Buddhism“Everything that arises also passes away, so strive for what has not arisen.” - Buddha

Siddhartha Gautama566-486BCE or 484-404BCE

• Born in Kapilavatthu (near modern day Lumbini, on the border of Nepal and India)

• Siddhartha was a prince and his father a king (or feudal lord)

• Lived a sheltered life of luxury and wealth.

The Four Passing Sights• The intent of Gautama’s father was to shield him from

contact with old age, sickness, and death. But he was unsuccessful.

• Venturing outside the palace walls, Gautama first encountered an old man, then – on a second journey - a diseased person, on a third ride a corpse, and finally – on a fourth journey, a monk with a shaven head who had renounced the world in search of freedom.

• Gautama thereby came initially to know the conditions of old age, sickness, and death, and the possibility of transcending the suffering associated with these conditions of life.

Two Quests

The Ignoble Quest

The Noble Quest

The Ignoble Quest

A person who is liable to sickness,

sorrow, old age, and death attaches to

things liable to the same.

What things are like this?

Transient ThingsMaterial

Possessions

The Noble Quest

A person who is liable to sickness,

sorrow, old age, and death, having seen the danger in this, seeks

the unailing, sorrowless, unaging,

and deathless.

This unsurpassed escape from bondage is nibbana (nirvana).

Nibbana

• Literal Meaning: “to be blown out.” (Sanskrit: Nirvana).

• What is blown out?

Ignorance (Avijja)

Craving (Tanha)

Suffering (Dukkha)

Rebirth (Samsara)

Embarking upon the noble quest at age 29, Siddhartha Gautama began studying

meditational techniques under well-known teachers Alara Kalama and Uddaka

Ramaputta.

Mastering Meditation

• Under his gurus, Gautama experientially entered higher levels of consciousness as part of the discipline of raja yoga, first the level of consciousness called “no-thing-ness” and then the level of consciousness called “neither perception nor non-perception.”

• His gurus acknowledged in each case that, having achieved these higher states of consciousness, Gautama had realized the same truth as his gurus.

• “So you know the Dhamma [teaching] that I know, and I know the Dhamma that you know. As I am, so you are; as you are, so am I.” – Alara Kalama

Despite his meditation mastery, after many years Siddhartha still

felt unsatisfied.

“This dhamma (teaching) does not lead to aversion, nor to dispassion, nor

to cessation, nor to calmness, nor to higher knowledge, nor to awakening, nor to nibbana. . . .So I turned away from and abandoned this dhamma, having not attained enough by this

dhamma.”Buddha, Discourse on the Noble Quest

Siddhartha joined a group of ascetics and practiced

various forms of self-denial.

At times he ate only six grains of rice a day. He

nearly dies.

He thereby learned the futility of practicing self-

denial. He still felt unsatisfied.

• Gautama’s journey brings him to Gaya in northeast India, where he sits to meditate under a ficus tree (the Bo Tree) to meditate.

– Kama – god of desire – tempts Gautama with sensual pleasure.

– Mara – Lord of Death – subjects Gautama to physical threats, e.g., intense wind, rain, flaming rocks.

– Mara retreats after Gautama touches the earth and it trembles with a powerful earthquake.

• Red blossoms fall from the Bo Tree and Gautama has three realizations in the course of the night:

(1) His many past lives

(2) The law of karma linking all past lives

(3) The law of dependent arising:

“everything that arises also passes away.”• Gautama became the Buddha - the awakened one

“So – being myself liable to birth…old age…sickness…death…sorrow…impurity…, I attained nibbana…the

unborn…the unaging…the unailing…the deathless…the sorrowless…the morally pure, unsurpassed security from bondage. The knowledge and

vision arose in me: ‘My liberation is unshakable. This is the last birth.

There is now no rebirth.’” Buddha, Discourse on the Noble Quest

The Buddha taught his fundamental insights throughout the Ganges

Valley for the next 45 years.

1. Three Marks of ExistenceAnicca (Impermanence)

Anatta (No Self)Dukkha (Lack of Satisfaction)

2. The Four Noble Truths3. Nirvana and the Eightfold Path

Buddhist Traditions

The Three The Three SchoolsSchools of Buddhism of Buddhism

Theravada (South Asian Buddhism)

Mahayana (East Asian Buddhism)

Vajrayana (Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, Mongolia)

Three Principal Historical Periods

• 5th – 1st Century BCE: Early Indian Buddhism, origins of Theravada

• 1st Century CE: Mahayana emerges and spreads to Southeast and East Asia.

