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Buddha’s Heroic Journey
 Divine Birth – Mother’s dream
 Call to Adventure – The Four Sights
 Tests and Trials – Mara
 Boon - Teachings
Early Life of the Buddha
 Born as Siddhartha Gautama around 563 BCE at Lumbini Grove,
northern India
 Born into a royal family
 Married princess Yashodhara when he was nineteen
 Shielded by his family from difficulties of life outside the court
 Life focused on pleasure
Centers of Early Buddhism
Four Sights
 Upon managing to temporarily leave the court, Siddhartha saw four
things that surprised him:
 a old man
 a sick man
 a corpse
 a wandering ascetic
Siddhartha sets out
 Disturbed by the Four Sights, Prince Siddhartha escaped the court
and took up ascetic practices
 After taking ascetic practices to their extreme, he sat under a tree at
Bodhgaya with new resolve to understand the nature of suffering
 Some Buddhist accounts present this as time when demons assailed
Siddhartha, trying to defeat him in his efforts at insight
Demon Mara tests Siddhartha

Three temptations
1. There’s trouble at home
2. Voluptuous women dance around him
3. Mara summons host of demons
Enlightenment and Teaching *
 Siddhartha, sitting unperturbed under the Bodhi tree, finally gains
insight into the nature of suffering and becomes the Buddha, i.e., the
Enlightened One
 With his new insight, the Buddha set out to instruct others
 Encountering ascetics at Deer Park near Benares, the Buddha
began what would become a forty-five career as a teacher
Bodhgaya, India
Fire Sermon
 Delivered as his second sermon
 Explains the Four Noble Truths
 Nirvana, a state of “No-being” beyond all
desire
 Becomes the Buddha, the Enlightened One
The Buddha Addressing Monks at Sarnath
Boon: A Philosophical System
 Buddha preaches/teaches
 Caste system is abandoned in the sangha
 Arhats (disciples) begin to missionize
 Monasteries proliferate in India
 Women are allowed to enter the order
 Lives for another 45 years, respected for his wisdom and
compassion
Teachings
 Four Noble Truths
 The Middle Way
 The Noble Eightfold Path
 Nirvana
 No individual soul (no self to be reborn)
 No Creator God
Four Noble Truths
 Fundamental to the Buddha’s teachings is the doctrine of
the Four Noble Truths:
 all life is characterized by suffering
 suffering is the result of or misguided desire (attachment)
 to eliminate misguided desire is to eliminate suffering
(detachment)
 the method for eliminating suffering is the “Eightfold Path”
Middle Way *
 The Buddha had known two extremes of religious practice
 the worldly rituals of Hinduism
 the extreme privation of asceticism
 He posited a compromise between these two as the appropriate
stance for religious practice
Noble Eightfold Path
 Right view: correct insight into the nature of suffering
 Right aim: correct resolve in overcoming suffering
 Right speech: truthful speech that reflects Buddhist knowledge
 Right action: ethical behavior and discipline
 Right living: a livelihood that isn’t in conflict with Buddhist ethical
commitments
 Right effort: disciplining the mind
 Right mindfulness: remaining focused on appropriate understandings
of self and suffering
 Right concentration: progression through successive stages of
NIRVANA
 Extinction
 Cessation of consciousness
 Bliss
 Release from the cycle of existence
 Psychological state
 State of mind
 NOT heaven
Samsara, Karma *
 The Buddha agreed with samsara only in the fact that birth followed
death. Release from suffering was achieved through the Four Noble
Truths.
 The Buddha reinterpreted karma to focus particularly on the states of
mind of the individual. Grasping, desires and intentions bind humans
to an impermanent world.
 When these things cease, humans pass over to Nirvana.
KARMA – Buddhist view
 Primarily psychological
 Grasping, desires and intentions bind the
psychological processes
 There is a consequence for every thought and
deed
 Impulses from an individual’s life carry over into
another life. (yet, there is no self to be reborn)
Skandhas *
 There is no permanent self rather it is the appearance of self
generated by skandhas
 Senses
 mind
 perceptions
 impulses
 consciousness
 As opposed to Hindu thought, Buddha taught that there was no
eternal self that continues through reincarnation.
 Those who seek permanence suffer for no self exists.
Regarding Metaphysical Questions *
 The Buddha disregarded broader metaphysical questions, remaining
focused instead on the practical concerns of suffering and its
alleviation
 No creator god
Buddhist Scripture
 Extensive writings exist that pertain to a variety of understandings of
the Buddha’s life and teachings
 Tripitaka, or “three-fold basket,” is an early set of scriptures
composed in Pali
 rules for Buddhist monks
 collections of what are regarded as the Buddha’s sayings, in
addition to stories, poems and songs about the Buddha and what
some regard as the Buddha’s former lives
 Further systematic development of ideas
Buddhist Scripture (cont.)
 Following the Buddha’s death, some accounts describe the gathering
of his followers in a series of councils to decide controversies that
had arisen
 First council shortly after the death of the Buddha, establishing
the Tripitika
 Second and third council a hundred years later to settle questions
regarding rules for monks and questions of orthodoxy.
 Councils continued to be held to decide on points of faith and
practice.
