buddhism

• The Buddha


  The awakened one or enlightened
• Siddharta Gautama


  • Born in the Himalayas around 600BC
  • Prophecy that he would be great worried his dad
  • Myths about his birth (elephant story)
• Siddharta's journey


  1. Left home and saw 4 passing sights (old man, sick person, corpse)

  2. Realised we grow old/sick and die

  3. Thought there was an answer to suffering

  4. Saw his palace as complacency

  5. Renounced his hedonistic upbringing
• Siddharta's spiritual journey


  1. Taught deep meditation by two brahmins

  2. Realised this didn't do anything more than temporary release of suffering

  3. Renounced them

  4. Joined group of ascetics (harmed themselves to get rid of suffering)

  5. Became very weak due to practices of self-denial (starving themselves)

  6. Couldn't even meditate

  7. Realised this wasn't the way

  8. Needed a 'middle way' between indulgence and asceticism
• Siddharta's enlightenment


  • At 35, reached spiritual enlightenment under a bodhi tree through meditation
  • Understood all his past lives
  • Everything comes and goes
  • Cravings and negative feelings keep you bound to wheel of life
  • Experienced nirvana at end as 3 fires (or poisons) burnt out (greed, hatred and ignorance)
• Siddharta saw Upaka, who didn't believe in Buddha's wisdom (prajna)
• Buddha's first sermon


  1. Made a sermon

  2. Converted 5 ascetics

  3. 1st sangha formed
• Ehipassiko


  Buddha's unconventional 'come and try' method
• Buddha's beliefs


  • Rejected caste system
  • No soul so no reincarnation
  • Denies god can truly help
  • Rejects sacrificial rituals (vedic ritual)
  • Similar to Jainism with veganism and ahimsa (non-violence)
• Taking refuge (the three jewels)

  • The Buddha, Dharma and Sangha are interconnected
  • Do Trisarana chant to take refuge in these 3
• The Buddha


  • A title (more than one sometimes including Maitreya)
  • Shows Buddhists and bhikkus (monks) how to live - no attachment, simple lifestyle in spiritual pursuit, show compassion and declare Dharma
• The Dharma


  • The teachings of the Buddha (3 marks of existence, 4 noble truths, noble eightfold path, the self, karma, samsara/rebirth and wheel of life)
  • Not about god, the universe or afterlife - people wouldn't understand and how does this offer help to ending suffering
  • Focuses on our reality and problem of suffering
  • Arrow analogy - when someone is shot with arrow you don't figure out where it came from but how to deal with it (arrow=suffering)
  • More of practical self-development than ritual (middle way)
  • Raft analogy, gets you to other side but that's it
• Five precepts


  • Abstain from taking life
  • Abstain from stealing
• Monks


  • Have 5 additional precepts
  • Help for more spiritual progress
  • Much more limiting
• Sangha


  • Formed by Buddha and consolidated after death by memory of teachings
  • 500 bhikkus council met 3 months after
  • Another council 100 years later
  • At this point sangha split into Theravada (orthodox) and Mahasanghika (progressive)
  • Many new ones too but Buddhism has dealt with diversity well
  • Women allowed to become bhikkhunis (nuns)
  • Buddha's aunt Mahapajapati was skilled
• Asoka


  • Empire of India
  • Followed lay Buddhism or upasaka
  • Improved India greatly in attempt to end suffering
  • 3rd council 250 BCE which produced Pali cannon (written scriptures)
  • Sent missionaries off to East Asia (Thailand) which preserved Buddhism
  • Promoted social welfare, religious tolerance and moral conduct
• The three yanas (vehicles)


  • Small vehicle (Hinayana/Theravada) - strict adherence to teachings
  • Great vehicle (Mahayana supported by second council/progressive) - less strict but with additional teaching
  • Diamond vehicle (Vajrayana within Mahayana) - has added ceremonies/celebrations with emotion/imagination to help achieve enlightenment quicker
• Samsara


  • Wheel of life, born, die, rebirth, constant cycle
  • Trapped by suffering until we escape (enlightenment)
  • The hub, where 3 poisons feed off each other
  • The inner circle, karma (action divided into 2), depicts people's fortune climbing and falling as a result of actions, actions have consequences
  • Six realms, includes animal realm (basic desires =consent), human realm (realm with possibility of enlightenment) realm of devas (people got everything but pride makes them fall)
• The Twelve Links


  1. Helps understand the cyclical existence (samsara)

  2. Potter at work represent how we make karma with our actions

  3. Blind man represent spiritual ignorance

  4. Corpse represent everything that's born dies so cycle of wheel is incomplete
• Outside of the wheel

  Yama (monster=death) and Buddha (liberation) the way off the wheel
• Nagasena's analogy


