Buddhism

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Buddhism

• GL/ILST 3210

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Announcements

• Dont forget to check the lectures (and your
  grades) on my website http//www.arts.yorku.ca/hu
  ma/ehrlich/index.html
• Class presentations begin next week with Gender
  and Religion
• There will be no class in two weeks (Monday,
  November 20)
• Class resumes on Monday, November 27
• Dont forget that there will be an extra class on
  Wednesday, November 29

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Todays (Tentative) Lesson Plan

• Go over mid-term exam
• Answer questions about class presentations
• Break
• Introduction to Buddhism

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Grade Distribution
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Buddhism as a World Religion
About 350 million Buddhists in the world ? the
third largest of the worlds religious traditions
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The World of Buddhism
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What Is Buddhism?

• A designation for a collection of
  religious/philosophical/mystical traditions
  derived from the thought/example of the Buddha
• A missionary religion/school of thought
  indigenous to South and East Asia
• A religious tradition that arose out of Vedic
  religion/Hinduism

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Who Was the Buddha?

• A prince
• A husband
• A father
• A wanderer
• An ascetic
• A teacher
• A seeker after truth
• An enlightened one
• The buddha of this age
• Lived ca. 500 BCE /- 100 years

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Names of the Buddha

• Siddhartha Gautama
• Cf. Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha
• Shakyamuni the sage of the Shakya clan
• Tathagata the thus gone one
• The Buddha the enlightened one

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Miraculous Birth

• Member of the Kshatriya (Warrior) caste
• Mother, Queen Maya, impregnated by white elephant
• Bears child without pain while holding on to tree
• Siddhartha gets up, walks 7 paces and says, I
  have been born to achieve awakening (bodhi) for
  the good of the world this is my last birth.
• Maya dies a week later

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Queen Mayas Dream
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Birth of the Buddha
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Portents

• King Shuddhodana (his father) ask the sages to
  interpret these marvels
• They find wheels on his palms and soles
• And declare that he is a Chakravartin, a
  Wheel-turner
• Hell grow up to be either a great king or a
  great religious teacher
• In order to ensure the former, his father locks
  him up in the palace

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Turning the Wheel of Dharma
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Siddhartha Grows Up

• Lives a life of luxury in the palace protected
  from the evils of the world
• Starts a family
• Finally decides to go out at the age of 29
• Sees four sights that change his life
• An old man
• A sick man
• A corpse
• A renouncer

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Siddhartha in Search of Truth
Lahore, Pakistan

• Abandons his previous life of luxury
• Spends six years searching for the truth
• Seeks teachers
• Tries asceticism

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The Middle Way/Path

• Realizes that there must be a middle way of
  moderation between the extremes
• Finally comes to rest under the Bodhi-Tree in
  Bodh Gaya
• Attacked by Mara and his temptations (Kessler pp.
  177f.)
• Cf. Saint Anthony in the desert
• Meditates for seven days, sees all his previous
  lives, and achieves enlightenment/nirvana/equilibr
  ium

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The Four Noble Truths

• Goes to the Deer Park at Sarnath near Varanasi,
  where he meets five ascetic friends, who become
  the first members of the Buddhist samgha/sangha
  community
• Preaches his first sermon (sutra) on the First
  Turning of the Wheel of Dharma (law/truth)
• Truth of Suffering (everything/-one dies)
• Truth of Origin of Suffering (Craving/Desire)
• Truth of Cessation of Suffering (Kessler p. 187)
• Truth of Eightfold Path

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Buddha in the Deer Park
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Eightfold Path

• Right understanding (wisdom)
• Right thought (wisdom)
• Right speech (ethics)
• Right action (ethics)
• Right livelihood (ethics)
• Right effort (meditation)
• Right mindfulness (meditation)
• Right concentration (meditation)

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(No Transcript)
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Life as the Buddha

• Spends the remaining 45 years of his life
  spreading his message/Dharma
• Ascended to heaven to preach to his mother
• Dies/achieves parinirvana (final liberation from
  the cycle of births and rebirths) between two
  trees in Kushinagari at the age of 80

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After His Death

• Body cremated
• Cremains brought to eight sites
• Stupas (burial mounds) built to house them
• ? places of pilgrimage

