BUDDHISMBUDDHISM

Introduction Introduction

and and

Basic ConceptsBasic Concepts

22

Presentation byPresentation by

Kaikyo Sara RobyZen Buddhist Monk

Vitas ChaplainInpatient Unit Team 164

Broward

Ft. Lauderdale, July 2008

33

44

AAbout Buddhismbout Buddhism AAbout Buddhabout Buddha TThe Four Sightshe Four Sights BBuddha’s teachings: The Four Noble Truthsuddha’s teachings: The Four Noble Truths TThe Eightfold Pathhe Eightfold Path TThe Three Jewels or Refugeshe Three Jewels or Refuges TThe Five Precepts & the Ten Preceptshe Five Precepts & the Ten Precepts TThe Buddhism Schoolshe Buddhism Schools BBasic and Important concepts in Buddhismasic and Important concepts in Buddhism DDeath and Dying from the Buddhist perspectiveeath and Dying from the Buddhist perspective BBibliographyibliography Open dialogue based on questions from Open dialogue based on questions from

participantsparticipants

55

About BuddhismBuddhism is created as an answer to the question of what is the cause of entanglement of beings in the cycle of existence (Samsara) and how to free oneself from it. The heart of the historical Buddha teachings can be summarized as follows:

• Life is impermanence • Life is without essence

• Life is characterized by suffering

These three marks of existence are the beginning of the Buddhist path.  The suffering of existence is created by craving and ignorance. Through clearing away craving and ignorance, liberation of Samsara can be attained. The entanglement of beings in the cycle of existence is explained in Buddhism by the chain of conditioned arising (karma). The termination of the cycle is tantamount to the realization of nirvana. The way to this can be summarized in terms of:

66

•The Four Nobles Truths

•The Eightfold path

•Training in discipline and morality

•Meditation

•Wisdom and insight

77

About BuddhaBuddha (literally meaning ‘awakened one’, enlighten).

A person who has achieved the ‘enlightenment’ which leads to the release of the cycle of existence (Samsara) and has thereby attained complete liberation (Nirvana). After death, he/she, will not be reborn

again.  The historical Buddha, Shakyamuni Buddha, was born in 563 B.C.,

son of a prince of the Shakyas clan, in a small kingdom in the foothills of the Himalayas, today Nepal. His first name was Siddhartha and his

family name Gautama. That is why he is sometimes called by the name of Gautama Buddha. After is enlightenment, the Buddha taught

for about forty-five years, dying at the age of eighty (483 B.C.)The historical Buddha is not the first and only Buddha. In early texts,

six others Buddha’s or ‘enlighten ones’ who preceded him are already mentioned, as well as Buddha's to come.  

88

99

The Four Sights

It is said that four sights cause Siddhartha Gautama determination to start his quest for the truth:

•The sight of an old person

•The sight of a sick person

•The sight of a corpse

•The sight of a mendicant or holy man

1010

Buddha’s Teachings :

The Four Noble Truths

•The truth of suffering

•The truth of the origin of suffering

•The truth of the cessation of suffering

•The truth of the path to the cessation of suffering

1111

The last Noble Truth:

The Path to the Cessation of Suffering gives origin to the so-called

Eightfold Path:

I. Right view II. Right resolve III. Right speech IV. Right conduct V. Right livelihood VI. Right effort VII. Right meditation VIII. Wisdom

1212

The Three Jewels or Refuges

To Take Refuge in the Three Treasures or Jewels is to make a commitment to live a life as a Buddhist.

