ABSTRACT
Before we review the teachings ofthe Buddha, it will help us to know something of the intellectual and religious context in which he lived. At that time (app. 500 B.e.), northem India had certain religious and philosophical paralleis to ancient Greece. (This is probably no coincidence. Some 4,000 years ago, the same people in the northem part of the globe drifted south, some toward Europe and Greece, and some toward India. Knowledge of the c1assical Greek language, I am told, is of great benefit in studying Sanskrit, the ancient Indian language.) In Greece, religion functioned on two levels. There was the pantheon of gods that was part of the popular religion, but there was also the abstract characterization ofthe world and ofman's place in it, which the philosophers were developing. The disparity between the two Greek views ofthe divine was made painfully c1ear by the death ofSocrates. He, who taught the importance of contemplating the sublime essences, was executed for leading the young away from their (the popular) religion. The same duality of religious beliefs existed at the same time in India. There was a pantheon of gods, with accompanying stories, symbols, rituals, and rules of worship. There was also, however, the more philosophical approach that saw deity in a more abstract form. It is this latter philosophical religion that gave rise to
the movement we call Yoga and that influenced the Buddha. By first reviewing certain basic ideas in this philosophical context, we gain a better understanding of the Buddha's teaching. This review also helps explain my strategy of drawing examples from both Buddhist and Hindu sourees.
