Sur les traces de Bouddha ⎮ Spiritualité ⎮Inde⎮ Documentaire civilisation – AMP.mp4

It is in northern India, between the Himalayan countryside and the Ganges plain, that an exceptional man lived in the 6th century B.C. An immense spiritual leader, founder of a community of monks, Buddha. From the birthplace of Siddhartha to the death of Buddha, I follow in the footsteps of this great man, at the heart of traditional India, to better understand his history and his teachings. Today, the followers of Buddhism, religion for some and philosophy for others, are spread over the five continents, and represent no less than 500 million people, that is, 8% of the world's population. In 1999, the UN even decided to celebrate the contribution of Buddhism to the spirituality of humanity, by dedicating a day to it. Every year in May, the day of Vesak celebrates internationally the birth of Buddha, more than 2,500 years ago. It is in the south of Nepal, at the beginning of the mountains, that my journey begins, on the footsteps of the last known Buddha. Multiple local beliefs, a simple and rural life, this mountainous country of 30 million inhabitants, living in a very traditional way, is also particularly peaceful and famous for its hospitality. For a long time, it remained like a closed book, but now, land of legends and myths, Nepal is enclosed between two giants, China and India. A kingdom that has recently become a democratic republic, it is carefully advancing in modernity, while trying to preserve the integrity of its landscapes, the originality of its culture, and this part of the mystery that envelops it forever. Becoming a pilgrimage site and a frequent tourist site, it is in Lumbini that the little Siddhartha came into the world. Hello, I am the priest of the Maya Devi temple. Lord Buddha was born here in 623 BC, of the queen of this kingdom. His mother was called Maya Devi. One night, Maya Devi saw in a dream, a white elephant with six defenses, holding in his trunk a white lotus, and penetrating his body from the side. Some sources even claim that the child was visible in his belly, through his skin. There was an old tradition at that time, women had to give birth to their first child in their home. So, after nine months of pregnancy, at the beginning of the tenth month, Maya Devi left Kapilavastu to give birth to her first child, in her family. She crossed the forest of Lumbini. It was a full moon night. Tired, she sat under a tree to rest. And she felt a pain. She then took a bath in this pond, and walked 25 steps. She arrived under the tree, clung to a branch, and lay down, right there. Just after her birth, the baby took seven steps, and a lotus flower bloomed. Then he looked in all directions, pointing a finger up and a finger down. Then, the young prince was taken to Kapilavastu to celebrate his birth. Only a few kilometers away, the palace of Kapilavastu, where Siddhartha grew up, was the subject of multiple unfinished archaeological excavations, and is now recognized by UNESCO as World Heritage, which will allow it to be restored to the level it deserves. Meanwhile, Prabin, a passionate archaeologist, wanders around what was Siddhartha's home, and tries to bring his stones back to life, Right now, we are in the town of Kapilavastu, where Siddhartha, the sage of the Shakyas, spent 29 years. We are standing on the moat of the city of Kapilavastu, and so this is the city wall. And this was the wall that surrounded the city. The moats were filled with animals. The towers were six meters wide, and the city walls were eight meters high. This is the security checkpoint, because on this entrance, there were three security doors. The old people, the people in need, the people in pain, didn't have the right to enter the city. That's why the walls were so high. Only the royal family and important people were allowed to live inside the city, which was 2.8 square kilometers. Now, slowly, we are going to go to the part of the city where Siddhartha and the royal family lived. Siddhartha lived inside the palace, far from the difficulties of the world, and safe from the sight of suffering and death. He was trained to wield the bow, from which he became a true master, received at home the teachings of the best teachers, and lived a life of entertainment and luxury. At 16, he married the young princess Yasodhara, who gave him a son, Rahula, and naturally prepared to become king of the palace of Kapilavastu. So, let's go back from here, and then we go back to the... Let's go back there, to the east gate of the city, from where Siddhartha decided to give up and leave his beautiful and luxurious life. A starry night, a full moon night in July, on his faithful white horse, Kantaka, and accompanied by his coachman, Channa, without telling his relatives or the royal family, he gave up and fled from Kapilavastu. It is even said that four celestial guardians carried the gallows and muffled the horse's horn so that no one could see anything. When Siddhartha arrived near the river, he took off all his royal clothes, his jewels, and everything he owned, and gave them to Channa so that he could bring them back to Kapilavastu. But quite 200 meters from the east gate, they stopped right where the buffalos are grazing out of the city. When the horse came back, he was very sad to have left his master. He could no longer control himself and did not want to enter the city. So he died of