Sources of wisdom and authority

Theravada Buddhism

• Theravada - ‘doctrine of the elders’

• They believe that they are closest to the original teachings. The teachings are tools to tell us see the truth of the world.

Theravada Buddhists belief on the birth of the Buddha

• It was initially prophesied when Queen Maya, the Buddha’s mother, had a dream of a white elephant entering her womb. According to legend, when the Buddha was born he took seven steps, lotus flowers springing up underneath his feet.

• After the Buddha’s birth there was a prophecy that he would become either a great king or a religious leader.

The four sights

• An old man

• A sick man

• A corpse

• A holy man

• First three sights disturbed him enormously as he realised that old age, sickness, and death were an inescapable reality of life for all living beings

• The 4th sight inspired him due to the apparent calm and peace of the holy man. Siddhartha wanted to be like him - a truth seeker. It was a sign that there was a way out of the suffering he had observed.

Significance of the life of Gautama Buddha for Theravada Buddhists

• It provides a historical and practical example of how enlightenment can be achieved, with the Buddha as a role model

• Buddhahood is rare in Theravada Buddhism (only one Buddha per world age) so Gautama has a special status

• Theravada Buddhists believe that Gautama’s Dhamma is the path to liberation and has been faithfully passed down through the Pali Canon

• Genuine human struggle to achieve enlightenment

Gautama Buddha as a role model

• Renunciation of wealth

• The determination showed in his ascetic life / battle against Mara

• The compassion demonstrated by his decision to teach

Why the Buddha has authority for Theravada Buddhists as the ‘enlightened one’

• Has had many past lives and can remember them giving him wisdom

• Has achieved enlightenment - completed liberation from the cycle of samsara

• The only one to achieve enlightenment on his own

• His teachings are the way to achieve enlightenment

• Ultimate role model for Theravada Buddhists

• Leader of the tradition and the sangha

• Stories about him in the Pali canon

• His life is connected to a number of auspicious signs e.g. earth shaking, full moon etc

• He has the physical marks of an enlightened being

• Prophecy

Mahayana Buddhism

• ‘Great vehicle’ - best way to reach enlightenment

• Later school of Buddhism

Mahayana - life and teachings of Gautama Buddha was ‘skilful means’

• Believed that the Buddha was born enlightened - voluntary decision

• Performed the path to enlightenment for other beings benefit

Upaya

Using the most skilful means (ways) to teach someone which can often involve manipulating or simplifying the truth if someone is not ready for the highest level of teaching

The parable of the burning house

A man comes home to find his house in flames while his children play happily inside. After failing to get them to leave the house he promises them pretty carts outside drawn by deer, goats, and bullocks. The children leave the house and the father makes good on his promise by finding the children a beautiful cart beyond their imagination.

Message of the parable of the burning house

• The Parable of the Burning House suggests that the Buddha was like a father teaching immature children (his followers) how to escape a burning house (world of suffering). There are several things this may mean, according to Mahayana Buddhists:

  • The promises Buddha made (e.g. Nirvana) may not reflect what is actually waiting for us

  • The Buddha’s original followers were spiritually immature and the teachings in the Pali Canon are therefore tailored to a less intelligent audience

  • The life of the Buddha itself could be an example of skilful means – one example is that the Buddha did not really go to Parinirvana but continues to look out for suffering beings

Carts representation in the parable of the burning house

• Goat - hearer or disciple

• Deer - An individual who independently achieves liberation without the aid of teachers and without teaching others to do the same

• Bullock - Bodhissatva who is a person who is on the path towards bodhi or buddhahood and teaches others to do the same

Dukkha dukkha

The suffering of suffering, physical and emotional discomfort and pain all humans experience in their lives

Viparinama dukkha

Suffering of change, suffering that arises from an inability to accept change

Sankhara dukkha

Suffering of existence, unsatisfactoriness of existence, caused simply by existence

The four noble truths

1. "Life is suffering", dukkha - existence of suffering.

2. The cause of suffering is craving or thirst, samudaya - origin of suffering

3. Hope for a cure, destruction of suffering, nirodha - end of suffering

4. Treatment for our illness, magga - the way to the end of suffering

Cause of suffering

• The three poisons

  • Ignorance - moha

  • Hatred - dvesha

  • Greed - raga

• Craving (tanha)

• Attachment to impermanent things

The story of the plough

The Buddha recognises that suffering is an inescapable part of life. He witnesses that worms are eaten by birds, birds by larger birds, etc.

