Buddhism Founder Siddharta Guatama “The Buddha” (The Enlightened One; He Who is Awake) 563-483...
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Transcript of Buddhism Founder Siddharta Guatama “The Buddha” (The Enlightened One; He Who is Awake) 563-483...
Before we get to Buddhism
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
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
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)
Buddhism in a ‘Nutshell” cont.
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
The Legendary Life 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.: 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: 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.
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.
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
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
The Eight-Fold Path Right
Understanding/Belief Right Intent/thought Right Speech Right Conduct/Action
Right Livelihood Right Effort Right Mindfulness Right
Meditation/Concentration
In His Words
“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
In His Words
“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
No lying, no slander, no gossip, no negative emotive labels, no stereotypes, no rumors, no cursing, no idle chatter
In His Words
“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
In His Words
“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 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
“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 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
“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
In His Words “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
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 “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
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
After His Meditation Under the Fig Tree:
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)
The Life of His Monks Was Governed by Prohibitions:
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
The Middle Way 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?
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
The Four Noble Truths, cont.
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?
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