BUDDHISM

Buddhism- 2, 500 years old

Siddhartha Gautama- founder; said that “everything in this world is impermanent”

Buddha felt that the world would be better with the triumph of natural law over supernaturalism.

Buddhism is essentially ethics, psychology and logic, not metaphysics

Tripitaka- The Three Baskets

1. Vinaya- Pitaka- laws and rules of the Discipline of the Order.

-made few weeks after Buddha’s death (circa 483 BC)

2. Sutta- Pitaka- compilation of Buddha’s stories and parables.

3. Abhiddharma- Pitaka- metaphysical views

• Sorrow and suffering is the essential fact of life on earth

Three-fold teaching of Buddha

1. The Four Noble Truth

a. There is suffering- life is full of misery and pain. Poverty, disease, old age,
death, selfishness, greed; are the so-called pleasures are really fraught with
pain. (THE LEGEND)

b. There is a cause of suffering- causal formula: “This being, that arises”

Ex. Depending upon the cause, the effect arises.

c. There is a cessation of suffering- because everything arises depending upon

causes and conditions, then if these Causes and Conditions are removed the
effect must also cease to exist.

d. There is a way leading to the cessation of suffering- Noble Eightfold path

2. The Noble Eightfold Path

a. Right Faith- understand the true doctrine which is to understand that life is
suffering, that there is a cause of suffering, that there is an end to suffering
and there is a means to end suffering.

b. Right Resolve- clear perception of the true doctrine and free oneself from
lust, ill, will and cruelty
 c. Right Speech- to avoid and abstain from telling a lie, to speak of truth, to
avoid tale bearing, to avoid harsh language and avoid vain talk.

d. Right Action or Conduct- abstain from killing any living sentient things,
avoid immoral sexual behaviour, to avoid intoxicating drinks.

e. Right Living- gain livelihood by right means, not be engaged in such

occupation such as of a butcher, person-peddler, slave dealer, armament
maker, and prostitution.

f. Right Effort- strive to avoid the arising of evil, and maintain meritorious
condition that have already arisen

g. Right Attentiveness- to be clearly conscious and attentive to the objects of

contemplation. Only way that leads to attainment of purity and to the
overcoming of pain.

h. Right Concentration- fixation of the mind on a single object.

3. Patticasamutpada or Pratityasamutpada (Doctrine of Dependent Origination)

- Central teaching of the Buddha
- Accdg. to this teaching, there is nothing in this world that does not come
within the realm of the causal laws. (arising and passing away of things in this
world)
• Pratityasamutpada is the solution he got under the famous Bodhi-Tree for sight of
disease, old age and death.
• IGNORANCE is the root cause of all suffering.
• There is only one way to destroy Ignorance- by Knowledge

THEORY OF KARMA
- Based on Patticasamutpada.
- For Buddhism refers to the fruits of one’s action
- What kind o life you had before would determine the kind of life you have
now (past shapes the future)

THE DOCTRINE OF TRANSMIGRATION

- Corollary of the doctrine of Karma.
- States that one undergoes a cycle of birth and death.
- The theory holds that if anyone is ignorant about the fact that things of this
world are impermanent and therefore transitory, he will cling to the things of
this world believing wrongly that the worldly things are permanent.
 • Birth-death cycle- also known as Samsara

Middle Path- moral purification; only way to Nirvana.

Buddha says: Suffering is Samsara (cycle of birth and death)

Cessation of Suffering is Nirvana

Pratityasamutpada (Dependent Origination) taken from the point of view of relativity is

Samsara (birth-death cycle) while taken from the point of view of reality, it is Nirvana.

THE DOCTRINE OF MOMENTARINESS

- Corollary of the Pratityasamutpada.
- Technically called Anicca
- States that because things are relative, dependent, conditional and infinite,
they must be momentary, that is they are impermanent

• NO- SOUL THEORY OR NO- EGO THEORY (Anatta)

- The individual ego is ultimately false
- To state that everything is momentary or impermanent is to admit that
the ego our soul is also momentary and therefore relative and false.

3 Characteristics of Existence for Buddhism:

1. All things of this world are impermanent (Anicca)
2. All things of this world are non-substantial (Anatta)
3. All things of this world are unsatisfactory, suffering (Dukkha)

BUDDHA’S EPISTEMOLOGY
The Buddha learned yogi meditation and became aware of the extrasensory powers that
could be developed by such means. Through this, he realized the limitation of sense-perception
as a source of knowledge.

Buddha considered THREEFOLD KNOWLEDGE:

1. Retrocognition- ability to perceive one’s own past history

- dependent on memory and this memory of past existents is attained
through acts of intensive concentration.

2. Clairvoyance- knowledge of the deceased and the survival of other beings who wander
in the cycle of existences in accordance with their behaviour (karma)
- together with retrocognition, it enables one to verify the phenomenon of
rebirth.

