Introduction to Buddhism

• Lecture One ( 10th Jan.,2008)

• Dr. Robert C L Law• Buddhist Lodge of Laity

• January, 2008.

Not some existential questions

• Who am I ?

• Who are you ?

Much about this course• Why English ?• An outline of the basic teachings of

Buddhism• Common misunderstandings about

Buddhism• Apparent contradictions in the teachings of

different schools of Buddhism. • Buddhism in everyday life

Difficulties with Buddhism (I)

• Language – Problem with Classical Chinese translations of scriptures.

• Pali Sanskrit • Siddhattha Gotama Siddhartha Gautama• Nibbana Nirvana• Kamma Karma• Dukkha Dukkha

Difficulties with Buddhism (II)

• Language – Problem with Classical Chinese translations of scriptures.

• Buddhist doctrines --- e.g. no-self difficult to grasp .

• Doctrinal differences between various buddhist schools leading to confusion .

•

Course Outline • History of Buddhism and its development• Basic Doctrines : • Four Noble Truth ( 四 聖 諦 )• Five Aggregates ( 五 蘊 )• Three Dharma Seal ( 三 法 印 )• Dependent Origination ( 緣起法 )• Karma , Rebirth ( 業 , 輪迴 )• Buddhist Meditation

Brief history of Brief history of Buddhism in IndiaBuddhism in India• Buddhism originated in India. It not only played a p

redominant role at one time in India, but also spread to countries outside India. Nowadays, Buddhism is the world’s fourth largest religion -- it is estimated that about six per cent of the world’s population are Buddhists, making a total of 350 million followers .

• However, the number of Buddhists in India constitutes to only about 1% of its total population (99% is believers in Hinduism).

• .

Period Development

1 3000-600 BC

史前印度

Prehistory (3000-700 BC)

--Background to Buddhism

2 6th century BC The Buddha’s time

3 5th-4th century BC Early Buddhism 早期佛教 4 4th-3rd century BC Sectarian Buddhism部派佛教時期 5 3d century BC Fourth Council of Fourth Council of Aloka Cave and a and appearance of ppearance of

Theravada BuddhismTheravada Buddhism

6 1st century BC Fourth Council of of Kashmir and appearance of ppearance of Mahayana Buddhism大乘佛教

7 8th century AD Appearance of Appearance of Tartaric Buddhism 密乘 8 9th-12th century Buddhism lost its dominant position in India in the

record of ancient Chinese travellers

9 12th-13th century The disappearance of Buddhism佛教的衰微10

11 19th century-- Revival ?

2. Life of the Buddha

• The Buddha is a historical person. His personal name was Siddhattha, and family name Gotama. He lived in North India in the 6th century BC. His farther, Suddhodana, was the ruler of the kingdom of the Skyas (in modern Nepal). His mother was queen My.

The Life of the Buddha

• Born around 483 BC (?) in what is now Nepal

• Local community Sakyas ( thus Sakyamuni , the Sage of the Sakays) , a prince(?)

• Mythology : born from armpit ?

• virgin conception?

• have a son?

Luxurious life in palace

• The king had three royal palaces built for the prince. The first was built from perfumed wood. It was warm in the winter season. The second was built of cool marble, to be used during summer. The third was built of brick for the rainy season.

• To make life even more pleasant, the king created beautiful parks with lovely pools where swans and fish swam and lotus flowers bloomed.

Four sights

• In his youth he was distressed by unavoidable problems of human beings such as aging, illness, life and death and he deeply thought over such problems.

Sick personSick personOld manOld man

Dead bodyDead body

Wanding holy manWanding holy man

RENUNCIATION

• When he was confronted with the reality of life and the suffering of mankind, he decided to find the solution - the way out of this universal suffering. He left his kingdom and became an ascetic in search of truth at the age of 29.

Ascetic lifeSix years of rigorous ascetic practices

• He practised the most severe hardship, e.g. sleeping on a bed of thorns, eating only a grain of wheat and a sesame seed each day.

Meditation—key to his enlightenment

The Long Struggle• Finally, he sat under the Bodhi tree for forty-nine days. He was dete

rmined to discover the source of all pain and suffering in the world. • As the morning star appeared in the eastern sky, he became an

enlightened one, a Buddha. What he realized was Dependent Origination (Cause and effect) 緣起法 .

Enlightenment at Buddha-Gaya

• One evening, seated under the Bodhi tree, at Buddha-Gaya (near Gaya in modern Bihar), at the age of 35, Gotama became the ‘Enlightened One’. It means after fully understanding Dependent Origination and the Four Noble Truths, he became a wise person. Nothing could make him unhappy.

Helping suffering people

• From that day on, for 45 years, he taught all classes of men and women - kings and peasants, Brahmins and outcasts, bankers and beggars, holy men and robbers - without making the slightest distinction between them, and the way he preached was open to all men and women who were ready to understand and to follow it.

Significances of his life story1. Like tax, sickness/death is a fact of life that one

must face, sooner or later . The Buddha realised it at the age of 29 ( How about you ?)

2. Middle Path between sensory indulgence and extreme asceticism

3. Meditation/ Introspection---- key to enlightenment.

4. He taught for 45 years over an area of several hundred miles. Different people must have heard him differently.

Significance (Cont’d)• The Buddha was a human being like you and me. • He claimed no inspiration from any god or external power.

He attributed all his realization, attainments and achievements to human endeavour and human intelligence.

• Man is his own master, and he has the power to liberate himself from all bondage through his own effort and intelligence. The Buddha says, “You should do your work, for the Buddha only teaches the way”.

