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Title: Buddhism: A


1
Buddhism A Philosophical Introduction
2
Buddhism An Introduction
  • The Buddha
  • Buddha and 6th-Century Brahmanism
  • The Three Jewels
  • Four Noble Truths
  • Eightfold Path
  • Two (Main) Vehicles
  • The Bodhisattva
  • Zen
  • Tibetan Buddhism
  • Two Buddhist Creeds
  • Buddhism in America

3
The Buddha
  • Siddhartha Gautama of the Sakyas
  • ca. 563-483 BCE
  • Wife Yasodhara Son Rahula
  • The Four Passing Sights
  • Six years of asceticism and seeking
  • The Bodhi Tree
  • The Temptation (Mara)
  • Kama--the God of Desire
  • Hurricanes, torrential rain, etc.
  • What right do you have?
  • Enlightenment
  • One more question (from Mara)
  • How can anyone understand?
  • Dies from food poisoning?

4
Buddhisms Challenge to 6th-cent. Brahmanism (as described by Huston Smith) Buddhisms Challenge to 6th-cent. Brahmanism (as described by Huston Smith) Buddhisms Challenge to 6th-cent. Brahmanism (as described by Huston Smith)
Authority Hereditary and exploitative (provenance of Brahmins) Buddha preached a religion devoid of authority
Ritual Rituals became mechanical means of achieving miraculous results Buddha preached a religion devoid of ritual
Speculation Lost its experiential basis hairsplitting Buddha preached a religion that skirted speculation
Tradition Dead weight e.g., insistence on continued use of Sanskrit Buddha preached a religion devoid of tradition
Grace Read in ways that undercut responsibility and/or led to fatalism Buddha preached a religion of tremendous self-effort
Mystery Devolved into mystery-mongering, mystification, obsessions with the occult/fantastic Buddha preached a religion devoid of the supernatural
5
The Three Jewels
  • Buddha (The Awakened One)
  • Dharma (The Teachings)
  • Sangha (The Community)
  • also The Three Refuges

6
The Four Noble Truths
  • Life is Duhkha (Suffering, dissatisfaction,
    wobbly wheel for grocery cart) pain, change,
    being
  • Tanha/trishna (craving, desire) binds us to
    suffering
  • There is a way out of this (nirvana)
  • This way is the Eightfold Path

7
The Eightfold Path
  • Right View
  • Right Thought
  • Right Speech
  • Right Action
  • Right Livelihood
  • Right Effort
  • Right Mindfulness
  • Right Concentration

samma right,
8
Annatta/Anatta/Anatman
  • Skandhas
  • form/material composition
  • sensing/feeling
  • perception(s)
  • mental formations/thought processes
  • consciousness/Consciousness

9
Two Main Vehicles
THERAVADA (HINAYANA)--ELDERS MAHAYANA (Reformers)
Human beings are emancipated by self-effort, without supernatural aid Human aspirations are supported by divine powers and the grace they bestow
Key virtue is wisdom Key virtue is compassion
Attainment requires constant commitment, and is primarily for monks and nuns Religious practice is relevant to life in the world, and therefore to lay people
Ideal the Arhat who remains in nirvana after death Ideal the bodhisattva
Buddha a saint, supreme teacher, and inspirer Buddha a savior
Minimizes metaphysics Elaborates metaphysics
Minimizes ritual Emphasizes ritual.
Practice centers on meditation. Includes petitionary prayer.


10
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11
The Bodhisattva
  • In Theravada Buddhism, the bodhisattva is seen as
    seeking enlightenment so that, once awakened, he
    or she may efficiently aid other beings with the
    expertise of supreme wisdom.
  • Gautama Buddhas previous life experience as a
    bodhisattva before Buddhahood are recorded in the
    texts of the jataka.
  • Lay Buddhists of Theravada seek inspiration in
    Gautama's skill as a good layman in these texts,
    which account not only his historical life, but
    many previous lives.
  • When Gautama Buddha referred to himself in his
    pre-Buddha existence, he spoke in terms of "when
    I was still a Bodhisattva".
  • The only currently active bodhisattva described
    in the Pali Canon is the future Buddha Maitreya.
    The Theravada tradition, i.e., the Pali Canon,
    speaks of no other bodhisattvas than these.

