Buddhism

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Buddhism
Everything that arises also passes away, so
strive for what has not arisen. - Buddha
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Siddhartha Gautama
566-486BCE or 484-404BCE

• Born in Kapilavatthu (near modern day Lumbini, on
  the border of Nepal and India)
• Siddhartha was a prince and his father a king (or
  feudal lord)
• Lived a sheltered life of luxury and wealth.

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The Four Passing Sights

• The intent of Gautamas father was to shield him
  from contact with old age, sickness, and death.
  But he was unsuccessful.
• Venturing outside the palace walls, Gautama first
  encountered an old man, then on a second
  journey - a diseased person, on a third ride a
  corpse, and finally on a fourth journey, a monk
  with a shaven head who had renounced the world in
  search of freedom.
• Gautama thereby came initially to know the
  conditions of old age, sickness, and death, and
  the possibility of transcending the suffering
  associated with these conditions of life.

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Two Quests
The Ignoble Quest
The Noble Quest
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The Ignoble Quest
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A person who is liable to sickness, sorrow, old
age, and death attaches to things liable to the
same.
What things are like this? Transient
Things Material Possessions
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The Noble Quest
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A person who is liable to sickness, sorrow, old
age, and death, having seen the danger in this,
seeks the unailing, sorrowless, unaging, and
deathless. This unsurpassed escape from bondage
is nibbana (nirvana).
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Nibbana

• Literal Meaning to be blown out. (Sanskrit
  Nirvana).
• What is blown out?
• Ignorance (Avijja)
• Craving (Tanha)
• Suffering (Dukkha)
• Rebirth (Samsara)

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• Embarking upon the noble quest at age 29,
  Siddhartha Gautama began studying meditational
  techniques under well-known teachers Alara Kalama
  and Uddaka Ramaputta.

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Mastering Meditation

• Under his gurus, Gautama experientially entered
  higher levels of consciousness as part of the
  discipline of raja yoga, first the level of
  consciousness called no-thing-ness and then the
  level of consciousness called neither perception
  nor non-perception.
• His gurus acknowledged in each case that, having
  achieved these higher states of consciousness,
  Gautama had realized the same truth as his gurus.
• So you know the Dhamma teaching that I know,
  and I know the Dhamma that you know. As I am, so
  you are as you are, so am I. Alara Kalama

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Despite his meditation mastery, after many years
Siddhartha still felt unsatisfied.
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This dhamma (teaching) does not lead to
aversion, nor to dispassion, nor to cessation,
nor to calmness, nor to higher knowledge, nor to
awakening, nor to nibbana. . . .So I turned away
from and abandoned this dhamma, having not
attained enough by this dhamma. Buddha,
Discourse on the Noble Quest
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Siddhartha joined a group of ascetics and
practiced various forms of self-denial. At times
he ate only six grains of rice a day. He nearly
dies. He thereby learned the futility of
practicing self-denial. He still felt
unsatisfied.
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• Gautamas journey brings him to Gaya in northeast
  India, where he sits to meditate under a ficus
  tree (the Bo Tree) to meditate.
• Kama god of desire tempts Gautama with
  sensual pleasure.
• Mara Lord of Death subjects Gautama to
  physical threats, e.g., intense wind, rain,
  flaming rocks.
• Mara retreats after Gautama touches the earth and
  it trembles with a powerful earthquake.

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• Red blossoms fall from the Bo Tree and Gautama
  has three realizations in the course of the
  night (1) His many past lives
• (2) The law of karma linking all past lives
• (3) The law of dependent arising
• everything that arises also passes away.
• Gautama became the Buddha - the awakened one

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So being myself liable to birthold
agesicknessdeathsorrowimpurity, I attained
nibbanathe unbornthe unagingthe unailingthe
deathlessthe sorrowlessthe morally pure,
unsurpassed security from bondage. The knowledge
and vision arose in me My liberation is
unshakable. This is the last birth. There is now
no rebirth. Buddha, Discourse on the Noble
Quest
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The Buddha taught his fundamental insights
throughout the Ganges Valley for the next 45
years.

• Three Marks of Existence
• Anicca (Impermanence)
• Anatta (No Self)
• Dukkha (Lack of Satisfaction)
• The Four Noble Truths
• Nirvana and the Eightfold Path

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Buddhist Traditions
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The Three Schools of Buddhism
Theravada (South Asian Buddhism)
Mahayana (East Asian Buddhism)
Vajrayana (Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, Mongolia)
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Three Principal Historical Periods

• 5th 1st Century BCE Early Indian Buddhism,
  origins of Theravada
• 1st Century CE Mahayana emerges and spreads to
  Southeast and East Asia.
• 5th Century CE Origin of Vajrayana and spread of
  Buddhism to the Himalayan region.