The story of devadatta

the Buddha’s cousin and brother-in-law brings great suffering on himself by trying to usurp the Buddha as leader of the Sangha. Devadatta suffers from greed and rather than responding vengefully, the Buddha responds calmly e.g. by pacifying the elephant Devadatta has sent to kill him.

The story of kiso gotami

The Buddha shows a woman who is grieving the loss of her son that impermanence (anicca) cannot be escaped, by sending her to beg a mustard seed in every house where no one has died. She comes back empty-handed and recognises that it was her own ignorance that was causing her to suffer.

The story of Angulimala

The Buddha helps a robber and murderer to see that his behaviour is not giving him the “real adventure” he wants from life but is causing him, and others, to suffer.

Buddhism is pessimistic

• The four noble truths show that Buddhists think all life is suffering

• The goal of life for Buddhists is to escape the cycle of samsara rather than to live a fulfilling life

• Buddhists believe that all material goals are craving which could be seen as pessimistic, particularly by a western culture

• Escape from this world seen as a good thing

Buddhism isn’t pessimistic

• The four noble truths show that Buddhists believe that there is an end to suffering, which is optimistic

• Buddhism may be correct about the cause of suffering - there is a difference between pessimistic and realistic - Buddhism recognises that a lot of optimism is simply ignorance

• By embracing a Buddhist lifestyle it is possible to be more grateful, balanced, and unaffected by negative emotion

The Pali canon

Canon' means a set of texts that are accepted as sacred to a particular group. 'Pali' is the Ancient Indian language in which Buddhist texts are written. The Pali Canon is therefore the set of scriptures written in Pali and recognised by Theravada Buddhists as being fully authoritative

The development of the pali canon

• The Buddha did not write his teachings down so they were only agreed after his death when the Sangha met to agree which teachings to preserve.

• For a long time, the teachings were passed on orally and recited regularly.

• During the Fourth Buddhist Council there was a decision to create written copies as a result of a famine that was killing Buddhist monks. These were written on palm leaves and stored in three pitakas (baskets), hence the name tripitaka that is often given to the Pali Canon

Vinaya Pitaka - basket of discipline

• Contains the rules of behaviour that bikkhus and bikkhunis are supposed to keep

• Still some disagreement between schools on whether certain rules are historically accurate or a later addition, eg the garudhammas

• Rules known as patimokkha or pratimoksha

• There are 227 for men and 311 for women

• Examples include an outline of the offences which can result in expulsion from the sangha

The use of the Vinaya pitaka (basket of discipline)

• In worship: ordination ceremonies, reciting the rules, shapes the structure of monastic worship

• In daily life: relies on its rules and guidelines in order to maintain a stable and fair community, conflict resolution

Sutta pitaka - basket of discourse

• Contains the life and teachings of the Buddha

• Broken down into five collections or ‘nikayas’

• Examples include the aggana sutta and the kalama sutra

The use of the sutta pitaka (basket of discipline)

• In worship: useful in engaging lay people, chanting and reciting, meditation, key teachings like the four noble truths and eightfold path

• In daily life: mindfulness, decision making, moral guidance

Abhidamma pitaka - basket of higher doctrine

• Contains detailed scholarly analysis of the Buddhas rules and teachings from the other two baskets, including debates and controversies

• Seen as the ultimate truth

• Concerned with psychology, philosophy, the nature of reality, the self, etc.

• Examples include the teaching of anatta and the Five Skandhas

The use of the abhidhamma pitaka (basket of higher doctrine)

• In worship: ritual chanting, protection chanting

• In daily life: understanding karma, analysing mental factors, academic use

Accuracy of pali canon for Buddhists

• It is believed to come directly from the Buddha’s early disciples (e.g. Ananda and Upali)

• For Theravada Buddhists, the Pali Canon has full authority as the only true record of the Buddha’s teachings. The careful effort to preserve its accuracy across multiple Buddhist councils ensures it is an authentic record of the Buddha’s life.

