kings of kings

Globalisation & Belief system
Role of religion in young peoples lives today:
+ In Australia , religion is of less significance today
+ in Australia , people are turning away from established religions
+ However , young people today are defining themselves as “ spiritual rather” than religious.
Reasons for turning away from established religions
+ Traditional religious worldviews do not fit modern world views.
+ people today are more wordly . More concerned with individual needs and material things.
+ Traditional religions are not answering all the big question . adequately e.g evolution vs creationism.
Challenges religion faces
+ criticism its traditional beliefs
+ science has came to be more valued than religion
+being challenged by secularism
Impact on the west
+statistics show Buddhism in growing in the west
+natural growth
+ convert growth
Buddhism fits in with western world view
+why? Buddhism has the ability to adopt to the western world view of secularism , materialism and consumerism.
+Buddhism has provided answers to some of the big questions.

Historical basis who was the Buddha? What does that mean? Buddhism started with the Buddha. The word ‘Buddha’ is a title, which means ‘one who is awake’ — in the sense of having ‘woken up to reality’. The Buddha was born as Siddhartha Gautama in Nepal around 2,500 years ago. He did not claim to be a god or a prophet. He was a human being who became Enlightened, understanding life in the deepest way possible.

Describes the Buddhas early life? The future Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, was born in the 5th or 6th century BCE in Lumbini, in what is now Nepal. His father, King Suddhodana, was leader of a large clan called the Shakya. His mother, Queen Maya, died shortly after his birth.
When Prince Siddhartha was a few days old, a holy man prophesied the Prince would be either a great military conqueror or a great spiritual teacher. King Suddhodana preferred the first outcome and prepared his son accordingly. He raised the boy in great luxury and shielded him from knowledge of religion and human suffering. The Prince reached the age of 29 with little experience of the world outside the walls of his opulent palaces.
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Summarise his path to enlightment? Siddhartha then made his way to a place near Bodh Gaya in India, where he found a suitable site for meditation. There he remained, emphasizing a meditation called “space-like concentration on the Dharmakaya” in which he focused single-pointedly on the ultimate nature of all phenomena. After training in this meditation for six years he realized that he was very close to attaining full enlightenment, and so he walked to Bodh Gaya where, on the full moon day of the fourth month of the lunar calendar, he seated himself beneath the Bodhi Tree in the meditation posture and vowed not to rise from meditation until he had attained perfect enlightenment.
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3. What is the sangha?
Describe what happened after Buhhas death
Who is Ashoka, what was his significance?
List the countries Buddhism spread to
Summarise Buddhist following in the world today .