2. NON-THEISM
For some time scholars called Buddhism atheistic, but
a more correct term is non-theistic.
Buddhists do not deny the existence of god/s, but
Buddhism is not a religion that centers on god/s.
Buddhists rely on right knowledge, which is acquired
by disciplining the mind and achieving enlightenment,
to overcome karma and find release (nirvana) from the
wheel of samsara.
3. WHAT IS REAL IN
BUDDHISM?
Absolute Reality is non-theistic and impermanent
Everything is constantly changing (anitya)
There is no personal soul (atman) that survives
death
Nothing satisfies, all is ‘suffering’ (dukkha)
4. This sounds very negative but in part this is because
Buddhists had to define themselves by what they did not
have in common with Hindu religion.
The Buddha and his followers were Hindus who rejected
the Vedas, the social inequities of the caste system, and
the idea that only men at the top of social ladder could
escape samsara. They also rejected stark asceticism as a
means of achieving moksha.
Buddhists taught that anyone could overcome the bonds
of samsara by taking refuge in the Buddha, following the
Buddha’s Dharma, and joining the Buddhist community
(sangha). It is a Middle Path.
5. THE THREE JEWELS
I take refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma and the
Sangha
Buddhism is more than a philosophy; it is a religion in four
interlocking domains.
A religious community - the Sangha
Religious practice - the Buddha’s Dharma
Buddha’s discourse - it is religious because it claims to
represent the ultimate truth; it transcends the everyday
world of material being and claims this status for itself.
The master/disciple relationship is a semi-formal institution
that guards, modifies, and transmits Buddhist teaching,
which informs Buddhist practice, and creates Buddhist
community. The community is led by these masters who
train up their novitiates to continue this cycle. This is very
similar to the mechanism by which Rabbinic Judaism has
survived for close to 2,000 years.
6. BUDDHA’S SANGHA
Like the word “church” in
Christianity, Sangha can refer
to either
a local community of
Buddhist practitioners,
usually monks, or
to the universal community
of all Buddhists regardless
of their level of practice.
7. Buddha instituted the first
Buddhist community comprised of
renunciates with whom he had traveled.
This community began the dissemination
of the the Buddha’s teaching.
8. THE BUDDHA
In the 6th-5th centuries BCE when Siddhartha
Gautama left his family and fortune to become a
renunciate in search of enlightenment, his home in
Northern India was in political turmoil.
Gautama, a member of the noble Shakya tribe, joined
an ascetic faction of Hindus who had rejected the
Vedas and the Vedic priests in search of answers to
his questions about life and suffering.
9. According to the legends of Buddha’s awakening, he could not
find his answers in the extreme luxury of his palace life, nor
could he find it in the extreme asceticism of his companions.
Siddharta continued his quest alone, but chose a Middle Path
between self-indulgence and self-denial, and set his mind on
meditating until he would know the Truth of how to stop
suffering and escape samsara.
As he focused inward and entered deeper states of
meditation, he experienced increasing levels of ‘awareness’,
until at last he “saw” and understood everything. By looking
inward, he had achieved enlightenment—ultimate knowledge
about Absolute Reality.
10. The Buddha … explained his wakening to his five former companions at a deer park …
near Benares. Although they had parted with him earlier … they reconciled with him and
became his first disciples” (Molloy, p. 128)
11.
12. THE BUDDHA’S DHARMA
Like Hindus, Buddhists teach the
doctrines of samsara, karma, dharma,
and rebirth.
Unlike Hinduism, there are no gods
that require sacrifices or that hear
prayers in Buddhist teaching.
Each person is solely and wholly
responsible for his or her own destiny.
Instead of a personal dharma based on
caste, Buddhists proclaim only the one
Dharma taught by the Buddha for
everyone.
13. TO THINK OR
NOT TO THINK
Western Enlightenment valorized thinking, the rational, logical
pursuit of the truth. The first principal of Western philosophy is
that “I” am real and true. I may doubt my existence, but the fact
that I can doubt proves that I exist. How can a doubt ‘be’ without
a doubter?
The same basic logic underlies St. Anselm’s classic philosophical
proof for the existence of God—the so-called ontological
argument. So long as we can think of something greater than the
last great thing we imagine to be, that greater thing must also
necessarily “exist” and this “being” is therefore as real as “I” am.
14. -Rene Descartes
"… this proposition: I am, I exist,
whenever it is uttered from me,
or conceived by the mind,
necessarily is true."
15. Buddhism asks us to stop thinking in order to ‘know’
the truth.