12
The Bodhisattva (cont.)
  • In Mahayana Buddhism, a bodhisattva has the
    compassionate determination to aid all beings on
    their quest for the highest state of development,
    full enlightenment of a Buddha.
  • Remaining in this world of uncontrolled rebirth
    (samsara) this individual has taken the
    bodhisattva vows not to pass into nirvana until
    all other beings have likewise achieved
    enlightenment.
  • In brief, simply imagine the Bodhisattva as
    saying, "If I know how to swim, and even one
    other being cannot, then I will remain behind in
    this world to assist them until they know how to
    save themselves from drowning".
  • According to many traditions within Mahayana
    Buddhism, on his or her way to becoming a Buddha,
    the bodhisattva proceeds through ten, or
    sometimes fourteen, stages or bhumi.
  • Various traditions within Buddhism believe in
    certain specific bodhisattvas. Some bodhisattvas
    appear across traditions, but due to language
    barriers may be seen as separate entities. For
    example, Tibetan Buddhists believe in Chenrezig,
    who is Avalokitesvara in India, Kuan Yin (other
    spellings Guan Yin, Kwan Yin, Quan Yin) in
    China, and Kannon in Japan.

13
Zen (Chan) Buddhism
  • Bodhidharma (ca. 500 C.E.)
  • Zen characteristics are non-dualism,
    completeness, immediacy, authenticity,
  • activeness, everydayness, selflessness,
    dedication, spontaneity
  • zazen, koans, satori

14
satori (example?)
  • Ztt! I entered. I lost the boundary of my
    physical body. I had my skin, of course, but I
    felt I was standing in the center of the cosmos.
    I saw people coming toward me, but all were the
    same man. all were myself. I had never known
    this world before. I had believed that I was
    created, but now I must change my opinion I was
    never created I was the cosmos. No individual
    existed. (Zen Notes 1.5, p. 1)

15
zazen
16
koan
  • What is the sound of one hand (clapping)?
  • Whats true meditation? Its to make it
    all--coughing, swallowing, gestures, motion,
    stillness, words, action, good and evil, success
    and shame, win and lose, right and wrong--into on
    single koan. --Hakuin (1686-1769)

17
Koan
MUDDY ROAD Tanzen and Ekido were once traveling
together down a muddy road. A heavy rain was
still falling.Coming around the bend, they met a
lovely girl in a silk kimono and sash, unable to
cross the intersection. "Come on girl", said
Tanzen at once. Lifting her in his arms, he
carried her over the mud.Ekido did not speak
again until that night when they reached a
lodging temple. Then he no longer could restrain
himself. "We monks don't go near females," he
told Tanzen, "especially not young and lovely
ones. It is dangerous. Why did you do that? "I
left the girl there," said Tanzen. "Are you still
carrying her?"
18
Koan
A monk told Joshu, "I have just entered the
monastery. Please teach me. Joshu asked, "Have
you eaten your rice porridge?The monk replied, "I
have eaten. Joshu said, "Then you had better
wash your bowl. At that moment the monk was
enlightened.
19
Koan
One day Akbar drew a line with his royal hand on
the floor of the open court and told his wise men
that if they wanted to keep their jobs they must
make the line shorter without touching any part
of it. Wise man after wise man approached and
stood staring at the puzzle, but they were unable
to solve the problem. Finally Birbal stepped
forward and drew a longer line next to the first
one, without touching the first line.Everyone in
the court look at it and agreed. The first line
was definitely shorter.
20
Koan
A university student asked Gasan, "have you ever
read the Christian Bible? "No, read it to me,"
said Gasan.The student opened the Bible and read
from St. Matthew "And why take ye thought for
raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how
they grow. They toil not, neither do they spin,
and yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all
his glory was not arrayed like one of these...
Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the
morrow shall take thought for the things of
itself. Gasan said "Whoever uttered those words
I consider an enlightened man. "The student
continued reading "Ask and it shall be given to
you, see and ye shall find, knock and it shall be
opened for you. For everyone that asketh
receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to
him that knocketh, it shall be opened. Gasan
remarked "That is excellent. Whoever said that
is not far from Buddhahood."
21
Asked what Zen training leads to, a Western
student who had been practicing for seven years
in Kyoto answered, No paranormal experiences
that I can detect. but you wake up in the
morning and the world seems so beautiful you can
hardly stand it. (Quoted in Smith, World
Religions, p. 93)
22
Tibetan (Vajrayana) Buddhism
  • Distinctive practices that enable one to reach
    nirvana in a single lifetime
  • Tantric
  • Mantras, Mudras (hand gestures), Mandalas
  • Dalai Lama

