Buddhism

Key facts 
Turths- principles of reality - presence mapped on to rality those ideas taken from texts 2000-500BC 
Today going to look @ ideas that characterised Indian subcontinent Buddhism- missionary religion sought to get people to follow it.

Buddha's material (sources)

Buddha's own teachings recorded v quickly after his life
First council v soon after he died- these monks from their memory recited these teachnings- these teachings put into books- bakets pitakas 
Vinayas monistic rules taught on specific occasions of transgression
As they disciplined life around him- those rules continued 2b followed by monks & nuns

Abdhidhamma (beginnings of truth)
Upanishads- sankript language unique

Brahmans & ksatriyas (high casts) sankript already high language 

Sources

•Upaniṣads (various) •Pāli Tripiṭaka •Bhagavad Gītā •Visuddhimagga and Bodhicaryāvatāra •Hind Swaraj or Indian Home Rule; and •Peace and Ethics

Characteristics

• multiple authors • composed over long stretches of time • composed in multiple genres (including narrative, dialogue, and poetry)

These represent a fraction of the rich tradition of Hindu and Buddhist writing across three thousand years.

 Buddhism -

begins Buddha c 500 bcs

begins with region of northenr India

Thervada spread through SE Asia

Mahaan spread throughout Tibet, Chinas, Korea and Japan

Chracterisied by diversity and cmplexitiy 

Three baskets (piṭakas):

•Suttas: contextualized teaching of doctrines •Vinaya: monastic rules taught on the specific occasions of transgressions •Abhidhamma: analytic description of the constituent features of existence: thoughts, feelings, sensory functions, etc.

Characteristics

• composed in Pāli and transmitted orally • composed over many centuries: 500-200 BCE, systematized at two ‘Councils’ (5-4th c BCE)

 • Buddha (to wake, to know, to understand: there are several Buddhas, not just one) • Shakyamuni (the sage from the tribe of the Sakyas) • Gotama (family name); this is also a name for sages in the Upanisadic literature (Uddalaka Aruni is sometimes known as Guatama)  • Siddhartha (he who has achieved his goal; this name is only used in later texts) • Tathagata (tathaa gata - one who has gone; (tathaa aagata - one who has come thus, arrived); (tatha aagata - one who has come to the truth) • Bhagavad – Lord, Blessed One (this is how he is most referred to in the Pali Canon) several names show their description of the Buddha 

•descent froma celestial realm, the Tusita heaven • mother dreams of elephant • Brahmins interpret dream • birth out of mother’s side • announcement of destiny • life of luxury in palace • four sights • years of wandering •enlightenment under the banyan tree • years of teaching • final nirvana

India thought teachers anon - but what they teach important 
Deliberate ideas content phil> important than Buddha
Another model -> Buddhas life > important than what he's teaching
Biographical narrative begins India -> Buddha
In this case- idea is Buddha when he says this is inconsistent with that- should take Buddha seriously because he is awakened
- capacitiy to understand life improved -? born through many Brahmins- interpret dream divine- whte elephant
Crucial part of life- Buddha came out of extraordinary way- father made him live life of luxury- not exposed- lived in palace
For 1st time he saw ill, aged, corpse, old (FOUR SIGHTS)
.... renounces everything - years of wandering, going to diff teachers -> asking them everyday 

The Four Noble Truths

Summary of the first teaching: The Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta – ‘The Discourse That Sets Turning the Wheel of Dhamma’

-Life is suffering

Birth is suffering, aging is suffering, illness is suffering, death is suffering; union with what

is displeasing is suffering; separation from what is pleasing is suffering; not to get what

one wants is suffering; clinging to the person made up of the five aggregates is suffering

-Craving is the cause of suffering

It leads to re-becoming, accompanied by delight and lust, seeking delight here and there; that is, craving for sensual pleasures, craving for becoming, craving for disbecoming.

-The cessation of craving is the cessation of suffering; this is release

It is the remainderless fading away and cessation of that same craving, the giving up and

relinquishing of it, freedom from it, non-reliance on it.