This commitment is expressed when one takes the vows as a Bodhisattva and or as a Nun or Monk:

I take Refuge in…

•The Buddha (the Buddha nature present in all life manifestation)

•The Dharma (the cosmic law, the ‘great norm’)

•The Sangha (the community of nuns and monks)

1313

This commitment :to live a Buddhist life

can be summarized in this popular verse:

•Not to do evil •To cultivate good

•To purify one’s mind

As oppose to the three ‘poisons’:

•Greed, craving or desire •Aversion or hatred

•Ignorance or delusion

1414

The Five Precepts. Heart of Ethical Practice

Rules that identify the aspirations of a Buddhist. Not commandments, but prescriptions for treating the human condition and an antidote to the three poisons:

greed, aversion and ignorance.  I undertake to observe the precept to…

• abstain from harming living beings

• abstain from taking things not freely given

• abstaining from sexual misconduct

• abstain from false speech

• abstain from intoxicating drinks and drugs causing heedlessness

1515

The Ten Precepts Applied to the monastic life and lay people unattached to families

Precepts are followed by nuns and monks

They are added to the five preceding precepts

1616

I undertake to observe the precept to …

VI. abstain from taking untimely meals VII. abstain from dancing, music, singing

and watching grotesque mime VIII. abstain from the use of garlands, perfumes

and personal adornments IX. abstain from the use of high seatsX. abstain from accepting gold or silver

1717

The Buddhist SchoolsThe Buddhist SchoolsLike other religious traditions, Buddhism has divided into various Like other religious traditions, Buddhism has divided into various

branches over its history. Two main Schools:branches over its history. Two main Schools:

HinayanaHinayana Called Small Vehicle Called Small Vehicle

as well Theravada or as well Theravada or Way of the Elders of Way of the Elders of the Order. the Order.

It has developed in It has developed in southward India: southward India:

Sri Lanka, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Burma, Cambodia Burma, Cambodia and Laos. and Laos.

MahayanaMahayana Called Great Vehicle.Called Great Vehicle. Developed through Nepal, Developed through Nepal,

China, Tibet, Japan, Korea China, Tibet, Japan, Korea and Vietnam and Vietnam

1818

Hinayana and Mahayana are both rooted in the basic teachings of the historical Buddha Shakyamuni, but they stress different aspectsof those teachings.

While Hinayana seeks the liberation of the individual, the follower ofthe Mahayana seeks to attain enlightenment for the sake of the welfare of all beings.  

1919

2020

Basic and Important concepts in Buddhism 

2121

CCompassionompassion

IInfinite love. Compassion arises out of attainingnfinite love. Compassion arises out of attainingconscious and unconscious awareness about conscious and unconscious awareness about our already existent Buddha nature. our already existent Buddha nature.

Compassion manifests itself in many different Compassion manifests itself in many different ways, depending on the circumstances. It ways, depending on the circumstances. It includes without distinction the entire Universe includes without distinction the entire Universe and it is expressed in our daily life through and it is expressed in our daily life through actions, thoughts, speech, and hearing, giving actions, thoughts, speech, and hearing, giving and receiving. and receiving.

Being one with the world. Being one with the world. 

2222

Dharma

(Sanskrit). Is the Cosmic Law, the ‘great norm’ underlying our world.

Above all, the law of karmically conditioned rebirth.

The Dharma is considered as the teaching of the Buddha expressing the universal truth. It existed before the birth of the historical Buddha, who is no more than a manifestation of it.

2323

Emptiness

Central notion of the Mahayana Buddhism or Great Vehicle School.

Void of essence, impermanent, empty of self-nature.  

2424

Ego

In Buddhism the concept of Ego is use in the sense of consciousness of one’s self. It is seen as composed of factors without no real fundamental nature, leading to an illusory world. The concept of an ego arises when dichotomizing intellect is confused into presupposing a dualism between I and no-I (or other). As a result, we think and act as though we are entities separated from everything else, against a world that lies outside of us. Ego dominates the mind, it attacks everything that threatens its dominance and is attracted to everything that seems to extend its power.

2525

RebirthSince the time of ripening of our actions generally exceeds a lifespan, the effect of actions is necessarily one or more rebirths, which together constitute the cycle of existence (Samsara)

Samsara(Sanskrit). The ‘cycle of existence’. A succession of rebirths that a being goes through within the various modes of existence until it has attained liberation and entered nirvana.

