Proposal
Kilwa
Buddhism.pptxBuddhism
What is Buddhism?
Buddhism is the religion of over 520 million people, primarily concentrated in East and Southeast Asia.
The religion began in the fifth century BCE in India and Nepal, growing out of the teachings of Gautama Buddha.
Buddhism does not center on a supreme deity. Many of its varieties do not imagine anything supernatural at all.
Is Buddhism a “religion”?
“Everything that arises also passes away, so strive for what has not arisen.”
At the heart of Buddhism are three “jewels”:
1. The Buddha
2. The Dharma (teachings)
3. the Sangha (community)
The First Gem: The Buddha
Around 500 BCE, a loosely defined kind of ascetic spirituality was flourishing in northern India.
Landowning castes – Brahmins and Kshatriyas
Ascetics (Sramana) rejected Brahmin practices of wealth accumulation and animal sacrifice.
The birth of Shakyamuni
Shakyamuni / Siddhartha was born between 488 and 624 BCE – the traditions differ.
Tradition says that his enlightenment was nearly perfected across hundreds of previous lives. In our world, he was born to a ruling family in southern Nepal.
His birth is accompanied by signs and omens. It takes place in a park – he is immaculately conceived.
The Four Sights
Siddhartha sees:
1. A sick man
2. A suffering old man
3. A dead man
…
…
4. An ascetic who is serene and detached from the world.
Siddhartha admires this man and gives away his princely possessions. He travels and masters yoga.
Siddhartha embarks on a path of extreme asceticism, starving and thirsty.
This does not give him the enlightenment he seeks.
Disillusioned with asceticism, Siddhartha moves to Bodh Gaya and re-enters the comforts of the world.
He begins to comfortably meditate under a large fig tree.
Just before dusk, Siddhartha resists the assaults of greed, boredom, and desire, and then fear and anger.
He meditates to move deeper into consciousness, rather than unconsciousness.
Enlightenment
Just before dawn, Siddartha achieves enlightenment.
“I had direct knowledge. Birth is exhausted, the Holy Life has been lived, what was to be done is done, there is no more of this to come.”
He has achieved nirvana. Nirvana means
Being beyond desires
Feeling transcendent happiness
He sets out to spread his message across India.
The wheel of Dharma turns again
He explains his doctrine to his former companions.
This explanation is called the first discourse or sutra, called “Instruction on the Middle Path”.
Buddha explains that enlightenment only came when he
1. renounced the luxury of his princely origins
2. renounced the extreme asceticism of his early spiritual seeking.
Progress only comes through moderation, the “Middle Path”.
Parinirvana
After 45 years of preaching, Buddha falls ill after eating a bad meal his host had served him.
As he weakens, he instructs his disciples not to follow a human successor, but only the dharma.
He reaches parinirvana – the final end of the cycle of death and rebirth – in a grove of trees at Kushinagar, at age 80.
Greco-Buddhism
After Alexander the Great’s conquests in the fourth century BCE, Buddhists of Central Asia came into contact with Greek culture.
Greco-Buddhism thrived for hundreds of years in modern Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Silk Road Buddhism
Bamiyan Buddhas – built around 500 CE by Iranian Buddhists in modern Afghanistan.
Dunhuang Caves – a vast Buddhist complex in western China, constructed by Chinese and Turkic (Uyghur) Buddhists.
The Second Gem: The Dharma
In Buddhism, “dharma” means “eternal truth”, including the laws of nature karma, and moral duty.
Buddha’s followers tried to regularize his insights into a system of dharma.
The Four Noble Truths
1. No being can escape suffering.
2. Suffering comes from excessive desire.
3. Suffering ceases when desire ceases.
4. It is possible to end desire by following eight principles
The Eightfold Path
1. Right understanding (of the Noble Truths)
2. Right thought
3. Right speech
4. Right conduct
5. Right livelihood
6. Right effort
7. Right mindfulness
8. Right meditation
The three characteristics of existence
Suffering
Impermanence
No-self (Anatman) – Personality is a shifting, impermanent structure
Ignorance
Karma forms
A new individual
A new body-mind
Sense organs
Sense impressions
Conscious feelings
Craving
Clinging to things
Driving to be reborn
Old age and death
Rebirth
Sacred Texts
Shakyamuni/Siddhartha/Buddha did not write down his teachings. They were memorized by monks.
