Buddha - meaning of epithet
-not a name, but a title, meaning ‘one who has woken up’
-term buddha was used in speech normally at that time. Gautama Buddha and or his followers turned it into an epithet
-one who has attained nirvana and escaped the cycle of suffering
-a buddha has attained nirvana, but s/he is not the only one who has reached this state
-in this world, in our time, our buddha is Sakyamuni
buddha’s followers can attain nirvana without being a buddha (not fully awakened)
-buddha is more than a human; NOT a god
has ended the cycle of rebirth & redeath
-only humans can become buddhas
-a buddha is thought to be a liberator, but not a saviour
-they teach about/indicate reality
-they do not annoint/transmit
-they show the way, but you must walk through the door
-a buddha has attained bodhi (awakening) in 2 ways
WAKE UP FROM THE MATRIX awakened from the sleep of ignorance with its dreams and nightmares (brabuddham purusham) - matrix
SEE THINGS AS THEY ARE Bodhi as ‘blossoming’ like a lotus (vibuddham padmam) into the wisdom that sees things as they are SEE
Brahmanas/Sramanas
-2 groups of people with spiritual ‘occupations’
-Brahmanas were the traditional class of Vedic spiritual technicians - they maintained/performed the necessary rituals and sacrifices
we used to be confident with relation between Atman-Brahmana
Atman = self
brahmaha = things that brahmins access
Buddha’s audience was both
2 Types of renunciation
Follow Vedas -> Samayasin
Orthodox renunciation
at a certain age, will renounce fire instruments
have to have stuff to renounce
(normally Brahmans, Vaisyas, Kshatriyas - get cord @ age, twice born, responsibility, pay debt)
Dont - Samana/sramana
instead of renouncing fire, renounce EVERYTHING
only ancient culture in the world that supports dropouts
Brahmanas
Veda
esp knowledge of ritual technicalities
technicians of the sacred
hereditary (deserved through sequence of lives)
upheld sacred cosmic order through performing sacrifices
Sakyamuni Buddha - Gautama
- The buddha of our age is Sakyamuni Buddha.
- name ‘Sakyamuni’ = specific title: it means ‘sage of the Sakyas’
- so, he is the buddha (awakened one) who was the sage of the Sakyas
- Sakyas info?
- Gautama was his (family) name at birth
- Siddhartha Gautama from the ksatriya class
- born wealthy - might have been prince or wealthy landowner
- after being exposed to the suffering of the world, renounced the comforts of his birth and set out to find release
- left home at age 29
- achieved enlightenment at 35
- taught for 45 years
- born into an interesting historical context & time of transition: iron age > bronze age; oral tradition> written tradition; horticulturalists > agricultural society ??
tritratna
These are the three core values that assist a Buddhist on his/her path. Taking refuge in these three sources (and, in particular, formally declaring this) is one of the things that defines a practitioner as a Buddhist. When one takes refuge in the three jewels, one does not so much proclaim them (as a Christian proclaims Christ to be his saviour) as one acknowledges the importance of these key resources in his practice.
Most agree that to become a Buddhist, you must take refuge in the three jewels AND the four seals:
Buddha (teacher)
Dharma (teaching)
Sangha (community)
The metaphors of the raft
- once you cross over, you won’t carry the raft around you
- the raft is the teaching
- point is that the buddha’s teaching is a skill set to accomplish a goal.
- it’s a set of instructions for a specific group of people to accomplish a specific thing based on their current abilities
- these teachings don’t exist for their own sake
- enlightenment is like learning a trade
- there will be a point when you don’t need his teaching anymore and this is good
- it’s not the object of attachment & craving that causes suffering, it is the attachment & craving itself
- certain attachments are more harmful than others, but craving itself causes us to suffer
- if you cling to something, even the buddha’s teaching, it sill cause duhkha
- tells us 2 things: that there is a stage after which the buddha’s teachings will cease to be relevant…and that clinging even to the teachings causes duhkha
metaphor of the snakeÉÉ!!!
