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THE

BUDDHIST

CHALLENGE

THE MAJOR HETERODOX CHALLENGE

Legend History

1100 1000 900 800 700 600 500 400 350 300 200 100

Kurukshetra War Vedic era small kingdoms and republics Persia in Indus Valley A 323 BCE 184 BCE

Beginning of 16 Mahajanapada States L Maurya Empire

1000 BCE "Second E

Bronze-Iron Urbanization" X

Transition in Alphabet 256 GK-Bactrian Kingdom

Vedic Era 500 BCE to S. Asia 180 Indo-Greek Kingdom

South Asia Brahmanist--> Upanishads 185 BCE

Thought Mahabharata/ Ramayana Composed Bhagavad Gita

Buddhist--> Gautama Buddha (long dates reflect conflicting data)

Thought

THE challenge that

almost wins out

One of the most

important

contributions to

global history

Ultimately becomes

extinct in South

Asia, but crucially

important beyond

How does this

undermine the

Brahmanist/ Late

Vedic order?

Here we go!

SIDDHARTHA

GAUTAMA’S

CHALLENGE,

480-400 BCE

Bodhi Tree

First Sermon

SIDDHARTHA- RAISED IN A LIFE OF GREAT COMFORT AND

ISOLATION

SIDDHARTA- RAISED IN A LIFE OF GREAT COMFORT AND ISOLATION

North County Suburbs

Temecula

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU GO TO SD OR LA FOR THE FIRST TIME

AFTER BEING RAISED IN THE SUBURBS?

AT 29, SIDDHARTHA LEAVES THE PALACE: THE FOUR SIGHTS

Disease

Old

Age

Death

A Monk

WTF even is

this?

Bruh, this is

life. Where

you raised,

Temecula?

Seek

the

Truth

Dude!

He Leaves His Wife and Child He Wanders

HE TRIES THE ASCETIC LIFE, A COMMON PRACTICE OF SOUTH

ASIAN MONKS

Realizes it is

too extreme

So he sits

under this

tree

Bodhi Tree

AFTER 7 WEEKS UNDER THE TREE…

Enlightenment

AND WHAT IS ENLIGHTENMENT? THE MIDDLE WAY: THE 4 NOBLE

TRUTHS AND THE 8-FOLD PATH

The

Middle

Way

THE FIRST

NOBLE

TRUTH

Existence is Suffering

THE SECOND

NOBLE TRUTH

The Cause of Suffering is

Attachment

THE THIRD NOBLE TRUTH

You Can END your

Suffering by Giving up

Attachments

THE FOURTH

NOBLE TRUTH The 8-Fold Path will

Guide you Out

THE 8-FOLD PATH

The 8-Fold Path and

the 4 noble truths: the

Buddha’s dharma

(dhamma in Pali)

THE 8-FOLD PATH

आर्याष्टयङ्गमयगा (Sanskrit)

(āryāṣṭāṅgamārga) अरिर् अट्ठङगगक मग्ग (Pali)

(ariya aṭṭhaṅgika magga)

八正道 (Chinese)

(bā zhèngdào)

八正道 (Japanese)

(Hasshōdō)

Bát chính đạo (Vietnamese)

8-Fold Path in other Languages

That’s a story for another lecture!

SIDDHARTHA BECOMES THE BUDDHA

This perfect understanding means

he becomes a Buddha

A Being of Perfect Wisdom

AND

Perfect Compassion Why Perfect

Compassion?

The first? The

most recent?

A question

open for

debate

An Arhat in some traditions

HIS MINISTRY Because Existence is

suffering and I STAYED to

save all y’all

-Stays on Earth for 45 years

-Starts the “Sangha,” the

community of believers

-Because of this, we have

Buddhists trying to end their

suffering but also helping

The Three Jewels: I take refuge in the Buddha, the dharma, and the sangha”

AN EVEN MORE CRUCIAL DIFFERENCE?

Brahmanist Thought

Atman: the Self

AN EVEN MORE CRUCIAL DIFFERENCE?

Buddhist Thought

Anatman: the Non-

Self (anatta, Pali)

It gets complicated. We’ll come back to this!

FOR BUDDHISTS: METAPHOR OF THE CANDLE

-ANY action, good or bad, will increase

your Karma: Karma is like wax

-Karma will cause you to come back in

another form, to suffer again: More Karma

is like adding more wax to a candle, it just

adds more to burn

-Your goal is ZERO karma

- A being, like the Buddha, who has

ZERO karma, will achieve NIRVANA

- Nirvana is the ceasing of being,

like a candle going out for good

- The final escape from the suffering

of the universe

SOME REDEFINED TERMS

Dharma

The Path/Way/Law of the

Buddha

dhamma in Pali

Not a bajillion different

dharmas, just ONE-

follow his Dharma and

you will be ok

ALL karma is bad- even

“good” actions

Follow the Buddha’s path

without attachment

Once you have zero

karma, zero attachment

to the world- you achieve

moksha

Not you becoming one

with everything

Nirvana is TOTAL

EXTINCTION of

everything about you

Not “heaven” like is

commonly understood

Karma Moksha Atman

The BIGGEST difference?