-Release is attained through the Eight-Fold path

Right view, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, concentration

The Buddha's life story 
Core of teaching- teaching of the Fourt noble truths- insight into Buddha's beleifs v important
Sets world- truthful ethics
Dhamma- order- systematically correct way of living -> ethics/ truth life is suffering.

Craving (desparate working) is the cause of suffering.

The cessation of craving is the cessation of suffering. 

REAL EASE 

Yasmin Moghahed- hedonistic principle, we always wnat more- lfie is upgrades, new car new job, never satisfied.. studies show that someone who earns 50k and 500k will have the same levels of happiness 

Liberation, freedom from this suffering = nirvana 
Even the good things have to go away -> that is suffering.. not wanting them to go aay- the sense of loss and sadnessabout things not being enternal 
release attained through eight fold path. 

Life is like a candle, always burning wanting - nirvana literally means to put out- putting out the fame.... like the lotus flower needs the water to survive yet it does not drown.. floats on the water- does not become consumed 

This notion of suffering = dhukka sorrow, stress, v powerful cluster of ideas.

In English suffering has narrow sense- should think of suffering as broader sense - craving, desire, have gap between what you want and don't have. (Capitalism?) (Consumerism?)
''sana' literally means thirst - urgent( accompanied by desire, lust, all the time you want things urgent way) - immediacy 
Problem is not how life plays out, it is the relationship we have with life that is important. 

If we stop this toxi relationship with life and free ourselves then we are good ^_^ xxxxx

Not right to think Buddha said put up with things 
relationship ----> you 

dukkha = suffering 
annicas = impermanence 
anatta (anatman) = no self 
challenge to upanishad world view
brahman - to grow- foundation- everything
impermanence- decay all the time nothing fixed 
Upanishads thought abotut ultimate realty- world fixed 
(insert graph). 

‘anicca’: impermanence

Be mindful of impermanence to end conceit. When impermanence is understood it is also understood that none of this is self. Understanding not-self uproots conceit, uproots ‘I’-making. When fully established, release is complete.” (AnguttaraNikaya 9.1)

“Impermanent are all conditioned things. Decay is relentless. Work diligently for your own understanding.” (DighaNikaya 16)

anicca - impermanence- when impermanence is understood you also understand none of this is self. 

body, conscousness - impermanent 

When this is, that is; This arising, that arises; When this is not, that is not; This ceasing, that ceases. (Majjhima Nikāya)

1) ignorance (avijjā)
2) activities (saṅkhāra)
3) consciousness (viññāṇa)
4) name and form (nāma-rūpa)
5) six sense organs (saḷāyatana)
6) contact (phassa):
7) sensation (vedanā)
8) craving (taṇhā)
9) grasping (upādāna)
10) becoming (bhāva)
11) birth (jāti)
12) decay and death (jarā-maraṇa)

Explain your craving under not understanding where the craving comes from- look at the circle -> O  everything explains itself, no place to search for a deeper priciple- explains everything - world impermanent. 

anatta’: non-self

Are body...feeling, recognition...volition...conscious awareness permanent or impermanent? ‘Impermanent, lord.’ But is something that is impermanent painful or painless? ‘Painful, lord.’ But is it fitting to regard something that is painful, whose nature is to change, as “this is mine, I am this, this is my self”? ‘Certainly not, lord.’ Therefore, monks, all...[these] whether gross or subtle, inferior or refined, far or noear, should be seen...as it really is, as “this is not mine, I am not this, this is not my self”.
Majjhima Nikāya i.138-9; 232-3

'anatta' - 'this is not mine, I am not this, this is not my self' 

The five aggregates are used to describe the components that you classify as making up the self. 

The five aggregates 
Definition: anaylsis personal experience and view on cognition (awareness) from Buddhist perspective.

- Porvides logical and thorough approach understand Universal truth of not self 

- self is the convenient term 4 physical and mental experiences- analyse 5 aggregates. 

called aggragates as work together to produce a mental being. 

1. form/body (rūpa): the material aspect of existence; earth, water, fire and wind (flesh, blood, bones, etc).

