds of questions that...
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concern us very deeply.
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Cities were a real paradox.
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They did offer dazzling new opportunities,
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but they also cut people loose from everything that they knew -
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from their tribes, from their land,
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from ways of being that hadn't really changed much for millennia.
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So, they were wonderful,
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but they were also actually quite threatening.
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People must have wondered what life was all about,
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and how they should now best live together.
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It was a time of intense questioning.
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Can we control our desires?
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And the Buddha would play a vital role in that debate.
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What is justice?
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By now, deep into his own personal quest,
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he engaged with the most intractable question of all.
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TRANSLATION: What happens to us when we die?
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Inspired by the cycles of renewal in the natural environment,
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people had come to believe we were part of an endless cycle of birth,
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death and rebirth -
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known as samsara.
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Samsara is a powerful idea that was really current in the time of Buddha.
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The idea of a birth followed by rebirth,
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followed by rebirth in the cycle of time.
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But humanity's always been aware of the cycle of life,
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so what made samsara different?
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The cycle of rebirth really means that you go from one life to another
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and you can be manifested in
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a different form in each life.
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You could be manifested as a god
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or you could be manifested as a human being
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or maybe higher or lower caste.
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You can even manifest as an animal or an insect,
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as a cockroach, and so that is really the cycle
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of rebirth from life to life through
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a continuous passage of time.
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So, do you think people felt trapped by this?
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Yeah, you could imagine somebody thinking that,
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at each birth, he has to go through the travails of life,
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of sickness, old age, death
265
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and then rebirth and the whole cycle goes on.
266
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And so it's tedious, I mean, it's... It's suffering,
267
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because the existential reality was not one that they felt was bliss.
268
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So, did people try to work out a way
269
00:15:57,000 --> 00:15:59,240
to release themselves from this trap?
270
00:15:59,240 --> 00:16:01,640
Yes, the great quest of that time was to find ways
271
00:16:01,640 --> 00:16:04,400
out of that cycle of rebirth and re-death.
272
00:16:11,000 --> 00:16:13,680
For the Buddha, the rituals of the Brahmans
273
00:16:13,680 --> 00:16:17,560
weren't the answer to the perennial suffering of life.
274
00:16:17,560 --> 00:16:20,920
They didn't seem to offer a permanent solution to samsara...
275
00:16:22,200 --> 00:16:24,720
..but he was convinced that a mechanism
276
00:16:24,720 --> 00:16:27,760
to completely break free from the cycle altogether
277
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could be found...
278
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..and he wasn't alone.
279
00:16:33,960 --> 00:16:37,240
A wave of truth-seekers had left their families and homes
280
00:16:37,240 --> 00:16:40,600
to wander the Earth in search of the solution.
281
00:16:40,600 --> 00:16:44,160
Renouncing everything, some chose to live in forests
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which is where, we're told,
283
00:16:46,440 --> 00:16:48,600
the Buddha went looking for them.
284
00:16:51,040 --> 00:16:53,560
For the Buddha, self-discovery came
285
00:16:53,560 --> 00:16:56,520
from examining your own individual experiences,
286
00:16:56,520 --> 00:16:59,440
and then drawing logical conclusions from them.
287
00:16:59,440 --> 00:17:03,920
So, in order to try to evaluate the ideas of these new thinkers,
288
00:17:03,920 --> 00:17:06,960
he decided to try out their methods first-hand.
289
00:17:12,640 --> 00:17:14,640
One of these wandering truth-seekers
290
00:17:14,640 --> 00:17:16,680
was a man called Alara Kalama.
291
00:17:17,680 --> 00:17:21,160
Now, the solution to the problem of samsara, as he saw it,
292
00:17:21,160 --> 00:17:25,080
lay in directly experiencing the permanent,
293
00:17:25,080 --> 00:17:27,560
the eternal part of ourselves,
294
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the part that survived every rebirth.
295
00:17:30,400 --> 00:17:34,600
MEDITATIVE CHANTING
296
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To do this, he meditated...
297
00:17:39,240 --> 00:17:43,080
to block out the distractions of the temporary external world.
298
00:17:44,560 --> 00:17:48,120
Freed from physical and mental interference,
299
00:17:48,120 --> 00:17:51,480
such seekers could focus on their goal...
300
00:17:51,480 --> 00:17:54,440
to fully merge their eternal soul
301
00:17:54,440 --> 00:17:56,320
with its cosmic counterpart -
302
00:17:56,320 --> 00:18:00,280
a kind of universal soul, the highest reality.
303
00:18:02,280 --> 00:18:04,040
The idea seems to have been that -
304
00:18:04,040 --> 00:18:08,760
by creating union between the microcosm - the individual self -
305
00:18:08,760 --> 00:18:11,120
and the macrocosm - this world soul -
306
00:18:11,120 --> 00:18:13,320
they would achieve liberation.
307
00:18:17,200 --> 00:18:19,080
Under Alara's tuition,
308
00:18:19,080 --> 00:18:22,040
we're told the Buddha showed such remarkable ability,
309
00:18:22,040 --> 00:18:25,600
he could achieve a profound stillness of mind.
310
00:18:25,600 --> 00:18:29,320
So much so, Alara offered him joint leadership of the group...
311
00:18:33,040 --> 00:18:34,160
..but he refused.
312
00:18:35,200 --> 00:18:37,920
He found that once he came out of meditation,
313
00:18:37,920 --> 00:18:41,480
he was just returned, once again, to the same fundamental problems
314
00:18:41,480 --> 00:18:45,160
of birth, sickness, old age and death.
315
00:18:45,160 --> 00:18:48,240
It didn't give him the transformative experience
316
00:18:48,240 --> 00:18:49,400
that he sought.
317
00:18:58,240 --> 00:18:59,960
But the Buddha didn't give up.
318
00:19:05,880 --> 00:19:08,480
It's said, he next experimented
319
00:19:08,480 --> 00:19:11,080
with the techniques of a different type of renouncer
320
00:19:11,080 --> 00:19:14,680
who focused on extreme forms of self-denial.
321
00:19:21,920 --> 00:19:24,240
These type of renouncers also believed that
322
00:19:24,240 --> 00:19:28,400
the material part of our being is an obstacle to liberation -
323
00:19:28,400 --> 00:19:31,280
but theirs was a more drastic solution.
324
00:19:31,280 --> 00:19:33,560
Instead of focusing the mind,
325
00:19:33,560 --> 00:19:36,720
they put all their efforts into subduing their bodies.
326
00:19:45,920 --> 00:19:48,520
Some groups believed that all human action
327
00:19:48,520 --> 00:19:51,760
left a negative dust on our soul...
328
00:19:51,760 --> 00:19:53,880
weighing us down in this life
329
00:19:53,880 --> 00:19:57,080
and trapping us in future rebirths.
330
00:19:57,080 --> 00:20:00,920
Some fasted, some stood stock-still for months on end,
331
00:20:00,920 --> 00:20:03,800
others endured the heat of the midday sun,
332
00:20:03,800 --> 00:20:07,480
all to burn off the results of their previous actions.
333
00:20:07,480 --> 00:20:12,320
Extreme measures to allow space for the permanent soul to expand to the
334
00:20:12,320 --> 00:20:16,880
size of the universe, eventually liberating them from samsara.
335
00:20:24,640 --> 00:20:27,960
It seems the Buddha spent six years experimenting with all
336
00:20:27,960 --> 00:20:30,600
kinds of self-denying, extreme penances.
337
00:20:31,680 --> 00:20:34,680
He tried a technique of holding his breath for longer
338
00:20:34,680 --> 00:20:36,640
and longer periods.
