Buddhism. What are you? I am awake. Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Transcription

1 Buddhism What are you? I am awake.

2 Buddha ( BCE)

3 Four Passing Sights Old age Disease Death Monk

4 Quest for fulfillment Self-indulgence (path of desire) Asceticism (path of renunciation)

5 Four Noble Truths 1. Life is suffering. 2. Desire, craving, or clinging is the cause of suffering. 3. Nirvana extinguishes craving and hence suffering. 4. The path to Nirvana is the Eightfold Noble Path.

6 Four Noble Truths 1. Life is suffering. (Symptom) 2. Desire, craving, or clinging is the cause of suffering. (Diagnosis) 3. Nirvana extinguishes craving and hence suffering. (Prognosis) 4. The path to Nirvana is the Eightfold Noble Path. (Prescription)

7 Four Noble Truths: 1 Life is suffering, painful, out of joint. This, O monks, is the Noble Truth of Suffering (dukkha): Birth is suffering; decay is suffering; illness is suffering; death is suffering. Being around what we hate is suffering; being apart from what we love is suffering; not to obtain what we desire is suffering. Briefly, clinging to existence is suffering.

8 Four Noble Truths: 2 Desire, craving, causes suffering. This, O monks, is the Noble Truth of the Cause of suffering: the craving (tanha), which leads to rebirth, accompanied by pleasure and lust, finding its delight here and there. This craving is threefold, namely, craving for pleasure, craving for existence, craving for prosperity.

9 Four Noble Truths: 3 Eliminating desire can eliminate suffering. This, O monks, is the Noble Truth of the Cessation of suffering: it ceases with the complete cessation of this craving a cessation which consists in the absence of every passion with the abandoning of this craving, with doing away with it, with the deliverance from it, with the destruction of desire.

10 Four Noble Truths: 4 The Eightfold Noble Path (the Middle Way) eliminates desire: Right Thought Intention Speech Conduct Livelihood Effort Concentration Meditation

11 Right Thought Right Thought: Dhammapada: All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts. You must know the Four Noble Truths You must avoid harmful thoughts

12 Right Thought 33. As an archer makes his arrow straight, so a wise man makes straight his trembling and unsteady thought, which is difficult to guard and difficult to hold back. 35. It is good to tame the mind, which is difficult to hold in and flighty, rushing wherever it wishes; a tamed mind brings happiness. 36. Let the wise man guard his thoughts, for they are difficult to perceive, very artful, and they rush wherever they wish: thoughts well guarded bring happiness.

13 Right Intention Right Intention: You must try to eliminate selfish desire 186. There is no satisfying desires, even by a shower of gold pieces; he who knows that desires have a short taste and cause pain, he is wise There is no fire like passion; there is no losing throw like hatred; there is no pain like this body; there is no happiness higher than stillness.

14 Right Speech Right Speech Avoid saying harmful things 133. Do not speak harshly to anybody; those who are spoken to will answer you in the same way. Angry speech is painful, blows for blows will touch you If like a shattered gong, you make no utterance, then you have reached Nirvana; strife is not known to you.

15 Right Speech Right Speech 306. He who says what is not, goes to hell; he who, having done a thing, says he hasn t done that thing, also goes to hell. After death, both are equal: they are men with evil deeds in the next world.

16 Right Conduct Right Conduct Avoid harming others Obey the five restraints

17 Ethical restraints Do not kill Do not steal Do not lie Do not be unchaste Do not ingest intoxicants

18 Right Livelihood Right Livelihood You must enter the right career Avoid what requires you, or even tempts you, to harm others

19 Right Effort Right Effort You must work constantly to avoid selfish desire 163. Bad deeds, and deeds hurtful to ourselves, are easy to do; what is beneficial and good, that is very difficult to do.

