buddhism, confucianism and shintoism

BUDDHISM, CONFUCIANISM and SHINTOISM

What is Buddhism?• Buddhism is a spiritual tradition that focuses on personal spiritual development and the

attainment of a deep insight into the true nature of life.

• Buddhism is 2,500 years old

• There are 376 million followers worldwide.

• Buddhism arose as a result of Siddhartha Gautama's quest for Enlightenment in around the 6th Century BC

• There is no belief in a personal God. It is not centred on the relationship between humanity and God

• Buddhists believe that nothing is fixed or permanent - change is always possible

• The two main Buddhist sects are Theravada Buddhism and Mahayana Buddhism, but there are many more

• Buddhists can worship both at home or at a temple

• The path to Enlightenment is through the practice and development of morality, meditation and wisdom.

The Buddha ‘ Awakened one’Siddhartha Gautama - The Buddha

By finding the path to Enlightenment, Siddhartha was led from the pain of suffering and rebirth towards the path of Enlightenment and became known as the Buddha or 'awakened one'.

A. A life of luxuryB. Discovering cruel realityC. Becoming a holy manD. A life of self-denialE. The middle wayF. Enlightenment

The Teacher

BELIEFS

The Four Noble Truths

"I teach suffering, its origin, cessation and path. That's all I teach", declared the Buddha 2500 years ago.

The truth of suffering (Dukkha)The truth of the origin of suffering (Samudāya)The truth of the cessation of suffering (Nirodha)The truth of the path to the cessation of suffering (Magga)

The truth of suffering (Dukkha)

• Forms: old age, sickness and death

• Life is not ideal: it frequently fails to live up to our expectations.

• Pleasure does not last; or if it does, it becomes monotonous.

• Truth of suffering: Even when we are not suffering from outward causes like illness or bereavement, we are unfulfilled, unsatisfied.

BELIEFS


The truth of the origin of suffering (Samudāya)

Buddha claimed to have found the cause of all suffering - and it is much more deeply rooted than our immediate worries.Root of all suffering is desire, tanhā.

(Language note: Tanhā is a term in Pali, the language of the Buddhist scriptures, that specifically means craving or misplaced desire. Buddhists recognise that there can be positive desires, such as desire for enlightenment and good wishes for others. A neutral term for such desires is chanda.)

BELIEFS


The truth of the origin of suffering (Samudāya)

Three Roots of Evil, or the Three Fires, or the Three Poisons.

These are the three ultimate causes of suffering:

• Greed and desire, represented in art by a rooster

• Ignorance or delusion, represented by a pig

• Hatred and destructive urges, represented by a snake

BELIEFS


The truth of the origin of suffering (Samudāya)The Fire Sermon

“Bhikkhus, all is burning. And what is the all that is burning?

The eye is burning, forms are burning, eye-consciousness is burning, eye-contact is burning, also whatever is felt as pleasant or painful or neither-painful-nor-pleasant that arises with eye-contact for its indispensable condition, that too is burning. Burning with what? Burning with the fire of lust, with the fire of hate, with the fire of delusion. I say it is burning with birth, aging and death, with sorrows, with lamentations, with pains, with griefs, with despairs.”

BELIEFS


The truth of the cessation of suffering (Nirodha)

The Buddha taught that the way to extinguish desire, which causes suffering, is to liberate oneself from attachment.

“Bhikkhus, when a noble follower who has heard (the truth) sees thus, he finds estrangement in the eye, finds estrangement in forms, finds estrangement in eye-consciousness, finds estrangement in eye-contact, and whatever is felt as pleasant or painful or neither-painful- nor-pleasant that arises with eye-contact for its indispensable condition, in that too he finds estrangement.”

BELIEFS


The truth of the cessation of suffering (Nirodha)• Nirvana means extinguishing. Attaining nirvana - reaching enlightenment -

means extinguishing the three fires of greed, delusion and hatred.

• Someone who has attained enlightenment is filled with compassion for all living things.

“When he finds estrangement, passion fades out. With the fading of passion, he is liberated. When liberated, there is knowledge that he is liberated. He understands: 'Birth is exhausted, the holy life has been lived out, what can be done is done, of this there is no more beyond.”

• After death an enlightened person is liberated from the cycle of rebirth, but Buddhism gives no definite answers as to what happens next.

BELIEFS


The truth of the path to the cessation of suffering (Magga)

The final Noble Truth is the Buddha's prescription for the end of suffering. This is a set of principles called the Eightfold Path.

