Transcript Buddhism

Buddhism
Founder
Siddharta Guatama
“The Buddha”
(The Enlightened One; He Who is Awake)
563-483 B.C.
A Religion of
Transformation of
Consciousness
Before we get to
Buddhism
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We must go back to the focus question
for the course: ‘How should we live?’
and ‘What is happiness?’
Ethics asks the
question:
How should we live?
 Each thinker we examine will tell us
that we should live so as to achieve
happiness.
 But each thinker will define happiness
his/her own way
 Each will also discuss what it means to
be human
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Buddhism in a “Nutshell”
Has 307 million followers worldwide
 Founded in southern Nepal in the 5th
and 6th centuries B.C. by Siddhartha
Gautama
 He achieved enlightenment through
meditation
 He then gathered together a
community of monks to carry on his
teachings
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Buddhism in a ‘Nutshell” cont.
According to Buddha, meditation, and
the practice of good religious and
moral behavior can lead to Nirvana
(the state of enlightenment)
 However, before achieving Nirvana
one is subject to repeated lifetimes
that are good or bad depending on
one’s actions (karma)
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Buddhism in a ‘Nutshell” cont.
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Existence, for the Buddhists, is a realm of
suffering
What causes suffering? Desire and the
belief in the importance of ones self
Achievement of Nirvana ends suffering
Nirvana is achieved only by meditation and
by following the path of righteousness in
action, thought and attitude
Background Information
The Life of Buddha
The Legendary Life
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Born at Lumbini, at the border of India and
Nepal
Was a Hindu, but he became disenchanted
with this way of thought because he did not
feel that it dealt practically with what he saw
as the ultimate human disease: the desire
for life.
His goal was to end the suffering of human
beings.
Legendary Life, cont.:
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Was the son of a king
Wise old brahmin predicted that he would
become either an emperor or a Buddha
Father protected him from exposure to any
suffering
Married at 16 and had a son
Lived a sheltered life of luxury
Legend had it that one event changed his
life
The event:
One day he journeyed to a small
town, and he saw four things that
changed his life:
An old man
A terminally ill man
A funeral procession
An old wandering monk who
seemed content
Significance:
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He took the first three things to be the
three guises of human suffering:
– Aging
– illness
– the sadness/suffering caused by the loss
of a loved one.
He realized that this is
what awaits all of us,
whether you are the son of
a king or a peasant!!!
A few years later he left
his family. He worked with
brahmins, practiced trance
meditation and became an
ascetic. This also gave him
no peace; he was still
obsessed with the problem
of human suffering.
One day when he was
sitting under a fig tree
Through meditation, he
came to the following
realization:
The truth of life revolves around the
concept of suffering
 The wheel of reincarnation is the
wheel of suffering
 The goal of life is to escape the wheel
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How?
Representation of the Wheel of Life
We must see the desire for
life as a disease. To cure
this disease, we must stop
this desire. The Hindu
answer was not practical.
We can not give up our
egos. We must lead a
virtuous life if we are to
escape reincarnation.
Siddhartha’s reflections led to the four
Noble Truths and the Eight-Fold Path
The Four Nobel Truths:
Existence involves suffering
 Suffering is caused by the selfish
craving for life
 This craving can be destroyed
 It can be destroyed by the eightfold path
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The Eight-Fold Path
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Right
Understanding/Belief
Right Intent/thought
Right Speech
Right Conduct/Action
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Right Livelihood
Right Effort
Right Mindfulness
Right
Meditation/Concentration
Right
Belief/Understanding
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To see things as they are and to
accept the Four Noble Truths as True
In His Words
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“And what is right belief ? It is the
knowledge of the existence of
suffering, the knowledge of the origin
of suffering, the knowledge of the
cessation of suffering, and the
knowledge of the path leading to the
cessation of suffering.”
Right Intent/thought
Commitment to ethical and
psychological improvement
 Must intend to try to control your
desires
 Must intend goodwill toward all (intend
to try to eliminate anger and envy)
 Must intend to do no harm and to
practice compassion
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In His Words
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“And what is right thought? It is resolve
to free one’s thoughts of delusion,
greed, and anger, to renounce sensual
pleasures, it is the effort and resolve to
have malice towards none, and the
effort and resolve to have compassion
for all living creatures.”
Right Speech
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No lying, no slander, no gossip, no
negative emotive labels, no
stereotypes, no rumors, no cursing, no
idle chatter
In His Words
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“And what is right speech? To abstain
from falsehood, to abstain from
slander, to abstain from harsh
language, and to abstain from
malicious gossip.”
Right Conduct/Behavior
Your actions affect your psychological
state
 No killing (including suicide), no
stealing, no fraud, no deceitfulness, no
dishonesty, no disrespect to others
and their property
 Must be compassionate and loving
toward all, including nature
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In His Words
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“And what is right behavior? To
abstain from destroying life, to abstain
from taking that which is not given one,
and to abstain from immorality.”
