Buddhism and Wesak

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Buddhism and Wesak
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The Three Refuges (Jewels)

• The Dharma (teachings)

The Buddha
The Sangha (Community)
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The BuddhaSiddhartha Gautama(563-483 BC)
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The Buddha

• Born as a prince
• Saw the realities of life and then left the
  Palace
• Experimented with asceticism and rejected it
• Became enlightened
• Taught for the next 45 years
• Died as a human being at the age of 80

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The Major Buddhist Traditions

• Theravada (The Way of the Elders) - Sri Lanka
  Southeast Asia
• Mahayana (The Greater Vehicle) - China, Korea,
  Japan ( Tibet Mongolia)
• Vajrayana (The Way of the Diamond Thunderbolt)
  - Tibet Mongolia

Vajrayana is a development within the Mahayana
tradition.
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SHAKYAMUNI BUDDHA C.500BCE
MAHAYANA BUDDHISM
THERAVADA BUDDHISM
380 BCE
475 CE
CHAN
VAJRAYANA BUDDHISM
1200 CE
RINZAI ZEN
SOTO ZEN
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The Spread of Buddhism
Spheres of Influence

Buddhism out of India by 1000 AD

Theravada
Mahayana
Vajrayana
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A very few statistics
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Buddhism and Ethnicity in Britain The 2001
Census DataThe 2001 Census data gave two
important headline figures for Buddhists in
Britain.  There were said to be 144,453 Buddhists
in England and Wales (0.27757 of the population
of 52,041,916), and 152,000 Buddhists in the UK
as a whole (0.25855 of the population of
58,789,000).
Ethnicity of Buddhists in the UKEthnicity    
Percentage  NumbersWhite                       
38.79   59000Mixed                         
3.22     4900Asian or Asian British   
9.64   14600Black or Black British    1.04 
   1600Chinese                        23.75  
36100Other Ethnic Group    23.56   35800All
Buddhists             100.0   152,000
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Wesak

• Wesak is the most important of the Buddhist
  festivals and is celebrated on the full moon in
  May. It celebrates the Buddha's birthday, and,
  for some Buddhists, also marks his birth and
  death.
• Buddha literally means 'one who is awake' and has
  become enlightened. It is a term that denotes a
  person who has attained the supreme wisdom and
  compassion of Enlightenment.
• To Buddhists Enlightenment is a blessed state in
  which the individual attains Nirvana - the
  transcendence of desire and suffering.

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Wesak

• Celebrations
• The festival is celebrated with much colour and
  gaiety. Homes may be cleaned and decorated. In
  Thailand, for example, special Wesak lanterns are
  made of paper and wood, and often there a large
  ceremonial releases of caged birds.
• In many countries during the festival, Buddhists
  will visit their local temple for services and
  teaching, and will give offerings to the monks of
  food, candles and flowers.

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Wesak

• Chinese Buddhists incorporate elements of their
  country's culture into their religious
  celebrations like the traditional dancing
  dragons.
• Gifts are taken to an altar to be offered to the
  Buddha statues. This shows respect and gratitude
  to the Buddha for his life and teachings.
• If there is food it is usually vegetarian as
  Buddhists try not to harm animals.

Paying homage to the Buddha The Buddha himself
has given advice on how to pay homage to him.
Just before he died, he saw his faithful
attendant Ananda weeping. The Buddha advised him
not to weep, but to understand the universal law
that all compounded things (including even his
own body) must disintegrate. He advised everyone
not to cry over the disintegration of the
physical body but to regard his teachings as
their teacher from then on, because only the
Dharma truth is eternal and not subject to the
law of change. He also stressed that the way to
pay homage to him was not merely by offering
flowers, incense, and lights, but by truly and
sincerely striving to follow his teachings. This
is how devotees are expected to celebrated Wesak
to use the opportunity to reiterate their
determination to lead noble lives, to develop
their minds, to practise loving-kindness and to
bring peace and harmony to humanity
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• In a commemorative message, Kofi Annan
  highlighted that this years Wesak Day falls as
  the world body continues its efforts to adapt to
  meet the challenges of the 21st century, and in
  particular to implement the commitments made by
  leaders at last years World Summit.
• Our success in advancing this agenda of renewal
  will depend not only on government
  representatives and international officials. It
  will rest on voters, consumers, civil society
  groups and concerned individuals of all ages, in
  rich and poor countries alike, thinking and
  acting as global citizens, he said.
• As we mark this years Day of Wesak, let us
  recognize, as Buddhism does, our essential
  interdependence, he said, calling for a
  collective resolve to work towards the common
  good, and for the harmonious and peaceful
  coexistence of all the worlds people.