339
00:20:36,640 --> 00:20:39,000
He walked around naked.
340
00:20:39,000 --> 00:20:41,360
He ate tiny amounts of food...
341
00:20:41,360 --> 00:20:43,600
Just one grain of rice a day.
342
00:20:46,280 --> 00:20:48,600
We're told that he almost died.
343
00:20:48,600 --> 00:20:51,440
His bones were like the rafters of a derelict house.
344
00:20:51,440 --> 00:20:55,360
He could actually feel his backbone through his stomach.
345
00:20:55,360 --> 00:20:58,520
But despite all this, he wasn't making any progress.
346
00:20:58,520 --> 00:21:01,040
The pain was clouding his mind.
347
00:21:01,040 --> 00:21:03,880
The austerities weren't providing a solution to suffering,
348
00:21:03,880 --> 00:21:06,360
they were just making him suffer even more.
349
00:21:11,760 --> 00:21:14,440
So, he abandoned the path of self-denial
350
00:21:14,440 --> 00:21:16,960
by eating a bowl of rice-porridge,
351
00:21:16,960 --> 00:21:21,160
disappointing and angering his five fellow renouncers.
352
00:21:23,360 --> 00:21:26,280
Six years of hardship experimenting with different methods,
353
00:21:26,280 --> 00:21:28,080
had come to nothing.
354
00:21:29,320 --> 00:21:34,840
Now, he would go it alone, in his quest to break the cycle of samsara.
355
00:21:38,720 --> 00:21:42,000
What the Buddha attempted next, was something new.
356
00:21:42,000 --> 00:21:45,560
A middle way between the extremes of self-indulgence
357
00:21:45,560 --> 00:21:47,880
and the rigours of self-mortification.
358
00:21:51,640 --> 00:21:55,560
Moderation would be his radical new approach from now on.
359
00:22:04,760 --> 00:22:07,600
The Buddha's change of tack would bring greater clarity
360
00:22:07,600 --> 00:22:10,840
to his examination of the human condition.
361
00:22:17,960 --> 00:22:20,640
The Buddha believed that all we can know for sure,
362
00:22:20,640 --> 00:22:22,840
is how we experience the world,
363
00:22:22,840 --> 00:22:25,680
and that it's our minds that determine what
364
00:22:25,680 --> 00:22:27,320
kinds of experience we have.
365
00:22:32,080 --> 00:22:33,760
Using his meditation skills,
366
00:22:33,760 --> 00:22:38,760
he interrogated the internal workings of his own mind.
367
00:22:38,760 --> 00:22:42,480
And what the Buddha discovered, contradicted the assumptions
368
00:22:42,480 --> 00:22:45,200
people held about the permanence of the soul.
369
00:22:49,400 --> 00:22:52,720
He realised that the external world, as we experienced it,
370
00:22:52,720 --> 00:22:54,760
was constantly changing,
371
00:22:54,760 --> 00:22:57,960
and that we were constantly changing, too.
372
00:22:57,960 --> 00:23:02,480
Our material form, our sensations, our mind, our consciousness,
373
00:23:02,480 --> 00:23:06,240
our character - all in perpetual flux.
374
00:23:10,520 --> 00:23:13,520
This realisation exposed a fundamental flaw
375
00:23:13,520 --> 00:23:15,320
in the Buddha's thinking.
376
00:23:16,720 --> 00:23:21,400
All efforts to identify a permanent self were futile,
377
00:23:21,400 --> 00:23:28,120
because a permanent, or independent self, did not exist.
378
00:23:29,960 --> 00:23:34,240
When the Buddha's looking at how the process of his suffering
379
00:23:34,240 --> 00:23:37,640
was developing, he started looking at it very much like a doctor
380
00:23:37,640 --> 00:23:39,120
and he starts looking at a cause.
381
00:23:39,120 --> 00:23:42,760
He starts realising that everything is fleeting, is changing.
382
00:23:42,760 --> 00:23:45,680
There's nothing that he can put his finger on as a cause and starts
383
00:23:45,680 --> 00:23:50,720
realising that, actually, the cause is the identification with an "I".
384
00:23:50,720 --> 00:23:54,280
There's no such thing, which you can just pinpoint at a certain point
385
00:23:54,280 --> 00:23:56,000
in time and say, "OK, this is it."
386
00:23:56,000 --> 00:23:59,680
But, it changes in the next moment, so I think that realisation
387
00:23:59,680 --> 00:24:02,760
that everything is impermanent, leads to the idea
388
00:24:02,760 --> 00:24:06,200
of the permanently existing entity of a soul as a concept.
389
00:24:06,200 --> 00:24:10,000
Just explain to me, cos I can't quite get my head round this.
390
00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:14,440
What does it mean to have no self? What did he mean by that?
391
00:24:14,440 --> 00:24:16,640
I'll give you an example. For example, I say,
392
00:24:16,640 --> 00:24:18,280
"OK, Bethany, when were you born?"
393
00:24:18,280 --> 00:24:20,920
And you say, "I was born on so and so date and so and so year."
394
00:24:20,920 --> 00:24:24,720
And I'd say, "Really? Weren't you born nine months before that?"
395
00:24:24,720 --> 00:24:26,240
You say, "Yes," and I say,
396
00:24:26,240 --> 00:24:28,920
"Weren't you in your mother and father before that?"
397
00:24:28,920 --> 00:24:32,000
If I took your mother out of you, you're not Bettany any more!
398
00:24:32,000 --> 00:24:34,160
Bettany's made of non-Bettany elements.
399
00:24:34,160 --> 00:24:36,160
Bettany is the sunshine,
400
00:24:36,160 --> 00:24:37,840
the earth, England,
401
00:24:37,840 --> 00:24:40,640
and then you suddenly start realising that there was not
402
00:24:40,640 --> 00:24:43,360
a single point when Bettany came about.
403
00:24:43,360 --> 00:24:46,240
You know, so, in Buddhism we don't talk about creation,
404
00:24:46,240 --> 00:24:47,960
we talk about manifestation.
405
00:24:49,360 --> 00:24:54,080
It's not denying that you exist. You exist.
406
00:24:54,080 --> 00:24:58,920
It's denying that we have an intrinsically independent entity.
407
00:25:02,160 --> 00:25:05,320
The Buddha believed the idea of a permanent self
408
00:25:05,320 --> 00:25:07,880
wasn't part of the solution.
409
00:25:07,880 --> 00:25:10,440
It was actually at the root of the problem,
410
00:25:10,440 --> 00:25:13,360
because it made us selfish, self-absorbed.
411
00:25:14,840 --> 00:25:18,640
It created insatiable craving that enslaved us
412
00:25:18,640 --> 00:25:24,640
to transient earthly concerns, and kept us trapped in samsara.
413
00:25:25,720 --> 00:25:29,720
To rid oneself of this deep-seated delusion of self,
414
00:25:29,720 --> 00:25:32,120
was the way to liberation.
415
00:25:33,720 --> 00:25:37,760
That realisation allows you the freedom not to get caught
416
00:25:37,760 --> 00:25:43,800
in the I, me, mine, which is really the fundamental cause of suffering.
417
00:25:43,800 --> 00:25:49,720
And then he says, "Oh, then there is a way to overcome suffering."
418
00:25:49,720 --> 00:25:51,960
That's a sort of, "A-ha, wow!"
419
00:25:51,960 --> 00:25:56,200
So, his teaching was based around rediscovering your nature,
420
00:25:56,200 --> 00:25:58,080
which is non-self nature.
