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World Religions, Sixth Edition
Warren Matthews
Chapter Four:
Buddhism
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Centers of Early Buddhism
Life of Siddhartha Gautama, the
Buddha
 Theravada Buddhists hold a humanistic view of the Buddha
 Mahayana Buddhists hold a divine and cosmic view of the Buddha
 Contemporary historians grapple with how to adjudicate among these
accounts when forming their own presentation of the Buddha’s life
Life of Siddhartha Gautama, the
Buddha
 Born as Siddhartha Gautama at Lumbini Grove in India, 563 BCE
 Born into a royal family, lived and practiced as a Vedic Hindu
 Married princess Yashodhara when he was nineteen
 Was shielded by his family from difficulties of life outside the court
 In excursions, saw four things that surprised and disturbed him –
an old man, a sick man, a corpse, and a wandering ascetic
 Became disturbed by the existence of suffering
 Left the court, left his wife and son, and became an ascetic
 Searched Hindu solutions, practicing extreme asceticism
 Studied under two Brahmin yogins
 Joined five ascetics in fasting, breath holding, odd body positions
Enlightenment of Siddhartha Guatama,
the Buddha
 Finally gave up on Hindu solutions
 Sat under a tree at Bodhgaya with resolve to understand the nature
of suffering while demons assailed and tempted him
 Gained insight into the nature of suffering and how to escape
rebirth
 Realized that destroying desire would eliminate suffering, leaving
him free, awake, and enlightened
 Became the Buddha, the enlightened one
Bodhgaya Stupa,
Site of the Buddha’s Enlightenment
Life of Siddhartha Guatama, the
Buddha
 With his new insight, the Buddha set out to instruct others
 Delivered his first sermon Deer Park of Sarnath
 His friends, Brahmins, and his family join him

Sangha – Buddhist community

Dharma – law or teachings
 Spent forty-five years as a teacher
The First Sermon of the Newly
Enlightened Buddha
The Four Noble Truths
 All life is dukkha, or suffering
 The origin of suffering is tanha, or attachment
 Suffering is ended by dispassion
 Suffering is overcome by using the Eightfold Path
The Eightfold Path
Wisdom
1) Right view
2) Right intention
Ethical conduct
3) Right speech
4) Right action
5) Right livelihood
Mental development
6) Right effort
7) Right mindfulness
8) Right concentration
The 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:
livelihood according to with Buddhist ethics
 Right effort:
disciplining the mind
 Right living:
putting away wrong livelihood
 Right effort:
applying the force of the mind
 Right mindfulness:
understanding self and suffering
 Right concentration:
progression through the stages of insight
Buddhist Teaching
 The self is not permanent
 There is no ego, no soul, only a temporary gathering of skandhas

Matter – physical bodies/sense organs

Sensations – the process of feeling

Perceptions – the mind receives the feelings

Mental activity – impulses to react to feelings

Consciousness – accompanies the feelings and response he
 Self is the aggregation of all these temporary psychological activities
 In death, the aggregation comes apart
Buddhist Teaching
 Tanha (passion or craving)
 The desire to make permanent that which is impermanent
 All of nature (including ourselves) is impermanent, transitory
 The wheel of becoming fuels suffering (dukkha)
 Suffering occurs as long as we ignorantly assume we are “selves”
that are independent of the processes
Buddhist Teaching
 Nirodha (dispassion)
 Seeing clearly the nature of a person
 Understanding that there is no permanent self
 Helping bring an end to passion (suffering)
 Letting go is the end of suffering
Buddhist Teaching
 Eightfold Path (the Middle Path)
 The extremes as Buddha saw them:

Ritual – too occupied with the world

Asceticism – too occupied with denial
 The middle path avoids these extremes by following all elements
of the Eightfold Path simultaneously
 The end of the Eightfold Path is enlightenment
Buddhist Teaching
 Samsara (Buddha agreed with the Hindu gurus that samsara,
reincarnation, occurs, but he did not see the individual “re-occurring”)
 He did not want to return through rebirth instead of bringing
release
 No one must wait for rebirth to attain release
 But anyone may achieve release in this life through following the
Four Noble Truths
The Buddha on Samsara and Karma
 Samsara – the idea that birth follows death
 Karma – the law that a person’s thoughts and deeds are followed by
deserved pleasure or pain
 Through their karma, people are anchored in their physical nature,
preventing release and carrying over to rebirth

In Hinduism, karma is an explanation for caste

In Jainism, karma is understood in primarily physical terms

In Buddhism, karma is mainly psychological, not physical
The Buddha and Metaphysics
 Branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the nature of the
world
 Addresses questions such as:
 What is the nature of reality?
 Is there a God?
 What is man's place in the universe?
 Buddhism does not seek to answer metaphysical questions
 The Buddha concentrated on suffering, its nature, cause, and cure
Buddhist Scriptures
 Pali collection, the Buddha's language (3 collections, 5 volumes)
 Originally kept in memory of disciples
 Written in Pali on palm leaves
 Gathered in separate baskets, or pitakas
 Chinese collection (61 volumes)
 Tibetan collection
 Kanjur (100+ volumes)
 Tanjur (225 volumes)
Buddhist Scriptures
 The Tripitaka (three-fold basket)
 Vinaya Pitaka – rules for Buddhist monks (the Buddha's
language)
 Sutta Pitaka – stories, poems and songs about the Buddha and
his former lives
 Abhidhamma Pitaka – systematic development of ideas found in
the Sutta Pitaka
The First Buddhist Councils
 First Council – soon after Buddha’s death
 Affirmed authority of the religious community, purity of monks
 Established official scriptures (Tripitaka)
 Second Council – 100 years later at Vaisali
 Tensions between monks and laity
 Unofficial council 50 years later begins official split
 Third Council – 247 BC

