Buddhism

• Buddhism


  Religion of around 500 million people or about 7% to 8% of the world's population
• Buddhism

  • Religion of eastern and central Asia growing out of the teaching of Siddhārtha Gautama
  • Suffering is inherent in life and one can be liberated from it by cultivating wisdom, virtue, and concentration
• Two Main Divisions of Buddhism

  • Theravada Buddhism
  • Mahayana Buddhism
• Theravada Buddhism


  School of elder monks or school of the ancients, also known as the Southern School of Buddhism
• Mahayana Buddhism


  Northern school of Buddhism
• Theravada Buddhism claims to have preserved the original teachings of Siddharta with pristine purity
• Buddhism has been in existence for over 2,500 years and has never experienced any drastic or radical schisms in its revolution
• Siddharta Gautama may have been born

  563 B.C.E to 480 B.C.E
• Siddharta Gautama

  Also known as "Sakyamuni" or the "sage of the Sakya clan"
• Siddharta


  Means "he who achieves his"
• Buddha


  Means "the awakened one" or the enlightened one
• Asita predicted that the child (Siddharta) was destined for either political or spiritual ascendancy
• Suddhodana (Siddharta's father) wanted Siddharta to choose the life of a great king, he made sure that the young boy experienced the comfort of wealth and power
• At the age of sixteen, Suddhodana arranged Siddharta's marriage to a beautiful and refined woman, Yasodhara (also Siddharta's cousin and wife)
• Rahula, son of Siddharta and Yasodhara
• "Four Signs" encountered by Siddharta Gautama

  • Old man
  • Crippled man
  • Decaying corpse
  • Ascetic monk or shramana
• Mendicant


  A beggar of alms
• Ascetism


  The practice of strict self-denial as a measure of personal and especially spiritual discipline
• Mara


  A devil who personified evil forces that torment the minds of humankind, including greed, hatred, ignorance, jealousy, and doubt
• After 49 days of meditation, Siddharta emerged victorious and attained the state of absolute awakening
• Siddharta was 35 years old when he attained enlightenment
• At the age of 80 and on a full moon day, Siddharta died due to dysentery
• Stupa


  An important form of Buddhist architecture, though it predates Buddhism
• Tipitaka


  "Three baskets" of Theravada Buddhism that survives
• Pitaka


  Translates as "basket" referring to the receptacles where the palm leaf manuscripts were stored by the monks
• Tipitaka


  • Sutta Pitaka (Discourse)
  • Vinaya Pitaka (Discipline)
  • Adhidhamma Pitaka (Ultimate Doctrine)
• Buddhism is the belief that soul or atman do not exist as people live in a state of non soulness or anatman
• Anityaanicca


  All conditioned things are transitory and passing; they all have beginning and end to their existence
• Aggregates of soul

  • Physical form or corporeality
  • Feelings or sensations
  • Understanding or perception
  • Will or mental formation
  • Consciousness
• Dukkha


  Term for unsatisfactoriness or suffering, which may be manifested in misery, distress, agony, emptiness, or conflict
• Four Noble Truths

  • Identifies the origin of the problem-the dukkha
  • Explains the cause of suffering or the samodaya
  • Asserts that there is cessation or nirodha
  • Path toward moderation or the "Middle Way", magga
• Aspects of samma (right)

  • Wisdom
  • Morality
  • Meditation
• Eightfold Path

  • Right View
  • Right Intention
  • Right Speech
  • Right Action
  • Right Livelihood
  • Right Effort
  • Right Mindfulness
  • Right Concentration
• Paticca-samuppada


  With everything built upon a set of relations, it follows that every effect has a definite cause, and every cause has a definite effect
• Dependent origination


  A twelve-linked chain that explicates how all things are inter-connected, how error and attachment to error occur, and how if the chain is untangled, nirvana can be achieved
• Samsara


  Buddhists recognize that there is a continuous cycle of life, death and rebirth
• Nirvana


  The state to which all Buddhists aspire, is the cessation of desire and hence the end of suffering
• Arhat


  One who has achieved nirvana and is "worthy of honor"
• Sangha


  Literally means "sharer" that refer to monks who share in the general fund of alms provided by a community
• "Triple Gem"


  • The Buddha
  • The Dhamma
  • The Sangha