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Buddhism
What is Buddhism?
• Buddhism is a major world
religion, or in a better sense,
philosophy.
• It is the 4th largest religion in
the world, and has about
300,000,000 people living by it.
• It explains the purpose of life,
injustices and inequality around
the world.
• It also helps people by providing
a way of life that will lead to
true happiness.
Buddhism…
The “middle way of wisdom and compassion”
A 2500 year old tradition that began in India
and spread and diversified throughout the Far
East
A philosophy, religion, and spiritual practice
followed by more than 300 million people
Based on the teachings of the Buddha
The History of Buddhism
• It was started by Siddhartha
Gautama Buddha, who was a
prince in Lumbini, 2500 years ago.
Siddhartha Gautama was born about 583
BCE, in or near what is now Nepal. His
father, King Suddhodana, was leader of a
large clan called the Shakya. His mother,
Queen Maya, died shortly after his birth.
When Prince Siddhartha was a few days old,
a holy man prophesied the Prince would be
either a great military conqueror or a great
spiritual teacher. King Suddhodana preferred
the first outcome and prepared his son
accordingly
He raised the boy in great luxury and shielded him
from knowledge of religion and human suffering.
The Prince reached the age of 29 with little
experience of the world outside the walls of his
opulent palaces.
One day, overcome with curiosity, Prince
Siddhartha asked a charioteer to take him on a
series of rides through the countryside. On these
journeys he was shocked by the sight of an aged
man, then a sick man, and then a corpse. The
stark realities of old age, disease, and death
seized and sickened the Prince.
Finally, he saw a wandering ascetic or holy man.
The charioteer explained that the ascetic was one
who had renounced the world and sought release
from fear of death and suffering
For a time the Prince returned to palace life, but he
took no pleasure in it. Even the news that his wife
Yasodhara had given birth to a son did not please
him. The child was called Rahula, which means
"fetter."
One night he wandered the palace alone. The
luxuries that had once pleased him now seemed
grotesque. Musicians and dancing girls had fallen
asleep and were sprawled about, snoring and
sputtering. Prince Siddhartha reflected on the old
age, disease, and death that would overtake them all
and turn their bodies to dust.
He realized then that he could no longer be content
living the life of a prince. That very night he left the
palace, shaved his head, and changed his prince's
clothes for a beggar's robe. Then he began his quest
for enlightenment.
The things he had seen depressed
him, so he he set off on a 6 year
journey, exploring other religions.
striving to overcome aging,
sickness, and death by living the
life of an ascetic
He decides first to explore other religions.
The six companions attempted to find release
from suffering through physical discipline-enduring pain, holding their breath, fasting
nearly to starvation.
Yet Siddhartha was still unsatisfied.
It occurred to him that in renouncing pleasure
he had grasped pleasure's opposite--pain and
self-mortification. Now Siddhartha considered a
Middle Way between those two extremes.
He remembered an experience from his
childhood, when his mind had settled into a
state of deep peace.
The path of liberation was through discipline
of mind. He realized that instead of starvation,
he needed nourishment to build up his
strength for the effort.
But when he accepted a bowl of rice milk from
a young girl, his companions assumed he had
given up the quest and abandoned him.
Siddhartha sat beneath a sacred fig (Ficus
religiosa), known ever after as the Bodhi Tree,
and settled into meditation.
The work of Siddhartha's mind came to be
mythologized as a great battle with Mara, a
demon whose name means "destruction' and
who represents the passions that snare and
delude us. Mara brought vast armies of monsters
to attack Siddhartha, who sat still and
untouched. Mara's most beautiful daughter tried
to seduce Siddhartha, but this effort also failed.
Finally, Mara claimed the seat of
enlightenment rightfully belonged to him.
Mara's spiritual accomplishments were
greater than Siddhartha's, the demon said.
Mara's monstrous soldiers cried out together,
"I am his witness!" Mara challenged
Siddhartha--who will speak for you?