King Ashoka rejects heretical Buddhism
Two Ways to Experience the Buddha:
Theravadin and Mahayana
 Theravadin Buddhism – small vehicle
 Buddha as an exemplary human being
 Buddha as 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 Ways to Experience the Buddha:
Theravadin and Mahayana
 Mahayana Buddhism – great vehicle
 Buddha as cosmic and god-like
 Salvation is not solely a matter of personal discipline but is
assisted by various deities
 Human beings aided in their spiritual development

Bodhisattvas, beings who, though capable of Nirvana, remain
active in the world out of compassion for the suffering of
others
Schools of Buddhist Philosophy
 Madhyamika
 Formulated by Nagarjuna in the second century
 All existing things are empty of reality
 Doctrine of pratitya-samutpada, dependent origination
 Yogacara
 Formulated by Asanga in the fourth century
 All things as well as ideas are not real
Buddhism in India
 Ashoka
 In 273 AD Ashoka comes to the throne and controls nearly all
India
 Became guilty over the suffering his conquests caused
 Instituted a set of ruling principles set in stone:

1) Admitted his guilt in causing suffering

2) Prohibited killing animals

3) Set rules for community, family, school

4) Allowed civil servants to teach dharma

5) Promoted Buddhism with international missionaries
Buddhism in China
 Tian Tai – based on the Lotus Sutra, that all beings can actualize
their Buddha nature and become Buddhas
 Hua-Yen – based on the Avatamsaka Sutra, says that all phenomena
interpenetrate one other, a holistic view of Buddha nature and the
universe
 Jingtu – based on the Sukhavativyuha Sutra, says that one is saved
by faith, not by works
 Chan – based on the Lankavatara Sutra, says that meditation, not
expounding scriptures, leads to the Truth
Schools of Chinese Buddhism
 Lotus – Buddha nature
 Flower Garland – interpenetration of all things
 Pure Land – humans beings saved by calling on bodhisattva
Amitabha
 Meditation – brought by Bodhidharma, emphasizes meditation alone
Buddhism in Japan
 Buddhism transmitted to Japan from Korea in the sixth century CE
 Tendai
 Brought by Dengyo Daishi from China, ninth century CE
 In harmony with Shinto, Amida is common figure of honor
 Shingon
 Brought by Kobo Daishi from China, ninth century CE
 Mysterious and magical
 Mantra (a phrase), mudra (posture), mandala (sacred picture)
 Jodo
 First devotees were Ryonin and later Genku
 Teaches salvation through the grace of Amida
Buddhism in Japan
 Shinran
 Disciple of Genku who ate meat
 Established the Jodo-Shin sect of Buddhism in Japan
 Zen (Chan)
 Koans – illogical puzzles that provide insight
 Satori – the enlightenment experience
 Soto – gradual enlightenment by sitting in meditation
 Nichiren
 Recitation of the name of the Lotus Sutra
Buddhism in Tibet
 In seventh century CE, Tibetan ruler Srong Tsan Gampo married two
Buddhist wives from abroad, brought Buddhism into Tibet for the first
time
 In the following century, Indian Buddhist teacher Shantarakshita
brought Buddhism to Tibet in a more systematic fashion
Buddhism in Tibet
 Occult and tantric forms
 Nyingmapa – Red Buddhism

Embraced Hinduism tantric practices

Ate meat and drank alcohol
 Gelugpa – wore yellow

Advocated celibacy and vegetarianism

Passed on their lineage through reincarnation
 The Dalai Lama is from the Gelugpa lineage of Tibetan Buddhism
Tenzin Gyatso, the Current Dalai Lama
Buddhism in the West
 Waves of Asian migration to the U.S. beginning in the nineteenth
century brought Buddhism to the West
 Non-Asians have also taken an interest in Buddhism, particularly
during the 1960s
 Nichiren Shoshu Sokagakkai is an example of organized forays by
Buddhists into America
 Similar to its Japanese counterpart, it advocated salvation through
chanting
 Today, a wide range of Buddhist traditions that developed throughout
Asia are evidenced in the American landscape
Buddhist Worldview
 Theravadins deny deity while Mahayanists believe deities are
essential
 Human suffering is produced by ignorance of impermanence
 Alleviation of suffering by detachment from the world
 Solution to suffering is knowledge using the Four Noble Truths
 No life after death
 Lack of a strong concern for an end-time of history
Buddhist Worldview
 Community ethics
 Symbiotic relationship between monastics and laity
 Karmic responsibility, karuna, compassion
 Abstinence from theft, intoxication, inappropriate speech, injury
 Laity recite a vow of refuge in three things:
 the Buddha – the enlightened one
 the Dharma – the Buddhist teachings
 the Sangha – the community of Buddhists
Buddhist Worldview
 In some parts of Asia, young laymen take on the role of a Buddhist
monk for a finite period of time
 Coexistence with other forms of religious practice
 Interest in active dialogue and engagement
 Although Mahayana Buddhism allows for the ordination of women
nuns, they hold second-class status relative to monks
 Non-Asian women converts to Buddhism have introduced
innovations in the possible roles for women leaders in Buddhism
Buddhist Nun in Syracuse, New York