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BUDDHIST FESTIVALS
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The Four Noble Truths
As a result of its impermanence we experience
life as suffering
However, suffering itself is caused by our desire
for life to be otherwise
Therefore the way to stop suffering is to stop
desire
The way to stop desire is to follow the Eightfold
path.
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The doctrine ofInterdependent Origination(Paticc
a Samuppada)

• The interdependence relativity of all things

No separate beings No distinct individuals No
eternal essences No "own-natures"
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The
12.
1.
Aging Dying
Ignorance
2.
11.
Wheel of
Impulse to Exist
Birth
Heaven
3.
10.
Con- scious- ness
Human Realm
Demon Realm
Becom- ing
Greed Delusion Hatred
Bhavachakra
4.
9.
Hungry Ghost Realm
Animal Realm
Mind- Body
Cling- ing
Becoming
5.
8.
Six Senses
Hell
Craving
6.
7.
Contact
Sensations
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The Eightfold Path
Right Views
Right Thought
Right Speech
Right Action
Right Way of Life
Right Effort
Right Mindfulness
Right Concentration
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The Eightfold Path
Right Views
Right Thought
Right Speech
Right Action
Right Way of Life
Right Effort
Right Mindfulness
Right Concentration
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The Five Components (skandhas) of personhood
(No-self, contd)
Body (rupa)
Person
Sensation (vedana) Consciousness
(vinnana) Perception (sanna) Volition (sankhara)
Mind (nama)
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The Five Precepts by Thich Nhat Hanh

• The First Precept Aware of the suffering
  caused by the destruction of life, I vow to
  cultivate compassion and learn ways to protect
  the lives of people, animals, and plants.
• The Second Precept Aware of the suffering caused
  by exploitation, social injustice, stealing and
  oppression, I vow to cultivate loving kindness
  and learn ways to work for the well-being of
  people, animals, and plants.
• The Third Precept Aware of the suffering caused
  by sexual misconduct, I vow to cultivate
  responsibility and learn ways to protect the
  safety and integrity of individuals, couples,
  families, and society.
• The Fourth Precept Aware of the suffering caused
  by unmindful speech and the inability to listen
  to others, I vow to cultivate loving speech and
  deep listening in order to bring joy and
  happiness to others and relieve others of their
  suffering.
• The Fifth Precept Aware of the suffering caused
  by unmindful consumption, I vow to cultivate good
  health, both physical and mental, for myself, my
  family, and my society by practising mindful
  eating, drinking, and consuming.

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Indra's Net
Indra, the king of the gods, has a wonderful net
made entirely of strings of jewels. Each jewel
in the net both reflects and is reflected by all
the other jewels. Thus all jewels, though
participating in one anothers existence, retain
their own identity.
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Extract from the Heart Sutra

• O Shariputra, in this void there is no form,
  sensation, thought, activity or consciousness
• No eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind, no form,
  no tastes, sound, colour, touch or objects
• Vision none no consciousness, no knowledge and
  no sign of ignorance
• Until we come to where old age and death have
  ceased and so has all extinction of old age and
  death
• For here there is no suffering, nor yet again is
  there accumulation,
• Nor again annihilation nor an Eightfold Path, no
  knowledge, no attainment.

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Elaboration of the Noble Eightfold Path

• Right views (Samma ditthi)
• Right intent (Samma sankappa)
• Right speech (Samma vaca)
• Right conduct (Samma kammanta)
• Right livelihood (Samma ajiva)
• Right effort (Samma vayama)
• Right mindfulness (Samma sati)
• Right concentration (Samma samadhi)

Wisdom (prajna)
Morality (sila)
Meditation (samadhi)
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• To study the Buddha Dharma is to study the self
• To study the self is to forget the self
• To forget the self is to be enlightened by all
  things

Dogen
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• When you do something, if you fix your mind on
  the activity with some confidence, the quality of
  your state of mind is the activity itself.
• When you are concentrated on the quality of your
  being, you are prepared for the activity.
• Shunryu Suzuki