Then Siddhartha reached out his right hand to
touch the earth, and the earth itself roared, "I
bear you witness!" Mara disappeared. And as
the morning star rose in the sky, Siddhartha
Gautama realized enlightenment and became
a Buddha.
“THERE ARE 2 EXTREMES, WHICH ARE TO BE
AVOIDED. WHAT ARE THESE 2 EXTREMES? A
LIFE GIVEN TO PLEASURES, DEDICATED TO
PLEASURES AND LUSTS – THIS IS DEGRADING,
SENSUAL, VULGAR, UNWORTHY AND USELESS.
AND A LIFE GIVEN TO SELF-TORTURE – THIS IS
PAINFUL, UNWORTHY, AND USELESS.
BY AVOIDING THESE 2 EXTREMES, I HAVE GAINED
THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE MIDDLE PATH, WHICH
LEADS TO INSIGHT, WHICH LEADS TO WISDOM,
WHICH PRODUCES CALM, KNOWLEDGE,
ENLIGHTENMENT AND NIRVANA.”
•During his meditation he found what he called
the middle path, the key to human happiness.
•At first, the Buddha was reluctant to teach,
because what he had realized could not be
communicated in words. Only through
discipline and clarity of mind would delusions
fall away and the Great Reality could be
directly experienced. Listeners without that
direct experience would be stuck in
conceptualizations and would surely
misunderstand everything he said. But
compassion persuaded him to make the
attempt. For the rest of his life he wandered
Asia, preaching his new religion.
After his enlightenment, he went to the Deer Park in
Isipatana, located in what is now the province of Uttar
Pradesh, India. There he found the five companions who
had abandoned him, and to them he preached his first
sermon. This sermon has been preserved as the
Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta and centers on the Four
Noble Truths. Instead of teaching doctrines about
enlightenment, the Buddha chose to prescribe a
path of practice through which people can
realize enlightenment for themselves.
The Buddha devoted himself to teaching, attracting
hundreds of followers. Eventually he became reconciled
with his father, King Suddhodana. His wife, the devoted
Yasodhara, became a nun and disciple. Rahula, his son,
became a novice monk at the age of 7 and spent the rest
of his life with his father.
ANALOGY:
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•
•
•
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We are in the great storm of life.
The BUDDHA’S TEACHINGS are a RAFT
To take us to the SHORE of NIRVANA
BUT: THE SHORE IS NOT DESCRIBED
MAKE-UP OF RAFT IS THE BUDDHA’S
TEACHINGS
What Did Buddha Teach?
• He taught the 4
Noble truths which
sum up Buddhism
• He also taught the
noble eight fold path
• He taught to lead a
moral life, be
mindful and aware
of thoughts and
actions and to
develop wisdom and
understanding
• He also taught the 5
precepts
What did the Buddha teach?
The Four Noble Truths:
To live is to suffer You can’t live without
death, frustration, etc.
The cause of suffering is self-centered desire &
attachments Getting what you want doesn’t guarantee
happiness and often it deprives you of it
The solution is to eliminate desire and attachment,
thus achieving Nirvana (“extinction”) If we stop
craving useless things, and live each day at a time (not living in
the future) we will be happy and free
The way to Nirvana is through the “Eight-Fold
Path”
FIRST NOBLE TRUTH:
LIFE INEVITABLY INVOLVES
SUFFERING:
- Imperfect
- Illness
- Hateful
- Separation
SECOND NOBLE TRUTH:
THE ORIGIN OF SUFFERING IS OUR
DESIRES:
-
Grasping for pleasure
Grasping for becoming
Grasping for sensual delight
Grasping for what we don’t have
THIRD NOBLE TRUTH:
SUFFERING WILL STOP WHEN
DESIRES ARE STOPPED:
- When the ‘grasping’ stops
- Elimination of passions
FOURTH NOBLE TRUTH:
THERE IS A WAY TO GET TO THIS
POINT: THE EIGHTFOLD PATH
Buddhist Metaphysics
Dukkha: life in this world is filled with suffering
Anicca: everything in this world is impermanent
Anatta:the self is also impermanent –
Suffering is a state of mind – achieve a
balanced, peaceful, detached state of mind and
suffering can be extinguished (Nirvana)
What is the Eight-Fold Path?
