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- He was born in a Dalit (untouchable) family during the colonial era of India, studied abroad, became a Dalit leader, and announced in 1935 his intent to convert from Hinduism to a different religion, an endeavor which took him to study all the major religions of the world in depth, namely Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Christianity, and Islam, for nearly 21 years. Thereafter, Ambedkar studied the sacred texts of Buddhism and found several of its core beliefs and doctrines, such as Four Noble...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navayana
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Oct 7, 2024 · After shelving the idea of conversion to Sikhism, Ambedkar started leaning towards Buddhism as the possible religion to convert to. He began speaking about his inclination to embrace Buddhism...
In the Dalit Buddhist movement, Navayāna is considered an independent new branch of Buddhism native to India, distinct from the traditionally recognized branches of Theravāda, Mahāyāna, and Vajrayāna [8] —considered to be foundational in the Buddhist tradition.
- Origins
- Doctrines and Concepts
- Buddha’s Parivaja
- Four Noble Truths
- Anatta, Karma and Rebirth
- Bhikshu
- Nirvana
- Conversion
- Scripture and Practice
- Reception
Ambedkar was an Indian leader influential during the colonial era and the early post-independence period of India. He was the fourteenth child in an impoverished Maharashtra Dalit family, who studied abroad, returned to India in the 1920s and joined the political movement. His focus was social and political rights for the Dalits. To free his commun...
In 1935, during his disagreements with Mahatma Gandhi, Ambedkar announced his intent to convert from Hinduism to Buddhism. Over the next two decades, Ambedkar studied texts of Buddhism and concluded that several of the core beliefs and doctrines of mainstream Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism were flawed, pessimistic and a corruption of the Buddha’s ...
The Buddhist tradition believes that the Buddha one day saw a sick man, an old man and a dead body in sequence, then he left his princely life and sought insights and a way out of human suffering. According to Ambedkar, this was absurd. He proposed that the Buddha likely sought insights because he was involved in “making peace among tribes”..
Ambedkar believed that this core doctrine of Buddhism was flawed because it denied hope to human beings. According to Ambedkar, the Four Noble Truths is a “gospel of pessimism”, and may have been inserted into the Buddhist scriptures by wrong headed Buddhist monks of a later era. These should not be considered as Buddha’s teachings in Ambedkar’s vi...
These are other core doctrines of Buddhism. Anatta relates to no-self (no soul) concept. Ambedkar believed that there is an inherent contradiction between the three concepts, either Anatta is incorrect or there cannot be Karma and Rebirth with Anatta in Ambedkar’s view. Other foundational concepts of Buddhism such as Karma and Rebirth were consider...
A Bhikshu is a member of the monastic practice, a major historic tradition in all schools of Buddhism. According to Ambedkar, this was a flawed idea and practice. He questioned whether a Bhikshu tradition was an attempt to create “a perfect man or a social servant”, states Zelliot..
According to Navayana, nirvana is not some other-worldly state of perfect quietude, freedom, highest happiness, nor soteriological release and liberation from rebirths in saṃsāra. In Ambedkar’s view, nirvana is socio-political “kingdom of righteousness on earth” in which people are “freed from poverty and social discrimination and empowered to crea...
Ambedkar delivering a speech during mass conversion in Nagpur, 14 October 1956. Ambedkar re-interpreted Buddhism to address such issues in his mind and re-formulated the traditional teachings of Buddhism into a “new vehicle” called Navayana. Navayana dhamma doctrine as propounded by Ambedkar, states Yashwant Sumant, “does not situate morality in a ...
The writings of Ambedkar were posthumously published as The Buddha and His Dhamma, and this is the scripture for those who follow Navayana Buddhism. Among the Navayana followers, state Keown and Prebish, this is “often referred to as their ‘bible’ and its novel interpretation of the Buddhist path commonly constitutes their only source of knowledge ...
Ambedkar’s re-interpretation of Buddhism and his formulation of Navayana has attracted admirers and criticism. The Navayana theories restate the core doctrines of Buddhism, according to Eleanor Zelliot, wherein Ambedkar’s “social emphasis exclude or distort some teaching, fundamental to traditional and canonical Buddhism”. Anne Blackburn states tha...
- ProjectNAVAYAN@gmail.com
Monastic renunciates were the heart and soul of the Buddhist movement in ancient India and for that matter in most of the rest of Asia. In the new Buddhism, the battleground in the struggle for liberation has shifted away from the monastery.
Jan 30, 2014 · Ambedkar Buddhism, or Navayana (“new vehicle”) Buddhism, began on 14 October 1956 in Nagpur, India, when nearly 400,000 Dalits, formerly known as Untouchables, converted from Hinduism.
Jul 3, 1997 · In the years since his great conversion, Ambedkar had become a symbol of hope for low-caste people throughout India, but his Buddhist movement since then has had to struggle along with support from outsiders like Sangharakshita and his British Buddhist followers, though it also attracted some talented leaders within India and the untouchable ...
The great conversion, or Dharma Diksha, took place on October 14, the date associated with Emperor Ashoka’s conversion to Buddhism (he reigned from 272 to 236 B.C.E.), in the central Indian city of Nagpur, also associated with Buddhist folklore and history.