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Exploring DukkhaSuffering or Lack of Satisfaction
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The Dart of Painful Feeling

• Human persons experience two kinds of feelings
  bodily feelings and mental feelings.
• Unpleasant Bodily Feeling gt Aversion gt Painful
  Mental Feeling
• The painful mental feeling arises in the form
  of sorrow, lament, and grief, born out of
  aversion to painful bodily feeling. This is
  dukkka suffering or lack of satisfaction. It
  is a mental response to what is unpleasant.
• This arises because delight in sensual pleasure
  is sought as the escape from unpleasant bodily
  feeling. The uninstructed worldling does not
  know any escape from painful feeling other than
  sensual pleasure (Bodi, p. 31).

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Attachment and Detachment

• Pleasant and unpleasant bodily feelings are
  temporary they arise and then pass away.
  Attachment to them, whether aversion to the
  unpleasant or craving for the pleasant, leads to
  dukkha (lack of satisfaction).
• The instructed noble disciple, by contrast,
  having understood the origin and passing away of
  bodily feelings, is not attached. There is no
  aversion. Hence, he does not experience the
  painful mental feeling and is thereby free from
  dukkha.
• Dukkha is thus born as a particular mental
  response to bodily sensation.

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Vicissitudes of Life

• The world turns by eight conditions gain/loss,
  fame/disrepute, praise/blame, pleasure/pain.
  Dualities.
• The uninstructed worldling does not understand
  that these conditions are inescapable and also
  impermanent (anicca). He does not know them as
  they really are (Bodi, p. 33).
• The uninstructed worldling becomes attached to
  the dualities elated when he encounters gain,
  fame, praise, pleasure, and dejected when he
  encounters loss, disrepute, blame, and pain.

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Being thus involved in likes and dislikes, he
will not be freed from birth, aging, and death,
from sorrow, lamentation, pain, dejection, and
despair he will not be freed from suffering
(Bodi, p. 33)
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But, monks, when an instructed noble disciple
comes upon gain, he reflects on it thus This
gain that has come to me is impermanent (anicca),
bound up with suffering (dukkha), subject to
change. And so he will reflect when loss and so
forth come upon him. He understands all these
things as they really are. . . .
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Thus he will not be elated by gain and dejected
by loss elated by fame and dejected by
disrepute elated by praise and dejected by
blame elated by pleasure and dejected by pain.
Having given up likes and dislikes, he will be
freed from birth, aging, and death, from sorrow,
lamentation, pain, dejection, and despair he
will be freed from suffering (dukkha), I say
(Bodi, p. 33)
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The Four Noble Truths
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Suffering Dukkha
1. Life is dukkha - suffering or lack of
satisfaction. This is a general claim about a
fundamental pattern in human life, not a claim
that every moment is experienced as dukkha.
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Attachment Tanha
2. The origin of suffering is attachment to or
craving (tanha) for identity and permanence.
Craving fact of impermanence Dukkha.
Dukkha is rooted in the contradiction between (i)
our wishes and expectations and (ii) the way the
world actually is.
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3. Non-attachment or the cessation of craving is
the means of dissolving dukkha. If craving for
identity and permanence is the cause of
suffering, remove the craving and you remove
suffering.
Dispassion Or Non-Attachment
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The Path to Cessation
4. There is a path to non-attachment or
cessation. The middle path between excessive
indulgence and excessive self-denial. This is
called the eightfold path.
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The Eightfold Path
1. The Right View Know the four noble truths.
2. The Right Intention Intention of
renunciation, intention of non-ill will,
intention of harmlessness.
3. The Right Speech Abstinence from false
speech, abstinence from malicious speech,
abstinence from harsh speech, abstinence from
idle chatter.
4. The Right Action Abstinence from the
destruction of life, abstinence from taking what
is not given, abstinence from sexual misconduct.
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5. The Right Livelihood Avoid occupations that
harm other living beings.
6. The Right Effort Mentally striving for
mastery over evil unwholesome thoughts, from
which intentions, actions, and living arise.
7. The Right Mindfulness Lending attention to
every state of body, mind, and feelings, and
thereby experiencing the origination and
dissolution of states of body, mind, and feelings.
8. The Right Concentration Penetrate deeper
levels of consciousness through inward
examination, passing from inner security and
happiness to complete equanimity beyond all
dualities.
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The Eightfold path leads to the cultivation of
six perfections Wisdom Morality Charity
Forbearance Striving Meditation
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