Buddhism

1
Buddhism the Axial Age

• Buddhism originated in India at the end of the
  6th century BCE.
• This period is sometimes known as the Axial Age.
• Around this same time, major philosophical
  figures lived in several parts of the world
• It was the age of Confucius and Laozi in China
• This was the age of the great Greek philosophers,
  including Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle
• In India, this was the period when the Buddha
  developed his ideas.

2
Sakyamuni, the Founderhttp//dictionary.referenc
e.com/browse/Sakyamuni

• The founder of Buddhism is known by several
  names.
• He was a prince in one of the many royal families
  living in what is now northern India and southern
  Nepal
• His given name was Siddhartha, and he was also
  called Gautama
• He is sometimes known as Sakyamuni
• ????, which means the light of the Sakya family.

3
Gautama Buddhac. 563 BCE to 483 BCE

• "Buddha" meaning "awakened one" or "the
  enlightened one."
• Various collections of teachings attributed to
  Gautama were passed down by oral tradition, and
  first committed to writing about 400 years later.
  
• Gautama, the Sanskrit form of the family name of
  Siddhartha, the historical Buddha

4
Initial Awakeninghttp//dictionary.reference.com/
browse/Siddhartha

• Siddhartha was raised in relative luxury but
  turned to a life of spiritual questing
• Many stories recount his initial awakening
• In one, he overhears the wailing of a funeral
  procession and learns about death and suffering
  in this way
• In another, as a young prince, he is given a
  beautiful princess bride but when he sees her
  drooling in her sleep, he realizes there is
  imperfection in the world
• He left his family home and went into the world
  to seek answers to his spiritual questions
• Siddhartha, an epithet of Buddha meaning he
  who has attained his goal.

5
The Bodhi (Wisdom) Treesupreme knowledge or
enlightenment

• The Bodhi Tree, also known as Bo (from the
  Sinhalese Bo), was a large and very old Sacred
  Fig tree (Ficus religiosa) located in Bodh Gaya
  (about 100 km (62 mi) from Patna in the Indian
  state of Bihar), under which Siddhartha Gautama,
  the spiritual teacher and founder of Buddhism
  later known as Gautama Buddha, achieved
  enlightenment, or Bodhi.
• In religious iconography, the Bodhi tree is
  recognizable by its heart-shaped leaves, which
  are usually prominently displayed.

6
the Four Noble Truths (Ebrey 66)Midway between
self-deprivation and gratification

• The teachings of the Buddhism are fairly simple
  and straightforward.
• The key to his enlightenment is the realization
  of the nature of suffering.
• Suffering is part of the normal life of people
• Suffering arises from our attachment to things
• If we wish to be free of suffering, we must
  liberate ourselves from our attachments
• There is a way to do this through meditation and
  renunciation
• These are the Four Noble Truths

7
The eightfold path to liberation(Ebrey 66)

• The Dharma wheel, often used to represent the
  Noble Eightfold Path
• also known as the Middle Path or Middle Way.

8
The threefold division of the path(Ebrey 66)

• Wisdom
• Ethical conduct
• Concentration

Right understanding
2. Right intention
3. Right speech
4. Right action
5. Right livelihood
6. Right effort
7. Right mindfulness
8. Right concentration
9
the impermanence of all things

• Buddhism denies the permanence of phenomena
• All things arise and pass away everything has a
  beginning and an end
• The appearance of permanence in things is an
  illusion sometimes called maya, the illusion of
  the reality of sensory experience and of the
  experienced qualities and attributes of oneself
• This does not mean, as is sometimes said, that
  nothing is real, merely that no reality is
  permanent
• Because all things pass away, attachment to them
  can yield only suffering
• Therefore, the way to free oneself from suffering
  is to realize and accept the impermanence of all
  things, including oneself

10
Theravada vs. MahayanaTwo Major Schools of
Buddhism

• Theravada or Hinayana ??? Lesser Vehicle was
  concerned with individual liberation
• It emphasizes meditation and withdrawal from the
  world

• Mahayana ???, meaning Greater Vehicle, is not
  only concerned with individual liberation, but
  also concerned with the spiritual liberation of
  all beings.

11
The Attraction of Buddhism

• In innermost essence, everything is Nirvana or
  empty.
• The ultimate reality is consciousness that
  everything is produced by the mind.
• Karma cause and effect action, seen as bringing
  upon oneself inevitable results, good or bad,
  either in this life or in a reincarnation

• Buddhism addresses human suffering with an
  unmatched directness. Many were comforted by the
  belief that one could earn merit, and that there
  is an invisible moral order governing the
  universe, and moreover, under this system one is
  rewarded in this life or the next for good deeds

12
Bodhisattva ??

• The Bodhisattva, an enlightened spiritual being
  who chooses to remain in the phenomenal world to
  aid others, was the ideal of the Mahayana path.

13
Introduced to China

• Around the beginning of the Common Era, Buddhism
  first appeared in China
• Buddhist monks travelled along overland routes
  from northeast India to Central Asia. The trade
  route of the Silk Road provided the main
  adventures for these travelers
• Sometimes in the 1st century CE, the first
  monastery was set up in China, near the Later Han
  capital at Luoyang. Buddhist monks became
  teachers at the imperial court, though without
  the same high status as Confucian scholars.

14
The White Horse Temple

• the first Buddhist temple in China, established
  in 68 AD under the patronage of Emperor Ming in
  the Eastern Han
• (25 AD - 220 AD) capital Luoyang. The temple,
  although small in size in comparison to many
  other temples in China, is considered by most
  believers as "the cradle of Chinese Buddhism"