Sects develop - Two Major Vehicles *
 One of the splits that developed among Buddhists was between two
major traditions
 Theravada Buddhists regarded the Buddha as an exemplary
human being who provided a model for ultimate religious
transformation through self-application
 Devotees focus on monastic life
 Maitreya, the Buddha to come
 Salvation is through dedicated self-effort rather than intervention
of deity.
Two Major Vehicles cont’d *
 Mahayana Buddhists regarded the Buddha in more cosmic, god-
like terms. Furthermore, human beings were regarded as aided in
their spiritual development and well-being by bodhisattvas, beings
who - though capable of Nirvana - remained active in the world
out of compassion for the suffering of others
 Believe in liberated heavenly beings who assist humans–
bodhisattvas
 Salvation is not solely a matter of personal discipline but is
assisted by various deities.
Conversion of Asoka – 3rd century BCE
 Northern Indian ruler devoted to conquest
 Attracted to Buddhist teachings
 Abandoned warfare and built temples
 Sent missionaries throughout India, to Asia, Africa, Europe and Sri
Lanka, Burma
Buddhism enters China, Korea, Japan and Tibet *
 By 1st century BCE, Mahayana and Theravada
sects had entered China
 From Korea, Buddhism spread to Japan in 6th - 8th
centuries CE
 14th century: political implications: Mongol chieftain
awarded Tibet to the Dalai Lama
Buddhism in China
 Mahayana Buddhism developed in new directions in imperial China
 Tian Tai attempted to consolidate seemingly conflicting Buddhist
doctrines into a single system that recognized one scripture, the
Lotus Sutra, as the pinnacle and clearest exposition of Buddhist
thought.
 Hua Yen, like Tian Tai, attempted to consolidate all Buddhist
teachings; this school, however, placed the Flower Garland Sutra
at the pinnacle of Buddhist doctrines. It emphasized the
interpenetration of all things.
Buddhism in China (cont.) *
 Jingtu or Pure Land Buddhism posited that the bodhisattva
Amitabha would compassionately intervene in the lives of human
beings and transport them after death to a paradise, or Pure Land
 Chan, brought to China from India by Bodhidharma, emphasized
the practice of meditation in the achievement of enlightenment
Guanyin (Kwan Yin), Goddess of Mercy
 Bodhisattva who assists Amitabha in Chinese Pure
Land doctrine
 Madonna of the East
 Carries a vial of compassion which she pours on
the world (to aid in the elimination of suffering)
Buddhism in Tibet
 In seventh century CE, Tibetan ruler Srong Tsan Gampo married two
Buddhist wives from abroad, bringing Buddhism into Tibet for the first time
 In the following century, Indian Buddhist teacher Shantarakshita brought
Buddhism to Tibet in a more systematic fashion
 Occult and tantric forms of Buddhism prevailed in Tibet; various schools
emerged, including:
 Nyingmapa, old-school Buddhists who embraced trantic practices found
in Hinduism
 Gelugpa, protest movement against Nyingmapa’s laxity and sexual
abuses. Advocated celibacy and vegetarianism.
 Gelugpa lama seen as reincarnated shortly after death. Elaborate
search rituals results in new lama.
The Present Dalai Lama
 The Dalai Lama is a part of the Gelugpa lineage of Tibetan
Buddhism.
Buddhism in the West
 In addition to waves of Asian migration to the U.S. beginning in the
nineteenth century, non-Asians have also taken an interest in
Buddhism - particularly during the 1960s.
 Nichiren Shoshu Sokagakkai had been an example of organized
forays by Buddhists into America. Similar to its counterpart in Japan.
Salvation through chanting
 Today, a wide range of Buddhist traditions that developed throughout
Asia are evidenced in the American landscape
Worldview
 Absolute – belief in gods was not essential to release from suffering.
Theravadins deny deities but Mahayanists believe they are essential.
 World – alleviation of suffering meant detachment from the world.
 The problem for humans was suffering produced by ignorance of the
impermanence of the world. The solution was knowledge using the
Four Noble Truths.
 There was no life after death, though something carries over.
Worldview
 Community ethics includes the symbiotic relationship between
monastics and laity; the latter are expected to abstain from
 theft
 intoxication
 inappropriate speech
 injury to others
 A strong concern for an end-time of history is not widespread in
Buddhist materials, although some Mahayana Buddhists anticipate
the appearance of the next Buddha to incarnate: Maitreya
Worldview (cont.)
 The eight-spoked wheel is a symbol used to suggest the Noble
Eightfold Path
 Some Buddhist laity recite a vow of refuge in three things:
 the Buddha
 the Dharma, i.e., Buddhist teachings
 the Sangha, i.e., the community of Buddhists (or, more
specifically, monks and nuns)
 In some parts of Asia, young laymen take on the role of a Buddhist
monk for a finite period of time
Worldview (cont.)
 Buddhism, in a wide variety of environments, has coexisted with
other forms of religious practice; it has even elicited an interest in
active dialogue and engagement, as was pursued by the late
Catholic monk Thomas Merton
Women and Buddhism
 Although Mahayana Buddhism has allowed for the ordination of
women as nuns, they’ve held a second-class status relative to monks
 non-Asian women who have converted to Buddhism, such as
Tsultrim Allione and Jiyu Kennett Roshi, have introduced innovations
in the possible roles for women leaders in Buddhism