Religious Studies 232: Introduction to Buddhism

1
Religious Studies 232 Introduction to
Buddhism
Week 4

• Instructor
• Justin Whitaker

2
Announcements 9/18

• First EXAM Sept 22----Friday
• Study by reviewing
• Study Guide on Website (including sample
  question)
• Lecture Slides on Website (inc. todays wk. 4)
• Reading Guides on Website
• Your own notes
• Dont forget the four blue-book exam booklets!!
• Bring in this week----no name written on cover

3
Announcements 9/18

• If you have not paid (fees finalized) you
  MUST do so today or you will be dropped from all
  classes Double-check Cyberbear
• Tutors Needed STS (Students Tutoring Students)
  will pay qualified former students to tutor. If
  you know a former student who earned an A or B
  please urge them to contact STS.

4
In-class Videos

• Important sources---like our other texts
• Note-worthy
• Note facts, interpretations questions
• Available for home viewing from Mansfield
  Library
• Video Guides on the Website

5
Truth

• Historical Truth
• Factual
• Specific / Particular
• Unique
• Mythic Truth
• Beyond Space Time
• Universal
• Paradigmatic

6
Archetypal Encounters

• Mara Death/Doubt personified---the Shadow (
  Carl Jung)
• Vasundhara the Earth-goddess---the Anima
• Brahma Great God, Lord of a Thousand
  Worlds---the Wise Old Man
• Muchalinda King of the Nagas---the Young
  Prince or Hero

Analysis based on Carl Jungs Four Principle
Archetypes
7
Shakyamuni Buddha His Life Times

• Cultural Context
• Classical Civilization of
• South Asia
• Shramanas vs. Brahmanas
• Character of the Buddha
• in
• Stories of his life
• His teachings (Dharma)

8
3 Marks of Existence

• Impermanence
• No-self
• Dissatisfactoriness or suffering
• (anicca, anatta, dukkha)

9
Four Noble Truths

• Dukkha unsatisfactoriness of samsaric existence
• Thirst or Craving
• Cessation of Dukkha
• Path
• Eight-fold
• Three-fold

Descriptive
Prescriptive
10
Four Noble Truths A Medical Model

• Dukkha unsatisfactoriness of samsaric existence
• Thirst or Craving
• Cessation of Dukkha
• Path

Diagnosis Etiology Prognosis Therapy
11
Four Noble Truths 1 Dukkha

• Dukkha unsatisfactoriness of samsaric existence
• Not that there is no joy or happiness
• rather that
• Enjoyment of life is blocked by a deep-rooted
  sense of unsatisfactoriness or discontent
• Henry David Thoreau
• Most men lead lives of quiet desperation.

12
Four Noble Truths 2 Thirst

• Trishna thirst --- craving
• clinging to what we do have
• yearning for what we dont have
• Story of the two monks
• The Paradox of desire
• Not desire (Skt. chanda) in every sense
• skillful vs. unskillful

• Desire

desire clinging attachment
desire for truth (-attachment)

• Problem
• seeing sensory gratification as a solution to
  duhkha

13
Story of the Two Monks

• Two monks in medieval China
• Use of stories as teaching device
• What is the point here
• Problem of thirst / desire / craving
• not in the object of desire
• but
• in the mind of the desirer
• Precepts are action-guides
• Not the object of attachment themselves

14
Four Noble Truths 3 Cessation

• Nirvana Liberation Enlightenment
• Cessation of dukkha, not of life
• Ineffable, Inconceivable (tadpoles frog)
• Completeness of wisdom and compassion
• Guide Three Aspects
• Pure, clear awareness Knowledge
• Intense, overflowing Love and Compassion
• Inexhaustible mental or spiritual energy
• Nutshell a state of perfect unconditioned
  freedom from all subjective limitations.

15
Four Noble Truths 4 Path

• The Way----from here to there
• Variously mapped
• Eight-fold Path
• Three-fold Path
• Ethics shila
• Meditation - samadhi
• Wisdom - prajna

16
EXAM INSTRUCTIONS

• Put your Name and Student ID on the blue book
  (front cover) and on the exam sheet
• Subject RELS 232 Buddhism
• Instructor Whitaker ----------------
  Date 9/22/06
• Read the instructions on the exam - carefully
• When you finish, put your exam in the blue book
  and bring both up here file according to exam
• Sign out (see sheet on table in front)
• Mondays CoursePack readings are 17 on ERES
• (read both parts)