The “Three Baskets” (Tripitaka)
Sutra Pitaka – Buddha’s discourse
Vinaya Pitaka – stories about the Buddha’s monastic practice
Abhidharma Pitaka – Analysis by early Buddhists.
The Tripitaka is also known as the Pali Canon, for the language in which it was written. Pali is a descendant of Sanskrit spoken in the areas where the Buddha lived.
Many other texts were later included in the Buddhist canons.
The Third Gem: The Sangha
Monks and nuns: Bhikshus and Bhikshunis
Laypeople
1. Those who have “entered the stream”
2. Those who will be reborn once more
3. Those who will achieve enlightenment during this life
4. Those who have already been enlightened
King Ashoka
Buddhism quickly spread across India. One convert was King Ashoka (273-232 BCE), who ruled most of the region.
Ashoka’s reign was Buddhism’s golden age. He renounced conquest by force and embraced “conquest by dharma”.
Ashoka was the model for future Buddhist rulers.
Divisions - The First Vehicle: Theravada
When the king of Sri Lanka contracted an alliance with Ashoka, he allowed Buddhism to spread there. From there, it gradually spread to Southeast Asia.
This Theravada form of Buddhism is the oldest to survive. It believes in five precepts:
1. No taking life
2. No taking what is not given
3. No sexual immorality
4. No wrong speech
5. No intoxicants
Theravadins emphasize monasticism rather than lay practice.
They also do not believe in any deities or supernatural forces.
Rituals of Theravada
Almsgiving to monks
Buddha Day Festival (Vesak)
Vipassana: Mindfulness Meditation
Second Vehicle: Mahayana
Around 400 CE, a new movement arose.
Mahayana Buddhism emphasized laypeople, not monasticism.
In Mahayana Buddhism, Shakyamuni represents only one manifestation of Buddhahood.
It also includes other bodhissatvas, or those on the path to enlightenment.
Spiritual Progress and the Lay Sangha
The Buddha’s Three Bodies:
The Earthly Body
The Contented Body – the heavenly Buddha worshipped by Mahayana Buddhists
The Dharma Body – the ultimate reality of the Universe
The Lay Sangha could gain merit by appealing to heavenly beings who had been enlightened.
These bodhisattvas were like minor deities or saints. To be a good Buddhist is to follow their example.
Mahayana Schools
Madhyamaka:
The “Middle Way” – no statement about reality is true.
“Nothing comes into being, nor does anything disappear. Nothing is eternal, nor has anything an end. Nothing is identical or differentiated. Nothing moves hither, nor moves anything thither.”
Yogacara:
“Consciousness Only” – nothing else exists. To be enlightened, make your consciousness identical with the universe.
Pure Land Buddhism
This form of Buddhism worships a mythical buddha called Amitabha. Faith in Amitabha restores your soul to a “Pure Land”.
Admission to the Pure Land can be reached through meditation on Amitabha or through the repetition of prayers to him.
Pure Land Buddhism is popular in China and Japan, where the majority of Buddhists belong to the Jodo Schoo.
Pure Land Devotion
Pure Land Buddhists repeat simple mantras, pleading for Amitabha to transport the soul to the Pure Land.
“Namu Amida Butsu”
Chinese Pure Land Buddhism introduces an intermediary figure, Guanyin, who intercedes to Amida on the petitioner’s behalf.
Chan-Zen Buddhism
Bodhidharma, a sixth-century Indian monk in China, is the founder of Chan Buddhism.
Chan / Zen relies on paradox and wordlessness.
“Flower sermon”
Koans: paradoxical questions with no rational answer.
Absence of thoughts, absence of scriptures – knowledge transmitted “mind to mind”
Bodhidarma was fond of telling a story about the Buddha. His disciples had gathered around him expecting to hear a speech on the dharma. Instead, Shakyamuni holds up a white lotus flower.
Only one of his disciples, Kashyapa, understood – and experienced a flash of enlightenment.
Bodhidarma traces his lineage to Kashyapa. His Chan/Zen movement argues that enlightenment is reached without words or teaching.
| This body is like the Bodhi-tree the soul is like the mirror bright; Take heed to keep it always clean, And let no dust collect upon it | The Bodhi is not like the tree; The mirror bright is nowhere shining As there is nothing from the first, Where does the dust itself collect? |
Linji/Rinzai Zen:
Confrontational teaching style in search of “sudden enlightenment”
Emphasis on koans, unexpected behavior
Caodong/Soto
Emphasis on long meditation (zazen)
Mahayana Practice
Meditation
In Zen, meditators sit and focus on breathing for an hour or more. This is followed by walking meditation.
