The Axial Age
The Buddha lived and taught in the Axial Age, the period between 800 and 200
This period of humanity gave birth to the philosophies of Confucius, Lao Tzu, Zoroaster, Socrates, and Plato as well as the Hebrew prophets Ezekiel, Zechariah, and Jeremiah. And, of course, the Axial Age was the context in which the Buddha lived and made his mark on the world.
Advances in agriculture gave rise to food surpluses and the rise of cities bustling with commerce and political power. The Hindu world in which Siddhartha was raised was one of ritual sacrifice. The Vedic worldview consisted of castes and believed that the entire universe was supported by sacrifices. The priest class of Brahmins was integral for the administration of these rituals.
A strong belief in the afterlife and a soul that transcended death was part of the worldview Siddhartha lived within. To get to the equivalent of heaven, one had to live a moral life and one's ancestors had to employ Brahmin priests to perform special rituals (shraddha). If you were immoral or your family left you in the ritual lurch, your soul might dissolve.
In contrast to this, Karen Armstrong notes, “It was by ethics, not magic, that humanity would wake up to itself and its responsibilities, realize its full potential and find release from the darkness that pressed in on all sides.”
“A conviction that the world was awry [dukkha — filled with grief, pain, sorrow] was fundamental to the spirituality that emerged in the Axial countries. Those who took part in this transformation felt restless — just as Gotama did. They were consumed by a sense of helplessness, were obsessed by their mortality, and felt a profound terror of and alienation from the world.” — Karen Armstrong
The Buddha had a vision for political and social change. According to Michael Willis in Buddhism Illustrated, “The Buddha's repeated use of agricultural metaphors in his teaching, his acceptance of traders as key patrons, of the monastic community, his insistence on non-violence and his denial of the efficacy of sacrifice can all be read as part of his attempt to provide a new philosophical and religious system for the urban elite of Northern India.”
Many concepts associated with Buddhism such as karma and samsara were imports from Hinduism. The goal for Hindu mystics was to escape rebirth and samsara by reuniting one's atman, or soul, with Brahman (the creator spirit). This union is the highest form of yoga. This final release is called moksha.
Two famous shramana (an ascetic who renouces ties with society) teachers were Mahavira, founder of Jainism, and Siddhartha Gautama, founder of Buddhism.
The Buddha was a product of his time and also transcended the received wisdom of Vedic India. He rejected the notion of an everlasting soul and made the radical observation that what is considered self is not a thing but a process, and a process that is ever changing. Suffering results not from living inside of a body (a belief that presumes a duality between body and mind) but from being attached to it. That is, trying to hold onto a solid sense of self when everything is always changing; trying to cling to fleeting pleasures and trying to push away unpleasant experience.
He succeeded in discovering a method that could bring an end to suffering, and this method can be reliably reproduced by anyone interested in trying. This method was not about achieving high or rarified states of consciousness but seeing the nature of reality clearly. That clear seeing is what leads to liberation.