23
A Sand Mandala
24
Mudras
25
The Dalai Lama is not accurately likened to the
pope, for it is not his prerogative to define
doctrine. Even more misleading is the
designation god-King, for though temporal and
spiritual authority do converge in him, neither
of those powers define his essential function.
The function is to incarnate on earth the
celestial principle of which compassion or mercy
is the defining feature. The Dalai Lama is the
bodhisattva who in India was known as
Avalokiteshvara, in China as the Goddess of
Mercy, Kwan Yin, and in Japan as Kannon. As
Chenrezig (his Tibetan name) he has for the last
several centuries incarnated himself for the
empowerment and regeneration of the Tibetan
tradition. Through his person--a single person
who has thus far assumed fourteen successive
incarnations--there flows an uninterrupted
current of spiritual influence,
characteristically compassionate in its flavor. .
. The Dalai Lama is a receiving station toward
which the compassion-principle of Buddhism in all
its cosmic amplitude is continuously channeled,
to radiate thence to the Tibetan people most
directly, but by extension to all sentient
beings. (Smith, World Religions, pp. 143-44)
26
Buddhism in the West Fundamental Buddhistic
BeliefsColonel H.S. Olcott, Founding President
of the Theosophical Society, 1891
  • Buddhists are taught to show the same tolerance,
    forbearance, and brotherly love to all men,
    without distinction and an unswerving kindness
    towards the members of the animal kingdom.?
  • The Universe was evolved, not created and it
    functions according to law, not according to the
    caprice of any God.?
  • The truths upon which Buddhism is founded are
    natural. They have, we believe, been taught in
    successive kalpas, or world periods, by certain
    illuminated beings called Buddhas, the name
    Buddha meaning "enlightened.
  • The fourth teacher in the present kalpa was Sakya
    Muni, or Gautama Buddha, who was born in a royal
    family in India about 2,500 years ago. He is an
    historical personage and his name was Siddhartha
    Gautama.?
  • Sakya Muni taught that ignorance produces desire,
    unsatisfied desire is the cause of rebirth, and
    rebirth the cause of sorrow. To get rid of
    sorrow, therefore, it is necessary to escape
    rebirth to escape rebirth, it is necessary to
    extinguish desire and to extinguish desire, it
    is necessary to destroy ignorance.?
  • Ignorance fosters the belief that rebirth is a
    necessary thing. When ignorance is destroyed the
    worthlessness of every such rebirth, considered
    as an end in itself, is perceived, as well as the
    paramount need of adopting a course of life by
    which the necessity for such repeated births can
    be abolished. Ignorance also begets the illusive
    and illogical idea that there is only one
    existence for man, and the other illusion that
    this one life is followed by states of
    unchangeable pleasure or torment.?

27
Fundamental Buddhistic Beliefs(cont.)
  • The dispersion of all this ignorance can be
    attained by the persevering practice of an
    all-embracing altruism in conduct, development of
    intelligence, wisdom in thought, and destruction
    of desire for the lower personal pleasures.?
  • The desire to live being the cause of rebirth,
    when that is extinguished rebirths cease and the
    perfected individual attains by meditation that
    highest state of peace called nirvana.?
  • Sakya Muni taught that ignorance can be dispelled
    and sorrow removed by the knowledge of the four
    Nobel Truths, viz?1 . The miseries of
    existence?2. The cause productive of misery
    which is the desire?ever renewed of satisfying
    oneself without being able ever to secure that
    end?3.The destruction of that desire, or the
    estranging of ?oneself from it?4. The means of
    obtaining this destruction of desire. ?The means
    which he pointed out is called the Noble
    Eightfold Path, viz Right Belief Right Thought
    Right Speech Right Action Right Means of
    Livelihood Right Exertion Right
    RemembranceRight Meditation.?
  • Right Meditation leads to spiritual
    enlightenment, or the development of that
    Buddha-like faculty which is latent in every man.?

28
Fundamental Buddhistic Beliefs(cont.)
  • The essence of Buddhism summed up by the
    Tathagata (Buddha) himself is?To cease from all
    sin, ?To get virtue,?To purify the heart?
  • The universe is subject to a natural causation
    known as "karma". The merits and demerits of a
    being in past existences determine his condition
    in the present one. Each man, therefore, has
    prepared the causes of the effects which he now
    experiences.?
  • The obstacles to the attainment of good karma may
    be removed by the observance of the following
    precepts, which are embraced in the moral code of
    Buddhism, viz (1) Kill not (2) Steal not (3)
    Indulge in no forbidden sexual pleasure (4) Lie
    not (5) Take no intoxicating or stupefying drug
    or liquor. Five other precepts, which need not
    here be enumerated, should be observed by those
    who would attain more quickly than the average
    layman the release from misery and rebirth,?
  • Buddhism discourages superstitious credulity
    Gautama Buddha taught it to be the duty of a
    parent to have his child educated in science and
    literature. He also taught that no one should
    believe what is spoken by any sage, written in
    any book, or affirmed by a tradition, unless it
    accord with reason.?

29
Buddhism in the WestTwelve Principles of
Buddhism
  • (click here)

30
Buddhism in America
  • An Architect and Zen
  • Nen in Maryland
  • Soka University
  • Tibetan New Year
  • Thich Nhat Hanh
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