Transcript Slide 1 - Smillies.us

REL 333
World Religious Traditions
Week 3 - Buddhism
“The masses have their heads on
backwards. If you want to get
things right, first look at how they
think and behave, and consider
going the opposite way.”
Buddhism
With thanks to Clayton Mills, and Charles Meyer of the University of Phoenix
for the loan of their slides to enhance this particular presentation.
Siddhartha Gautama c.563 – 483 B.C.E.
Origins of Buddhism
• Siddhartha Gautama
– Born around 563 BCE in Lumbini (near Nepal)
– Born a prince
• His father wanted him to also be a king
– Saw the four sights
•
•
•
•
Old man
Sick person
Corpse
Sannyasin
Buddha
• Became an extreme ascetic
– This didn’t provide enlightenment
– Quit, and went to sit in grove of trees
• Achieved enlightenment
– Became a Buddha – ‘enlightened one.’
• One of many buddhas throughout the ages
• Began wandering around northern India
teaching others of the way to
enlightenment
Buddha’s teaching
• Four Noble Truths
– Suffering (dukkha) is inevitable
– Suffering arises only from our desires
– To eliminate desire is to eliminate suffering
– This can be achieved by following the Noble
Eight-fold Path
Buddha’s Teachings
• Noble Eight-Fold Path
– Right views
– Right thoughts
– Right speech
– Right action (karma)
– Right livelihood
– Right effort
– Right mindfulness
– Right meditation
Another way of putting it:
The Eightfold Path
1. Complete View
2. Complete Understanding
3. Complete (or truthful) Speech
4. Complete Action
5. Complete Vocation
6. Complete Application
7. Complete Recollectedness
8. Complete Contemplation
The Eightfold Path
Right View
1. Complete View
2. Complete Understanding
Concerned with proper understanding of
the human condition; seeing the world
as it is.
The Eightfold Path
Right Relationship
3. Complete (or truthful) Speech
4. Complete Action
5. Complete Vocation
The Eightfold Path
Right Meditation
6. Complete Application
7. Complete Recollectedness
8. Complete Contemplation
Signifies the perfection of Right View; a
purity of vision, enlightenment itself.
3. Complete (or Truthful) Speech
Refraining from lying; slander; harsh, rude, impolite
or malicious words; idle chatter and gossip.
If you cannot say something nice, remain silent.
4. Complete Action
Refraining from taking life; from taking what is not
freely given; from sexual misconduct.
5. Complete Vocation
Refraining from making one’s living in a manner that
brings harm to others: manufacturing and dealing in
arms and weapons, intoxicating drinks, the killing of
animals, perpetrating fraud.
Not Inherently Ethical Precepts
By refraining from the behaviors identified in each
category, one refrains from purposeful activity and by
so doing is better able to realize the cessation of
craving. Purposeful activity – karma – whether
directed toward good or bad ends, is directed at the
grasping of life. The specific activities noted are
perhaps more by way of grasping than those directed
toward good, but they are grasping nonetheless.
The fundamental ethical precepts
of Buddhism, if one is to single
out any at all, are wisdom and
compassion.
Buddha
Life has no purpose. Each moment and each task
we perform is cherished and undertaken for its
own sake with no thought of something to gain.
Living in the moment is spontaneous. It most closely
resembles dance or the playing of an instrument when
the performer is so completely immersed in the sound
and the movement that they lose sight of themselves
and thus become one with the music.
I have no other “self” than the totality of the things of
which I am aware: thoughts that appear unbidden,
associated emotions, a feeling of the floor pressing up
against the bottoms of my feet or the chair seat against my
backside, the flickering impressions of other people,
furnishings and fixtures enclosed within these four walls,
the sounds of nearby voices and of passing cars just outside
the windows, the smells of stale air punctuated by hints of
perspiration sometimes masked by fragrant perfumes, the
sharp sweetness of carbonated drinks and salty snacks.
And just as these impressions are continually in flux, so too
this illusion of self is fleeting, constantly shifting focus from
moment to moment.
A Major Difference (or development)
from Hinduism
Annata - the revolutionary and unique doctrine
that there is no separate, permanent, or immortal
self;
rather, a human being is an energy
process composed of momentary energy flashes,
interconnected with all other beings and with the
universe as energy processes.
(from Living Religions)
Nirvana
• The word itself refers to the extinguishing of a
flame from lack of fuel. The only way to end the
cycle in which desire feeds the wheel of
suffering is to end all cravings and lead a
passion-free existence that has no karmic
consequences. Thence one enters a condition of
what the Buddha called “quietude of heart.”
“Where there is nothing,” he said, “where naught
is grasped, there is the Isle of No-beyond.
Nirvana do I call it—the utter extinction of aging
and dying,” “the unborn, . . . undying, . . .
unsorrowing, . . . stainless, the uttermost
security from bonds.”
• (from Living Religions)
Nirvana
• ‘What happens when an enlightened being
dies? One enters a deathless, peaceful,
unchanging state that cannot be
described. Individuality disappears and
one enters the realm of ultimate truth,
about which the Buddha was silent.’
• From Living Religions
Ritual
The Buddha taught a religion devoid of
ritual. He ridiculed Brahmin rites as
superstitious petitions to ineffectual
gods.
Worse than irrelevant, “belief in the
efficacy of rites and ceremonies” is one
of the ties that bind the human spirit,
impeding the demanding job of egoreduction.
Buddhism: Huston Smith, Philip Novak, p. 24f.
Work
The Buddha taught a religion of intense
self-effort. “Let persons of intelligence
come to me, honest, candid,
straightforward; I will instruct them,
and if they practice as they are taught,
they will come to know for themselves
and to realize that supreme religion and
goal”
Buddhism: Huston Smith, Philip Novak, p. 27f.
