Download Rebirth Buddhism - Michael Sudduth

Buddhism
“Everything that arises also passes away, so
strive for what has not arisen.” - Buddha
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.
The Four Passing Sights
• The intent of Gautama’s 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.
Two Quests
The Ignoble
Quest
The Noble
Quest
The Ignoble Quest
A person who is
What
are like
liablethings
to sickness,
sorrow,this?
old age, and
Transient
Things
death attaches
to
Material
things
liable to the
Possessions
same.
The Noble Quest
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).
Embarking upon the noble quest, at age 29
Siddhartha Gautama began studying
meditational techniques under well-known
teachers Alara Kalama and Uddaka
Ramaputta.
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-thingness” 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
Despite his meditation mastery,
after many years Siddhartha still
felt unsatisfied.
“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
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 selfdenial. He still felt
unsatisfied.
• Gautama’s 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.
• 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
“So – being myself liable to
birth…old
age…sickness…death…sorrow…imp
urity…, I attained nibbana…the
unborn…the unaging…the
unailing…the deathless…the
sorrowless…the 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
The Buddha taught his fundamental
insights throughout the Ganges
Valley for the next 45 years.
1. Three Marks of Existence
Anicca (Impermanence)
Anatta (No Self)
Dukkha (Lack of Satisfaction)
2. The Four Noble Truths
3. Nirvana and the Eightfold Path
“The Dart of Painful Feeling”
• Human persons experience two kinds of feelings:
bodily feelings and mental feelings.
Unpleasant Bodily Feeling => Aversion => 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).
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.
“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)
Some Fast Facts on Buddhism
The Three Schools of Buddhism
Theravada (South Asian Buddhism)
Mahayana (East Asian Buddhism)
Vajrayana (Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, Mongolia)
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.
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.
Early Buddhist Discourses
Selections from the “Discourse Basket” of
the Tipitaka