421
00:26:00,400 --> 00:26:04,160
The Buddha's self-analysis revealed the answer.
422
00:26:04,160 --> 00:26:07,400
If we could extinguish the delusion of self,
423
00:26:07,400 --> 00:26:12,520
we would see things as they truly are and our suffering would end.
424
00:26:12,520 --> 00:26:17,960
We had the capacity to take control of our lives.
425
00:26:17,960 --> 00:26:21,280
The Buddha seems to have recognised that there is plasticity
426
00:26:21,280 --> 00:26:23,840
to our minds and characters.
427
00:26:23,840 --> 00:26:26,320
Living in the world with the right attitude,
428
00:26:26,320 --> 00:26:29,000
is fundamentally empowering.
429
00:26:29,000 --> 00:26:33,040
Basically, know yourself, and the world is yours.
430
00:26:34,160 --> 00:26:36,200
It's cognitive psychology,
431
00:26:36,200 --> 00:26:39,200
25 centuries before the phrase is invented.
432
00:26:45,720 --> 00:26:48,200
The Buddha was ready to throw all his efforts
433
00:26:48,200 --> 00:26:50,960
into bringing about his self-transformation.
434
00:26:54,480 --> 00:26:57,040
Arriving on the outskirts of a small village,
435
00:26:57,040 --> 00:26:59,520
he found a beautiful stretch of countryside,
436
00:26:59,520 --> 00:27:03,520
with a pleasant grove, nestled on the banks of a sparkling river.
437
00:27:07,920 --> 00:27:12,160
We're told that one night, aged 35, the Buddha came here to
438
00:27:12,160 --> 00:27:17,800
Bodh Gaya, and calmly sat underneath the ancestor of this very tree.
439
00:27:17,800 --> 00:27:22,000
Today, it's a pilgrimage site for many millions, for one key reason.
440
00:27:23,080 --> 00:27:26,280
Because this is where it all came together.
441
00:27:30,920 --> 00:27:34,080
The Buddha entered a deep meditative state,
442
00:27:34,080 --> 00:27:38,480
in which he experienced a vast number of his previous lives.
443
00:27:42,120 --> 00:27:46,080
He describes a cycle of many life forms and realms of existence.
444
00:27:48,560 --> 00:27:51,240
From hell-beings and animals,
445
00:27:51,240 --> 00:27:55,600
to humans, through to more abstract levels of consciousness.
446
00:27:57,160 --> 00:28:00,960
Yet all these forms were subject to samsara.
447
00:28:00,960 --> 00:28:04,560
Even a god would eventually die and be reborn.
448
00:28:07,200 --> 00:28:11,440
But, finally, the Buddha moved beyond these states.
449
00:28:11,440 --> 00:28:13,640
Searching deep in his humanity,
450
00:28:13,640 --> 00:28:18,680
he was able to root out and permanently extinguish craving,
451
00:28:18,680 --> 00:28:20,840
ignorance and delusion.
452
00:28:20,840 --> 00:28:25,640
He had finally broken free of the cycle of death and rebirth
453
00:28:25,640 --> 00:28:29,120
and attained, enlightenment - nirvana.
454
00:28:29,120 --> 00:28:33,320
Unshakeable is the liberation of my mind.
455
00:28:33,320 --> 00:28:35,640
This is the last birth.
456
00:28:35,640 --> 00:28:38,440
For me, there is no more renewed existence.
457
00:28:41,480 --> 00:28:44,200
Later, the Buddha would discourage speculation
458
00:28:44,200 --> 00:28:46,880
about the nature of nirvana.
459
00:28:46,880 --> 00:28:49,840
Describing it, was like asking what had happened to a flame
460
00:28:49,840 --> 00:28:51,360
once it had been blown out.
461
00:28:52,520 --> 00:28:57,960
And yet, this was no less than a solution to the human condition,
462
00:28:57,960 --> 00:29:02,760
without the need for heavens or gods or metaphysical knowledge.
463
00:29:02,760 --> 00:29:06,160
This was a state of pure liberation,
464
00:29:06,160 --> 00:29:09,560
directly experienced from within.
465
00:29:23,360 --> 00:29:26,360
The Buddha had harnessed the capabilities of the mind,
466
00:29:26,360 --> 00:29:30,760
to identify what he believed it fundamentally was to be human.
467
00:29:31,840 --> 00:29:36,240
Extinguishing desire and hatred and delusion, had allowed him
468
00:29:36,240 --> 00:29:38,280
to fulfil his full potential.
469
00:29:39,320 --> 00:29:43,640
Now, he could live with absolute wisdom and compassion.
470
00:29:46,840 --> 00:29:49,680
The Buddha found he had a new mission -
471
00:29:49,680 --> 00:29:52,920
to share what he'd experienced.
472
00:29:54,720 --> 00:29:57,560
He wasn't sure if he could ever communicate it,
473
00:29:57,560 --> 00:30:00,520
but his profound empathy for others drove him on.
474
00:30:01,560 --> 00:30:05,160
His starting point, was the five former renouncer friends,
475
00:30:05,160 --> 00:30:07,720
he had left for his middle way.
476
00:30:07,720 --> 00:30:11,200
The sources tell us he found them where I'm heading next, the
477
00:30:11,200 --> 00:30:15,920
outskirts of modern day Varanasi, the site of an ancient deer park.
478
00:30:17,680 --> 00:30:22,440
At first, his former companions were reluctant to welcome him.
479
00:30:22,440 --> 00:30:25,560
And then, we're told, they realised that a great
480
00:30:25,560 --> 00:30:27,760
transformation had taken place.
481
00:30:27,760 --> 00:30:30,880
They greeted him with respect, and washed his feet.
482
00:30:30,880 --> 00:30:36,000
And it's now that we get a sense of the compelling charisma of the man.
483
00:30:36,000 --> 00:30:38,080
Because, what the Buddha had to tell them,
484
00:30:38,080 --> 00:30:42,120
was mind-blowing in its insight and clarity.
485
00:30:45,280 --> 00:30:50,800
The Buddha shared his discoveries, known as the Four Noble Truths.
486
00:30:53,800 --> 00:30:56,160
The first truth was the inevitability
487
00:30:56,160 --> 00:30:58,480
that all life is suffering.
488
00:30:58,480 --> 00:31:01,840
But by suffering, the Buddha didn't just mean illness and old age,
489
00:31:01,840 --> 00:31:05,560
but the persistent disappointments and insecurities of life.
490
00:31:07,320 --> 00:31:11,440
The second truth was that suffering is caused by craving.
491
00:31:13,320 --> 00:31:17,400
The third was that, since suffering has an identifiable cause,
492
00:31:17,400 --> 00:31:18,920
it could have an end.
493
00:31:21,960 --> 00:31:24,800
But it was the fourth truth that offered the critical,
494
00:31:24,800 --> 00:31:26,800
practical answer.
495
00:31:26,800 --> 00:31:31,240
This truth was a path, what he called the Eightfold Path,
496
00:31:31,240 --> 00:31:34,240
and it offered up an end to all suffering.
497
00:31:38,200 --> 00:31:39,800
With the Buddha's guidance,
498
00:31:39,800 --> 00:31:42,960
his small group of disciples made quick progress.
499
00:31:44,000 --> 00:31:47,480
They gained wisdom, practised ethical conduct
500
00:31:47,480 --> 00:31:50,560
and achieved mental discipline through meditation.
501
00:31:52,120 --> 00:31:55,800
Finally, they experienced nirvana for themselves.
