The ideological origin of Indian Buddhism and Brahmanism

Zeng yunqi

Buddhism was founded in ancient India in the 6th century BC. Before Buddhism appeared, Brahmanism was the mainstream ideology in India. Brahmanism is an ancient religion in India and an ancient form of Hinduism now spreading in India. From 1500 BC to 1000 BC, it was a period of Vedic mythology and belonged to polytheism. Around 1000 BC, the Aryans conquered the original Indian aborigines and advanced from the Indus River valley to the Zhu Mu Na River and Ganges River valley. It changed the original social structure of India and created a primitive slave country. This is known in history as the post-Vedic era or Sanskrit and Upanishads era. Brahmanism was formed in this era. From the 6th century BC to the 5th century BC, the economic development of Indian society contributed to the division of society, and also produced a large number of free thinkers, including the founders of Buddhism and Jainism. This suspicion even attacks the inherent religious tradition, that is, the trend of Brahmanism, which is collectively called Samoan trend of thought. From the fourth century BC to the first two centuries BC, Buddhism and Jainism spread widely in the Peacock Dynasty, and Brahmanism declined correspondingly, but they were inseparable. It gradually revived in the first century BC, and in the fourth century, the Gupta dynasty completed its own transformation and evolved into Hinduism. Brahmanism originated from the simple nature worship and elf worship in the Vedas. Later, in addition to the four Vedas, Brahmanism constantly produced new information about the origin, purpose, method and explanation of barking in the process of communication.

A collection of compliments, spells, etc. According to the historical age of their birth, they are generally non-apocalyptic classics such as Brahma Book, Forest Book and Upanishads. Before Buddhism came into being, for a long time, Brahmanism legalized the unequal caste system in the religious sense and preached three programs: Vedic apocalypse, universal sacrifice and Brahman supremacy. After Sakyamuni founded Buddhism, he put forward the slogan of equality of all beings, and Brahmanism was seriously challenged. However, if we look at history and culture with the attitude of historical materialism and dialectical materialism, the emergence of a certain culture must have its social foundation and its inheritance relationship with all the cultures in the past. Friedrich Engels

Said: "In dialectics, negation is not simply saying no, or declaring that something does not exist, or destroying it in any way." (On Anti-Dooling's Selected Works of Marx and Engels, Volume III, page 18 1) Negation only abandons old things and outdated things, while retaining positive factors and growing new things, which is in line with Marxist epistemology. Lenin once said that "proletarian culture did not fall from the sky, nor was it invented by those who pretend to be proletarian cultural experts." (Lenin's Mission of the Youth League) The same is true of the philosophical thought of Buddhist culture. Buddhism is criticizing Brahmanism which has influenced for so long.

On the basis of inheritance and development. From the perspective of Buddhism's concept of Buddhism, Buddhism must also be rooted in its own national culture in order to carry forward. So many things in Buddhist thought are inherited and developed from Brahmanism. For example, reincarnation is a world view that Brahmanism has existed for a long time. Although Buddhism denies the Brahman's theory of creation, it does not deny the existence of Brahman, and has a new explanation of the concept of Brahman. Buddhism's "nothing" theory also developed from Brahmanism's "nothing" theory. Vedic immortal philosophers unveiled the simple dialectical principle of the unity of opposites between "Maya" illusion and "nothingness, existence, non-nothingness and non-existence", which was accepted by all Buddhist philosophers and developed to a higher stage. In order to explain the relationship between true meaning and popular reason, Buddhism borrowed the thinking mode of Brahmanism's negation plus negation and affirmation and negation. The twelve causes of Buddhism, especially its first three categories-ignorance, behavior and knowledge, can be found in their original forms in the Vedas. The three realms mentioned in Buddhist cosmology (desire, color and colorless) are actually the development of the three realms of heaven, earth and air in the Vedas. The Vedas call the three realms three haves, so Buddhism calls them three haves. Ghosts and gods such as Tianlong Babu, which are common in Buddhist scriptures, were already active in the three realms mentioned in the Vedas long before the birth of the Buddha. Starting with the relationship between Buddhism and Brahmanism, this paper analyzes and discusses some essential characteristics of Indian philosophy.

First, "impermanence", "no self" and "samsara"

"Impermanence" and "non-ego" are the judgments of early Buddhism on the nature of world phenomena, and are the basis of Buddhism's initial criticism of Brahmanism's core thoughts on "Brahman" and "I". Brahmanism, while praising the pantheism of polytheism and believing in the gods in Rigveda, also identified a supreme god on the basis of pantheism and regarded it as the origin of all things in the universe. At first, the "Lord of Life" was the supreme god, and later it was replaced by "Brahman". In the Upanishads era, "I" was the creation principle of the universe. Later, he advocated reincarnation, from fire and other methods to create heaven. The theory of Brahma and I holds that the highest noumenon of all things in the world is Brahma and I, also known as self.

Brahma and I are unchangeable and dominate the world. Brahma is the most powerful person, and it is regarded as the same as atman (I) in the individual ontology, thus forming the well-known "Brahma and I say so".

Buddhism opposes this theory of Brahmanism and puts forward the view that "all practices are eternal, all dharmas have no self, and nirvana is silent", which is what we usually call "three dharma seals" now. The impermanence of all kinds of behaviors means that all kinds of promising methods are in the process of life and death all the time. The past has changed now, and the present will be disillusioned in the future; All laws have no self, that is, all things that have laws have no self; Nirvana silence refers to the realm of nirvana, eliminating all the pain of life and death, not for happiness, so nirvana silence. Anyone who conforms to these three principles is the Dharma, just like the seal of letters in the world, and takes this as evidence, hence the name Dharma Seal.

However, since "impermanence" and "no self", how did this world come into being? How did I come from in reality? In order to explain the causes of the world and life, Buddhism not only criticized Brahma and I, but also inherited and developed Brahmanism's illusion and wheel.