- if you pick up a snake incorrectly, you gon get bit
- snake is the teaching
- even the right teaching is not sufficient on its own
- success = teaching + practitioner
- even if teaching is good, practitioner must be competent and approach it in the right way
- furthermore, even the best teaching is dangerous in the hands of a noob
metaphor of the arrow
-this sutra illustrates buddhist pragmatism
-it was an answer to the ten seemingly unanswerable questions put to the Buddha by Malunkyaputta (monk)
-what of a man who refuses to remove a POISONED arrow until he knows all of the details about how it was made & who made it
-this man will neither realize his goals NOR live
-remove the arrow, then ask the philosophical questions
-buddha was not saying ‘don’t ask questions’
-don’t let your desire for esoteric complexity obscure the simple and the urgent
-there will be lots of time to ask such questions later (if, in fact, they are still necessary)
-by obsessively seeking information and complexity, we can harm ourselves by not doing what is right in front of us
Buddhist “Pragmatism”
the analogy of the arrow and the unanswered questions
unanswered because irrelevant (pragmatic emphasis on relieving suffering
unanswered because false in their presumptions
-this kind of mental grasping is itself a type of craving (tanha) and is not conducive to enlightenment
Life of the Buddha - 5 of 12 deeds
1-dwelling in the Tusita heaven (he practiced the perfections over many lifetimes, networked with Dipamkara, declared his intention, received a prophesy, and spent his last life prior to being human as a deva in Tusita heaven
2- descent from Tusita heaven
3-entering his mother’s womb
4-birth
5-proficiency in worldly skills and sensuality
Four visions of disenchantment
This disenchantment is the 6th deed of a buddha. It is what set Gautama on his path to awakening. 1-aging 2-sickness 3-death 4-an ascetic
udraka ramaputra
- after the buddha’s 6th act (disenchantment with a life of pleasure), he sets out to pursue a spiritual life.
- between the ages of 29 and 35, he studies meditation with local experts
- first was alara kalama
- meditation teacher
- taught meditative absorption leading to “the state of neither perception nor non-perception”
- once the buddha attained the same level, he offered buddha a job…but buddha went on to look for more.
- he died before buddha could bring him the dharma and this is one of the things that motivated buddha to teach
sujata
- girl who gave the buddha porridge
- this marked the end of his asceticism and the beginning of his practice of the middle way
mara
-analogous in some ways to Satan
-name means ‘bringer of death’ and most common epithet is ‘the Bad One’
-just like Satan, is a personification…but unlike satan, represents not evil but the hold that the world (esp senses) can have on the mind
-it is the power of experiences to seduce and ensnare the wary mind
-it is a personification of the things that can hold us back from nirvana and prevent us from escaping suffering
the demon who tempted buddha before his enlightenment -argued his own right to enlightenment
-tried to break the buddha’s resolve and tempt him with desire
-first used daughters, then storms, then tried to claim the buddha’s seat
Calling the earth as witness
- one of the most important images in buddhist art
- refers to a scene that occurred the night that the buddha attained awakening
- the demon Mara arrived to try to seduce the buddha with his daughters & with storms
- when this didn’t work, he tried to claim the buddha’s seat
- asked the buddha about his right to the seat
- boddhisatva said it was because of practicing the perfections over countless aeons
- Mara says he has done the same and says he has armies who will witness for him
- he called all the demons as his witness
- the buddha placed his right hand onto the earth to indicate that he called all of the earth and the very earth itself to be his witness
threefold knowledge
things that the buddha has (in addition to nirvana)
- The memory of one’s former births
- Knowledge of the appearance, disappearance and re-appearance of beings in the cycle of existence (samsara)
- The knowledge to achieve the total eradication of desires.
Kaundinya
Buddhist monk follower of Gautama Buddha and the first to become an arhat.
- one of the group of 5 (5 fortunate ones
- first ones that the buddha taught
- became an arhat after hearing the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, which deals with the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path, the core pillars of Buddhist teaching regarding the intrinsic suffering of existence and how to deal with it
- buddha said ‘you have realized, kaundinya’
- travelled with the buddha to share the buddhadharma
- converted members of his family
- first of the 5 to have the Dharmacaksu (he has his dharma eye opened & enters into the stream)
- very soon becomes an arhat
- the nikayas say that the path is gradual
- some say instantly (some versions are more romanticized than others)
- definitely became ‘stream enterer; maybe became arhat
Basic model of a world-system
-buddhists have world-systems instead of solar-systems
-each has an axial mountain and 4 continents
(CAKRA-VADA “world system” or Lokadhātu)
the Axial Mountain - Mt. Meru (or Sumeru)
4 underlying discs are 1.2 million yojunas in diameter!