502
00:32:02,520 --> 00:32:05,840
But whilst liberation was, in theory, open to everyone,
503
00:32:05,840 --> 00:32:09,640
in practice, many couldn't afford the time and effort.
504
00:32:11,200 --> 00:32:14,920
The Buddha, however, had a message of hope for those who remained
505
00:32:14,920 --> 00:32:17,640
trapped in the cycle of death and rebirth...
506
00:32:19,680 --> 00:32:25,720
..by completely reformulating the long established concept of karma.
507
00:32:25,720 --> 00:32:30,960
Traditionally, karma referred to significant action, which, it was
508
00:32:30,960 --> 00:32:35,480
believed, could improve the quality of our rebirth in the next life.
509
00:32:35,480 --> 00:32:39,000
In the early days of Brahmanism, karma was synonymous with
510
00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:44,760
ritual action, performed by priests, on behalf of the higher castes.
511
00:32:44,760 --> 00:32:47,680
The lowest castes had little prospect of improving
512
00:32:47,680 --> 00:32:50,440
their lot through this ritual form of karma.
513
00:32:52,800 --> 00:32:56,880
The Buddha changed karma from ritual action to the thought
514
00:32:56,880 --> 00:33:01,200
of that action, so the intent of that action was more important than
515
00:33:01,200 --> 00:33:02,680
the action itself.
516
00:33:02,680 --> 00:33:05,520
If you thought well or if you had good intentions,
517
00:33:05,520 --> 00:33:08,480
then you could change your destiny,
518
00:33:08,480 --> 00:33:10,920
not necessarily in this life
519
00:33:10,920 --> 00:33:13,160
but in future lives, as well.
520
00:33:13,160 --> 00:33:15,000
That's a key shift, isn't it?
521
00:33:15,000 --> 00:33:17,720
That is a very major shift in the understanding of the notion
522
00:33:17,720 --> 00:33:22,360
of karma, from ritual action to an individual's choice of doing good.
523
00:33:22,360 --> 00:33:24,600
They have to be good human beings,
524
00:33:24,600 --> 00:33:26,760
and that's the fundamental thing about Buddhism.
525
00:33:26,760 --> 00:33:29,000
So, that's not just a, kind of, philosophical shift,
526
00:33:29,000 --> 00:33:31,120
that's a change in society?
527
00:33:31,120 --> 00:33:34,120
Absolutely, he took it out of the hands of the priests
528
00:33:34,120 --> 00:33:38,040
who were empowered to change the destiny of men
529
00:33:38,040 --> 00:33:41,000
and gave it in the hands of people who were practising Buddhism.
530
00:33:41,000 --> 00:33:43,120
So, it doesn't matter what class you're from or,
531
00:33:43,120 --> 00:33:44,280
actually, what gender?
532
00:33:44,280 --> 00:33:46,440
You could be anyone, you could belong to any caste.
533
00:33:46,440 --> 00:33:47,720
It didn't really matter.
534
00:33:47,720 --> 00:33:50,360
Everybody had the choice and the freedom to improve,
535
00:33:50,360 --> 00:33:51,600
to become a good person.
536
00:33:56,760 --> 00:33:59,800
The Buddha's take on karma was liberating.
537
00:33:59,800 --> 00:34:02,520
Everyone stuck in the cycle of samsara,
538
00:34:02,520 --> 00:34:05,600
had the chance to improve the quality of their rebirth.
539
00:34:09,840 --> 00:34:12,040
Now, you were no longer good or bad,
540
00:34:12,040 --> 00:34:14,360
dependent on class or gender,
541
00:34:14,360 --> 00:34:17,000
or some kind of ritual expertise.
542
00:34:17,000 --> 00:34:21,720
The Buddha sought answers that had the potential to benefit everyone.
543
00:34:21,720 --> 00:34:24,400
Just think what a radical development that is.
544
00:34:32,200 --> 00:34:35,720
The Buddha's democratisation of karma attracted the attention,
545
00:34:35,720 --> 00:34:39,560
and support, of one class in particular,
546
00:34:39,560 --> 00:34:43,680
the merchants and traders, who had fuelled the rise of Indian cities.
547
00:34:46,840 --> 00:34:49,360
According to the conventions of Brahmanism,
548
00:34:49,360 --> 00:34:54,080
contact with anyone outside your caste resulted in contamination.
549
00:34:54,080 --> 00:34:57,560
But of course, by definition, merchants were interacting
550
00:34:57,560 --> 00:35:01,600
with different people and different cultures the whole time.
551
00:35:01,600 --> 00:35:04,880
Now, Buddhism didn't have any kind of a problem with that.
552
00:35:08,480 --> 00:35:12,680
Some merchants felt disadvantaged by the caste system.
553
00:35:12,680 --> 00:35:16,480
The Buddha's inclusive message, gave them a greater sense of place
554
00:35:16,480 --> 00:35:20,720
in society and channelled their aspirational instincts.
555
00:35:21,840 --> 00:35:26,080
The wealth of merchants, like good karma, was by its very nature,
556
00:35:26,080 --> 00:35:27,800
meritocratic.
557
00:35:27,800 --> 00:35:30,080
It wasn't in some way pre-ordained,
558
00:35:30,080 --> 00:35:33,240
it was won and accumulated through your own efforts.
559
00:35:36,960 --> 00:35:39,680
The Buddha's take on the ancient ideas of karma,
560
00:35:39,680 --> 00:35:44,760
offered ordinary people a way to a better, moral life.
561
00:35:44,760 --> 00:35:48,080
He helped to create the belief, that action and intention,
562
00:35:48,080 --> 00:35:51,760
in our everyday lives, had real consequences.
563
00:35:53,760 --> 00:35:57,720
Coins like these were a brand-new common denominator,
564
00:35:57,720 --> 00:36:02,080
just as karma was now a kind of moral currency for Buddhism.
565
00:36:03,120 --> 00:36:06,920
It's easy to imagine how, with things like these in your pocket,
566
00:36:06,920 --> 00:36:10,320
you could understand how you could secure future benefit,
567
00:36:10,320 --> 00:36:12,080
by building up merits.
568
00:36:13,840 --> 00:36:16,200
The Buddha had revolutionised ethics.
569
00:36:17,400 --> 00:36:20,840
We could no longer blame any external force, like a God,
570
00:36:20,840 --> 00:36:23,120
for our decisions.
571
00:36:23,120 --> 00:36:26,600
We were entirely responsible for our own moral condition.
572
00:36:26,600 --> 00:36:29,640
The buck stopped with us.
573
00:36:29,640 --> 00:36:32,960
In essence, this is the same rallying cry that we hear from those
574
00:36:32,960 --> 00:36:37,160
other great philosophers of the age, Socrates and Confucius.
575
00:36:37,160 --> 00:36:40,760
To find answers to the universe, first look within.
576
00:36:40,760 --> 00:36:46,280
"Be your own lamp," said the Buddha. "Seek no other refuge."
577
00:36:46,280 --> 00:36:50,520
These are exciting thoughts, the idea that you don't just have
578
00:36:50,520 --> 00:36:54,000
to be a victim, but a master of your own fate.
579
00:37:03,120 --> 00:37:05,960
The Buddha forged ahead with his potent message
580
00:37:05,960 --> 00:37:07,760
of personal liberation.
581
00:37:09,760 --> 00:37:12,880
It's said he criss-crossed the central Indian plains,
582
00:37:12,880 --> 00:37:16,200
giving public talks in cities and the country,
583
00:37:16,200 --> 00:37:18,960
to anybody he thought ready to hear his message.