20 Right Concentration Right Concentration You must develop mental powers to avoid desire Binding mind to a single spot, as in Hindu meditation

21 Right Meditation Right Meditation Like Hindu meditation Cessation of fluctuations Illumination of object as object, empty of what it is

22 Two kinds of Buddhism Theravada Buddhism Southern Canon, early writings Southeast Asia Ideal: arhat

23 Mahayana Buddhism Northern Canon, later writings China, Korea, Japan Ideal: bodhisattva

24 Two Ideals Arhat: saint who attains enlightenment, experiences nirvana. Chief virtue: wisdom

25 Mahayana Ideal Bodhisattva: one who postpones his/her own enlightenment to promote the enlightenment of others. Chief virtue: compassion

26 Bodhisattva The Bodhisattvas are those earnest disciples who are enlightened by reason of their efforts to attain self-realisation of Noble Wisdom and who have taken upon themselves the task to enlighten others.

27 Six Perfections of the Bodhisattva Charity Good moral Energy Deep concentration character (concern for others) Wisdom Patience

28 Non-Attachment The key to enlightenment is non-attachment: 170. Look upon the world as a bubble, look upon it as a mirage: the king of death does not see him who thus looks down upon the world Come. Look at this glittering world, like a royal chariot; the foolish are immersed in it, but the wise do not touch it.

29 Non-Attachment 367. He who never identifies himself with name and form, and does not grieve over what is no more, he indeed is called a Bhikshu [mendicant] The Bhikshu who acts with kindness, who is calm in the doctrine of Buddha, will reach the quiet place (Nirvana), cessation of natural desires, and happiness.

30 Arguments for the Arhat Ideal The goal is to eliminate suffering; the means, enlightenment If bodhisattvas help others to enlightenment, they help them become arhats If it is good to help others to enlightenment, it is because enlightenment is the goal

31 Arguments for the Bodhisattva Ideal If your ideal is the arhat, you seek your own enlightenment That is a selfish desire; it leads to suffering Concern for self presupposes that you have a separate self Only bodhisattva ideal leads you beyond yourself

32 Other Core Doctrines Interdependent origination: Everything is connected by cause and effect There is no soul or self (anatman no soul). What we call the self is really just a bundle (skandhas). Everything is impermanent.

33 No Self There is no self to fulfill. No-self (anatman, anatta): there is no self. Idea of self > desire > suffering.

34 Absent self Introspect: what do you see? Thoughts, feelings, perceptions.... You don t find anything else. You don t find yourself. There is no self or soul. A person is just a bundle of thoughts....

35 Absent Self Self-knowledge? Knowledge of others? No self: no essence within me to know The best I can do is understand patterns in bundle of thoughts

36 Buddhaghosa (-400) There are 89 kinds of consciousness. Nothing unifies them. There are only streams of consciousness. Nothing unites past, present, and future.

37 Buddhaghosa A living being lasts only as long as one thought. People, minds, objects are only ways of speaking.

38 People and passengers Jane flies from Austin to Houston and back. She is one person. She is two passengers. Passenger is just a way of counting. Buddhaghosa: every noun is like passenger.

39 Questions to King Milinda There is no ego here to be found. There is no chariot here to be found. No one element is the whole. The combination isn t the whole Parts could change while object remains the same.

40 Parmenides Principle: Nothing can have contrary qualities Change: Fa > not Fa But a can t be F and not F So, change is unreal: Fa > Fa

41 Heraclitus Principle: Nothing can have contrary qualities Change: Fa > not Fa But a can t be F and not F So, it s not the same object: Fa > not Fb

42 Common Sense Principle: Nothing can have contrary qualities Change: Fa > not Fa Not the same quality: a is F-at-t and not F-at-t

43 Aristotle Principle: Substances can have contrary qualities Change: Fa > not Fa F is accidental to a Why is it the same object? Same essence (A): Aa and Fa > Aa and not Fa

44 Locke Principle: Substances can have contrary qualities Change: Fa > not Fa Why is it the same object? Continuity of stages: Ea and Fa > Ea and not Fa > not Fa and Ga > Ga and Ha >...

45 Buddhism Principle: Nothing can have contrary qualities Change: Fa > not Fa But a can t be F and not F So, it s not the same object: Fa > not Fb

46 Reincarnation? There is no soul to occupy a different mind or body. But there is a cycle of birth and death.

47 Reincarnation? There are connections between lives through cause and effect, similarity, etc. We construct people (like passengers ) we can do so across bounds of death.