• The Buddha is only a teacher, who discovered and showed the Path to Liberation, Nibbana. We all need to tread the Path ourselves.

Brief history of Early Buddhism

1. The First Council –3 months after the Buddha passed away --- 500 monks gather to recite the teachings(sutta) and precepts (vinaya)

2. The Second Council– 100 years ,attended by 700 monks

rejection (?) of the Mhasangikas

3. The Third Council

• In the 3rd Century B.C. during the time of Emperor Asoka, the Third Council was held at Pataliputra under the patronage of Emperor Asoka about 200 -250 years after the Parinirvana of the Buddha.

•Reign of Indian Emperor Asoka (272-231) who converted and established the Buddha's Dharma on a national level for the first time in Buddhist history. •He ruled from Burma to Iran and from Nepal to South India

• (1) Main points of the Third Council: – At this Council the differences were not confined to the

Vinaya but were also connected with the differences of opinion concerning doctrines among the bhikkhus of different sects.

– At the end of this Council, the President of the Council, Moggaliputta Tissa, compiled a book called the KathavatthuKathavatthu 論事論事 refuting the heretical, false views and theories held by some sects. The teaching approved and accepted by this Council was known as TheravadaTheravada.

– The Abhidhamma Pitaka was included at this Council.

(2) Impact: --The modern Pali Tipitaka were now essentially complete.

The 4th Buddhist Council The 4th Buddhist Council of of KashmirKashmir After 250 BC, the Sarvastivadin (who had been rejected

by the 3rd council, according to the Theravada tradition) and the Dharmaguptaka schools became quite influential in northwestern India and Central Asia, up to the time of the Kushan Empire in the first centuries of the common era.

Main points:(1) The 4th Buddhist Council was held under royal patron of Ki

ng Kaniska around 100 AD in Kashmir. (2) Kanishka gathered 500 monks headed by Vasumitra, to compile

the vast commentary known as the Mahā-Vibhāshā ("Great Exegesis"), an extensive compendium and reference work on a portion of the Sarvāstivādin Abhidharma.

Usually associated with the risk of Mahayana Buddhism

Between the 1st century BCE to the 1st century CE, the two terms Mahayana( 大乘 ). and Hinayana ( 小乘 )appeared in the Saddharma Pundarika Sutra (or the Sutra of the Lotus of the Good Law) 妙法蓮花經 .

After the 1st century CE, the Mahayanists took a definite stand and only then the terms of Mahayana and Hinayana were introduced.

Appearance of the term “Mahayana”

We must not confuse Hinayana with Theravada because the terms are not synonymous.

Theravada Buddhism went to Sri Lanka during the 3rd century BCE when there was no Mahayana at all. Hinayana sects developed in India and had an existence independent of the form of Buddhism existing in Sri Lanka.

Today there is no Hinayana sect in existence anywhere in the world. Therefore, in 1950 the World Fellowship of Buddhists inaugurated in Colombo unanimously decided that the term Hinayana should be dropped when referring to Buddhism existing today in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Burma, Cambodia, Laos, etc.

Hinayana and Theravada

Formation of Mahayana Buddhism( 大乘彿教 )

About the 2nd century CE, Mahayana became clearly defined.

Nagarjuna —The "Second Buddha” Beginnings of Mahayana Buddhism (200 CE). Composition of Prajnaparamita literature.

Legend reports that Nagarjuna (ca.150-250 CE) was the person preordained by the Buddha to recover and explicate the Perfection of Wisdom texts. The first of these texts was the 'Perfection of Wisdom in 8,000 Lines'.

The Heart Sutra ( 心經 )

7. Beginning of tantric teaching (8th century) 密宗

• From around the 4th century CE, Vajrayana (Tantrayana) Buddhism started to develop in India as part of the Mahayana tradition.

• The central practices of tantra include visualizations intended to foster cognitive reorientation, the use of prayers (mantra) to Buddhas that are intended to facilitate the transformation of the meditator into a fully enlightened Buddha, and often elaborate rituals.

• It was introduced into Tibet during the 8th century.

Table for Buddhist Schools and Sects in India (5th-7th centuries CE)

Name of Chinese Pilgrim

Estimated Buddhist Schools

Faxian One orthodox School & 96 heretic schools in the middle Kingdom.

Xuanzang 18 orthodox schools

Yijing 4 schools & 18-sub sectsDivided into 4 groups of Nikayas

Northern School 北傳

Southern School南傳

Mahayana Buddhism

Theravada Buddhism

Chinese Buddhism漢語系佛教

Pali Buddhism巴利語系佛教

Tibetan Buddhism藏語系佛教

What Tongue did the Buddha speak?

• Sanskrit ---the official language for 2000 years

• Prakrits---- Local dialects--- Magadhi

• Pali

• Modern Hindi

• Religious transmission ---oral

Where do the sutta(sutras) come from?

• Theravada ( 南傳 )version----direct descend from the Buddha

• Mahayana( 大乘 ) version---- teachings hidden and discovered later when people are enlightened enough to hear it .

• Esoteric( 密宗 ) version----- secret teachings not lightly disclosed to the uninitiated.

Difficulties with Buddhism( IV)

• 6. Is the sould one thing and the body another ?

• 7. Does the Tathagata exist after death?• 8. Does he not exist after death ?• 9. Does he both ( at the same time) exist an

d not exist after death ?• 10. Does he both (at the same time) not exis

t and not not-exist ?