584
00:37:20,440 --> 00:37:23,560
And the community of disciples, who shared his mission
585
00:37:23,560 --> 00:37:28,120
and wandering lifestyle, acquired a name - the Sangha.
586
00:37:30,120 --> 00:37:32,360
At this stage, the Sangha was dispersed,
587
00:37:32,360 --> 00:37:35,000
and only loosely organised.
588
00:37:35,000 --> 00:37:37,840
But, according to traditional accounts, when the Buddha
589
00:37:37,840 --> 00:37:42,000
came here, to a forest on the outskirts of Rajagriha,
590
00:37:42,000 --> 00:37:45,640
the Buddhist order would take on a whole new direction.
591
00:37:48,560 --> 00:37:50,360
The king of the city, Bimbisara,
592
00:37:50,360 --> 00:37:53,720
heard that the Buddha was camped outside,
593
00:37:53,720 --> 00:37:57,280
and went to visit him with 120,000 Brahmans.
594
00:37:57,280 --> 00:38:01,960
On hearing him preach, we're told that each and every one of them,
595
00:38:01,960 --> 00:38:07,520
including the King, begged to be received as lay followers.
596
00:38:11,120 --> 00:38:13,880
We know that with people when we meet some people,
597
00:38:13,880 --> 00:38:16,840
we immediately feel a sense of reverence, you know,
598
00:38:16,840 --> 00:38:20,600
a sense of humility in their presence.
599
00:38:20,600 --> 00:38:23,600
And yet, they don't seem inaccessible.
600
00:38:23,600 --> 00:38:25,880
He was, I feel, very charismatic,
601
00:38:25,880 --> 00:38:29,200
people were, in a way, entranced by him.
602
00:38:30,360 --> 00:38:34,600
I think he was able to understand the psychology of the person.
603
00:38:34,600 --> 00:38:37,880
He had a, sort of, intuitive sense of what the person needed.
604
00:38:39,120 --> 00:38:42,400
He was not saying, "I'm the one who knows."
605
00:38:42,400 --> 00:38:44,600
He said, "You try it."
606
00:38:44,600 --> 00:38:46,320
And this spirit of free enquiry
607
00:38:46,320 --> 00:38:48,680
that the Buddha was really encouraging,
608
00:38:48,680 --> 00:38:50,240
was quite revolutionary.
609
00:38:52,640 --> 00:38:55,720
Following their meeting, Bimbisara was said to have donated
610
00:38:55,720 --> 00:38:58,600
a bamboo grove on this very spot,
611
00:38:58,600 --> 00:39:01,480
as a retreat for the Buddha's growing community.
612
00:39:02,760 --> 00:39:06,200
Winning over wealthy patrons would be crucial for the future
613
00:39:06,200 --> 00:39:07,680
of the Buddha's message.
614
00:39:08,920 --> 00:39:11,640
The establishment of permanent bases
615
00:39:11,640 --> 00:39:14,680
in places like this, saw the Sangha develop from a group
616
00:39:14,680 --> 00:39:17,960
of like-minded itinerants, into a settled institution.
617
00:39:23,560 --> 00:39:28,240
The Sangha at Rajagriha became the model for something entirely new.
618
00:39:29,800 --> 00:39:31,760
Soon, a network of monasteries,
619
00:39:31,760 --> 00:39:36,520
the first known monasteries in the world, sprang up.
620
00:39:36,520 --> 00:39:39,040
Places where the Buddha, and his travelling disciples,
621
00:39:39,040 --> 00:39:41,840
would stay during the monsoon season.
622
00:39:44,040 --> 00:39:48,040
The movement was changing, and the Buddha's role would change, too.
623
00:39:49,240 --> 00:39:51,520
He'd taught that each monk was an island,
624
00:39:51,520 --> 00:39:54,120
and responsible for themselves.
625
00:39:54,120 --> 00:39:57,320
But, now, he's believed to have created a comprehensive
626
00:39:57,320 --> 00:39:58,800
set of guidelines.
627
00:40:00,520 --> 00:40:04,560
'With early Buddhism, there was only a few monks, so there was no need'
628
00:40:04,560 --> 00:40:08,200
of rules, because those who became monks
629
00:40:08,200 --> 00:40:10,920
were very highly intelligent
630
00:40:10,920 --> 00:40:13,640
and highly, you know, spiritual.
631
00:40:13,640 --> 00:40:17,760
They have the clear intention, comprehension -
632
00:40:17,760 --> 00:40:20,360
why I am become a monk -
633
00:40:20,360 --> 00:40:23,080
so they never done anything wrong.
634
00:40:23,080 --> 00:40:27,200
But gradually, you know, with the numbers growing up,
635
00:40:27,200 --> 00:40:31,280
to maintain the excellence, peace and harmony,
636
00:40:31,280 --> 00:40:36,280
he prescribed the different rules and the discipline.
637
00:40:36,280 --> 00:40:39,040
And amazing to think that two-and-a-half millennia later,
638
00:40:39,040 --> 00:40:41,160
you're still living by those rules.
639
00:40:41,160 --> 00:40:43,680
I think we need MORE rules.
640
00:40:43,680 --> 00:40:47,480
Because, in the modern times, we have to face so many things.
641
00:40:47,480 --> 00:40:50,600
That time, only India, now there is the whole world!
642
00:40:51,760 --> 00:40:57,000
There are 227 rules for monks, enacted every day.
643
00:40:57,000 --> 00:41:00,480
And it is amazing to think that in these words, we could be
644
00:41:00,480 --> 00:41:04,000
getting a glimpse into the mind of the Buddha and his early followers.
645
00:41:07,000 --> 00:41:08,920
CHANTING
646
00:41:08,920 --> 00:41:13,000
The Buddha's thought to have adapted his rules in an ad hoc way.
647
00:41:13,000 --> 00:41:16,120
He was a pragmatist, not above changing his mind
648
00:41:16,120 --> 00:41:17,560
and listening to reason.
649
00:41:18,560 --> 00:41:23,040
Even when it came to the thorny issue of including women.
650
00:41:23,040 --> 00:41:25,040
CHANTING IN BACKGROUND
651
00:41:25,040 --> 00:41:27,640
At the very beginning, they were regarded as a bit of a burden,
652
00:41:27,640 --> 00:41:29,680
because they needed protecting.
653
00:41:29,680 --> 00:41:33,720
But the logic that liberation should be available to all
654
00:41:33,720 --> 00:41:36,560
meant that, really, they had to be included.
655
00:41:36,560 --> 00:41:40,040
And we're told that the Buddha himself eventually declared
656
00:41:40,040 --> 00:41:42,480
that nuns should be part of the Sangha.
657
00:41:45,640 --> 00:41:49,120
The rules of the Sangha are eminently practical.
658
00:41:49,120 --> 00:41:53,600
Self-discipline and resourcefulness are enshrined into daily life.
659
00:41:53,600 --> 00:41:57,360
They dictate what you can own and what you must give up.
660
00:41:58,840 --> 00:42:03,840
Monks are allowed to have eight possessions.
661
00:42:03,840 --> 00:42:06,280
There are three robes, basically.
662
00:42:06,280 --> 00:42:08,760
- It is to look ugly.
- SHE LAUGHS
663
00:42:08,760 --> 00:42:10,200
Not to be beautiful.
664
00:42:10,200 --> 00:42:13,720
We have to have a small needle and the threads.
665
00:42:13,720 --> 00:42:16,000
But, you know, nowadays, we don't stitch,
666
00:42:16,000 --> 00:42:19,360
- because we have ready-made robes.