  Passing of the flame from one lamp to another (conscience)
• The 3 Marks of Existence (the Lakshanas)

  • Anicca - nothing is permanent, everything changes, so shouldn't get attached as it will change
  • Dukkha - all is unsatisfactory, motivates them to want liberation/escape samsara
  • Anatta - no permanent self, body is an illusion so adhering to cravings is stupid, realise interdependence from all phenomena
• Buddhism rejects eternalism (immortal soul) and annihilation (end of world)
• The 5 skandhas


  Constantly changing, form (body) consciousness, helps in understanding why you shouldn't crave, development of wisdom crucial in understanding need for liberation
• Nagasena's chariot analogy


  We are given the illusion of a fixed and dependent self, just like a chariot has loads of parts but you couldn't describe it as just a wheel, human has loads of parts but can't describe as one of its skandhas/factors, including form (body) and consciousness, so thus we have no fixed essence but are just a collection of parts labelled wholeness
• Buddhism is not just pessimistic, it is just realistic, not optimistic or pessimistic
• Dukkha


  Doesn't just mean suffering, it means unsatisfactoriness as a result of impermanence, not just pain/suffering
• The 4 Noble Truths

  • Dukkha (suffering/unsatisfactoriness)
  • Samudaya (arising of Dukkha)
  • Nirodha (cessation of Dukkha)
  • Magga (the way)
• Tanha


  Thirst or attachment, the cause of Dukkha
• Nibbana


  • The cure, completing non-attachment, usually done by an arhat, very far along the path, may be enlightened
  • The process of putting out the three fires (greed, hatred and ignorance)
  • Nibbana with remainder (rest of life after enlightened)
  • Parinibbana (enlightenment in death-no rebirths/Buddha, the cessation of existence)
• Nibbana is beyond ordinary pleasure/pain and thus can't be described
• The 8-Fold Path/Wisdom


  • Panna (wisdom) - right understanding, right thought
  • Sila (morality) - right speech, right livelihood
  • Samadhi (meditation) - right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration
  • Right knowledge (truth)/freedom (of illusion of self)
• Samatha meditation


  • Focus attention on one thing (e.g. death to be rid of greed), or focus on breathing (applicable for everyone)
  • Has a calming effect as body can't stress if reset to base
  • Prepares for Vipassana through right effort (8-fold)
• Vipassana


  • Insight/right mindfulness (8-fold)
  • Done by bhikkus aiming to understand path of nibbana, attempt to understand true no-self (anatta), break through normality of mind like habits
  • Where you achieve samadhi, deep state of peace and 8th step of 8-fold
• Jhanas


  • Lucid trance achieved, example is brahma viharas ('sublime state')
  • Metta - 'loving kindness' to love others, you have to love yourself first
  • Karuna - 'active compassion', understand suffering so share compassion
  • Upekka - state of peace, look at all beings with positive attitude of well-wishing whether good or bad
  • Mudita - joy of happiness of all
• Alternate cultures' meditation


  • Tibetan uses mandalas (symbols) and thankas (wall hanging), famous mantra 'hail to jewel of lotus' very different to focus on breathing
  • Chinese use physical activity (martial arts or sweeping)
  • Japanese Kanjin (similar to Vipassana) but adds chanting to concentration on object, chant dedication to Dharma, Zen Buddhist also adopt lotus position (za-zen) in an attempt to achieve enlightenment in moment (satori), also have Butsudans/statues/shrines of Buddha but image itself isn't worshipped, contain symbolic objects/offerings
• Mahayana Buddhism


  • Also known as the greater vehicle (looser rules) after split in Sangha, started by Mahasanghikas
  • Not as many rules, focuses on Buddhology (further then strict teachings/the myths), moved away from scripture but kept teaching of emptiness (sunyata) and focused on developing karuna and prajna (kindness and wisdom)
  • We all possess Buddha nature, not subject to cycle of samsara, like discovering a jewel underneath dirt (work away at it) and all beings are equal
  • Uses upaya for perfect wisdom (prajnaparamita)
  • Stories (sutras) with deeper meanings instead of rules
• Bodhisattva


  • Having the bodhisattva path process called bodhicitta (in everyone) done by bodhisattvas to achieve Buddhahood, can pass on spiritual method (parivarta)
  • Bodhisattvas take a vow/way, Snelling says 'spiritual hero' who compassionately helps other beings whilst perfecting his own wisdom, Suzuki says they are 'most perfect', have four causes (reflect on faults of material existence)
• r


  Ultimate value/sustain life
• Incense


  Dharma spreading through worlds