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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• 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 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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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 plain.
• 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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Some Fast Facts on Buddhism
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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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Buddhist Scriptures
The Pali Canon Includes Tipitaka consists of
three parts (monastic rules, discourses,
supplementary doctrines)
Chinese Canon A variety of different topics,
including histories of different Buddhas,
parables, ritual manuals, and spells.
The Tibetan Canon Tipitaka, hymns of praise,
commentaries on Buddha sermons, and various
technical treatises on topics as diverse as logic
and medicine.
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Early Buddhist Discourses
Selections from the Discourse Basket of the
Tipitaka