Transcript Buddhist Teaching

Buddhist Teaching
World Religions
Chapter 4
Lecture 2
Most Buddhists revere Gautama
Buddha
But it is his teachings that are core of Buddhist
belief and practice
Dharma
The collection of
Buddhist teaching is
called the Dharma.
The challenge of understanding
Buddhist teaching
Is that they presuppose
a deep experience of
meditation.
Buddha himself seemed
to think that only a
few would fit for the
task.
Buddhist teaching does has a
simple aspect –
These are the reflections of a human being – and
are not dependent on divine revelation.
It does not depend heavily on faith – but on
gained wisdom and practice
Although Buddhism shares many
ideas with Hinduism
Much of the Buddha’s
teaching was a
response to what he
saw as the excesses
of Hindu religion in his
day.
Some similarities:
1) Cosmology – Both
religions share the
idea that the
universe is eternal,
and that time is
cyclical. The
universe is created
and destroyed over
and over.
For Buddhists, the Gautama is not
the first or last Buddha
He is one among many.
2) Samsara
Both traditions believe
in the “wheel of
rebirth”, and that
people can only
escape once they
have achieved
enlightenment –
moksha in Hinduism
and nirvana in
Buddhism.
Nirvana means literally
To blow out, as a candle is extinguished.
Buddha’s reactions to the Hinduism
of his day were prompted by
His rejection of Brahmin rituals and speculative
theology – which he thought were useless for
attaining enlightenment.
He also rejected the class system.
Anyone was welcome to join his community.
While the priests kept the sacred
texts secret in Sanskrit,
Buddha made sure his
teachings were
available in the Pali –
a local dialect spoken
by the common
people.
The teachings of the Buddha
Focus on the
predicament of
individuals and their
destiny.
The Buddha searched deep inside
himself
And what he found may
be confusing for us at
first
In his exploration into the realm of
the self
he realized that there is no self.
The self does not exist.
The core of the Buddha’s discovery
Is that the reality of existence is change.
Hinduism sees that at the deepest
level of the human
Is the Atman – the presence of the eternal Brahman
Three Marks of Existence
Rather than finding the Atman within, the Buddha
discovered the no-self. This is called Anatta.
The essence of Buddhism
Is that there is no
essence.
Anicca
Refers to the
impermanence of
all things.
“You can never
enter the same
river twice.”
All things are always changing,
And even though they
appear to be real and
changeless, they are
not.
Dukkha
Which means
“suffering”.
This is the result of
anatta and anicca.
Karma
Buddhist and Hindu
understanding of
karma are generally
the same.
Since Buddhism does not hold
there is an eternal Atman
They use the analogy of
a flame passing from
candle to candle – the
life is different but the
energy is the same.
The energy is what is
transferred.
One’s life is entirely determined by karma – by the energy
that is passed on from the moral decisions made in a
previous life.
Because karma is so important
Morality is key for
Buddhists.
Moral life requires
following the Five
Precepts:
1) Do not take life
2) Do not take what is
not given
3) Do not engage in
sensuous
misconduct
4) Do not use false
speech
5) Do not drink
intoxicants
These five apply to all Buddhists
And the following apply to
monks and nuns:
•
Do not eat after noon
•
Do not watch dancing or
shows
•
Do not use garlands,
perfumes, or ornaments
•
Do not use a high or soft
bed
•
Do not accept gold or
silver
Buddhist morality emphasizes
intention
The degree of immorality of an action depends on the
intention of the actor, and not the outcome.
Right intention is primary.
The Four Noble Truths
During the Third Watch
of the night of his
enlightenment,
Gautama perceived
the 4 Noble Truths.
1) To live is to suffer
2) Suffering is caused
by desire
3) Suffering can be
brought to a
cessation
4) The solution to
suffering is the
Noble Eightfold
Path
The Diagnosis
The name of the first
noble truth is dukkha
Translated as suffering,
or frustration, or
dislocation, or
discomfort
The Buddha taught that all of life is
suffused with dukkha
Birth, old age, disease,
and death are filled
with suffering
But also experiences of joy
Because they are not
lasting and will never
be as good as they
could be
Joy always leaves us longing for more
And it is our
attachment to this
that causes us to
suffer.
We suffer because
when we don’t
have these things
we are
disappointed and
we are hurt.
Dukkha seems to be unavoidable
Because all of life is
finite and changing
There is nothing
enduring that we can
hold on to
Buddha moves from the diagnosis
of the problem
To the cause of the problem – tanha – which is
translated as desire, or thirst, or craving.
How can one avoid desiring things for oneself?
Happiness? Success? A family? Are these wrong?
Buddha taught that the desire for
these things will cause suffering,
And that individuals cannot avoid desiring these things,
because this is what it means to be an individual.
But recall what the Buddha taught
about individuality:
The self does not exist.
While we are attached
to doing things for
ourselves, we will
suffer.
Why are you unhappy?
Because 99.9 per cent
Of everything you think,
And of everything you
do,
Is for yourself –
And there isn’t one.
- Wei Wu Wei
Is Buddha pessimistic?
Or merely realistic?
Buddha believes that there is a
cure for this – that suffering and
desire can be rooted out…
His prognosis is the Noble
Eightfold Path.
The Noble Eightfold Path
Is very comprehensive – covers all the aspects
of life – because suffering covers all the
aspects of life.
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
Right views
Right intentions
Right speech
Right conduct
Right livelihood
Right effort
Right mindfulness
Right meditation
The first two deal with wisdom
Right Views means
seeing things as
they really are. One
must integrate the 4
Noble Truths.
If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a
cloud floating in this sheet of paper.
Without a cloud, there will be no rain;
without rain, the trees cannot grow;
and without trees, we cannot make paper.
The cloud is essential for the paper to exist.
If the cloud is not here, the sheet of paper cannot be
here either.
- Thich Nhat Hanh
Right Intentions
Means to abandon evil
attitudes like greed,
hatred, and revenge,
and to develop good
attitudes like
generosity, friendship,
and insight.
One must renounce all
desire, seek good will,
and avoid anger, and
develop compassion for
all things
The next three deal with action
Right speech means
to only use speech
that heals and is
compassionate. One
must avoid all lying,
all gossip, all
abusive and idle
talk.
Right conduct
To live morally by
obeying the 5
precepts. This
means to act
honestly and kindly,
to respect other’s
possessions, and to
keep sexual
relationships from
being harmful.
Right Livelihood
One cannot earn a
living from
things that harm
other humans
and living
beings – selling
weapons, liquor,
being a butcher,
or being a
soldier.
The last three have to do with
mental practice
Right effort means the
energy that guides
one’s life. One must
control and focus
one’s energy,
senses, and keep
alert.
Right Mindfulness
To be in complete
control of one’s
mental faculty. To be
aware of how we
think, how we judge,
and to strive to be
mindful always of
our thoughts. To
see without judging.
Right meditation
The practice of
meditation that
leads one to a point
of prefect tranquility
– when the
individual self has
been abandoned.
The goal is nirvana.
Buddhists look forward to the
final experience of nirvana
When one is freed
from this existence,
like the Buddha.
But it is possible to live in this existence
as an awakened “saint”,
An arhat.
The arhat has fully let go of the
individual self,
And is free to act with
compassion toward
all things in the
world.
The Buddha did not say whether
or not there was life after death
The most we can say is that nirvana is the
complete cessation of suffering, and is
absolute peace.