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The Bauddha Darśana 2

Buddhism flourished in india from the time of king

aśoka till mogul and gupta dynasty
From 6 th to 12 th century
It is a reaction against brāhmiṇical hegemony
Two extremes existing at the time of buddha were:
Cārvāka’s materialistic world-view
Extreme asceticism or brāhmiṇical ritualism
Buddha came into the scene with his middle-path.
 SIDDHĀRTHA GAUTAMA BUDDHA AND HIS LIFE
Siddhārtha Gautama was born in the sixth century BCE 3
Lumbiṇi, to the North of the holy Indian city of Varanasi.
His father Śuddhodana was king of the śākya clan.
His mother was Māyādevi.
Siddhārtha married Yaśodhara
Turning point in life:
An old man with bent body and legs trembling with old age
A man who was desperately ill
A dead body being carried to the cremation ground
A monk dressed in saffron robes

Old age, sickness and death were the fate of all human beings
Illusory nature of the existence
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Yashodhara wife gave birth to a son, rahula
That night he left the palace
Prince siddhārtha became a wandering mendicant
He was enlightened under a Pīpal tree = bodhi tree - bodh
gaya
Teaching at sāranāth was the buddha’s first turning of the
‘wheel of dharma’
He taught four noble truths
Three jewels of Buddhism
Five disciples became the first members of the Sangha
Buddhist Scriptures – Tipiṭaka
= three baskets 5
Sūtta Piṭaka = general discourse of Buddha
Vinaya Piṭaka = Explanations of the rules of monastic discipline
Abhidhamma Piṭaka = a Collection of Buddha’s teachings

Main Teachings of Buddha

The four noble truths
Theory of momentariness/ Anityavāda / aniccavāda
Theory of dependent origination/ Pratityasamutpāda / Paticcasamuppāda
‘No-soulness’ theory/ Anātmavāda or Niratmyavāda / anāttavāda
Law of Karma
Law of Transmigration
Eight fold Noble path
Middle Path
Aristotle = Virtue lies in the middle 6
A life given to pleasures vs a life given to self-torture
Moderation is very much needed
Middle path is responding to the continuous
That which has no beginning and end doesn’t have middle point

Four Noble Truths

Kernel of Buddha’s teaching is contained in
Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path.
The truth that there is suffering
The truth that there is cause for the suffering
The truth that there is cessation of suffering
Truth that there is a path leading to the cessation of suffering
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First Truth: Sabbam Duḥkham
misery is not simply causal,
it is ordinarily present in all forms of existence

Duḥkha is explained according to three different patterns:

The Duḥkha of ordinary suffering
The Duḥkha produced by change
The Duḥkha of conditioned states
 Second Truth: Duḥkha Samudaya 8
truth of the origin of Duḥkha
Duḥkha is commonly explained as craving conditioned by ignorance
Craving for sense-pleasures
Craving to be
Craving not to be

Three poisons as the root cause of suffering are:

Ignorance: misunderstanding of the nature of reality; bewilderment.
Attachment: attachment to pleasurable experiences.
Aversion: a fear of getting what we don't want, or not getting what we do want.
Third Truth: Duḥkha Nirodha 9
Truth of the cessation of Duḥkha.
Cessation is the goal of one’s spiritual practice
Cessation is often equated with nirvāṇa

Fourth Truth: Duḥkha Nirodha-Gāminī Pratipat

Path to the cessation of Duḥkha.
It is an ethical and spiritual path
Noble Eightfold Path
Eight-fold Noble path 10
Right view
Right intention
Right speech
Right action
Right livelihood
Right effort
Right mindfulness
Right meditative concentration
Significant dimensions of one’s behaviour—mental, spoken, and bodily
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Three marks of existence / Tri-lakṣaṇa
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These are also called “three cardinal principles.”
Everything is duḥkha
Everything is anitya– theory of impermanence
Everything is anātman – “no-soul” or “no-self”
Therefore, do not rely on others, but work on yourself

Philosophy of Soul / Anātmavāda

Brāhmāṇical schools say that there is substantial self
Buddha - there is no substantial self
There is no immortal soul.
The universe is soulless.
Soul is the stream of consciousness.
Causality / Pratītyasamutpāda
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Theory of dependent origination
In the empirical world everything is relative, conditional
dependent, subject to birth and death and therefore impermanent
The causal formula is: this being, that arises
Depending on the cause, the effect arises
present reality is dependent on the former reality