sadness, right there. Well determined to discover the true nature of existence, which has always been hidden from him, Siddhartha fled. But he did not give up. It was the great renunciation. Like him, I am leaving Nepal and going to roam the Indian countryside. Faced with rural life and simple life, he understood that if his princely condition kept him safe from need, nothing would ever protect him from old age, from illness, from suffering and from death. Siddhartha then began a life of asceticism, following the teachings of many gurus and practicing meditation in search of the way of wisdom. Life is not a problem to be solved, but a truth to be experienced. After having traveled almost 500 kilometers through the current state of Uttar Pradesh, I arrive in the state of Bihar, at the cave of Dungeshwari, where Siddhartha meditated during his six years of asceticism. Like the pilgrims who come here from afar, I am seized by the profound austerity, but also by the aura of the place. Staying angry is like grabbing a burning coal with the intention of throwing it on someone. It is you who are burning. Six years later, Siddhartha realizes that his austere practices have not led him to a greater understanding of things. He accepts a bowl of rice with milk from the hands of a young girl from the village, guardian of the herd, Sujita, putting an end to her mortifications and choosing the path of the environment. I finally arrive in Bodhgaya, the main holy city for Buddhists, and the place of pilgrimage. This is where Siddhartha goes after his years of errands and asceticism. The Buddha arrived here, at the foot of Nepal. It was Prince Siddhartha at the time, and this is where he received the illumination or the knowledge to become the Buddha or awaken him. It happened at the temple of Animisha Lesham, standing in the shade of a majestic tree, a ficus. He meditated for a week without blinking. While the Buddha meditated and studied the holy texts, he saw five different colors of light emanating from his body. And near the lake there was a storm and a cobra deployed its collar to cover the Buddha who was meditating and who did not receive a drop of rain. Do you know the flag of Panchashila? The five precepts? The first one is It's in Pali language and it means I commit myself to abstain from killing. If you walk, make sure you don't crush any insect. The second one I commit myself not to take what is not given to me. What is around me, even thrown on the ground, is not mine. If you offer me the thing with your hands, I can take it. The third one I commit myself to abstain from sexual misconduct. It means that any woman is to be treated as you would treat your sister or your mother. The fourth one I commit myself to abstain from uttering false words. Any word that comes out of your mouth must be true. Even if for that you risk getting your head cut off, you will be saved by the power of truth. Meditate like the Buddha, it will preserve you. The fifth one I commit myself to abstain from drinking alcohol causing nonchalance. Alcohol, do not even approach these intoxicating substances. These are the five precepts. Respect them, and no police officer, no prefect, no sub-prefect, no power will be able to break them. This is the main secret of the Buddha. At the end of the morning ceremony at the temple, I decide to accompany a nun who invites me in her monastery to discover her daily life. The women, whose first was recognized by the Buddha himself, like men, can also choose a life of devotion. Monks and nuns are called bhikshus. Whatever the current of Buddhism to which they belong, they are very respected and supported by the local population and obey common rules of life called precepts. My name is Buddha Darsini, which means the one who sees the way of the Buddha. I live a life of bhikshu, that is to say, of a mendicant monk. I have been wearing this name since I was a nun, for 12 or 13 years. The shivar, the saffron dress, is sacred. Once you wear the shivar, you live a life without lies, without falsehood. When you see a monk with his shivar, you understand the choice he made. It is important. The adoption of the monk's dress denotes the sacrifice, the renunciation. I wore the dress by renouncing this world. We give up everything. We become bhikshu, a mendicant monk. It is at the moment of initiation in the life of a monk that we receive his bowl. And it is for life. As long as we have the dress, we have his bowl. And if we are in a place where the meal is not planned, we do the tour of mendicants up to 7 houses with his bowl. If we have nothing at the 7th house, we do not eat. Of course, if we are fed the first time, we stop the tour the second time. We shave our heads, we change our heads. It is a form of renunciation. We must be content with what we have day after day and not think about the next day. This is the teaching of the Buddha. Stay in the moment, and do not worry about the next day. Buddha leaves the city in search of a quiet and airy retreat. On his feet, and like hundreds of pilgrims, I take the road to Rajgir. It is in this green valley, surrounded by seven rocky hills, that Buddha found the ideal place to meditate. As he climbed the mountain on foot to reach the top, I use the improbable mechanical climb that is an attraction. The pilgrims are here, as in all religious sites, and they are also invited by the temple merchants to come to the entrance. The Pagoda