Buddha’s Heroic Journey

Divine Birth – Mother’s dream

Call to Adventure – The Four Sights

Tests and Trials – Mara

Boon - Teachings

Early Life of the Buddha

Born as Siddhartha Gautama around 563 BCE at Lumbini Grove,

northern India

Born into a royal family

Married princess Yashodhara when he was nineteen

Shielded by his family from difficulties of life outside the court

Life focused on pleasure

Centers of Early Buddhism

Four Sights

Upon managing to temporarily leave the court, Siddhartha saw four

things that surprised him:

a old man

a sick man

a corpse

a wandering ascetic

Siddhartha sets out

Disturbed by the Four Sights, Prince Siddhartha escaped the court

and took up ascetic practices

After taking ascetic practices to their extreme, he sat under a tree at

Bodhgaya with new resolve to understand the nature of suffering

Some Buddhist accounts present this as time when demons assailed

Siddhartha, trying to defeat him in his efforts at insight

Demon Mara tests Siddhartha

Three temptations

1. There’s trouble at home

2. Voluptuous women dance around him

3. Mara summons host of demons

Enlightenment and Teaching *

Siddhartha, sitting unperturbed under the Bodhi tree, finally gains

insight into the nature of suffering and becomes the Buddha, i.e., the

Enlightened One

With his new insight, the Buddha set out to instruct others

Encountering ascetics at Deer Park near Benares, the Buddha

began what would become a forty-five career as a teacher

Bodhgaya, India

Fire Sermon

Delivered as his second sermon

Explains the Four Noble Truths

Nirvana, a state of “No-being” beyond all

desire

Becomes the Buddha, the Enlightened One

The Buddha Addressing Monks at Sarnath

Boon: A Philosophical System

Buddha preaches/teaches

Caste system is abandoned in the sangha

Arhats (disciples) begin to missionize

Monasteries proliferate in India

Women are allowed to enter the order

Lives for another 45 years, respected for his wisdom and

compassion

Teachings

Four Noble Truths

The Middle Way

The Noble Eightfold Path

Nirvana

No individual soul (no self to be reborn)

No Creator God

Four Noble Truths

Fundamental to the Buddha’s teachings is the doctrine of

the Four Noble Truths:

all life is characterized by suffering

suffering is the result of or misguided desire (attachment)

to eliminate misguided desire is to eliminate suffering

(detachment)

the method for eliminating suffering is the “Eightfold Path”

Middle Way *

The Buddha had known two extremes of religious practice

the worldly rituals of Hinduism

the extreme privation of asceticism

He posited a compromise between these two as the appropriate

stance for religious practice

Noble Eightfold Path

Right view: correct insight into the nature of suffering

Right aim: correct resolve in overcoming suffering

Right speech: truthful speech that reflects Buddhist knowledge

Right action: ethical behavior and discipline

Right living: a livelihood that isn’t in conflict with Buddhist ethical

commitments

Right effort: disciplining the mind

Right mindfulness: remaining focused on appropriate understandings

of self and suffering

Right concentration: progression through successive stages of insight

NIRVANA

Extinction

Cessation of consciousness

Bliss

Release from the cycle of existence

Psychological state

State of mind

NOT heaven

Samsara, Karma *

The Buddha agreed with samsara only in the fact that birth followed

death. Release from suffering was achieved through the Four Noble

Truths.

The Buddha reinterpreted karma to focus particularly on the states of

mind of the individual. Grasping, desires and intentions bind humans

to an impermanent world.

When these things cease, humans pass over to Nirvana.

KARMA – Buddhist view

Primarily psychological

Grasping, desires and intentions bind the

psychological processes

There is a consequence for every thought and

deed

Impulses from an individual’s life carry over into

another life. (yet, there is no self to be reborn)

Skandhas *

There is no permanent self rather it is the appearance of self

generated by skandhas

Senses

mind

perceptions

impulses

consciousness

As opposed to Hindu thought, Buddha taught that there was no

eternal self that continues through reincarnation.

Those who seek permanence suffer for no self exists.

Regarding Metaphysical Questions *

The Buddha disregarded broader metaphysical questions, remaining

focused instead on the practical concerns of suffering and its

alleviation

No creator god

Buddhist Scripture

Extensive writings exist that pertain to a variety of understandings of

the Buddha’s life and teachings

Tripitaka, or “three-fold basket,” is an early set of scriptures

composed in Pali

rules for Buddhist monks

collections of what are regarded as the Buddha’s sayings, in

addition to stories, poems and songs about the Buddha and what

some regard as the Buddha’s former lives

Further systematic development of ideas

Buddhist Scripture (cont.)

Following the Buddha’s death, some accounts describe the gathering

of his followers in a series of councils to decide controversies that

had arisen

First council shortly after the death of the Buddha, establishing

the Tripitika

Second and third council a hundred years later to settle questions

regarding rules for monks and questions of orthodoxy.

Councils continued to be held to decide on points of faith and

practice.