In Pure Land Buddhism, meditators achieve a vision of Amitabha in several stages.
Koan training
The first koan: “Does a dog have a buddha-nature?”
“Yes” makes sense, because all living things have buddha-nature.
However, the correct answer is “No”, which means “nothingness”, the true meaning of the buddha mind. “No” is an affirmation, and to say it means you have broken through ordinary consciousness.
“How then are meditation and wisdom alike? They are like the lamp and the light it gives forth. If there is a lamp there is light; if there is no lamp there is no light. The lamp is the substance of the light; the light is the function of the lamp. Thus, although they have two names, in substance they are not two. Meditation and wisdom are like this.”
Third Vehicle: Vajrayana
Vajrayana Buddhism is the newest vehicle. Adherents call it the “third turning of the wheel of dharma”.
Vajrayana Buddhism is dominant in Tibet, Bhutan, and Mongolia.
It is the most connected to the Hindu-Vedic tradition of all contemporary Buddhist schools
Mantras and Tantra
Mantras are important to Vajrayana Buddhists.
“Om Mani Padme Hum” – “Om Jewel Lotus Hum”
Tantric Buddhism, like in Hindu tantra, seeks to harness the esoteric energies of male and female energies. This is symbolized by sacred designs called mandalas.
Vajrayana in Tibet
Buddhism came late to Tibet, and evolved unique features.
Tibetan Book of the Dead – to be read aloud to the dying.
The Dalai Lama – In the 16th century, a Tibetan Buddhist missionary went to Mongolia and converted its ruler. The ruler appointed him the Dalai Lama, or “Ocean of Wisdom”.
Since then, the spiritual and temporal leadership of Tibet passed through Dalai Lamas.
Today’s Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is the fourteenth. He lives in exile in India.
In China, the bodhisattva Maitreya was combined with the figure of the laughing monk Mi-Lo, and widely venerated in China as a giver of good luck.
Popular Buddhism
Stupas and Pagodas
Stupas (or pagodas) are large tombs which devotees circumambulate in a clockwise direction.
Temples
Buddhist temples grew out of monasteries. They usually involve simple halls with an image of the Buddha or bodhisattvas at their center.
Their hands make mudras, or special signs.
Monasteries
Buddhism in modern India
Buddhism faded in India after the second century CE, and was replaced by a renewed Hinduism.
Recently, Buddhism has attracted low-caste Hindus.
Bhimrao Ambedkar, a prominent Indian politician, presided over a mass conversion of thousands of fellow Dalits (outcastes) to Buddhism in 1956.
Another mass conversion took place in 2007.
Buddhism in Southeast Asia
Theravada Buddhism in strong in Southeast Asia. In Myanmar and Thailand, the monastic tradition continues uninterrupted.
In Cambodia and Laos, a communist history meant that monasticism was somewhat weakened.
In Vietnam, the predominant faith is Mahayana Buddhism of the Pure Land style.
Buddhism in modern China, Korea, and Japan
Pure Land and Chen Mahayana Buddhism remain important in China.
The Chinese government leaves Han Chinese Buddhist communities alone, but heavily regulates the Vajrayana community of Tibet.
The Jodo (Pure Land) and Zen forms of Mahayana Buddhism thrive in Japan.
In Korea, Buddhism is ceding ground to Christianity.
Buddhism in the West
The West has been fascinated by Buddhism since the 19th century.
In particular, Westerners are attracted by
the absence of a supreme deity
Buddhism’s focus on the mind, consciousness, and the self
Its emphasis on meditation
Its tradition of nonviolence
Buddhism, to many Westerners, is the religion that most closely reinforces secular, humanistic values.
Vipassana and Zen meditation techniques have become the foundation of modern “mindfulness” meditation practices.
Ethnic congregations
Conflicts
Buddhists are not exempt from political violence
The Buddhist majority in Myanmar is currently accuse of waging an ethnic cleansing campaign against the country’s Muslim minority, the Rohingya. Many have fled to Bangladesh
The Buddhist majority in Sri Lanka has waged a long war against Tamil Hindu separatists in its north.
