Serial Killer Monk - The Buddhist Expansion - World History - Part 2 - Extra History

Northern India 6th Century BCE the wild man and gulimala tears Through the Jungle panting a necklace of human fingers dangling from his neck he's killed 999 people ambushing them on the road and dragging them from houses taking a finger from each and he just cited his thousandth victim an old monk yet no matter how hard he runs he can't catch him how are you so fast old man he shrieks I want your fingers stop I must have your fingers I have stopped the monk replies and as impossible as it may seem it's true the monk stands immobile yet as anguli Mala runs the land stretches between them I have stopped the cycle of death and rebirth now you angulimala why don't you stop humbled by this Display of Power and wisdom and gulimala drops to his niece presses his bloodstained hands together and begs Buddha to take him as a student thank you [Music] thanks so much to hellofresh for continuing to help us bring history to the table now you may have noticed in the first episode of this series when we talked about how Buddha attained his Awakening and discovered the four noble truths we included a few more gods and demons than in say our John Brown series well that was a deliberate Choice see we don't have many historical sources for Buddha's life and actually Buddhism isn't that interested in the historical Buddha what's important to them is the meanings of these stories rather than strict factuality as a result historians look at early Buddhism through the lens of oral history analyzing these stories to extrapolate what the early Buddhist Community looked like who joined why do they do so and what made Buddhism attractive because it seemed to be very attractive within 45 years Buddha would go from 10 Close followers to a faith community of thousands so why I mean that's the question that's at the heart of every academic history of a religious movement right why did the Buddha's message appeal to people spread and endure when thousands of competing ideas died out Buddhism after all did not arise in a land devoid of religious tradition on the contrary it was rich with them brahmanism a historical religion that was a precursor to Hinduism dominated the Cradle of Buddhism not to mention that Concepts such as reincarnation the cycle of death and rebirth and fulfilling your Dharma or righteously living out your societal role in casts whether it be a soldier or laborer Etc we're already well established and much of Buddhism would be an attempt to critique evolve or react against these Concepts well brahmanism was weakening because it wasn't that spiritually fulfilling a fact we suspect due to a large number of Splinter groups arising at the time from Buddhism to Jainism to ancient Hinduism and others that died out most of which that appear to address an anxiety over reincarnation but you might be thinking at this point oh wait why would people want to exit the cycle of death and rebirth live an infinite lives sounds pretty great okay but on the other hand does it though think of it this way would you want to experience all of the highs and lows of Life all over again forever sounds kind of exhausting to me and also it's important to remember that this was a time before modern medicine where childbirth aging and sickness were extremely painful and dangerous in fact it was more normal to be sick than it was to be well the mortality rate was high for children and women and political instability spurred regular Warfare oh and then there's hell wait did we not mention hell before because between each rebirth you would be pitched into the realm of Yama god of the underworld and hellaciously tortured to burn off Bad Karma sidebar this guy is Yama yeah he's kind of a boss so with all of that said you sure you still want to keep riding this Cosmic Ferris wheel forever but even outside wanting to become a monk and attain Nirvana In This Life Buddhism still held appeal for the lay people as well they were encouraged to meditate to moderate their behavior live by ethical codes and maintain love for their family and Community monks also worked in said communities as counselors spiritual advisors and teachers in other words Buddhist practice held immediate benefits in improving relationships and fostering an Outlook ideal for coping with an ever-changing and sometimes chaotic World After All if everything isn't permanent negative things and troubles will also pass and the religions that last are the ones that do these things that use ritual moral and Theological codes to benefit the individual practitioners as well as their communities and that Community aspect was strong in Buddhism since monks also worked as counselors spiritual advisors and teachers in their communities this was by Design By the way Buddha wanted to specifically tie the monks and lay people together in fact Buddhism is a religion dependent on urbanization because you see monks had many prohibitions they couldn't harm sentient creatures eat meat or sleep in a soft bed but most crucially they couldn't handle money meaning without cities and towns monks simply couldn't operate each morning monks would go into the community with begging Bulls then the community would donate food to them as a way to support their religious Mission and when the Monk's Bowl was filled