The Eightfold Path is also called the Middle Way: it avoids both indugence and severe asceticism, neither of which the Buddha had found helpful in his search for enlightenment.

BELIEFS



Eightfold Path

Right Understanding - Sammā ditthi

Accepting Buddhist teachings. (The Buddha never intended his followers to believe his teachings blindly, but to practise them and judge for themselves whether they were true.)

BELIEFS



Eightfold Path

Right Intention - Sammā san̄kappaA commitment to cultivate the right attitudes.

Right Speech - Sammā vācāSpeaking truthfully, avoiding slander, gossip and abusive speech.

Right Action - Sammā kammantaBehaving peacefully and harmoniously; refraining from stealing, killing and overindulgence in sensual pleasure.

BELIEFS



Eightfold Path

Right Livelihood - Sammā ājīvaAvoiding making a living in ways that cause harm, such as exploiting people or killing animals, or trading in intoxicants or weapons.

Right Effort - Sammā vāyāmaCultivating positive states of mind; freeing oneself from evil and unwholesome states and preventing them arising in future.

BELIEFS



Right Mindfulness - Sammā satiDeveloping awareness of the body, sensations, feelings and states of mind.

Right Concentration - Sammā samādhiDeveloping the mental focus necessary for this awareness.

BELIEFS


The Bhavachakra, the Wheel of Life or Wheel of Becoming, is a mandala - a complex picture representing the Buddhist view of the universe.

To Buddhists, existence is a cycle of life, death, rebirth and suffering that they seek to escape altogether.

Yama The frightening figure holding the wheel is Yama, the Lord of Death or Monster of Impermanence. He has three eyes and wears a crown of skulls.

Yama symbolises the impermanence of everything. The beings he holds are trapped in eternal suffering by their ignorance of the nature of the universe. Buddhism teaches that death is not the end and is not to be feared.

The Three Fires

In the middle of the Wheel are the three causes of all suffering. These are known as the Three Fires: they are greed, ignorance and hatred, represented by a rooster, a pig and a snake. They are shown linked together, biting each other's tails, reinforcing each other.

The realm of humans

Buddhists consider being born as a human to be the most fortunate state. Because they are not suffering as heavily as those in the other realms, yet are not in lengthy bliss like the gods, humans have the best chance of enlightenment.

The realm of gods (and Titans) The gods, or devas, live in a state of bliss in the realm of heaven. Later sources subdivide this into 26 levels of increasing happiness. The gods live for a long time, but they too will die. Only enlightenment is a complete release.

At the bottom are the angry gods, called Titans or asuras, who hate the devas. Later sources often show these in a realm of their own.

The realm of hungry ghosts Lingering around the edges of the mortal realm, trapped by their overattachment to the world, the hungry ghosts, or pretas, are in the grip of their unfulfilled desires. This is symbolised by their huge bellies and tiny mouths that can never satisfy their appetites.

The realm of animals

Animals are used by humans and lack the necessary awareness to become enlightened. Buddhists do not believe it is a good thing to be reborn as an animal, although they believe in treating every living thing with loving kindness.

Hell At the bottom is the hell realm. People here are horribly tortured in many creative ways, but not for ever - only until their bad karma is worked off.

Dependent origination

The twelve stages of dependent origination are shown around the rim. They are:

1. Ignorance: a blind man; 2. Willed action: a potter; 3. Conditioned consciousness: a

restless monkey; 4. Form and existence: a boat; 5. Senses: windows of a house; 6. Sense-impressions: two lovers;7. Sensation: an arrow in the eye; 8. Craving: a man drinking; 9. Attachment: clinging to a fruit

tree; 10.Becoming: a pregnant woman; 11.Birth; 12.Old age, death

Buddha

In the top right corner, Buddha is showing the way. He is outside the wheel to show that he has escaped the cycle of life and death. Buddha is pointing to Yama and the wheel to teach his followers the true nature of existence.

The Dalai Lama

The Dalai Lama is the head monk of Tibetan Buddhism and traditionally has been responsible for the governing of Tibet, until the Chinese government took control in 1959.

According to Buddhist belief, the current Dalai Lama is a reincarnation of a past lama who decided to be reborn again to continue his important work, instead of moving on from the wheel of life. A person who decides to be continually reborn is known as tulku.

Buddhists believe that the first tulku in this reincarnation was Gedun Drub, who lived from 1391-1474 and the second was Gendun Gyatso.However, the name Dalai Lama, meaning Ocean of Wisdom, was not conferred until the third reincarnation in the form of Sonam Gyatso in 1578.