these discs are the 4 elements
looks like a mandala
we live in the Desire realm
our universe is called the Saha universe
(this means ‘endurance’ because we have to put up with a lot of shit here)
this is an impure realm (relatively speaking)
the buddhafield or buddhaksetra is around it now
this will disappear after approx 5000 years
some worlds/universes have no buddhas!
buddhas are rare; time is infinite
infinite time, infinite space, infinite repetition
is surrounded by Four Continents
each with two islands
the Three Dimensions (realms of infinite space)
Desire (includes some gods, lead by Indra; also some Buddha realms)
Form (includes heavens & Akanistha)
Formless (completely immaterial)
There are 4 major elements
4 major elements
earth - solidity
-sits on other elements
fire - heat (mutability?)
water - liquidity
air - ?these elements work like forces (cohesion, etc)
wind is at the bottom (space underneath)
order: wind at bottom, then water, then earth
noble’s 4 truths
-these are the 4 realities taught by the noble one
-a summary of the buddha’s contribution to the world
-often looked at as analogous to a dr giving a prescription
The First Turning (of the Wheel of Dharma): the Noble’s Four Truths
(satya - can mean reality OR truth)
not really propositional truths - they are actual experiences
rather than believe them as decrees, the buddha wanted people to understand and see for themselves
-suffering is not divinely metered - it’s a reality of life that people can take responsibility for and can do something about. With that in mind, he deconstructs suffering, its cause and it’s relief in a way that can be universally applied.
more like a fitness plan or rehab, because there is a process that requires your participation and ongoing coaching
- he doesn’t fix it for you
- you’re not on your own…and thinking that you are is itself a delusion (because there is no you and nothing exists in isolation)
- it’s more of an invitation to participate in a collaboratory program
Truth/reality of Suffering (duhkha) = [diagnosis]
Truth/reality of the Arising of Suffering (samodaya) = [etiology]
-the condition for the arising of suffering = CRAVING (not the thing that you desire/crave, but the desire/craving itself)
Truth/reality of the Cessation of Suffering (nirodha) = [prognosis/cure]
Truth/reality of the Path (marga) which leads to cessation = [prescription]
Buddha responded to major philosophical/religious question of his time (samsara) with Noble’s 4 Truths
three poisons
-(aversion)
-delusion
-greed
the three fundamental defilements
tanha/trsna - craving
is the condition for the arising of suffering
- literally means thirst
- specific technical buddhist term
- multifaceted craving that takes many forms - craving for objects of sense, for existence and for non-existence
- it is the cause of suffering because it can never be fully satisfied AND because even total satisfaction is impermanent
- crystallizes/emerges as grasping or attachment
- we like things (desire) -> so we crave them (craving) -> so we grasp at them, wanting to possess them in a permanent way
- some cravings are worse than others, but all will create some suffering if there is attachment/grasping
- you can be attached to anything, including the teaching & precepts
- WHY does craving cause suffering? because it means wanting the world to be other than it is.
- in craving, we fail to see how things truly ar
nirvana
-way out of samsara?
5 aggregates
-a paradigm of personal identity that is a rebuttal to the vedic concept of atman
-buddha challenges the vedic idea of self(atman), insisting on the idea of anatman (no self).
-so how do we explain individual personalities and concepts of self within this paradigm
-the self is not a static and defined entity - rather it is a nebulous composite of a variety of continually arising/emerging factors
-these factors are the 5 aggregates
-we have no control over them
1-form
2-sensation
3-perception
4-mental formation
5-consciousness
dependent co-arising
- the buddha is said to have learned upon awakening that ‘effects arise from causes naturally’
- physical and mental effects occur in various relationships to each other
- physical and mental phenomena are called dhamma
- there is a causal connectedness between events
- buddhists explain causality according to the twelve links of dependent arising
- the concept of rebirth is more of a concept of causal continuity
samsara
the continuous cycle of birth, death & rebirth that -according to indian philosophy is perpetual, inevitable and non-volitional
cakravartin
wheel-turning
-prophecy - he will be either ______ or a cakravartin king (great wheel turning king)