Sects develop - Two Major Vehicles *

One of the splits that developed among Buddhists was between two

major traditions

Theravada Buddhists regarded the Buddha as an exemplary

human being who provided a model for ultimate religious

transformation through self-application

Devotees focus on monastic life

Maitreya, the Buddha to come

Salvation is through dedicated self-effort rather than intervention

of deity.

Two Major Vehicles cont’d *

Mahayana Buddhists regarded the Buddha in more cosmic, god-

like terms. Furthermore, human beings were regarded as aided in

their spiritual development and well-being by bodhisattvas,

beings who - though capable of Nirvana - remained active in the

world out of compassion for the suffering of others

Believe in liberated heavenly beings who assist humans–

bodhisattvas

Salvation is not solely a matter of personal discipline but is

assisted by various deities.

Conversion of Asoka – 3rd century BCE

Northern Indian ruler devoted to conquest

Attracted to Buddhist teachings

Abandoned warfare and built temples

Sent missionaries throughout India, to Asia, Africa, Europe and Sri

Lanka, Burma

Buddhism enters China, Korea, Japan and Tibet *

By 1st century BCE, Mahayana and Theravada

sects had entered China

From Korea, Buddhism spread to Japan in 6th - 8th

centuries CE

14th century: political implications: Mongol chieftain

awarded Tibet to the Dalai Lama

Buddhism in China

Mahayana Buddhism developed in new directions in imperial China

Tian Tai attempted to consolidate seemingly conflicting Buddhist

doctrines into a single system that recognized one scripture, the

Lotus Sutra, as the pinnacle and clearest exposition of Buddhist

thought.

Hua Yen, like Tian Tai, attempted to consolidate all Buddhist

teachings; this school, however, placed the Flower Garland Sutra

at the pinnacle of Buddhist doctrines. It emphasized the

interpenetration of all things.

Buddhism in China (cont.) *

Jingtu or Pure Land Buddhism posited that the bodhisattva

Amitabha would compassionately intervene in the lives of human

beings and transport them after death to a paradise, or Pure Land

Chan, brought to China from India by Bodhidharma, emphasized

the practice of meditation in the achievement of enlightenment

Guanyin (Kwan Yin), Goddess of Mercy

Bodhisattva who assists Amitabha in Chinese Pure

Land doctrine

Madonna of the East

Carries a vial of compassion which she pours on

the world (to aid in the elimination of suffering)

Buddhism in Tibet

In seventh century CE, Tibetan ruler Srong Tsan Gampo married two

Buddhist wives from abroad, bringing Buddhism into Tibet for the first time

In the following century, Indian Buddhist teacher Shantarakshita brought

Buddhism to Tibet in a more systematic fashion

Occult and tantric forms of Buddhism prevailed in Tibet; various schools

emerged, including:

Nyingmapa, old-school Buddhists who embraced trantic practices found

in Hinduism

Gelugpa, protest movement against Nyingmapa’s laxity and sexual

abuses. Advocated celibacy and vegetarianism.

Gelugpa lama seen as reincarnated shortly after death. Elaborate

search rituals results in new lama.

The Present Dalai Lama

The Dalai Lama is a part of the Gelugpa lineage of Tibetan

Buddhism.

Buddhism in the West

In addition to waves of Asian migration to the U.S. beginning in the

nineteenth century, non-Asians have also taken an interest in

Buddhism - particularly during the 1960s.

Nichiren Shoshu Sokagakkai had been an example of organized

forays by Buddhists into America. Similar to its counterpart in Japan.

Salvation through chanting

Today, a wide range of Buddhist traditions that developed throughout

Asia are evidenced in the American landscape

Worldview

Absolute – belief in gods was not essential to release from suffering.

Theravadins deny deities but Mahayanists believe they are essential.

World – alleviation of suffering meant detachment from the world.

The problem for humans was suffering produced by ignorance of the

impermanence of the world. The solution was knowledge using the

Four Noble Truths.

There was no life after death, though something carries over.

Worldview

Community ethics includes the symbiotic relationship between

monastics and laity; the latter are expected to abstain from

theft

intoxication

inappropriate speech

injury to others

A strong concern for an end-time of history is not widespread in

Buddhist materials, although some Mahayana Buddhists anticipate

the appearance of the next Buddha to incarnate: Maitreya

Worldview (cont.)

The eight-spoked wheel is a symbol used to suggest the Noble

Eightfold Path

Some Buddhist laity recite a vow of refuge in three things:

the Buddha

the Dharma, i.e., Buddhist teachings

the Sangha, i.e., the community of Buddhists (or, more

specifically, monks and nuns)

In some parts of Asia, young laymen take on the role of a Buddhist

monk for a finite period of time

Worldview (cont.)

Buddhism, in a wide variety of environments, has coexisted with

other forms of religious practice; it has even elicited an interest in

active dialogue and engagement, as was pursued by the late

Catholic monk Thomas Merton

Women and Buddhism

Although Mahayana Buddhism has allowed for the ordination of

women as nuns, they’ve held a second-class status relative to

monks

non-Asian women who have converted to Buddhism, such as

Tsultrim Allione and Jiyu Kennett Roshi, have introduced innovations

in the possible roles for women leaders in Buddhism