What did the first Buddhists find religiously dissatisfying about the Brahmanist conception of salvation and how did they address that dissatisfaction in their own view of salvation?.
Brahmanism developed as the earliest form of Hinduism. It cultivates the idea of Samsara, the cycle of rebirth and reincarnation, also thought of as the cause of all suffering and death. It is believed to be governed by the law of Karma, which proclaims that good action in a rebirth will result in a more favorable rebirth in one's next life and bad action will result in the opposite. However, as long as Karma exists so does the vicious ever-repeating cycle of suffering and death that everyone needs to be saved from. When Buddhism originated around 400 BEC they agreed and adopted the ideas of Samsara and its vicious cycle. Both religions were in agreement that salvation needed to be obtained by individuals and with this salvation they would be freed from samsara and end rebirth in a final death. However, early Buddhists found the Brahmanism conception of salvation religiously dissatisfying and chose to address salvation their own ways. .
Brahmanism revolved around the idea that salvation was attained once the True Atman was achieved. The True Atman is Brahman, which is all of reality. Brahmanist deny the individual Atman completely, they believe the individual Atman and all that it perceives is Maya: a seductive, deadly illusion or false view of everything materialistic and the world of common sense as we know it. Nothing personal exists, no conscious identity exists, no meaningful experiences occur, and self-transcendence is absent. Once Brahman's realize that the True Atman, "that I really am", is Brahman, they've reached Moksa, which is the utterly untainted existence of Brahman. When this truth is grasped, which can only occur only after countless lifetimes, salvation is reached, and a final death can occur.