of Peace, where Vishwa Chantis Thupa is one of the 80 pagodas of peace in the world. Her mission is to spread a message of peace and non-violence. Here, the fervor, as free, sincere and sincere, takes multiple forms to very varied gestures and rituals, and not always very understandable. Doubt everything and what I'm going to tell you, and think for yourself. According to tradition, after his retirement, Buddha went to Sioné, the plains of the Ganges. He taught meditation and shared his revelations with a great variety of people, from the noble Brahmin to the simple fisherman. Like Buddha, I stop in Varanasi, formerly called Benares, eternal city and pilgrimage site for Hindus, in which Buddha liked to go. In this holy city, he convinced many Hindus by fighting the caste system and by valuing the strong spiritual ties that unite Buddhism and Hinduism. It is a little further on the banks of the Ganges, next to Varanasi, in Sarnath, that Buddha pronounces his founding speech and moves the wheel of Dharma. Buddha arrived here, in the gazelle park, with his baluchon. He was surrounded by many disciples, but he had nothing, and the inhabitants were still quite suspicious. Little by little, the disciples around him brought him things. They prepared him a seat with grass. They brought him water to wash his feet, etc. One day, in the park, after many conversations with Lord Buddha, there were only five disciples left. They asked Buddha to train them, to teach them wisdom and to show them the way. Buddha taught them everything he knew, and this is how the five disciples became the first bhikshus, or mendicant monks. It was in Sarnath that Buddha pronounced his first speech on the wheel of Dharma. This is where he put in motion the wheel of law, and since then, the wheel continues to turn. It turns here, and in the whole world, and we turn with it to spread his wisdom. People come here from all over the world on the way of Buddha. We are what we think. Everything we are is the result of our thoughts. With our thoughts, we build the world. All his life, Buddha traveled the region. Between meditation and teaching, his aura grew, and the disciples who followed him became more and more numerous. On these tracks, I discover Lutar Pradesh, where the effervescence of life fascinates me. Small businesses on the side of the street, walking merchants, dense traffic, sacred cows. Between two mushrooms, the most densely populated state of the country, ants. This is Shravasti, which Buddha came to retreat during the mushrooms. Between heaven and earth, there is only a temporary residence. In the temple of Jetavana, his place of refuge built by generous merchants, Buddha spends a large part of his life. As taught by Buddha, monks must spend the rainy season in retreat, in a place of their choice. The temple of Jetavana remains a privileged place where many monks come to withdraw from the world. This is where Lord Buddha spent 19 mushrooms. 19 years here and 6 years over there, in another temple. That's 25 mushrooms of his life given to Shravasti. There were many temples here. Buddha has become known and many monks followed him here for the rainy season. Whether towards Manet there or Sarnet there, we still find traces. It is here that the Lord meditated and preached in front of a large assembly and next to his disciples. There, you see, there is a rectangular platform called Mekuti. It was his tribune. While only the ruins of the many temples remain today, where Buddha gave his teachings in front of hundreds of gathered disciples, the meditation technique he taught in these places, Vipassana, remains very practiced. It still gathers today followers of all religions, who see the very essence of the heritage of Buddha. My name is Babura Myadav. I am the manager of the Vipassana Meditation Center from Jetavana to Shravasti in Uttar Pradesh. Shravasti is an eminently pure place. Lord Gautam Buddha lived here for 25 months. Lord Gautam Buddha taught Vipassana meditation here. Vipassana means to see things in their true nature, to receive them, to live them in clarity. For Vipassana, it is mandatory to respect the Panchashila, the five precepts of Buddhism, and to practice meditation to awaken one's wisdom. These are the great principles of Vipassana. If you have not purified your mind, that is, if you have not mastered fear, anxiety, anger, convoitism and attachment, you will suffer all your life. If you have managed to have the Nirmala mind, that is, pure, that is, you have mastered convoitism, attachment, anger, fear, you will live in happiness all your life. Vipassana meditation is based on the observation of sensations in the body. The actual theory behind Vipassana is that there are several levels of consciousness. There is a first level of feeling, then conscious mind, and then unconscious mind. So the goal of Vipassana is to reach your unconscious mind by using the tool of your sensations. The first three days is all about observing our respiration and the sensations around our nose, to focus on the sensations that we feel around our nose, the interconnection between the mind and the body. During the 10 days of retreat, you have to remain silent and do not speak to anyone. This is what they call Ashila. It was a challenge for me, it was sometimes quite boring, but after a while you understand that it's all worth it. You have a mystical experience that is difficult to explain. I cannot