Pratītyasamutpāda can be explained in four premises

When this is, that is
When this is arising, that arises
When this is not, that is not
When this is ceasing, that ceases
Thus we get the twelve links of the Causal Wheel of Dependent Origination:
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1. Ignorance (avidyā)
2. Impressions of karmic forces (samskāra)
3. Initial consciousness of the embryo (vijñāna)
4. Psycho-physical organism (nāmarūpa)
5. Six sense organs (ṣaḍāyatana)
6. Sense-object-contact (sparśa)
7. Sense experience (vedanā)
8. Thirst for sense enjoyment (tṛṣṇā)
9. Clinging to this enjoyment (upādāna)
10. Will to be born (bhava)
11. Birth or rebirth (jāti)
12. Old age and death (jarā-maraṇa)
Pratītyasamutpāda is the solution Buddha found
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for his experience of disease, old age and death.
Why do we suffer old age and death? Because we are born.
Why are we born? Because there is a will to be born.
Ignorance is the root-cause of all suffering.
First two are related to past life
The last two to future life
Rest to present life
This is the cycle of birth and death
It can be destroyed only when its root-cause, Ignorance is destroyed
Ignorance can be destroyed only by Knowledge.
Ignorance is bondage; knowledge is liberation.
Theory of Momentariness / Kṣaṇikavāda 16
Things depend on their causes and conditions
Because things are relative, dependent, conditional
and finite, they must be momentary
To say that a thing arises depending on its cause is to
admit that it is momentary
That which arises, born, produces, must be subject to
death and destruction
impermanent
Therefore, momentary.
Karma and Rebirth
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As the word ‘chariot’ stands for an assemblage of certain parts,
The word ‘self’ stands for the aggregate of the five factors.
Cārvāka rejected soul, rebirth etc., but accepted consciousness.
Buddhism accepted rebirth but not soul.

Every human person is made up of five skandhas

1. Rūpa - form / material qualities
2. Vedanā – Sensation / feeling
3. Saṃjña /Saññā – cognition / perception
4. Saṃskāra / Sankhāra – mental disposition
5. Vijñāna / viññāṇa – consciousness
Epistemology
Early Buddhism accepts two valid means of knowledge: 18
pratyakṣa and anumāna.
Testimony seems to be criticized and rejected.
Within Pratyakṣa, intuition is the highest source
Buddha rejects any claims for supernatural knowledge.

Ethics and Morality

Buddhism is known for its ethics
Love is the Chief of virtues (Pāli, mettā)
friendliness, good will, or benevolence
Five moral precepts of Buddhism are:
abstaining from killing;
abstaining from taking what has not been given;
abstaining from sexual misconduct;
abstaining from false speech; and
abstaining from intoxicants that cloud the mind.
Concept of Salvation
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nirvāṇa / nibbāṇa = Complete cessation of suffering
Liberation from desire, ignorance, suffering, death and rebirth
Extinction of the flame of the lamp
blowing out, dissolution of the five skandhas.

The ideal state in all the schools of Buddhism is to become

‘boddhisattva.’
Bodhisattva is one who gets the qualification to become
Buddha.
Latter development: Four Main schools 20
Buddhism got divided into two main schools:
Hīnayāna (Theravada) and Mahāyāna
Hīnayānā school is more orthodox
Mahāyāna is open minded
Hīnayāna (Theravada) is further divided into:
vaibhasika, sautantrika
Mahāyāna is further divided into:
madhyamika and yogacāra
Vaibhaṣika School: Reality is both Mental and external
It could be perceived directly
Sautrāntika School: Reality is both Mental and external
It could be perceived only through inference.
Mādhyamika school: There is No reality, neither Mental nor external. = śūnyavāda
Yogācāra School: Reality is only Mental not external
It can be perceived only through inference = vijñānavāda.
Prominent Symbols used in Buddhism
Dharmacakra 21
The wheel of Truth has eight spokes
It represents the four Noble Truths
Eight-Fold Path to get rid of duḥkha
The 3 swirling segments represent the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha
The wheel can also be divided into three parts:
Hub (discipline), Spokes (wisdom), Rim (concentration)

The Bodhi Tree:

Tree under which the Buddha achieved enlightenment

Four Lions with a Wheel around the Pillar

Pillar of Asoka: the Lions of Saranath.
Saranath is where the Buddha first preached
Lions echo his teachings to the four quarters of the world
‘Lion’s Roar’
An Act of Veneration:
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Namo tassa Bhagavato Arhato Sammāsambuddhassa
Meaning:
Veneration to the Blessed One, the Enlightened One,
the Perfectly Enlightened One, the Enlightened One.
Taking the Three Refuge in Tri-Ratna
Buddhaṃ Saraṇaṁ gacchāmi 23
Dhammaṃ Saraṇaṁ gacchāmi
Sanghaṃ Saraṇaṁ gacchāmi

Final Remarks
Buddhism gives prominence to axiology
In the West, Buddhism got flourished because of dogmatism of Christianity
In India, it helped Dalits to come out of Hindu ritualism
Mahatma Gandhi said Dalits can have liberation in Hinduism.
Ambedkar found Buddhism as the shelter for the Dalits
There are two approaches in Buddhism:
Buddhism is different from Hinduism
Buddhism is offshoot of Hinduism