Chapter 3: Buddhism "Religion of Release"

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Life of the Buddha and the Four Passing Sights

Intro to Buddhism

• Buddhists believe that individuals can overcome the misery of the world and reach their own Buddha status by a process of mental, spiritual, and moral purification

  • ^^Problem: Suffering^^
  • ^^Solution: reach Nirvana^^

• Buddhist canon has 3  main forms: Theravadin, Mahayana, and Tibetan

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The Life of the Buddha

• Born to be a nobleman had a Mayor’s son in a north Indian state

• Rejects orthodox Hindu practices of his time, and rejects the authority of the VEDAS

• Sees the ^^Four Passing Sights^^, (old age, disease, death, and a monk), and has a religious experience

• Finds the ^^Middle Path^^ between Hindu and asceticism and the life of the householder

  • (no to the extremes, finds the middle ground between suffering and pleasure)

• Founds his Teaching/Religion (Dharma), and establishes a monastic order

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Key Concept (Teachings) Part 1

1. ^^Existence (living) has “3 marks”^^
   • Impertenance (anitya/anicca)
     • Everything we do has a shelf-life, and it causes us suffering when we lose the things we love, but suffering also goes away bc everything is impermanent, including our pain
   • Suffering (duhkha)
   • No-self (no permanent individual soul) anatman

• Once u realize this u can truly be free from samsara and reach nirvana

1. ^^Four Noble Truths^^^^:^^ find the root cause of suffering and cure it (enlightenment)
2. ^^Noble Eightfold Path^^: virtues that are practiced collectively cure the aspirants of suffering
3. ^^Interdependent Origination^^: nothing is truly metaphysically independent; all things exist in relation to everything else

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Key Concepts Part 2

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Four Noble (Aryan) Truths

• ^^Fundamental Buddhist Teaching^^

• The fundamental spiritual problem is suffering and anguish caused by ignorance, and the cure is understanding the noble truths and practicing to “wake up” to achieve enlightenment

• The Four Noble Truths

1. ^^Duhkha^^ (Suffering): moral and sentient existence includes change, pleasure, pain, and desire - these lead to attachment which leads to suffering and anguish

   • Suffering is normal,. samsara, the cycle of birth and death is all marked by suffering

2. ^^Samudaya^^ (Origin of Suffering): the origin is obsessive attachment to what we want and obsessive aversion to what we don’t want

3. ^^Nirodha ^^(Cessation of Suffering): the cure is to practice ridding oneself of such obsession

4. ^^Marga^^ (the Path) - Eightfold Path (Virtues): this practice is best accomplished thru right views, right intentions, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration

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The Rise of Mahayana in China, Tibet, and Korea

The Buddha as “Doctor,” Psychologist and Spiritual Leader & Healer

• We can view the 4 noble truths from the perspective of early Vedic-Indian medicine:

• 1st Noble Truth: suffering, track the ^^symptoms^^ of sickness

• 2nd Noble Truth: origin of suffering, ^^diagnosis^^ based on assessment of symptoms (the problem is attachment & aversion)

• 3rd Noble Truth: cessation of suffering, ^^prognosis ^^(projection of outcomes - in this case, the prognosis is good; the Buddha offers a path to end suffering)

• 4th Noble Truth: spiritual path, ^^prescription^^ (for healing: enlightenment by practiing the eightfold path of virtues)

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Key to Early Buddhist Enlightenment Experience

1. ^^Understand^^ (intellectually & emotionally) ^^the 4 Noble Truths^^
2. Follow the ^^Eightfold Path^^
3. Understand the ^^impermanence^^ of all things
4. Understand the ^^absence of a soul-self^^ (anatman)
5. (4) includes understanding the ^^5 “heaps^^” or elements (skandhas) of which all sentient creatures are composed: you, me, dogs, and crows, etc.

• 5 Skandhas: physical form, sensation-affection, perception, habits, consciousness

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Division & Subdivision

Basic Division/Branches of Buddhism: ^^Theravada & Mahayana^^

• Theravada: “way of the elders” (sometimes called Hinayana, the smaller vehicle)

  • Practiced in Sri Lanka, Thailand, and south-east Asia

• Mahayana: “the great/larger vehicle”

  • Practiced in Tibet, China, Japan, Korea, and all of America/Europe
  • Emphasizes other-help over self-effort in the form of devotion to numerous Buddhas and bodhisattvas
  • Sub division of Mahayana: Vajrayna
  • Vajrayana: Lamaism/form of Mahayana with Tantric elements and indigenous Tibetan shamanism; origins: Tibet
  • Other branches falling under Mahayana: Nichiren (Japan), Pure-Land Buddhism, more devotional in nature

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Mahayana vs. Theravada

• Bodhisattva Saints of the Mahayana
  • Bodhisattvas are spiritual warriors who delay their own salvation until all sentient beings achieve enlightenment
  • ^^Emphasis on compassion and altruism^^ as key features that constitute Buddahood. their goal is to become ^^future Buddhas^^
  • Enlightenment (^^nirvana^^) is not personal or individual; all fields of suffering must be liberated

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Lamaism, Mahayana Chan/Zen, and Bodhisattvas

Prajna-Paramita Sutras

• Mahayana also focuses on ^^“pure emptiness”^^ (shunyata - meaning zero, or formlessness)

  • You’re not a single solid thing, but a fluid process

• In early Buddhism, everything is made up of some form of the five elements (the skandhas)

• In Mahayana-Prajna-Paramita, even these five elements are “empty”

• Every form is ultimately defined by its connection to something else - in this sense, relative and dependent

  • All things are interdependent

• All forms are empty and all emptiness can take the shapes of forms

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Tibetan Mahayana (or “Lamaism” & Zen Buddhism)

• Tibetans mix indigenous religious practice with Buddhism (arriving around the 5th-7th c. CE)
• Also known as ^^Lamaism^^ (super religion)
• Emphasis on bodhisattva and sometimes tantra (or the quick method) for enlightenment
• ^^Zen^^ from Chinese, “Chan,” from Sanskrit-Indian “Dhyana’ (meditation) - practiced originally in Chinese mountain monasteries, and then in Japan
• Emphasis on “emptiness” and prajn-paramita
• Emphasis on pure freedom from intellectualism (Koan Tradition)
• Emphasis on the pure experience of emptiness and stillness

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Scriptures of Theravada Buddhism

• Known as ^^Tipitaka, the Three Baskets^^
• In the Pali language
• Tradition says that the early disciplines of Buddha wrote down his words on palm leaves and separated them into 3 parts (the scriptures):
  • The ^^Vinaya Pitaka^^^^,^^ “Discipline Basket”
  • The ^^Sutta Pitaka^^^^,^^ “Discourse Basket”
  • The ^^Abhidhamma Pitaka^^, “Special Teaching Basket”

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