- OK.
667
00:42:19,360 --> 00:42:20,760
This is the razor.
668
00:42:20,760 --> 00:42:23,840
- It is very troublesome to keep hair.
- Yes.
669
00:42:23,840 --> 00:42:26,120
So, we leave it, everything.
670
00:42:26,120 --> 00:42:29,360
- This is bowl...
- Begging bowl?
- Begging bowl of the monks.
- Yeah.
671
00:42:29,360 --> 00:42:32,440
So this, you collect food and drinks
672
00:42:32,440 --> 00:42:34,320
- and alms from other people?
- Every day.
673
00:42:34,320 --> 00:42:36,280
And why do you get your food from outside?
674
00:42:36,280 --> 00:42:39,200
Why don't you produce it yourself?
675
00:42:39,200 --> 00:42:43,280
Because a monk has to depend on the people, on the society,
676
00:42:43,280 --> 00:42:47,360
so...we have gratefulness and gratitude.
677
00:42:47,360 --> 00:42:50,680
So, what we return to them -
678
00:42:50,680 --> 00:42:53,200
our compassion and wisdom.
679
00:42:53,200 --> 00:42:57,480
Monks can be a guide to the people,
680
00:42:57,480 --> 00:43:01,640
to the society, to show the path to wisdom,
681
00:43:01,640 --> 00:43:06,200
to show the path to peace and to show the path to happiness.
682
00:43:06,200 --> 00:43:10,960
Apart from that, monks have no other connection,
683
00:43:10,960 --> 00:43:15,480
relations to the lay people, whatsoever.
684
00:43:15,480 --> 00:43:19,440
But you've had to leave your family in order to become a monk?
685
00:43:19,440 --> 00:43:23,440
Yes. In fact, family life is always
686
00:43:23,440 --> 00:43:26,080
full of that kind of miseries,
687
00:43:26,080 --> 00:43:30,080
that kind of obstacles and troubles, so many.
688
00:43:30,080 --> 00:43:32,680
So, living in a family life,
689
00:43:32,680 --> 00:43:37,440
one cannot practise a simple, holy life,
690
00:43:37,440 --> 00:43:41,000
in order to achieve the spiritual heights.
691
00:43:42,800 --> 00:43:45,840
CHANTING
692
00:43:45,840 --> 00:43:50,480
When monks leave home, it can be hard for those left behind.
693
00:43:50,480 --> 00:43:52,960
The Buddha is said to have acknowledged the grief
694
00:43:52,960 --> 00:43:56,240
he'd caused his family and proclaimed that monks needed
695
00:43:56,240 --> 00:43:57,920
parental permission to join.
696
00:43:59,480 --> 00:44:00,920
CHANTING
697
00:44:00,920 --> 00:44:04,000
Buddhism is a philosophy or a religion that's sometimes criticised
698
00:44:04,000 --> 00:44:06,920
for only benefiting the practitioner,
699
00:44:06,920 --> 00:44:09,600
that, rather coldly, sees social and family bonds
700
00:44:09,600 --> 00:44:11,360
as attachments to the world
701
00:44:11,360 --> 00:44:14,760
and, therefore, a barrier to achieving nirvana.
702
00:44:14,760 --> 00:44:16,960
But what I get a sense of here
703
00:44:16,960 --> 00:44:20,120
is a real commitment to collective wellbeing.
704
00:44:26,240 --> 00:44:29,080
CHANTING
705
00:44:29,080 --> 00:44:33,080
The Buddha hadn't shut himself away after his enlightenment.
706
00:44:33,080 --> 00:44:36,400
His insights had heightened his concern for others
707
00:44:36,400 --> 00:44:40,040
and he'd spend over half his life helping those around him
708
00:44:40,040 --> 00:44:41,840
to alleviate their suffering.
709
00:44:44,720 --> 00:44:48,240
The Buddha's insistence on the absolute value of compassion
710
00:44:48,240 --> 00:44:50,840
is something that really impresses me.
711
00:44:50,840 --> 00:44:52,760
Just listen to these words of his,
712
00:44:52,760 --> 00:44:55,320
some of the very earliest ever written down.
713
00:44:56,600 --> 00:45:01,960
"Let no-one deceive another, nor despise anyone anywhere.
714
00:45:01,960 --> 00:45:07,040
"As a mother protects her child, with boundless loving kindness,
715
00:45:07,040 --> 00:45:09,480
"cherish the world.
716
00:45:09,480 --> 00:45:11,640
"Love without limit."
717
00:45:13,560 --> 00:45:15,160
How can you argue with that?
718
00:45:24,000 --> 00:45:28,440
By tirelessly expressing and explaining his ideas,
719
00:45:28,440 --> 00:45:31,240
the Buddha had nurtured a committed following
720
00:45:31,240 --> 00:45:34,560
dedicated to his principles of intellectual rigour
721
00:45:34,560 --> 00:45:35,840
and deep humanity.
722
00:45:38,680 --> 00:45:42,920
But the Sangha couldn't rely on the leadership of its founder forever.
723
00:45:45,280 --> 00:45:48,160
We're told that when the Buddha reached his eighties,
724
00:45:48,160 --> 00:45:51,200
thoughts turned to the continuation of his message.
725
00:45:55,120 --> 00:45:57,920
His faithful attendant, Ananda, asked what would happen
726
00:45:57,920 --> 00:46:00,400
to the Sangha after he died.
727
00:46:00,400 --> 00:46:03,680
He said, "The Sangha doesn't need a leader,"
728
00:46:03,680 --> 00:46:07,640
"it just needs my dharma, my teaching."
729
00:46:11,920 --> 00:46:14,800
After accepting a meal at the house of a humble blacksmith,
730
00:46:14,800 --> 00:46:17,360
it's believed he contracted food poisoning
731
00:46:17,360 --> 00:46:19,440
and quickly became very ill.
732
00:46:21,040 --> 00:46:23,440
Yet, having achieved nirvana,
733
00:46:23,440 --> 00:46:26,600
the Buddha had no fear of death.
734
00:46:26,600 --> 00:46:30,480
His suffering had ended with the moment of his enlightenment.
735
00:46:30,480 --> 00:46:33,600
He would not be reborn
736
00:46:33,600 --> 00:46:37,560
and what followed death was, like nirvana,
737
00:46:37,560 --> 00:46:39,440
beyond comprehension.
738
00:46:45,360 --> 00:46:48,240
Just before he died, he told his fellow monks
739
00:46:48,240 --> 00:46:51,680
to simply keep seeking enlightenment.
740
00:46:51,680 --> 00:46:54,600
"It is the nature of things to decay.
741
00:46:54,600 --> 00:46:57,320
"Be attentive, and you will succeed."
742
00:47:10,280 --> 00:47:14,200
The Buddha's death robbed the Sangha of their founder and leader.
743
00:47:16,600 --> 00:47:18,960
With this vacuum, there was a real danger
744
00:47:18,960 --> 00:47:21,360
his ideas would be lost or corrupted.
745
00:47:24,360 --> 00:47:26,840
The Buddha had encouraged the Sangha to reach consensus
746
00:47:26,840 --> 00:47:30,560
on day-to-day concerns by holding regular meetings.
747
00:47:30,560 --> 00:47:33,080
And now, the monks did as they'd been taught.
748
00:47:37,440 --> 00:47:39,240
They're said to have convened a council
749
00:47:39,240 --> 00:47:43,200
of 500 prominent monks here to this cave
750
00:47:43,200 --> 00:47:46,040
to determine the content of Buddhist doctrine.