Stupa, Borobudur, Sri Lanka
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Stupas and Pagodas
Elemental Symbology Relics of the Buddha
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Three Jewels of Buddhism
Buddha in Wheel of Dharma Mudra (Pose)

• Buddha
• Dharma (teaching)
• Four Noble Truths
• Eightfold Path
• Samgha
• Disciples
• Community
• Monks nuns

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Theravada (Hinayana)

• Southern Buddhism
• First period of great expansion under King Ashoka
  (northern India 268-239 BCE)
• His son brought Buddhism to Sri Lanka
• ? centre of Theravada school
• The only survivor of eighteen early schools of
  Buddhism
• Arhat saint
• Monastic ideal ? monks nuns
• Symbiotic relationship between monastics and
  laity
• Providing food and begging for food
• No gods
• Pali Canon

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Five Precepts

• Incumbent on laity
• No killing
• No stealing
• No abusive sex
• No lying
• No intoxicating beverages

• Theravada novices add
• No eating after midday
• No use of ornaments
• No attending entertainments or shows
• No use of money
• No use of soft/high beds

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Theravada Monks in Laos
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Monks Receiving Morning Alms in Bangkok
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Mahayana

• The greater vehicle
• Eastern Buddhism
• Boddhisattva future/potential buddha
• Kessler p. 197
• Many gods
• Sutras
• Lotus Sutra most famous and influential
• Pure Land (Amitabha/Amida/Amituo Fo)
• Chan/Zen emphasis on meditation
• Doctrine of Trikaya three bodies of Buddha
• ultimate truth
• heavenly body
• earthly body

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TrikayaThree Bodies of the Buddha
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Mahayana Key Developments of the 2nd Turning of
the Wheel of Dharma

• Theravada Mahayana
• No-self (anatman)to Emptiness (Kessler p. 184)
• Arhat to Bodhisattva
• Nirvana to Buddhahood
• Historical Buddha to Divine Buddha
• Individual to Universal
• Monastic to Monastic and Lay

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Hierarchy of Existence
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The Wheel of Life The First 6 Realms of The
Sphere of Sense-Desires
Complacency Pride
Jealousy Envy
8 Forms of Suffering
Insatiable Craving Miserliness
Ignorance Confusion
Extreme Anger Hatred
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Wheel of Samsara 3 Root EvilsGreed, Hatred,
Delusion
DESCENDING ??
?? GNIDNECSA
G
H
D
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Many Buddhas/Bodhisattvas

• The Buddha the one of our age Siddhartha
  Gautama Shakyamuni
• Avalokiteshvara Guanyin (Kessler p. 198)
• Compassion invoked by repeating the mantra Om
  Mani Padme Hum (O Jewel in the Lotus)
• Associated in India with Tara (Kessler p. 199)
• Amitabha (Amituo/Amida) Buddha the Buddha of
  the Pure Land (Kessler pp. 199f)
• Mantra Na mo Amitabha (honour to Amitabha)
• Maitreya Buddha the future Buddha

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Avalokitesvara Guanyin/Kuan Yin (Kannon)
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Bodhisattvas Avalokitesvara Tara
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Amitabha Buddhas Pure Land
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Maitreya Buddha (the Laughing Buddha)
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Vajrayana

• The thunderbolt/diamond vehicle
• Also known as Tantric Buddhism
• Tantric Buddhism sexual activity to conquer
  lust
• Northern Buddhism
• Stresses ritual and symbolism, especially
  mandalas for meditation purposes
• Dalai Lama Ocean Teacher
• Priest-king of Tibet
• After Chinese conquest (1950), 14th Dalai Lama
  (Tenzin Gyatso) forced to flee to India (1959)

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Mandala from Nepal
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The 14th Dalai Lama at the White House
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Potala Palace at Lhasa, Tibet
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Bardo Thodal Tibetan Book of the Dead (Kessler
pp. 210ff.)

• chikhai bardo loss of consciousness followed by
  light of Dharma, from which most turn away in
  fear
• chonyid bardo some awareness returns ?
  confrontations by peaceful and wrathful deities
• sidpa bardo judgment followed by rebirth seven
  weeks later