The current Dalai Lama is Tenzin Gyatso.

The Dalai Lama

The essence of Shinto is the Japanese devotion to invisible spiritual beings and powers called kami, to shrines, and to various rituals.

Shinto is not a way of explaining the world. What matters are rituals that enable human beings to communicate with kami.

Visible and invisible worlds

Shinto does distinguish between the visible world (kenkai) and the invisible world (yukai), but the invisible world is regarded as in some way an extension of the everyday world, and not a separate realm.

Beliefs about the universe

• Shinto does not split the universe into a natural physical world and a supernatural transcendent world. It regards everything as part of a single unified creation.

• Shinto also does not make the Western division between body and spirit - even spirit beings exist in the same world as human beings.

Kami and the universe

• Kami provide a mechanism through which the Japanese are able to regard the whole natural world as being both sacred and material.

• Kami include gods and spirit beings, but also include many other things that are revered for the powers that they possess. Oceans and mountains are kami, so are storms and earthquakes.

The name Shinto comes from Chinese characters for Shen ('divine being'), and Tao ('way') and means 'Way of the Spirits'.

• Shrine visiting and taking part in festivals play a great part in binding local communities together.

• Shrine visiting at New Year is the most popular shared national event in Japan.

• Because Shinto is focused on the land of Japan it is clearly an ethnic religion. Therefore Shinto is little interested in missionary work, and rarely practiced outside its country of origin.

• Shinto sees human beings as basically good and has no concept of original sin, or of humanity as 'fallen'.

• Everything, including the spiritual, is experienced as part of this world. Shinto has no place for any transcendental other world.

• Shinto has no canonical scriptures.

• Shinto teaches important ethical principles but has no commandments.

• Shinto has no founder.

• Shinto has no God.

• Shinto does not require adherents to follow it as their only religion.

Purity

Purity is at the heart of Shinto's understanding of good and evil.

Impurity in Shinto refers to anything which separates us from kami, and from musubi, the creative and harmonising power.

The things which make us impure are tsumi - pollution or sin.

“..in the West we have the saying that 'cleanliness is next to godliness' but the Japanese conception may be closer to 'cleanliness is not distinct from godliness.”

-Brandon Toropov and Luke Buckles O.P.

Human beings are born pure

• Shinto does not accept that human beings are born bad or impure; in fact Shinto states that humans are born pure, and sharing in the divine soul.

• Badness, impurity or sin are things that come later in life, and that can usually be got rid of by simple cleansing or purifying rituals.

Harae - purification ritesOne of the simplest purifications is the rinsing of face and hands with pure water in the temizu ritual at the start of a shrine visit in order to make the visitor pure enough to approach the kami.

1. Haraigushi

This is a purification wand, and consists of a stick with streamers of white paper or flax fastened to one end. It is waved by a priest over the person, place or object to be purified.

2. Misogi

This term covers purification rituals in general, or purification rituals using water to free body and mind from pollution.

3. Oharae

This is the "ceremony of great purification". It is a special purification ritual that is used to remove sin and pollution from a large group.

The ritual is performed at the end of June and December in the Imperial Household and at other shrines in order to purify the whole population.

Oharae can also be performed as a year-end purification ritual for companies, or on certain occasions such as the aftermath of a disaster.

4. Shubatsu

Shubatsu is a purification ritual in which salt is sprinkled on priests or worshippers, or on the ground to purify it.

One notable use of salt in purification is found in Sumo wrestling when the fighters sprinkle salt around the ring to purify it.

Shinto holy books

The holy books of Shinto are the Kojiki or 'Records of Ancient Matters' (712 CE) and the Nihon-gi or 'Chronicles of Japan' (720 CE).

Moral purpose

The myths teach a number of truths:

• Japan and its people are chosen and special to the gods (kami)

• the kami have many qualities in common with human beings

• the kami are very different from God in the Western sense

• the kami have a duty to look after humanity• humanity should look after the kami

• purity and purification are important if humanity is to thrive

• purification is a creative as well as a cleansing act

• death is the ultimate impurity

Hokusai's famous print, "The Great Wave of Kanagawa":

It's a religious image, representing the very different approach that Shintoism has towards nature, compared with Christianity. In Christianity, human beings are at the centre of nature: creation is for humanity, along with other creatures, and it's humanity's task to care for it. Hence, in part, the offence we feel when nature turns against us.