3. Knowledge of the destruction of defiling impulses- together with the three and
Telepathy, provides an insight into the four Noble Truths
- Buddha accepts reason and perception as sources of information but doesn’t
consider these as the only valid source of knowledge
ETHICS
Buddhism does not separate knowledge from conduct. The ultimate goal of knowledge is
freedom- freedom from the world tormented by decay, birth and death.
He who has attained freedom from sufferings is called “one who has done what has to be
done” (Katakaraniyo). To reach this goal there are gradual and ordered steps that needs to be
accomplished:

1. By gradual process of training

2. By gradual working out
3. By gradual practice

2 Steps of Virtuous or Moral Behavior

1. Negative Aspect- avoiding evil (restraint from killing or hurting living creatures)
2. Positive Aspect- cultivating the good (showing compassion for all beings)

• The Moral Virtues are grouped into various Categories. The MOST BASIC is the:

A. PANCA SILA (5 Virtues)

1. Restraint from taking life both of oneself and of other and of both (ahimsa)
2. Restraint from taking what is not given (asteya)
3. Restraint from wrong indulgence in sensual pleasure (bramacharya)
4. Restraint from falsehood (satya)
5. Restraint from indolence consequent on the use of intoxicating drinks
(aparighara)

B. DASA SILA (10 virtues)

1. Restraint from taking life both of oneself and of other and of both (ahimsa)
2. Restraint from taking what is not given (asteya)
3. Restraint from wrong indulgence in sensual pleasure (bramacharya)
4. Restraint from falsehood (satya)
5. Restraint from slander
6. Restraint from harsh or rough speech
7. Restraint from frivolous chatter
8. Restraint from covetousness
9. Restraint from malevolence
10. Restraint from false or heretical views

• The final product of all these is the Buddhist ideal of “perfect man”; ARHAT
• The whole idea was launched to crush the cycle of birth and death, namely suffering. The
most effective way to achieve this goal was by Renunciation of craving (tanha) for the
things of this world

What then is the basis of ethical judgement?

If an action leads to detachment- the action is good; if it leads to attachment, the action is
bad
“Good” in Buddhism and “Bad” in Buddhism?
Based on the Majjihima-Nikaya: “Whatever action, bodily, verbal, or mental, leads to
suffering for one’s self, for others, or for both, that action is bad. Whatever action, bodily, verbal,
or mental, does not lead to suffering of oneself, for others, or for both, that action is good.”

NIRVANA
- Literally means “blowing-out”
- Summum bonum of Buddhism
- The person who attained the state is called an ARHAT
- Defined as the goal of Buddhism
- Elimination of craving, state of detachment, state where there is no suffering,
state of perfect happiness.
- (Highest reaches)- purification of mind; its restoration to its primitive
simploicity or radiant transparency.
- In its Highest reaches, when a person attained this kind of state this become
enlightened, a Buddha.
- Everyone is a potential Buddha
- Siddhartha Gautama is the 4th buddha

2 Basic Concepths of Nirvana

1. Nirvana with a substrate left- state attainable in this life
2. Nirvana w/o a substrate left- state of a dead arhat

Nirvana of the 1st type has certain characteristics.

1. Detachment from the world
2. Detachmen produces freedom
3. Freedom produces stability of mind
4. He feels secure and at peace in the midst of distraction and confusion
prevailing in the world
5. He understands the nature of things:
Of Impermanence (Anicca)
Of Unsatisfactoriness (Dukkha)
Of Unsubstantiability (Anatta)
6. Death does not overwhelm him

Nirvana of the 2nd type was characterized by a complete liberation from all fetters.

• Arhat with substrate- he experiences all impressions of the senses, able to prevent the
generation of attachment, impressions produce respective feeling of pleasue or pain, the
arhat is unmoved by them.
• Arhat without substrate- at death of man, the five aggregates which compose man,
namely: matter, feelings, perception, dispositions, consciousness- disappear. He is
described neither as “will be reborn” nor as “will not be reborn”
THE HINAYANA AND THE MAHAYANA
After the Buddha’s death, 2 major Schools of Thought emerged:
1. Hinayana
2. Mahayana

Hinayana- literally means the Lesser Vehicle

Mahayana- Bigger Vehicle
- It can accommodate a much larger number of people

Hinayana
No God
The End was Nirvana taken as
Extinction of Suffering
Highest ideal is the Arhat
The Means to an end is
Contemplation and Meditation on the
4 Noble Truths
Believe in Self-help Salvation
Exhibits dry asceticism
Negativistic and egoistic in outlook
Mahayana
Buddha was made God
The end is Nirvana, taken as
Positive Bliss
Highest ideal is the Bodhisattva
The Means to an end is the
Middle Path
Salvation is with the help of others
Exhibits loving interest in the world
Positivistic in outlook

HINAYANA

Sarvas- tirade- most widespread Hinayana group

- Theory of Momentariness was their main doctrine
- everything is momentary, nothing is permanent
Sautrantika- school of Hinayana
- Explains situation in terms of their basic contention that our processes of
thought do not represent a direct picture of external reality but follow each
other in a thought series of their own under pressure from w/o otherwise
independently

MAHAYANA
- 1st systematic expounder of Mahayana- ASVAGOSHA
- His Doctrines: Reality is Tathata- (Bliss)

6 ways of looking at at it
1. As Ultimate Existence- it is called Bhutatathata
2. As Pure Spirit- Alayavihanana
3. As Harmonious Whole- Dharmakaya
4. As Bliss having infinite merits- Tathatagarbha
5. From the empirical standpoint
6. From the Ultimate standpoint