Living Religions8th Edition

Mary Pat Fisher

©2011 PRENTICE HALL | Pearson Education, Inc. | Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

The life and legend of the Buddha

The Dharma

Buddhism spreads abroad

Buddhism in the West

Socially engaged Buddhism

Chapter 5Buddhism

©2011 PRENTICE HALL | Pearson Education, Inc. | Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

anatman (Pali: anatta)anitya (Pali: anicca)arhant (Pali: arhat)bhikshu (Pali: bhikkhu;

feminine: bhikshuni, bhikkhuni)bodhisattvadeity yogaDharma (Pali: Dhamma)dukkhakarmakenshokoanlama

Key termsMahayananirvana Pali CanonsamsaraSanghastupasunyataTheravadaTriple GemVajrayanavipassanazazenZen

©2011 PRENTICE HALL | Pearson Education, Inc. | Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

Ajahn Sumedho, Buddhist monk

“When you open your mind to the truth, then you realize there is nothing to fear. What arises passes away, what is born dies, and is not self--so that our sense of being caught in an identity with this human body fades out. We don’t see ourselves as some isolated, alienated entity lost in a mysterious and frightening universe. We don’t feel overwhelmed by it, trying to find a little piece of it that we can grasp and feel safe with, because we feel at peace with it. Then we have merged with the Truth.

©2011 PRENTICE HALL | Pearson Education, Inc. | Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

Tiantai ZhiyiThe 4 Great Bodhisattva Vows

Beings are infinite in number, I vow to save them all;

The obstructive passions are endless in number, I vow to end them all;

The teachings for saving others are countless, I vow to learn them all;

Buddhahood is the supreme achievement, I vow to attain it.

©2011 PRENTICE HALL | Pearson Education, Inc. | Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

c. 5th century BCEc. 258 BCE

c. 200 BCE-200 CEc. 100 BCE-300 CE

c. 80 BCEc. 50 CE

1st century CEc. 150-250

c. 550c. 609-650

8451222-1282

c. 1200-15001959-

TimelineLife of Siddhartha Gautama BuddhaAshoka spreads Buddhism outside IndiaTheravada developsPerfection of Wisdom books developPali Canon written down in Sri LankaBuddhism spreads to China, SE AsiaMahayana developsLife of NagarjunaBuddhism enters JapanSongtsan establishes Tibetan BuddhismChinese persecute BuddhismLife of NichirenBuddhism declines in IndiaChina represses Tibetan Buddhism

©2011 PRENTICE HALL | Pearson Education, Inc. | Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

The Life and legend of the Buddha

• What we know about him has been passed down through his followers

• Prolific teachings passed down orally; written down hundreds of years after his death

• Followers have recalled his life in sacred biographies

©2011 PRENTICE HALL | Pearson Education, Inc. | Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

• Siddhartha led a sheltered life of luxury

• Saw the Four Sights: a bent aged man, a sick person, a corpse, and a monk

• Left home at 29 to wander as an ascetic

• Found extreme lifestyles did not answer his questions—led to the Middle Way: neither self-indulgence or self-denial

The life and legend of the Buddha (continued)

©2011 PRENTICE HALL | Pearson Education, Inc. | Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

• Vowed to sit under tree at Gaya until enlightenment

• Experienced 4 states of contemplation and had 3 realizations, he could– Recall all his past lives– See the entire cycle of life and death– See the cause of suffering and the means

of ending it

• Siddhartha became the Buddha, the Awaken One

©2011 PRENTICE HALL | Pearson Education, Inc. | Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

The life and legend of the Buddha (continued)

• Spent the next 45 years teaching• His teaching (dharma) included Four Noble Truths,

the Noble Eightfold Path, the Three Characteristics of Existence

• Some followers became monks (bhikshus); women were allowed to become nuns if they followed the 8 special rules

• Disciples (the Sangha) accepted people from all castes and levels of society

• Before the Buddha died, he told his followers to take the Dhamma (his teaching) as a refuge and guideline

The life and legend of the Buddha (continued)

©2011 PRENTICE HALL | Pearson Education, Inc. | Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

The Dharma

• Buddhism often described as nontheistic

• No personal God; worship the Buddha as a great teacher

• Revere the Buddha’s teachings—a raft to take followers to the farther shore, nirvana

©2011 PRENTICE HALL | Pearson Education, Inc. | Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