he would return and eat it all as his only meal and this act engaged the laypeople in the upkeep of their religious community of course some gave more such as wealthy converts donating pieces of property for monks to use thereby founding the first monasteries now these donations helped worshipers build karmic Merit but they also mirrored Buddha's renunciation of world leafings and trappings but then for people who wanted to gain Enlightenment as soon as possible that very renunciation could also mean renouncing life and becoming a monk and doing so while difficult could have great rewards especially for people who needed a total change like the finger collecting serial killer that we talked about in the beginning of this episode Buddha's conversion of anguli Mala demonstrates buddhism's promise of redemption not only did ungulimala reform the stories claim that that Reformation was so total that he became spiritually reborn attained Nirvana and worked miracles in fact Buddha himself declared that angulimala upon his death had exited the cycle it's a story that emphasized that not only can anyone redeem themselves in Buddhist belief but that the eternally changing nature of the world offers hope for if all all is passing then even someone in a state of what might be called evil can become good interestingly though the story is a bit more complicated one morning when angulimala went out to beg for food several of his victims family members broke his bowl and beat him then when he asked the Buddha why this was allowed even though he was spiritually reborn Buddha informed him that even though he'd repented the harm of his violence could not be undone nor the karmic consequences that's a surprisingly modern idea of reconciliation in ungulimala we also see a man seeking out Buddhism as a way to atone for violence and perhaps some other early adherents were doing the same because as we'll see later when we discuss Chinese Buddhism and Kung Fu this religion will come to hold a special appeal for former soldiers others were likely attracted to buddhism's egalitarianism for instance among Buddha's Inner Circle was um Pali a poor Barber who Buddha ordained as a monk alongside princes showing the movement's rejection of the caste system Buddha also permitted an order of nums though in truth only after his aunt hounded him to do so for five years however he insisted that nuns follow even more rules and would rank lower than the lowliest monk women he believed belonged with families and were too emotional to excel in monastic life despite this somewhat insulting inclusion Buddhist nuns would go on to use even this restrictive role to exercise power and influence for 45 years Buddha lectured and built his community and by the time he was old and suffering from back pain he had thousands of followers divvied into six schools supposedly his cousin had even briefly founded a breakaway group but then one fateful day he ate a meal donated to him got sick and died in meditation passing in depari Nirvana which is a pretty low-key way to go by the standard of religious Founders deaths if you think about it usually they're executed for their beliefs or they ascend directly to heaven or something he left instructions for his body to be cremated with his mortal remains built into a mound known as a stupa but while his wishes were clear his sudden absence presented a problem during his life the Buddha had spread his message orally which was fine when he was available to settle disputes or clarify his ideas but with him now gone the community realized they needed to commit his message onto paper lest it be lost in a game of telephone it's said that they called for a conference of all six schools their Buddha's personal attendant Ananda who had a Flawless memory told episodes of the Buddha's life and recalled his teachings meanwhile the former Barber upali who had memorized all of the rules of monastic life recited them so they could be recorded and these formed the first written doctrines of the Buddhist spiritual movement also this was only at least by tradition the first of these conferences a second would come about a century after Buddha's death though by that time Buddhism had split into 18 different schools including one theravada which still exists today yet an even greater split was coming one that would help Buddhism spread across Asia and its key figure would not be a monk but a king a Joker The Great and speaking of great uh hello fresh all right all right I know it wasn't my best transition ever but it's super true and I stand by the greatness as I've mentioned many times in the past hello fresh is my favorite 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Channel: Extra History

Views: 271,534

Keywords: extra history, history lesson, learn history, world history, history channel, documentry, history lectures, history documentary, history explained, educational videos, civilization, history, lecture, documentary history ancient, weird history, explained, animated history, animated, animated stories, edutainment, lesson, study, educational, home learning, ancient history, study history, buddhism, buddhism explained, indian history, inda, 8 fold path, Prince Siddhartha, four noble truths

Id: WTLLdDdiXlw

Length: 11min 43sec (703 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 05 2023