Wisdom:
•Right understanding
•Right motivation
Moral discipline:
•Right speech
Mental discipline:
•Right action
•Right effort
•Right livelihood
•Right mindfulness
•Right meditation
1) RIGHT UNDERSTANDING
• Understanding reality through the Four
Noble Truths
• Seeing through illusions
2) RIGHT THOUGHT/MOTIVES
• Uncover ‘unwholesome’ emotional roots
that guide our thinking
• Discover and weed out
• Only then do we become free from selfcentredness
3) RIGHT SPEECH
• VS. - Vain talk, gossip, harsh words, lying
• Communication must further truth and
harmony
• Including ‘self-talk’: “May you be well and
happy today…”
4) RIGHT ACTION
FIVE RULES OF MORAL CONDUCT:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
DO NOT DESTROY LIFE
DO NOT STEAL
AVOID SEXUAL MISCONDUCT
DO NOT LIE
DO NOT USE INTOXICANTS
ABOVE ALL: ALL ACTIONS SHOULD BE
BASED ON CLEAR UNDERSTANDING
5) RIGHT LIVELIHOOD
• How one makes their living
• One’s work should not harm others
6) RIGHT EFFORT
• Refers to the constant effort that must be
put into achieving these goals
• IT TAKES EFFORT!
7) RIGHT MINDFULNESS
• The way to liberation is through the mind
“CHECK YOUR MIND
BE ON GUARD
PULL YOURSELF OUT
LIKE AN ELEPHANT FROM THE
MUD.”
8) RIGHT MEDITATION
• Applying mental discipline to quiet the
mind
THE MIND IS SUBTLE, INVISIBLE, AND
TREACHEROUS
USE SKILFUL MEANS TO SEE AND
UNDERSTAND ITS NATURE
The 5 Precepts
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Do not take the life of anything living
Do not take anything not freely given
Abstain from sensual overindulgence
Refrain from untrue speech
Avoid intoxication
• Do not lose mindfulness
• This is the moral code of the Buddhists
IS BUDDHISM A RELIGION?
• NO ‘GOD-NOTION’
• NO CREATOR
• NO ULTIMATE REALITY TO WORSHIP
BUDDHA AND ‘ULTIMATE
QUESTIONS’
- Nature of the soul
- Life after death
- Origin of the universe
- NOT ADDRESSED
“BEING RELIGIOUS AND FOLLOWING
DHARMA HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH
DOGMA THAT THE WORLD IS
ETERNAL. FOR WHETHER THE
WORLD IS ETERNAL OR OTHERWISE,
BIRTH, OLD AGE, DEATH, SORROW,
PAIN, MISERY, GRIEF AND DESPAIR
EXIST. I AM CONCERNED WITH THE
EXTINCTION OF THESE.”
“The Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, was not
God or a god. He was a human being who
attained full enlightenment through meditation
and showed us the path of spiritual awakening
and freedom. Therefore, Buddhism is not a
religion of God. Buddhism is a religion of
wisdom, enlightenment and compassion. Like
the worshippers of God who believe that
salvation is available to all through confession
of sin and a life a prayer, we Buddhists believe
that salvation and enlightenment are available
to all through the removal of delusion and a life
of meditation/ However, unlike those who
believe in God who is separate from us,
Buddhists believe that Buddha, which means
‘one who is awake and enlightened’ is inherent
in us all as Buddhanature or Buddhamind.”
NIRVANA
“No suffering for him
Who is free from sorrow
Free from the fetters of life
Free in everything he does
He has reached the end of his road…
Like a bird invisibly flying in the sky
He lives without possessions
Knowledge his food, freedom his world
While others wonder…
He has found freedom –
Peaceful his thinking, peaceful his speech
Peaceful his deed, tranquil his mind.”