Buddha’s Heroic Journey

1. Buddha’s Heroic Journey • Divine Birth – Mother’s dream • Call to Adventure – The Four Sights • Tests and Trials – Mara • Boon - Teachings

2. 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

3. Centers of Early Buddhism

4. 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

5. 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

6. Demon Mara tests Siddhartha • Three temptations • There’s trouble at home • Voluptuous women dance around him • Mara summons host of demons

7. 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

8. Bodhgaya, India

9. 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

10. The Buddha Addressing Monks at Sarnath

11. 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

12. Teachings • Four Noble Truths • The Middle Way • The Noble Eightfold Path • Nirvana • No individual soul (no self to be reborn) • No Creator God

13. 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”

14. 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

15. 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

16. NIRVANA • Extinction • Cessation of consciousness • Bliss • Release from the cycle of existence • Psychological state • State of mind • NOT heaven

17. 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.

18. 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)

19. 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.

20. Regarding Metaphysical Questions * • The Buddha disregarded broader metaphysical questions, remaining focused instead on the practical concerns of suffering and its alleviation • No creator god

21. 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

22. 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.

23. 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.

24. 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.

25. 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

26. 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

27. 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.

28. 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

29. 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)

30. 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.

31. The Present Dalai Lama • The Dalai Lama is a part of the Gelugpa lineage of Tibetan Buddhism.

32. 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

33. 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.

34. 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

35. 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

36. 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

37. 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