Right Livelihood
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Must earn your living in a righteous and
moral way
No dealing in weapons
No dealing in life (including the slaughtering
of animals, slave trade and prostitution)
No working in meat production and
butchering
No dealing in drugs and intoxicants
You must not violate the principles of right
speech and action
In His Words
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“And what is right livelihood? It is
abandoning an occupation that follows
the wrong Way and keeping to an
occupation that follows the true Way.”
Right Effort
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Prerequisite for the other parts of the path
Must make the mental effort to rid yourself
of unwholesome thoughts and to keep
wholesome thoughts
Must make the mental effort not to allow any
additional unwholesome thoughts to arise
and must make the effort to make more
wholesome thoughts arise
In His Words
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“And what is right effort? It is present whenever a
person purposes, resolves, strenuously endeavors,
applies the mind, and exerts the will so that evil and
censurable qualities not yet arisen may not arise,
that those already arisen may be abandoned, that
meritorious qualities not yet arisen may arise, and
that meritorious qualities already arisen may be
preserved, retained, increased and be perfected.”
Right Mindfulness/Attentiveness
The ability to see how things and
situations affect you
 You are mindful of your body, your
emotional state, your mental state
 You are mindful of how certain
situations affect your body, your
emotional state and your mental state
 As Socrates said, you know yourself
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In His Words
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“And what is right attentiveness? Whenever a
person has got rid of lust and grief and lives, with
respect to the body, observant of the body with
strenuous, clearly conscious, attentive awareness;
with respect to the sensations, observant of
sensations, with strenuous, clearly conscious,
attentive awareness; with respect to perceptions,
observant of perceptions, with strenuous, clearly
conscious, attentive awareness; with respect to the
mind, observant of the activities of the mind with
strenuous, clearly conscious, attentive awareness.”
Right Meditation
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You go through the various stages of
meditation gradually until you reach
the highest level, which is an
experience of no divisions
In His Words
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“And what is right meditation? In meditation I have
taught the gradual cessation of activity and
attachment to the world. A person, achieving
isolation from sensual pleasures and from
censurable traits, and still exercising reasoning, still
exercising reflection, enters upon the first level of
meditation, which is produced by isolation and
characterized by joy and happiness; for one who
has entered the first level of meditation the voice
has ceased.”
The Actual Life
The only point of difference among
scholars is whether or not Buddha was
the son of a king. Many scholars
believe that he was the son of a
peasant, and so was born into one of
the lower castes
 We really do not know
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In sum, according to
Buddhism:
There is no self, no ego, no permanent
individual personality.
 Rather, what we have is simply a
faculty of awareness.
 However, it is not practical to tell
people to give up their egos
 You should, rather, encourage them to
follow the Four Noble Truths and the
Eight-Fold Path
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After His Meditation
Under the Fig Tree:
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He traveled and met five ascetics
He talked to them about the Middle Way and the Four Noble
Truths
They converted to his way of thinking and became his
disciples
To convert, they took the Three Refuges or Three Jewels
I take refuge in the Buddha
I take refuge in the dharma (Buddha’s teachings)
I take refuge in the samgha (the order of monks)
His Life Represents
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The great potential of human life
The Life of His Monks Was
Governed by Prohibitions:
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No taking life
No taking what is not given
No sexual misconduct
No lying
No intoxicants
No eating after noon
No watching or participating in dancing, singing or shows
No adorning oneself with garlands, ointments or perfumes
No sleeping on a soft bed
No handling of money
These prohibitions were to
be practiced, not only by
his monks, but by the laity.
Buddha’s Life, cont.
His ministry lasted forty-five years
 Died from eating tainted food
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What About Us?
The Middle Way
The Middle Way
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An attitude
An attitude whereby we seek to find an equilibrium
between all extremes/opposites
It is an attitude whereby we give up the attachment
to these extremes
Whether those opposites are the desire for life and
the desire for death; self-indulgence or asceticism;
attachment to the senses or the desire to
completely detach oneself from the senses
We must find a balance that includes both
opposites
The Middle Way, cont.
This ‘balance’ is a different path that
leads, not to an extreme, but to the
middle
 It is a middle way that leads “to the
appeasing of all ill, and yet it is free
from happiness and joy.”
 Implications?
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How Do We
Achieve the
“Middle Way?”
By Following the Four Noble
Truths and the Eight-Fold Path
The Four Noble Truths
The Truth of Suffering or Misery:
Existence involves suffering
 The Truth of the Cause:
Suffering is caused by the selfish
craving for life
 The Truth of Cessation:
This craving can be destroyed if its
causes, desire and ignorance are
removed
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The Four Noble Truths,
cont.
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The Truth of the Way:
It can be destroyed by following the
Middle Way ( the Eightfold Path),
which is the middle between the
extremes of asceticism and indulgence
What Can We Learn From the
Eight-Fold Path?
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We must believe and intend the right things
We must carry out these intentions in the
community in which we live
We must turn our minds to higher things and
practice meditation on the ultimate nature of
reality
Finally, we will perceive ultimate reality and
know the correct belief concerning all things