751
00:47:48,640 --> 00:47:51,800
Ananda recited the sermons and the teachings of the Buddha.
752
00:47:51,800 --> 00:47:55,480
Another monk, Upali, recited the monastic rules.
753
00:47:55,480 --> 00:47:59,400
They now had a definitive account of the Buddha's ideas.
754
00:48:04,360 --> 00:48:06,200
For the next few centuries,
755
00:48:06,200 --> 00:48:09,080
the Buddha's message was kept alive by the Sangha.
756
00:48:11,320 --> 00:48:16,160
But, ironically, Buddhism's expansion to the wider world
757
00:48:16,160 --> 00:48:19,080
would come courtesy of a despot.
758
00:48:33,160 --> 00:48:35,640
200 years after the Buddha's death,
759
00:48:35,640 --> 00:48:37,560
most of what is modern India
760
00:48:37,560 --> 00:48:40,440
was ruled by the ruthless emperor Ashoka.
761
00:48:42,520 --> 00:48:45,760
This well in Ashoka's ancient capital, Patna,
762
00:48:45,760 --> 00:48:49,280
is believed to have been his purpose-built torture chamber.
763
00:48:51,960 --> 00:48:55,760
We're told that, here, Ashoka's sadistic head torturer
764
00:48:55,760 --> 00:48:58,480
would prise open the mouths of his victims
765
00:48:58,480 --> 00:49:01,120
and pour molten copper down their throats.
766
00:49:04,640 --> 00:49:06,840
BELL RINGS
767
00:49:06,840 --> 00:49:09,600
But then, around 262 BC,
768
00:49:09,600 --> 00:49:12,960
following a particularly pitiless and bloody victory,
769
00:49:12,960 --> 00:49:16,480
Ashoka suddenly had a sickening realisation
770
00:49:16,480 --> 00:49:19,120
of all the suffering that he'd caused.
771
00:49:19,120 --> 00:49:21,920
And his change of heart could not have been more dramatic.
772
00:49:23,160 --> 00:49:25,560
Invoking the non-violent teachings of the Buddha,
773
00:49:25,560 --> 00:49:30,200
and declaring his heartfelt remorse for all his murderous actions,
774
00:49:30,200 --> 00:49:32,880
he vowed that, from here on in,
775
00:49:32,880 --> 00:49:35,080
he would govern righteously.
776
00:49:36,400 --> 00:49:38,520
HORNS BEEP
777
00:49:38,520 --> 00:49:42,000
The reformed emperor set his new beliefs in stone.
778
00:49:44,360 --> 00:49:47,520
He sought out sites associated with the Buddha's life
779
00:49:47,520 --> 00:49:51,760
and erected pillars up to 15 metres high.
780
00:49:51,760 --> 00:49:55,560
In doing so, he marked them out for the benefit of future pilgrims.
781
00:49:55,560 --> 00:49:58,680
HE SPEAKS IN NATIVE LANGUAGE
782
00:49:58,680 --> 00:50:01,160
He had inscriptions, like this, carved into stone
783
00:50:01,160 --> 00:50:03,120
right across his empire.
784
00:50:03,120 --> 00:50:07,120
But these edicts didn't lionise his victories in battle.
785
00:50:07,120 --> 00:50:10,240
Instead, they declared his revulsion of violence
786
00:50:10,240 --> 00:50:14,280
and urged his subjects to live moral and compassionate lives.
787
00:50:18,880 --> 00:50:23,320
Ashoka gave up conquest and abolished the death penalty.
788
00:50:23,320 --> 00:50:27,800
He liberated slaves, set up free hospitals.
789
00:50:27,800 --> 00:50:30,560
Animal sacrifice was banned in the capital
790
00:50:30,560 --> 00:50:32,080
and a wide range of animals,
791
00:50:32,080 --> 00:50:35,080
including parrots, tortoises, porcupines,
792
00:50:35,080 --> 00:50:36,920
became protected species.
793
00:50:36,920 --> 00:50:38,560
BIRDS CAW
794
00:50:38,560 --> 00:50:40,640
He sent missions out of India,
795
00:50:40,640 --> 00:50:43,560
taking Buddhist principles to Sri Lanka, the Middle East
796
00:50:43,560 --> 00:50:45,000
and across Asia.
797
00:50:47,040 --> 00:50:51,000
Buddhism would continue to dominate the Indian subcontinent
798
00:50:51,000 --> 00:50:53,240
for the next one-and-a-half millennia.
799
00:50:54,600 --> 00:50:58,120
Wealthy patrons donated generously.
800
00:50:58,120 --> 00:51:01,640
Stupas, containing what was said to be relics of the Buddha
801
00:51:01,640 --> 00:51:06,200
and sculptures depicting his life, emerged across the landscape.
802
00:51:07,520 --> 00:51:11,240
But to my mind, the greatest legacy of this time
803
00:51:11,240 --> 00:51:13,440
is here, at Nalanda.
804
00:51:22,120 --> 00:51:24,600
It is just such a treat to be here,
805
00:51:24,600 --> 00:51:28,080
because this place has a claim to be the oldest university
806
00:51:28,080 --> 00:51:29,840
in the world.
807
00:51:29,840 --> 00:51:32,440
We know there was a serious educational establishment here
808
00:51:32,440 --> 00:51:34,760
from at least the fifth century AD,
809
00:51:34,760 --> 00:51:38,120
and you have to try to imagine it in its heyday.
810
00:51:38,120 --> 00:51:41,080
It would have been buzzing with international scholars,
811
00:51:41,080 --> 00:51:45,160
who came from as far afield as Indonesia, Tibet, China,
812
00:51:45,160 --> 00:51:47,000
Turkey and Japan.
813
00:51:49,360 --> 00:51:53,720
It had a huge campus with thousands of students.
814
00:51:53,720 --> 00:51:57,200
200 villages supplied the students' practical needs.
815
00:51:57,200 --> 00:52:01,600
Maths, politics, literature were all studied here,
816
00:52:01,600 --> 00:52:05,240
but there was particular emphasis on Buddhism.
817
00:52:05,240 --> 00:52:08,000
Thousands of Buddhist manuscripts were housed
818
00:52:08,000 --> 00:52:10,200
in a nine-storeyed building.
819
00:52:10,200 --> 00:52:12,880
It was the envy of the medieval world.
820
00:52:13,880 --> 00:52:16,480
One Chinese scholar clearly adored it here.
821
00:52:17,720 --> 00:52:21,200
"There are richly adorned towers, and fairytale turrets.
822
00:52:21,200 --> 00:52:23,240
"Roofs covered with tiles that reflect
823
00:52:23,240 --> 00:52:25,680
"the light in a thousand shades.
824
00:52:25,680 --> 00:52:31,080
"There are observatories and the upper rooms tower above the clouds.
825
00:52:31,080 --> 00:52:34,480
"These things add to the beauty of the scene."
826
00:52:38,720 --> 00:52:41,880
Renewed interest in Nalanda's legacy of enquiry
827
00:52:41,880 --> 00:52:46,960
has been led by Nobel-prize-winning economist Amartya Sen.
828
00:52:46,960 --> 00:52:49,360
Do you think that the Buddha would have approved
829
00:52:49,360 --> 00:52:50,880
of what went on at Nalanda?
830
00:52:52,200 --> 00:52:55,160
I should think that he very much would have approved.
831
00:52:55,160 --> 00:52:59,520
It was inspired by his ideas, it's inspired by the idea
832
00:52:59,520 --> 00:53:04,200
that we have to solve problems by reflection,
833
00:53:04,200 --> 00:53:07,240
by knowledge, by critical examination.