The Four Noble Truths

• Life inevitably involves suffering, is imperfect and unsatisfactory

• Suffering originates in our desires

• Suffering will cease if all desires cease

• There is a way to realize this state: the Noble Eightfold Path

©2011 PRENTICE HALL | Pearson Education, Inc. | Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

The Noble Eightfold Path to Liberation

1. Right Understanding: realize and understand the Four Noble Truths

2. Right Thought or Motives: uncover any unwholesome roots in one’s thinking, eliminate self- centeredness

3. Right Speech: abstain from lying, gossiping, speaking harshly, divisive speech (useless speech)

4. Right Action: observe the Five Precepts, namely to avoid destroying life, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, and intoxicants

©2011 PRENTICE HALL | Pearson Education, Inc. | Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

The Noble Eightfold Path to Liberation (continued)

5. Right Livelihood: make a living without violating the Five Precepts

6. Right Effort: eliminate impurities of the mind and cultivate wholesome actions

7. Right Mindfulness: be aware in every moment, discipline the mind

8. Right Meditation: quiet the mind through mental discipline

©2011 PRENTICE HALL | Pearson Education, Inc. | Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

The Wheel of Birth and Death

• No eternal, independently existing soul to be reborn

• Central cause is karma

• 3 root afflictions: greed, hatred, and delusion

• Cultivating non-greed, non-hatred, and non-delusion act as causes to leave the circle of birth and death

©2011 PRENTICE HALL | Pearson Education, Inc. | Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

Mandalas are pictures of the mind and of the universe. Moving out from the center, this wheel of samsara includes animals representing lust, hatred, and delusion, the fates of beings with good karma (left) and bad karma (right), the six kinds of birth from heaven to hell, the chain of cause and effect, and a monster grasping the wheel representing death and impermanence.

©2011 PRENTICE HALL | Pearson Education, Inc. | Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

Branches of Buddhism

• Theraveda: way of the elders– Prevalent in Sri Lanka, Myanmar (Burma),

Thailand, Cambodia, Laos

• Mayahana: great vehicle– Prevalent in China, Korea, Mongolia,

Vietnam, Japan, Nepal, Tibet

• Both agree on basic concepts of Four Noble Truths, karma, samsara, nirvana

©2011 PRENTICE HALL | Pearson Education, Inc. | Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

Approximate distribution of Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism.©2011 PRENTICE HALL | Pearson Education, Inc. | Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

Theraveda: The path of mindfulness

• Devotional practices dominate

• Central text is the Pali Canon

• More individualistic

• Triple Gems– The Buddha– The Dharma– The Sangha

©2011 PRENTICE HALL | Pearson Education, Inc. | Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

Mahayana: The path of compassion and wisdom

• Focus on liberation of all beings• Many Buddhas and bodhisattvas• Buddha is an immanent presence in the

universe• Three bodies of Buddha consist of Dharma-

kaya (Truth body), Sambhoga-kaya (Enjoyment body), and Nirmana-kaya (Manifestation body)

• Emptiness (sunyata)©2011 PRENTICE HALL | Pearson Education, Inc. | Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

Our word “zero” comes from the Arabic translation of the Sanskrit sunya, which means “empty.” Buddhists represented sunyata, “emptiness,” by a circle.

©2011 PRENTICE HALL | Pearson Education, Inc. | Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

Other Branches

• Chan or Zen: the sudden way of enlightenment

• Pure Land: devotion to Amitabha Buddha

• Nichiren: salvation through the Lotus Sutra

• Vajrayana: the indestructible path

©2011 PRENTICE HALL | Pearson Education, Inc. | Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

In this 18th-century painting, Amida Buddha descends to welcome the faithful to his Western Paradise. Pure Land Buddhism taught that Amida saved all who called on his name.

©2011 PRENTICE HALL | Pearson Education, Inc. | Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

Tibetan prostrates herself with wooden pads and canvas shield.

©2011 PRENTICE HALL | Pearson Education, Inc. | Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

Buddhism in the West• Various forms of Buddhism have spread to

the West– Exodus of thousands of Tibetans– Efforts of Zen teachers– Establishment of Theravada vipassana meditation

centers

• Difficult to replicate the monastic traditions in a Western setting

• For immigrants maintaining Buddhist practices means maintaining cultural and ethnic traditions

©2011 PRENTICE HALL | Pearson Education, Inc. | Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

Socially Engaged Buddhism

• Emerging focus on the relevance of Buddhism to social problems i.e. vegetarianism, prostitution

©2011 PRENTICE HALL | Pearson Education, Inc. | Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458