Transcript buddhism_191-210

Buddhism
Aims to bring us to our immediate reality
Pages 191-210
The Lotus
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The lotus flower only grows in mud. The mud represents
suffering, disatisfaction. The lotus flower is beautiful,
however. The theological import here is that the Buddha
promises that we can attain enlightenment despite the
brokenness of the world, of our own lives. From
brokenness (mud) comes beauty (the lotus flower).
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The bodhicitta – the wise heart.
Chuan is the Chinese concept of heart/mind. In the west
we think that the heart and the mind are separate. In fact,
this is not the case. One must see that one’s thoughts
profoundly affect one’s feelings. There is co-existence
between these two parts. They are shared according to
Chinese thought.
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Nirvana – the end
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Translates as “emptiness”
No Self (no atman) is the goal.
Christians say that this is in synch with pure
union with God – when all that separates us from
God is removed
Purify the mind of three hurdles: ignorance,
hatred and greed.
Buddhism demonstrates the problem and
solution to the human condition
Buddhist Thought
The Buddha also sought to escape
samsara, and he believed in karma, too.
 Less interested in doctrine, and more
concerned with simply dealing with reality
 B – critical of the social restrictions of the
caste and gender systems.
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Buddhist Thought
Suttas – teachings/sayings of the Buddha
 Dhammapada – the book of the Buddha’s
teachings
 Our chief problems stem from this notion of
a separate self. If we let go of this, then we
can live more harmoniously.
 Clinging to the notion of the separate self
(atman) causes an increase in aversions
and attractions and thus less freedom.
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More on Buddhist Thought
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We are imprisoned by a reactive mind.
We do and say things in response to others’
actions or words. Instead, we should more freely
speak and act according to a system that is
anchored to peace, freedom, and truth.
This takes extreme discipline and training of the
mind to create balance and a wholesome
condition.
Key is to foster mindfulness: watch the mind,
one’s actions, and the experience of reality.
There must be a way imbetween extreme
asceticism and hedonism.
Demonstration of no self
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“In a famous dialogue between the Buddhist monk
Nagasena and King Melinda, Nagasena asks
what a chariot is the king tells him it is an
arrangement of an axle, wheels, a carriage, and
so on. Nagasena presses him to identify its
essence, and the king replies that the chariot has
no essence. This is the same as the self,
Nagasena argues; the self has no essence but
self is the conventional term used to describe the
collection of the 5 aggregates” (195).
Reality
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Life is impermanent. This we know for sure. Perhaps it’s
the only thing we can know for certainty.
Change is everywhere. Believing this can allow us to be
less attached to things and people. Knowing their
impermanence prepares us to be more free.
Craving, by contrast, comes from believing that life and
things are permanent. We cling to our experience and this
causes, potentially, real suffering. When our
girlfriend/boyfriend wants to break up with us, do we cling
to them or do we gracefully let go so that they can pursue
happiness.
We don’t have a self.
Truths
Conventional truths (2+2=4)
 Ultimate truths, which is what Buddhism is
concerned with.
 With truth, you mustn’t grasp onto it. It’s
like a raft: use it to cross to the other side,
and then let it go. You don’t stay in the raft
when you reach the beach. You go
onward.
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Meditation: the sina qua non
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Without it there is nothing
One must “sit” in order to reach enlightenment. The
Sangha helps, but cannot do it for the individual.
We must rely on ourselves.
You see the world as it is: Vippassana.
Samadhi is the goal: sustained concentration.
The results of meditation are internal: loving
kindness (meta), compassion (karuna), sympathetic
joy (mudita) and equanimity.
This represents the ideal way to relate to others.
What’s gained? Insight is the fruit.
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If you are a poet, you will clearly see 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. So we can say that the cloud and the
paper inter-are. If we look into this sheet of paper even more
deeply, we can see the sunshine in it. If the sunshine is not
there, the forest cannot grow… You cannot point out one
thing that is not here – time, space, the Earth, the rain, the
minerals in the soil, the sunshine, the cloud, the river, the
heat. Everything coexists with this piece of paper… This
sheet of paper is because everything else is.
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~ Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Is Every Step
Interconnectedness
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“By recognizing the delusion of a separate
existence, one also sees that the suffering in the
world is really one’s own suffering and that the
release from suffering in the world is necessary
for one’s own release” (198).
Goal is to be like Avalokiteshvara – the
boddhisattva/saint of compassion who has
hundreds of arms that help others.
Buddhist Practices
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Religious activity – meditation, lighting candles, praying,
offering food – is merit making, and cultivates one’s
devotion to the path.
Buddhists extensively utilize chanting as a form of prayer.
Circumambulate temples, stupas, etc.
Real use of the body, unlike Christians who typically go to
service/mass and remain stationary.
Buddhist meditation demands physical rigor with the full or
half lotus position.
Pilgrimages are also very popular. Tibetans will go on their
hands and knees all the way to Lhasa, the capital.
Dialogue
More fruitful if one looks at common virtues
and spiritual compatibility, not doctrine which
can create roadblocks.
 Buddhism is nontheistic. Truths come from
one’s inner core via diligent spiritual
cultivation.
 Like Hinduism, Buddhism focuses more on
orthopraxy than orthodoxy.
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Less hierarchy
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Buddhists are not told to believe truths, but to test
them and discover them on their own.
“Kalamas, when you know for yourselves that
these qualities are skillful, that these qualities are
blameless and these qualities are praised by the
wise, moreover these qualities, when adopted and
carried out, lead to welfare and to happiness, you
should undertake them” (204).
From A PATH WITH HEART
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Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as
many times as you think necessary. Then ask yourself
and yourself alone one question. This question is one
that only a very old person asks. My benefactor told me
about it once when I was young and my blood was too
vigorous for me to understand it. Now I do understand it.
I will tell you what it is: Does the path have a heart? If it
does, the path is good. If it doesn’t, it is of no use.
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~Jack Kornfield
Spiritual goals
The goal isn’t to reach divinity but spiritual
awakening.
 These truths asserted in Buddhism are to
be tested for oneself.
 Very little interest in adopting doctrine, but
instead encouragement to personally
discover the insights that the Buddha had.
 The path is inward; it is to transform
ignorance into awareness.
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The Buddha’s Vow
“This is an impossible task; even so, I set
my heart on accomplishing the
impossible.”
 End all afflictions
 Save all sentient beings
 Master the Buddha’s way
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