2626

Sutra (Sanskrit). Discourses of the Buddha. The sutras have been preserved in Pali and Sanskrit as well as in Chinese and Tibetan translation. Accordingly to the tradition, they derive directly from the Buddha. The sutras are prose texts; each introduced by the words “Thus have I heard”. These words are ascribed to Ananda, a student of the Buddha. He is supposed to have retained the discourses of the Buddha in memory and to have recited them at the first Buddhist Council immediately after the death of the Buddha. After these introductory words, the circumstances that occasioned the Buddha to give the discourse are specified, as well as the place, the time of the year, etc. The introduction follows, sometimes in the form of a dialogue. The style of the sutras is simple, popular and didactically oriented. They are rich in parables and allegories. Each sutra constitutes a self sufficient unit. 

2727

Mantra

(Also mantram. Sanskrit). A power-laden syllable or series of syllables that manifest certain cosmic forces and aspects of the Buddha’s, sometimes also the name of a Buddha (i.e. Amitaba-Buddha). Continuous repetition of mantras is practiced as a form of meditation in many Buddhist schools. A mantra is defined as a way of protecting the mind. It also works through sublimation of vibrations it creates through the sounds developed in the act of speaking.

2828

MeditationGeneral term for a multitude of religious practices, often quite different in method, but all having the same goal: to bring the consciousness of the practitioner to a state in which he can come to an experience of ‘awakening’, ‘liberation’, ‘enlightenment’. Diligent practice of meditation in Buddhism leads to a non-dualistic state of mind in which the distinction between subject and object having disappeared, and the practitioner having become one with ‘the absolute’, conventions like time and space are transcended in an ‘eternal here and now’, and the identity of life and death, phenomenal and essential, Samsara and Nirvana is experienced. If this experience, in the process of endlessly ongoing spiritual training, can be integrated into daily life, then finally that stage is reached which religion refers to as salvation, liberation or complete enlightenment. 

2929

Middle Way

Generally a term for the way of the historical Buddha, which teaches avoidance of all extremes like indulgence in the pleasures of the senses, on one hand, and self-mortification and asceticism on the other. Refrain from choosing between opposing positions, and in relation to the existence or nonexistence of all things, treads a middle way.  

3030

Karma

(Sanskrit: action). Universal law of cause and effect. The effect of an action, which can be of the nature of the body, speech, or mind, is not primarily determined by the act itself but rather particularly by the intention of the action. It is the intention of the action that causes a karmic effect to arise. Only a deed that is free from desire, hate and delusion is without karmic effect. Karma provides the situation, not the response to the situation.

3131

3232

Death and Dying from the Buddhist perspective

“At the moment of death our life becomes clear. Death is our greatest teacher…Life is nothing but changes,

which are little deaths.”  

Tibetan Lama

3333

Death and Dying are of particular significance in the Buddhist worldview: they are part of the cycle of rebirth, directly connected to birth itself (rather than being at the other end of life’s events).

It is important to die well, but also to live every moment as if it were the last. All is impermanence. Rebirth is a consequence of this impermanence.

3434

3535

Bibliography 

Eugen Herrigel. The Method of Zen. 1974. Vintage Books. New York.

Ingrid Fisher-Schreiber (Buddhism), Franz-Karl Ehrhard (Tibetan Buddhism), Michael S. Diener (Zen). The Shambhala Dictionary of Buddhism and Zen. 1991. Shambala. Boston & London. 

Judith L. Lief. Making Friends with Death. A Buddhist Guide to Encountering Mortality. 2001. Shambhala. Boston & London. 

3636

Malcom D. Eckel. Buddhism. 2002. Oxford University Press. New York. 

Sogyal Rinpoche. The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. 1994. Harper San Francisco. New York 

Taizan Maezumi Roshi. Appreciate your Life. The essence of Zen Practice. 2002. Shambala Classics. Boston & London. 

Taizen Dechimaru, Maestro. El Sutra de la Gran Sabiduría. Comentarios. 1987. Miraguano Ed. Madrid.  

Thich Nhat Hanh. No Death, No Fear. Comforting Wisdom for Life. 2002. Riverhead Books. New York.