If I can I cease to think, I can cease to “be” in a
manner of speaking. I will then know that my “self” is
the physical byproduct of thinking (and feeling).
When I realize this, I will know that truth cannot be
arrived at by thinking, but by deliberately disciplining
the mind to stop all thought.
There is a knowing that transcends thinking.
16. -Majjhima Nikāya I, 130
Any form of sensation or consciousness, “… past, future,
or present; internal or external; manifest or subtle...as it
actually is...: ‘This is not mine. This is not my self. This is
not what I am’” .
17. THE PURPOSE
In the existential sense of the word, the purpose of
Buddhist teaching is to enable human beings to
achieve nirvana and end suffering. The first step is to
internalize Buddhism’s Four Noble Truths.
In the pragmatic sense of the word, living a Buddhist
life is to live a life of compassion, free from strong
emotional attachments (cravings), in a state of
complete mindfulness. To do this is to pursue the
Buddha’s Eight-fold Path.
18. THE TRUTH
The Buddha taught his profound knowledge in simple language. It
begins with Four Noble Truths:
1. Every experience (thinking, feeling, etc.) leads to dissatisfaction or
dis-ease (suffering, dukkha).
2. Dukkha is caused by desire, by craving permanence when the truth
is that nothing is permanent and everything changes.
3. There is a way to overcome this suffering or dukkha, a way out of
the never-ending cycle of desire that leads to dissatisfaction that
leads to more desiring and more dis-ease.
4. The way to overcome suffering is to follow the Eight-fold Path.
19. THE EIGHT-FOLD PATH
Right Understanding—know Reality
Right Intention—have pure motives
Right Speech—say nothing hurtful/untrue
Right Action—do nothing harmful
Right Work—hurt no living thing
Right Effort—resist evil/pursue good
Right Concentration—meditate properly
Right Mindfulness—cultivate awareness
20. NIRVANA
Nirvana is the direct experience of non-being, where the
mind ceases to hate, to crave and to be ignorant of its own
impermanence
If that doesn't sound particularly "simple" to you, don't be
surprised.
Nirvana is not "heaven" in the common sense of the word. It
is not a place at all - it is a state of mind, a realization:
Nirvana, therefore, is not a heavenly place like the Hebrew
Paradise, or the Christian Heaven, or the Hindu Brahma.
21. http://www.thisismyanmar.com/nibbana/panadi10.htm
"Just as fire is not stored up in a particular place but rises
when the necessary conditions are present, so Nirvana is
not said to exist in a particular place, but it is attained
when and wherever the necessary qualities are fulfilled”.
22. DEPENDENT CO-ARISING
If we dig a bit deeper into Buddhist explanations of Ultimate
Reality, we will end up with a law rather than a divine being—the
law of dependent or conditioned co-arising. Nothing, according to
Buddhism, 'exists' outside the scope of this law of dependent co-
arising.
One thing gives rise to another in infinite variety throughout time
and space. There is no beginning to this chain of cause and effect.
Therefore, there can be no single, omnipotent God who is
responsible for creating the phenomenal world ex nihilo (out of
nothing).
23. GLOBAL BUDDHISM
Buddhism took the basic elements of a Hindu worldview that
had been most successful in structuring Indian society, and built
on them to create a universal religion of personal transformation
that rivals Christianity and Islam in its missionary success.
If you have ever said, “It’s the thought that counts,” or spent
time cultivating mindfulness, or become an admirer of Yoda and
the Jedi Masters, you have encountered Buddhism. Americans
of all religious backgrounds have dipped consciously and
unconsciously from the wellspring of the Buddha’s Dharma.
24. Image credits
Buddha image. <http://threeroyalwarriors.tripod.com/heartsutra.html>
No-self. <http://jayarava.blogspot.com/2014/03/ethics-and-nonself-in-relation-to.html>
Dhamma Anatta <http://what-buddha-said.net/gallery/index.php/Buddha-
Images/Sabbe-Dhamma-Anatta>
Shakyamuni under the Bodhi Tree. <http://www.prajna-
galleries.com/assets/Uploads/buddhist-paintings-2/detail-grossesbild-sakyamuni-5.jpg >
Buddhadharma magazine cover.
<http://www.thebuddhadharma.com/storage/2014summer/BD-SMR-14_quarter-
size_no-code.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1399951554037>
Rube’s Cartoon <http://www.uxpamagazine.org/rubes-family-trip/>
Sangha (Laos, Luang Prabang). Luang Prabang Takuhatsu ~photo by Akiyoshi Maysuoka
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sangha>