Mystery
The Buddha taught a religion devoid of
the supernatural. He condemned all
forms of divination, soothsaying, and
forecasting as low arts…. All appeal to
the supernatural and reliance on it
amounted, he felt, to looking for
shortcuts, easy answers, and simple
solutions that could onlyBuddhism:
divert
attention
Huston Smith, Philip Novak, p. 28
from the hard, practical task of selfadvance.
Development
• Buddhism mostly moved out of India
(almost gone by 1500 CE)
– To the south, it developed as Theraveda
• Develops as a distinct branch around 200 BCE
• Closely follows the traditions of early Buddhism
• More focused on the Pali canon
– Tripitaka – ‘Three Baskets’
– Discourses, Rules, and other teachings
• Emphasis on individual enlightenment and a
monastic lifestyle
Development
• To the North, it develops into Mahayana
Buddhism
– Becomes distinct around 100 AD (CE)
– Adopts many local cultural traditions
– Elevates the Sanskrit sutras
– Much more theistic
– Worship of the Buddha and Bodhisattvas
• Prayed to, given offerings, celebrated in festivals
Mahayana
• Theistic
– Buddha now something of a god, still helping his
followers
– Bodhisattvas – those who have been enlightened
• Some remain on earth to help others
• Some have become divine beings themselves
– Use Sanskrit sutras that were written down later than
the Pali canon.
• Claims these to be the ‘more developed’ teachings of the
Buddha
• Mostly from Tibet and China
– Some branches believe in types of heaven and hell
*Mahayana could accommodate more people and more believers from all walks of life, which is
way it is known as the “Greater Vehicle.”
*they claimed to be recovering the original teachings of Buddha
*the overall goal was to extend religious authority to a greater number of people rather than
concentrating it in the hands of a few
*the Mahayana mindset differs from traditionalism, to promote it’s beliefs.
*The difference between Mahayana and Theravada Buddhism can be seen as one of
interpretation. Mahayana scholars interpret the sacred texts in a more liberal manner, where as
the Theravada monks use the texts literally. The Mahayana school generalizes that it is possible
for all people to reach an enlightened state and work towards that goal.
Theravada
• Non-theistic
– Speculation about gods is useless
– Reality is unconditioned
– No devotion to personal deities
General Beliefs
Theravada is Sanskrit for “The Way of the Elders”, and is the oldest existing Buddhist school of thought.
Theravada Buddhists live mainly in Southeast Asia, in areas like Sri Lanka, China, Cambodia, Thailand, and
Vietnam. The underlying belief is that Nibbana, or freedom from the cycles of death and rebirth, can be beaten by
one who is enlightened, or an arahant. This “enlightenment” that is attained is believed to be the exact awakening
the Buddha experienced. But, Theravadas believe that the Buddha is superior to these adherents because of his
ability to not only achieve Nirvana, but to help others on the path to their own salvation.
300 BCE: Buddhism
arrives in Southeast
Traditions
Asia.
Rituals
•Uphold the Pali Canon as
“most authoritative”.
•Consider only Guatama and
other Buddhas before him
as “Authentic”.
•Brought to Sri Lanka during
Asoka’s Reign, written down
in 30 BCE.
•Believers consider Buddha
to be “godlike”, superior to
the common man.
•Follow Patimokha, or the
Monk’s codes
•Focus on self-liberation,
self-reliance, as opposed to
helping others.
Theravada Buddhism
•Fewer rituals than
Mahayana school.
•Do not recognize the
existence of Bardo (Limbo?)
•Only eat one meal a day.
•Seems a lot more traditional
and stricter than newer
schools
Life utterly defeats our efforts to control it, but
there is a remarkable freedom in acting unimpeded
by self-frustration when we finally acknowledge
our inability and stop trying.
This is the freedom of liberation, also
known as nirvana.
ZEN
To the restless temperament of the West, sitting meditation
may seem to be an unpleasant discipline, because we do
not seem to be able to sit “just to sit” without qualms of
conscience, without feeling that we ought to be doing
something more important to justify our existence. To
propitiate this restless conscience, sitting meditation must
therefore be regarded as an exercise, a discipline with an
ulterior motive. Yet at that very point, it ceases to be
meditation (dhyana) in the Buddhist sense, for where there
is purpose, where there is seeking and grasping for results,
there is no dhyana.
The Way of Zen: Allan Watts, p. 54.
Rituals and Practices
• Meditation
– Zen
– Tantric
– Koans
• ‘What is the sound of one hand clapping?’
– Mandalas
• Schematic representation of the multi-layered
worlds of the cosmic Buddha
• Painted, etched in stone, colored sand
– Chanting
Practices
• Asceticism & Monks
– Shaved heads, saffron robes, and alms-bowls
– Precepts of the Sangha
•
•
•
•
•
•
Not taking a life (vegetarianism)
Not taking a thing not given
Celibacy (sexual misconduct)
Not speaking falsely
No intoxicating beverages
No eating after noon
Anguish emerges from craving for life
to be other than it is.
In the face of a changing world,
such craving seeks consolation in
something permanent and reliable, in
a self that is in control of things, in a
God that is in charge of destiny.
The irony of this strategy is that it
turns out to be the cause of what it
seeks to dispel.
Buddhism Without Beliefs , Stephen Batchelor
The end of craving lies in giving up these and similar
viewpoints that place us at odds with the world as it is:
Why me?
If only …
Wishing
Greener pastures
Hope
Compiled and arranged by Gene R. Smillie
liberally making use of other facilitators’ materials from
University of Phoenix