2. feeling (vedanā): emotions and feelings; the general impressions- v important fo cravings- of any experience: pleasant, unpleasant, happiness, unhappiness, indifference

3. recognition (saṃjña): the processing of sensory and mental objects; connecting thoughts with feelings: the smell of a flower; the sound of someone’s voice

4. constructing activities, mental volitions (saṅkhāra): thoughts, ideas, opinions, mental habits

5. self-consciousness/conscious awareness (viññāṇa): flow of thoughts; stream of acts of cognition 

These are not my self 

THerefore 'my self' is something more fundamental/basic
None of these things stable -> alll part of state of dukkha/suffering

There, there is no self.

Nothing essential - the self is made up of the 5 aggregates- 5 aggregates give you memories- v important- this makes you beleive that you are experiencng the world, your physical experiences through the world makes you beleive that you have an embodied self. 

Once you pick these things apart there isno essence of a self. 

1) material form 
All material factors existence- body

2) Feelings- three basic types , pleasant, painful natural.

3) Perception - five sense  - grasping distinguishing quality, objects

4) Mnetal formation- freewill/acts, unwholesome actions- greed hatred 
wholesome actions- kindness, generosity 

5) Conscousness - general awareness of objects, body, mind, nose, ear , eye tongue 

All five aggegaes depend on each other and can change- not permanent. whatever we identify ourselves with, whatever we take 2b 'I' or myself- found within these five aggregates.

Fully understand five aggregates = see them as they are  'this is not me, I am not that, this is not my self.' 

Just as, with an assemblage of parts, the word “chariot” is used,

so when the aggregates are present, there is the convention

to call “a being”.

It is only suffering that comes to be, suffering that stands and

falls away. Nothing but suffering ceases. (Saṃyutta Nikāya I.135)

In short, five clinging aggregates are dukkha - it is the clinging - clingim to our body, what are feelings are, that makes everything. thats happening to you, suffering.

The buddha says once you pull apart the chariot - no chariot. 

The upanishads would say the controller of the chariot is you and the chariot is you.

Wisdom (paññā)
1) Right understanding: relates to karma and rebirth; an understanding of the four noble truths
2) Right intention: desirelessness, friendliness, compassion

Conduct (sīla)

3) Right speech: refraining from false speech, refraining from divisive speech, refraining from hurtful speech, refraining from idle chatter
4) Right action: refraining from harming living beings, refraining from taking what is not given, refraining from sexual misconduct
5) Right livelihood: avoiding ways of making a living which can cause suffering: occupations based on trickery or greed; trading in weapons, living beings, meal, alcohol or poison

Meditation (samādhi)6) Right effort: to prevent unarisen unwholesome states, to abandon arisen unwholesome states, to arouse unarisen wholesome states, to develop arisen wholesome states

7) Right mindfulness: practicing a state of awareness of mental and physical phenomena; contemplation of body, contemplation of feeling, contemplation of mind, contemplation of dharma
8) Right concentration (samādhi): practicing the four dhyānas

The Buddha’s teachings as philosophy

•analysis of our existential condition         The  way our reality is to be understood, without recourse to a
presupposed first principle that explains everything else •how we are to understand ourselves as persons
•teachings to be based on observations about the human condition ee

The eight fold path- constructive helps you get rid off hedonism - 

Upanishads said is you kept on followng path- become teacher

Buddha doesnt challenge karma & rebrth 

Need to have right intention - contained gita

When you interact with people should be mindful at all times

Doing this stuff- gives you cognitive grasp- how we live life- range of ways to this life....

• authority of the Buddha is based on his enlightenment experience  • the life of the Buddha contains a number of miraculous events, with the interventions of gods and demigods • the Buddha’s story is an extended narrative that puts the events of this world into a cosmic time-frame and gives them mythic meaning •his teachings are carefully codified and constructed into a massive canon of doctrine, narrative and interpretation •the teachings are oriented to the attainment of an ultimate state for all living beings

•offers codes and precepts concerning how to live a meaningful life • offers an elaborate ethics of how to think and be oriented towards others • uses dialogue to explore relations with other groups