In Shintoism, nature is recognised as infinitely more powerful than humankind - as in the wave - and that humankind is in nature with the permission of the gods but with no particular concern from the gods.

CONFUCIANISM

• Confucius (or Kongzi, c. 551 to c. 479 BCE) is the recognized founder of Confucianism

• Confucianism/ Ru-jia doctrine or School of Literati as it is known by Western scholars.

• Confucianism was composed of a set of political and moral doctrines with the teachings of Confucius as its basis.

Overview

THE APPROACH & TEACHINGS OF CONFUCIUS

“We do not yet know how to serve man, how can we know about serving the spirits?

We don't know yet about life, how can we know about death?”

• Humanism is the central feature of Confucianism, which revolves almost entirely around…

issues related to the family, morals, and the role of the good ruler.

the need for benevolent and frugal rulers,

the importance of inner moral harmony and its direct connection with harmony in the physical world.

• Rulers and teachers, according to this view, are important models for society: a good government should rule by virtue and moral example rather than by punishment or force.

• Filial piety and ancestor worship, which are old traditional Chinese values, are also part of the key components of Confucian doctrine.

• Confucius believed in the perfectibility of all men and he was against the idea that some men are born superior to others.

• Confucius challenged this idea by saying that being morally superior had nothing to do with the blood, rather, it was a matter of character and personal development.

THE ORIGINS OF CONFUCIANISM

The attention of Confucius was attracted towards very practical considerations of this world rather than seeking consolation in otherworldly notions.

He decided to seek a solution for the challenges of his time, a way to cure a society which, nearly everyone agreed, was sick. These were considered by Confucius as inspiring models for a society, far more useful than supernatural beings or other metaphysical ideas.

CONFUCIANISM & THE STATEHan dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE) when Confucianism became the dominant political ideology and the Analects became known by that name.

Whenever Liu Bang identified a Confucian (an easy thing to do because they used to wear a very distinctive pointed hat), "immediately snatches the hat from the visitor’s head and pissed in it”.

Confucian school received the support of the Chinese rulers and gradually became the official state philosophy. (Emperor Wu)

"I suggest that the official histories, with the exception of the Memoirs of Qin, be all burnt, and that those who attempt to hide [other works] be forced to bring them to the authorities to be burnt." (Emperor Qin Shi Huang).

a collection of aphorisms, maxims and different anecdotes,

THE ANALECTS

Wealth and honour are what every man desires. But if they have been obtained in violation of moral principles, they must not be kept. Poverty and humble station are what every man dislikes. But if they can be avoided only in violation of moral principles, they must not be avoided. A superior man never abandons humanity even for the lapse of a single meal. In moments of haste, he acts according to it. In times of difficulty or confusion, he acts according to it. (Analects 4:5)

The superior man wants to be slow in word but diligent in action. (Analects 4:24)

I transmit but do not create. I believe in and the love of the ancients. I venture to compare myself to our old Peng. (Analects 7:1)

If a ruler sets himself right, he will be followed without his command. If he does not set himself right, even his command will not be obeyed. (Analects 13:6)

When Tzu kung asked about government, Confucius said: "Sufficient food, sufficient armament, and sufficient confidence of the people.” Tzu kung said, “Forced to give up one of these, which would you abandon first?” Confucius said, “I would abandon the armament.” Tzu kung said, “Forced to give up one of the remaining two, which would you abandon first?” Confucius said, “I would abandon food. There have been deaths from time immemorial, but no state can exist without the confidence of the people.” (Analects 12:7)

Water is one of the five elements of Chinese philosophy, along with wood, fire, earth, and metal. Water is viewed as a life source, which likely stems from its importance in the natural world and for sustaining life. China’s east coast contain 9,000 miles of shoreline and its home to two of the world’s six largest rivers, the Yangtze, which is the third largest, and the Yellow, which is the 6th.Water

There are several Chinese characters that can be translated as "scholar," but the "ru" character refers especially to the scholar Confucius, and by extension to Confucianism in general. Confucianism is also known as "Ruism."

The yin yang symbol is common in many kinds of Chinese thought. It is especially prominent in Taoism, but it is also used in Confucianism. There are variations to its meaning depending the school of Chinese thought, but in general, the circle represents a whole, while the halves and dots depict opposites, interactions, or balance.

Visual representations of Confucius are common in Confucianism, and can be used to symbolize Confucianism in general.

buddhism, confucianism and shintoism

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