explain the sensation of air going in from your head to your nose. It's an example, but we do a lot of mystical experiences beyond explanation. All happiness in this world comes from openness to others. All suffering comes from confinement in oneself. It is by practicing and feeling the teachings of the Buddha that I am heading towards the last stage of my journey, which is located further east, in the state of Uttar Pradesh, in Kushinagar. Between effervescence and contemplation, I get involved with the inhabitants of this beautiful region, which is very practical. Here I am associated with the wisdom of the Buddha, with their own beliefs and religions, and to do it on a daily basis. Serene, as Buddha was, I am preparing myself to live, step by step, the last moments of his life. At almost 80 years old, when he passed on to a large community of monks and nuns the keys to perpetuate his teachings, Buddha feels death coming. Buddha leaves Vaishali and arrives here, at Pawanagar, at the end of the day. He settles in a mango garden which is a few kilometers away. Shadna, his faithful servant, offers to prepare him a meal. Buddha, who could foresee things, knows that it will be his last meal. The next morning, Shadna brings him a meal, made with local vegetables and roots, which was poisoned. After having eaten, Buddha has very quickly serious gastric problems. We are here in Shadna's house, and he brings the meal to Buddha, which was just a kilometer away. After having his last meal in Pawanagar, Buddha walks up to this place. He still suffers from severe dysentery after his last meal, and can no longer walk, so he stops here to rest. He takes his last bath here, in the water of this river. Then he rests a little more, before heading to Kushinagar. Kushinagar is one of the four main places of pilgrimage for Buddhists. The eminently sacred Paranirvana Temple is located in the middle of a public garden, where families, students and lovers like to come for a walk on the weekend. Guruji, a very influential and respected Burmese monk, gives me an exceptional audience to tell me the last moments of this great man. They arrived around 5 p.m. in Kushinagar. There, there is a small temple, Matakuvar, which is surrounded by water. Buddha was thirsty and asked Shadna for some water. Next to it, there is the Gandak river, and Buddha drinks water from the river. Then he said, Shadna, this is the territory of the Mala kings. Mala means violent warrior. We may be attacked, we must ask for permission. Shadna then went to see the Mala king. Buddha was very famous, and Shadna said, we have arrived, Lord Buddha and I, we are in Kushinagar. He was looking for a high and pleasant place, and the Mala king had a garden, an ideal place for a tired man, so that he could rest in the forest of Shala. They went there. One went north, the other south. Then he lay down like this, on the side, head to the north. Tired from his walk, he went to bed around 7 p.m. and he slept until midnight. At midnight, Buddha announced to the attendants that he was going to leave his body, reach the Nirvana. The voluntary extinction of oneself, complete and definitive. He said, it will be too late to ask me questions, so ask me now. Shadna asked a question about the places of pilgrimage after his Nirvana. Buddha mentioned the main places of pilgrimage where he had to go. Lumbini, Bodhgaya, Sarnath and Kushinagar. Then Buddha agonized. He agonized a little more. At 4 a.m., he asked the attendants to stop getting closer to him. And then he delivered his last sermon. Everything you see in the universe is ephemeral. Everything that is built by man is ephemeral. Everything will be destroyed. You have to accept it and work at your own wisdom. That's all. The earth trembled. The shooting stars crossed the sky. The sky lit up in ten directions and a celestial music filled the space. The master's body was washed, dressed in monastic robes, wrapped in a thousand linens and placed in a coffin of precious matter. Then for seven days, offerings were made by the gods and men before the ritual cremation. Buddha died. But since then, his teachings continue to live and inspire humanity. Buddha has been freed from reincarnation. Buddha is in the park over there. He is sleeping. He is in the house over there. He is sleeping. He says that to work well at school, he has to become a producer. Outside, many temples are crossing the street while the walkers, tourists, monks, students, children join in the joy and harmony. The Wheel of Dharma is the infinite wheel of birth and death, production and destruction. To exit the Wheel and reach nirvana, you have to meditate. Everything is in meditation, because everything is suffering, birth and death, success and failure. The solution is meditation. Ahimsa Paramodharma. It means the supreme value is non-violence. Buddha left everything to search for the truth about the meaning of life. What is the meaning of life? We are, we come into the world and then? Buddha told us that the answer is in us. The message of Buddha for the world is that we can only awaken to knowledge by renouncing power. Tonight again, the wheel continues to turn, leading this Indian people in its wake, which touched me with its generosity and its undeniable spirituality. Each meeting allowed me to discover man, Siddhartha, Buddha, and to experience his teaching in this country where, by essence, life is in the here and now.