• For Mahayana Buddhists, the Pali Canon has partial authority. It is an example of Upaya (skilful means): it is a set of teachings given to a group of people who were not intellectually advanced enough to understand higher ideas. Mahayana Buddhists use the Pali Canon but support with Mahayana Sutras such as the Lotus Sutra which contain additional teachings such as Buddhanature and Sunyata.

Relevance of Pali canon for Buddhists

• This debate is most significant for Theravada Buddhists who derive most of their teachings and ways of life from the Pali Canon. However, it is important for all Buddhists to consider whether the Canon is authoritative or not.

• The accuracy of the Pali Canon may also be challenged due to the nearly five hundred years it was transmitted through the spoken word, leading to potential corruption or distortion of the original teachings. Secular Buddhists such as Stephen Batchelor have argued that the early Sangha may have added many more traditional Indian views that Buddha himself would have rejected.

• Many scholars and even practicing Buddhists agree that the stories of the Buddha are more of a hagiography than a biography. Hagiography is a kind of 'religious biography' that presents an idealised story in which an individual performs miraculous acts and great accomplishments. However, if read as a hagiography, the Sutta Pitaka helps us understand how those who met the Buddha perceived and remembered him.

• Even if the Pali Canon is hagiographic, there may still be a 'core truth'. Paul Williams points out that it would have been impossible for the young Gautama to have never seen old age, sickness, or death, however the story nevertheless portrays the idea of the Buddha being raised to "radically misperceive things", which still gives us an insight into his upbringing as well as the human condition more broadly.

• The Buddha said "who sees the Dhamma, sees me, and who sees me, sees the Dhamma". This suggests that the Buddha should not be understood as a historical figure but as an exemplification of his teachings.

• Scholars who take a historical or social scientific approach to interpretation will likely see some teachings as more authentic than others. Tominaga Nakamoto proposed the idea that theories and ways of thought develop historically, as one idea surpasses another. Buddhist sutras are products of "development through accumulation". Nakamoto argues that Buddha himself was adding to non-Buddhist teachings, while the Pali commentaries were adding to the Buddha's teachings, and the Mahayana sutras adding further to these

• There is a question of what is meant by 'the words of the Buddha' or 'the Buddha's teachings': does it matter if the record is inaccurate, if it nonetheless captures the Buddha's true meaning or intention? Pushing this idea even further, does it matter if the scriptures do not reflect the Buddha's teachings at all, as long as they work?

• If the Pali Canon is not fully accurate, it may mean that Buddhists have to rely more on their own judgment rather than accepting that the canon is an accurate record of Gautama's words. This may affect the organisation of the Sangha, e.g. if some rules did not come from the Buddha. For example, those who view the Garudhammas as ahistorical may fight for the inclusion of women in the Sangha.

• It may inform a person's decision to follow a particular school of Buddhism, e.g. to abandon traditional Theravada Buddhism and pursue Mahayana due to its acknowledgement that the Pali Canon is incomplete. Alternatively, Theravada Buddhists may believe that the regular Dharma recitation and direct lineage makes the Pali Canon a superior teaching, even in spite of its limitations.

Information that supports the accuracy of the Pali canon

• First council was said to have been held just after the Buddhas parinirvana, Sutta pitaka were recited by ananda and the vinaya by upali - Buddhas disciples

• Second council held to resolve disputes and correct practices → shows concern for preserving original vinaya rules

• Third council expelled the opportunistic monks and scriptures were recited again and checked

• Fourth council the teachings were written down for the first time, creation of the tipitaka preserved teachings long term

• Fifth council was attended by 2400 monks, the tipitaka was carefully examined and recited

• Sixth council compared different Buddhist scripts to identity differences and mistakes, international involvement, found very little differences

Information that challenges the accuracy of the Pali canon

• First council didn’t include abhidhamma → suggesting incompleteness, teachings were spoken not written

• Second council had disagreements over vinaya, resulted in the first schism in the sangha

• Third council added an additional book of dissenting Buddhist views → shows different interpretations

• Fourth council was written hundreds of years after the Buddhas death, still based on earlier oral tradition which may have changed

• Fifth council is not widely recognised outside Burma, regional influence may limit authority

Why some Buddhists see the debate about accuracy of Pali canon as important

• It impacts how literally teachings are taken

• It impacts what school a Buddhist chooses to join

• It impacts the authority of the moral teachings