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Buddhism
Basic Data
Christianity
Buddhism
Adherents
2 billion (32%)
376 million (6%)
Leading Person
Jesus
Siddhartha Gautama
Holy Book
Bible
Tripiṭaka (Sūtra Piṭaka, Vinaya
Piṭaka, Abhidharma Piṭaka)
Clergy
Bishops, Priests
Sangha (monks)
House of Worship
Church
Temple
Theology
Monotheistic-Trinitarian
Non-Theist
Soteriology
Passion of Christ; Baptism
Nirvana
Holidays
Easter
Christmas
Pentecost
Buddhist New Year (April)
Vesak (Buddha’s birthday)
Magha Puja
Fasting
Lent (Advent)
Full moon days & holidays
Basic Data
Who is a Buddhist?
 About 376 million persons are “traditional Buddhists”
 They have taken refuge in the Three Jewels, those
following all of the precepts of Buddhism laid down by
the Buddha,)
 About 1.2 billion includes "natural Buddhists" (as well
as secular/nominal Buddhists)
 They lack specific ceremony
 They do not profess belief in another religion
Terms
 Arahant: one who achieves nirvana
 Anatman: the state of nonsoulness that, according to
the Buddha, was the natural state of humanity
 Dalai Lama: Leader of Tibetan Buddhism and, until
1950, the spiritual and political ruler of Tibet
 koan: literally means, "case study"; a riddle, tale, or
short statement used by Zen masters to bring
students to sudden insight
 Nirvana: literally means, “cessation,” “extinction,”
"blowing out," or "extinguish"; cessation of human
individuality and suffering
 Sangha: Buddhist monastic order
 Samsar: Cycle of Rebirth; the endless reincarnation of
sentient beings
 The Four Noble Truths -- 1) Life in samsara is suffering;
2) This has a cause; 3) It may be ended; 4) There is a
path for ending it.
 The Eight-fold Path -- Eight categories of a) social
behavior, b) meditation behavior, c) attitude & belief - the path to end suffering
 Trance (dhyana [Japanese: zen]) -- The state of the
mind as it truly "sees"
 Selfhood: The "permanent identity" that the mind, in
its ignorance, ascribes to things (and to itself)
 Atman: the soul; the core of "self" erroneously
ascribed to mental activity
 Bodhisattva -- An enlightened being who remains in
the Cycle in order to "ferry" other beings to nirvana
 Pure Consciousness/Thoughts/Mind: The three levels
of mental activity: an existing flow of sentience;
atom-like thoughts; the intellect
 Bodhi: Enlightenment; Awakening to the awareness
of one's Ignorance
 Prajna: Wisdom; the clear perception of the world as
Emptiness
 The Five "Skandhas" -- The five elements which join to
form the illusory identity of a human being: 1) material
form; 2) feelings; 3) perceptions; 4) impulses; 5)
consciousness
 Karma -- The value of mental acts (which are linked to
behavior), in relation to their effect on increasing or
decreasing Ignorance [for example, "selfish" acts are
bad: they reinforce attachment to "self"]
Three “Schools” of Buddhism
 Mahayana: literally means, "the expansive way," or
"the big raft"; the largest branch of Buddhism; those
Buddhist which take the Boddhisattva as the ideal
(the major form of Buddhism in China, Korea, and
Japan)
Three “Schools” of Buddhism
 Theravada: literally means, "the tradition of the
elders"; the smaller branch of Buddhism; the
Buddhists which take the Arhat as the ideal (currently
most popular in Southeast Asia)
 Zen Buddhism: Form of Mahayana Buddhism that
teaches that the real truth about life comes from
intuitive flashes of insight
Siddhartha Gautama
(Buddha)
Early Life
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Born in 5th Century BC (BCE)
Lived 80 years
Lived in the foothills of the Himalayas
Son of a wealthy landowner or nobleman
Named
 Siddhartha = “wish-fulfiller” or “one who reaches his
goal”
 Gautama = family name
Buddhist Legend
 “The epics embellish [Gautama’s] birth story as an
immaculate conception in which a white elephant
carrying a lotus flower entered his mother’s womb in
her dream.” (Fisher, 130)
 “He is portrayed as the reincarnation of a great being
who had been born many times before and was
drawn to earth once again by his compassion for all
suffering beings.” (ibid.)
Important Details
 Raised in the Hindu religion
 Raised in luxury, never needing or wanting for
anything
 KEY: Did not know suffering or poverty
 Trained in the martial arts
 Married with a son (named “Rahul”=chain)
 Became disillusioned with riches, ease, marriage
Four Sights Legend
 At the age of 29, when he was most disillusioned “the
gods arranged for him to see the ‘four sights’ that his
father had tried to hide from him” (Fisher)
I. A bent over old man (old age)
II. A sick person (suffering)
III. A dead man (death)
IV. A monk seeking eternal pleasure instead of
temporal (material, fleeting) pleasure
Four Sights Impact
 Shook Siddhartha out of his lethargy, apathy and
disillusionment
 Showed him the impermanence of life and existence
 Showed him the existence of suffering, old age, death
and renunciation
Four Sights: Result
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Renounced wealth
Left wife and newborn son
Shaved head (sign of penance, grief)
Became a wandering ascetic
 Homeless poverty, as a beggar
 Common for Hindus who seek of spiritual truth
 Six years of extreme abnegation
 Exposure, breath retention, bed of brambles, severe
fasting
Middle Way
 After six years, Siddhartha concluded that neither
luxury nor extreme abnegation
 Both are temporal
 Both are temporary “fixes” and do not provide real
relief
 Suffering is in the mind more than in the body
 Suffering is the result of “existence” and “being”
 Key: escape existence and being
 Conclusion: Middle Way (all things in moderation)
Enlightenment
 To solve “theodicy” (problem of suffering) Gautama
tried meditation
 Sixth lunar month, night of a full moon
 Underneath a Gaya tree
 The bodhi Gaya
 Experience “Supreme Enlightenment”
 Recall all four previous lives
 Entered nirvana
Result of Enlightenment
 Gautama became the Buddha
 He realized that the cycle (samsar) of life and rebirth
is a cycle of suffering
 One merely goes from one life of suffering to another
 He also realized that enlightenment was the way to
break the cycle, the way to end suffering
 His new life goal: to teach this way, or path, to others
 Mara (evil in human form) tried to convince him that
his insights should not be taught; they were too
complex and too difficult
Later Years
 Gautama spent the last 45 years of his life as a
peripatetic teacher
 The essence of his teaching
 Four Noble Truths (about suffering)
 Eight-fold Path (liberation from suffering)
 Volunteer teacher with nothing but a begging bowl
 Rahul emulated his father’s life of poverty and
spiritual dedication (one of the first monks)
Later Years
 Gautama’s stepmother became the first Buddhist nun
 Buddha at first resisted female monks, but then gave
into the request of his stepmother and 500 other
women
 Break from Hinduism: women may also achieve
enlightenment
 Gautama renounced all forms of killing
 Break the cycle of death for all sentient beings
 End suffering by living at peace with the world
Death
 Died after eating food that accidentally contained
poisonous mushrooms
 Designated no successor
 Dharma (way of life) and self-discipline were his
“successors”
 His bones (relics) were taken to 10 locations in India
where temples of veneration were built
 Pilgrimage sites