834
00:53:07,240 --> 00:53:10,840
You know, he tried fasting and it didn't do anything for him
835
00:53:10,840 --> 00:53:16,080
and he decided that by torturing the body, you don't improve your mind.
836
00:53:16,080 --> 00:53:19,960
You improve the mind by cultivating the mind.
837
00:53:19,960 --> 00:53:22,760
Some people might think it's counter-intuitive that Buddhism
838
00:53:22,760 --> 00:53:27,680
is being taught at Nalanda alongside maths and science and grammar.
839
00:53:27,680 --> 00:53:30,120
But it's part of that kind of practical understanding
840
00:53:30,120 --> 00:53:32,240
of the world, isn't it?
841
00:53:32,240 --> 00:53:35,880
Well, it's part of a Buddhist understanding of the world, too.
842
00:53:35,880 --> 00:53:40,800
Namely that you have to be concerned with those issues that move people,
843
00:53:40,800 --> 00:53:45,080
which includes mortality, disability, morbidity.
844
00:53:46,080 --> 00:53:50,720
It wouldn't be seen in any kind of conflict with Buddhist studies,
845
00:53:50,720 --> 00:53:54,040
because Buddhism is also about human life.
846
00:53:54,040 --> 00:53:57,720
What would you say the Buddha has to offer the world today?
847
00:53:57,720 --> 00:54:01,280
One of the things that Buddha identifies is that
848
00:54:01,280 --> 00:54:06,080
it's possible for you to agree on good action
849
00:54:06,080 --> 00:54:09,560
without necessarily agreeing
850
00:54:09,560 --> 00:54:14,240
on a bigger, metaphysical view of the universe.
851
00:54:14,240 --> 00:54:16,680
When I was fortunate to get the Nobel,
852
00:54:16,680 --> 00:54:20,080
I gave the bulk of that money to have elementary education,
853
00:54:20,080 --> 00:54:22,840
elementary health care and gender equality.
854
00:54:22,840 --> 00:54:25,560
At the same time, I don't have any great belief
855
00:54:25,560 --> 00:54:28,520
in religion and God.
856
00:54:28,520 --> 00:54:32,400
But it was the Buddha who changed the question from
857
00:54:32,400 --> 00:54:34,080
"Is there a God?"
858
00:54:34,080 --> 00:54:37,360
to questions like, how to behave,
859
00:54:37,360 --> 00:54:40,160
no matter whether there is God or not.
860
00:54:40,160 --> 00:54:43,520
And I think that's a game changer.
861
00:54:51,520 --> 00:54:54,360
Buddhism had been in the ascendency,
862
00:54:54,360 --> 00:54:58,400
but, from the seventh century, changes in patterns of patronage
863
00:54:58,400 --> 00:55:01,120
began to affect big institutions like Nalanda.
864
00:55:02,400 --> 00:55:05,040
Gifts from rich benefactors ebbed away.
865
00:55:06,720 --> 00:55:09,520
Brahmanism had always remained a strong presence
866
00:55:09,520 --> 00:55:12,720
and people drifted back in greater numbers.
867
00:55:12,720 --> 00:55:16,480
It began to dominate state governance, at Buddhism's expense.
868
00:55:18,680 --> 00:55:22,000
Muslim conquerors in the 12th and 13th centuries
869
00:55:22,000 --> 00:55:24,120
sacked monasteries and temples.
870
00:55:26,040 --> 00:55:29,120
Nalanda is said to have been put to the torch
871
00:55:29,120 --> 00:55:31,960
and to have burnt for three days.
872
00:55:34,120 --> 00:55:35,880
The Buddhist way of life
873
00:55:35,880 --> 00:55:39,280
all but disappeared in the land of its birth.
874
00:55:49,960 --> 00:55:52,360
But Buddhism was already on the move.
875
00:55:52,360 --> 00:55:55,680
It had already travelled at a furious pace throughout Asia
876
00:55:55,680 --> 00:55:59,720
and would continue its journey to become a truly global religion.
877
00:56:05,440 --> 00:56:09,520
With no single sacred language, no inflexible dogma,
878
00:56:09,520 --> 00:56:12,480
Buddhism was ripe for export.
879
00:56:12,480 --> 00:56:17,960
It's an adaptable philosophy that's become a diverse belief system.
880
00:56:17,960 --> 00:56:21,000
As it spread, it cross-pollinated with other cultures
881
00:56:21,000 --> 00:56:23,080
in numerous, unexpected ways.
882
00:56:25,040 --> 00:56:28,480
For some, there is life after death
883
00:56:28,480 --> 00:56:30,640
and the Buddha is a figure of devotion.
884
00:56:34,720 --> 00:56:37,920
Since the 20th century, it's even been implicated
885
00:56:37,920 --> 00:56:40,520
in violent, nationalist struggles.
886
00:56:41,600 --> 00:56:46,280
But, at its heart, the Buddha's message remains the same -
887
00:56:46,280 --> 00:56:49,480
that whilst change is inevitable,
888
00:56:49,480 --> 00:56:52,920
we all have the power to direct that change.
889
00:56:52,920 --> 00:56:54,280
CHANTING
890
00:56:54,280 --> 00:56:58,440
By gaining wisdom, we can reduce suffering.
891
00:57:00,800 --> 00:57:03,040
The Buddha's life is a fascinating one
892
00:57:03,040 --> 00:57:06,080
from an age that made history.
893
00:57:06,080 --> 00:57:09,920
But we can relate to him on a very personal level.
894
00:57:09,920 --> 00:57:13,840
His need to find answers to the human condition in the here and now
895
00:57:13,840 --> 00:57:18,000
is one that, I'd argue, deep down, we all share.
896
00:57:19,280 --> 00:57:21,280
CHANTING
897
00:57:23,120 --> 00:57:26,040
He offers practical solutions to help overcome
898
00:57:26,040 --> 00:57:31,720
the desires and delusions, which fuel hatred, jealousy and greed.
899
00:57:33,520 --> 00:57:37,880
And, arguably, his greatest gift is deceptively simple.
900
00:57:37,880 --> 00:57:43,160
That it's compassion, empathy and knowing who we truly are
901
00:57:43,160 --> 00:57:47,320
that makes both us and the world better.
902
00:57:47,320 --> 00:57:49,240
Whether you're Buddhist or not,
903
00:57:49,240 --> 00:57:53,160
the humanity and hope of that message still burns bright today.
904
00:57:54,520 --> 00:57:56,280
ALL TALK
905
00:58:03,000 --> 00:58:04,880
If the mind of the Buddha has made you think,
906
00:58:04,880 --> 00:58:07,040
explore further with The Open University
907
00:58:07,040 --> 00:58:10,720
to find out how great minds have influenced our world.
908
00:58:10,720 --> 00:58:13,120
Go to the address on the bottom of the screen
909
00:58:13,120 --> 00:58:15,440
and follow the links to The Open University.
910
00:58:18,640 --> 00:58:21,120
Next time, I investigate a philosopher
911
00:58:21,120 --> 00:58:24,320
who influenced the whole of Western thought -
912
00:58:24,320 --> 00:58:26,320
Socrates.
913
00:58:26,320 --> 00:58:29,400
His rigorous methods and uncompromising questioning
914
00:58:29,400 --> 00:58:34,360
made him the moral conscience of the city he loved - Athens.
915
00:58:34,360 --> 00:58:39,040
Yet, his dogged pursuit of truth would end with a death sentence.
72440
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