Sticks a NEGATIVE on it:

anatman

Liberation isn’t self, it is

NON-Self

THE BUDDHA’S

PARINIRVANA

BUDDHISM AND WOMEN

THE EARLY SANGHA Buddhism initially is

mostly for monks

who withdraw from

normal life

Not much help for

everyday people;

this will change

later

We will talk about

the importance of

monks and

monestaries later!

THE GAUTAMA BUDDHA INITIALLY

BLOCKS WOMEN FROM THE SANGHA

In the fifth year of his ministry, the Buddha was staying at Vesali when he

heard that his father, King Suddhodana, was ill. He decided to visit him

again at Kapilavatthu to teach him the Dharma, and made the long journey.

After hearing the Dharma, the king immediately attained arahantship and

passed away peacefully seven days later. It was in this year that the order

of nuns was founded at the request of Maha Pajapati Gotami, the aunt and

foster mother of the Buddha.

Three times she approached the Buddha and asked him to ordain her into

the Sangha, but each time the Buddha refused, giving no reason at all. After

the Buddha had stayed at Kapilavatthu a while, he journeyed back to Vesali.

Pajapati Gotami was a determined lady, and would not be so easily

discouraged. She had a plan to get her way. She cut her hair, put on yellow

garments and, surrounded by a large number of Sakyan ladies, walked 150

miles from Kapilavatthu to Vesali. When she arrived at Vesali, her feet were

swollen and her body was covered with dust. She stood outside the hall

where the Buddha was staying with tears on her face, still hoping that the

Buddha would ordain her as a nun.

Ma, GTFO

Enlightenment is

for MEN ONLY

Ananda was surprised to see her in this condition.

"Gotami, why are you standing here like this?" he asked.

"Venerable Ananda, it is because the Blessed One does

not give permission for women to become nuns," she

replied.

"Wait here, Gotami, I'll ask the Blessed One about this,"

Ananda told her. When Ananda asked the Buddha to

admit Maha Pajapati Gotami as a nun, the Buddha

refused. Ananda asked three times and three times the

Buddha refused.

So Ananda put the request in a different way. Respectfully

he questioned the Buddha, "Lord, are women capable of

realising the various stages of sainthood as nuns?"

"They are, Ananda," said the Buddha.

Ananda

be a bro

and hook

it up

He said

yes this

time?

"If that is so, Lord, then it would be good if women

could be ordained as nuns," said Ananda,

encouraged by the Buddha's reply.

*

"If, Ananda, Maha Pajapati Gotami would accept

the Eight Conditions** it would be regarded that

she has been ordained already as a nun."

When Ananda mentioned the conditions to Maha

Pajapati Gotami, she gladly agreed to abide by

those conditions and automatically became a nun.

Before long she attained arahantship. The other

Sakyan ladies who were ordained with her also

attained Arahantship.

* “If I oppose the request of Ananda a 3rd time, this

will cause him mental distress, and he will become

confused. I would like my true Dharma to last 1,000

years, but it is preferable that Ananda not become

distressed and confuse my teachings, even though,

this way, my true Dharma will abide but five

hundred years”

** THE 8 CONDITIONS/GARUDHAMMAS- RULES FOR BUDDHIST

NUNS

(3) Every half month a nun should desire two things from the

Order of Monks: the asking as to the date of the Observance

(uposatha) day, and the coming for the exhortation

[bhikkhunovada]

(2) A nun must not spend the rains (vassa, 3 months rainy

season retreat) in a residence where there are no monks

(1) A nun who has been ordained even for a hundred years

must greet respectfully, rise up from her seat, salute with joined

palms, do proper homage to a monk ordained but that day.

(4) After the rains a nun must 'invite' [pavarana] before both

orders in respect of three matters, namely what was seen, what

was heard, what was suspected

(5) A nun, offending against an important

rule, must undergo manatta discipline for

half a month before both orders.

(6) When, as a probationer, she has trained

in the six rules [cha dhamma] for two years,

she should seek higher ordination from

both orders.

(7) A monk must not be abused or reviled

in any way by a nun.

(8) From today, admonition of monks by

nuns is forbidden

20 MINUTES TO HERE

BUDDHISM IN ACTION- THE CONVERSION OF PATACARA Without

Buddha being

convinced, this

story couldn’t

have happened!

LIFE IS SUFFERING

The Solution?

THE PERFECT COMPASSION OF THE BUDDHA…

after a not-

so-perfect

decision on

women