• 5th Century CE: Origin of Vajrayana and spread of Buddhism to the Himalayan region.

Exploring DukkhaSuffering or Lack of Satisfaction

“The Dart of Painful Feeling”

• Human persons experience two kinds of feelings: bodily feelings and mental feelings.

Unpleasant Bodily Feeling => Aversion => Painful Mental Feeling

• The painful “mental feeling” arises in the form of sorrow, lament, and grief, born out of aversion to painful bodily feeling. This is dukkka – suffering or lack of satisfaction. It is a mental response to what is unpleasant.

• This arises because delight in sensual pleasure is sought as the escape from unpleasant bodily feeling. “The uninstructed worldling does not know any escape from painful feeling other than sensual pleasure” (Bodi, p. 31).

Attachment and Detachment

• Pleasant and unpleasant bodily feelings are temporary – they arise and then pass away. Attachment to them, whether aversion to the unpleasant or craving for the pleasant, leads to dukkha (lack of satisfaction).

• The “instructed noble disciple,” by contrast, having understood the origin and passing away of bodily feelings, is not attached. There is no aversion. Hence, he does not experience the painful mental feeling and is thereby free from dukkha.

• Dukkha is thus born as a particular mental response to bodily sensation.

“Vicissitudes of Life”

• The world turns by eight conditions: gain/loss, fame/disrepute, praise/blame, pleasure/pain. Dualities.

• The uninstructed worldling does not understand that these conditions are inescapable and also impermanent (anicca). “He does not know them as they really are” (Bodi, p. 33).

• The uninstructed worldling becomes attached to the dualities: elated when he encounters gain, fame, praise, pleasure, and dejected when he encounters loss, disrepute, blame, and pain.

“Being thus involved in likes and dislikes, he will not be freed from birth, aging, and death, from sorrow, lamentation, pain, dejection, and despair; he will not be freed from suffering” (Bodi, p. 33)

“But, monks, when an instructed noble disciple comes upon gain, he reflects on it thus: ‘This gain that has come to me is impermanent (anicca), bound up with suffering (dukkha), subject to change.’ And so he will reflect when loss and so forth come upon him. He understands all these things as they really are. . . .”

“Thus he will not be elated by gain and dejected by loss; elated by fame and dejected by disrepute; elated by praise and dejected by blame; elated by pleasure and dejected by pain. Having given up likes and dislikes, he will be freed from birth, aging, and death, from sorrow, lamentation, pain, dejection, and despair; he will be freed from suffering (dukkha), I say” (Bodi, p. 33)

The Four Noble Truths

Suffering“Dukkha”

1. Life is dukkha - suffering or lack of satisfaction.

This is a general claim about a fundamental pattern in human life, not a claim that every moment is experienced as dukkha.

Attachment“Tanha”

2. The origin of suffering is attachment to or craving (tanha) for identity and permanence.

Craving + fact of impermanence = Dukkha.

Dukkha is rooted in the contradiction between (i) our wishes and expectations and (ii) the way the world actually is.

3. Non-attachment or the cessation of craving is the means of dissolving dukkha.

If craving for identity and permanence is the cause of suffering, remove the craving and you remove suffering.

DispassionOr

Non-Attachment

4. There is a path to non-attachment or cessation.

“The middle path” between excessive indulgence and excessive self-denial. This is called the eightfold path.

The Path to Cessation

The Eightfold Path

1. The Right View1. The Right View: Know the four noble truths.

2. The Right Intention2. The Right Intention: “Intention of renunciation, intention of non-ill will, intention of harmlessness.”

3. The Right Speech3. The Right Speech: “Abstinence from false speech, abstinence from malicious speech, abstinence from

harsh speech, abstinence from idle chatter.”

4. The Right Action4. The Right Action: “Abstinence from the destruction of life, abstinence from taking what is not given,

abstinence from sexual misconduct.”

6.6. The Right EffortThe Right Effort: Mentally striving for mastery over evil unwholesome thoughts, from which intentions, actions, and

living arise.

7.7. The Right MindfulnessThe Right Mindfulness: Lending attention to every state of body, mind, and feelings, and thereby experiencing the

origination and dissolution of states of body, mind, and feelings.

8.8. The Right ConcentrationThe Right Concentration: Penetrate deeper levels of consciousness through inward examination, passing from

inner security and happiness to complete equanimity beyond all dualities.

5. The Right Livelihood5. The Right Livelihood: Avoid occupations that harm other living beings.

The Eightfold path leads to the cultivation of six perfections:

Wisdom

Morality

Charity

Forbearance

Striving

Meditation