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Brahmanical Religion
- follow the Vedic tradition (outlined by the Vedas)
- The Buddha was raised in the time of this religion along with sramana religion (renouncers)
- There were 4 classes: priests, warriors/royalty, commoners, servants
- Practicioners would perform rituals and sacrifices to the gods for well-being
- There were 4 stages of life: student, householder, forest-dweller, wandering renouncer
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Rebirth
- Part of Samsara (cyclical existence)
- According to Buddhism, by achieving nirvana you can escape the cycle of rebirth
- Your rebirth is determined by your karma from past lives
- Everyone has been reborn multiple times, ex: the Buddha had 547 lives before becoming enlightened
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Karma
- Defined by the Buddha as intentional, ethical ACTION
- Means "action" or "deed" in Sanskrit
- In Buddhism, your actions bring good and bad karma which affects your rebirth, like what realm you will be born in.
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Dharma
- In Brahmanical tradition, dharma literally meant "righteousness" or "duty" Each class had its own dharma
- In Buddhism, dharma refers to the teachings of the Buddha
- It includes all his sermons and doctrinal pronouncements
- Symbolized by the wheel of life and two deer
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Samsara
- Means "wandering on"
- The cycle of death and rebirth
- According to Buddhism, by reaching nirvana, you can escape samsara
- Samsara is associated with suffering (duhka)
- It is represented in the Wheel of Life
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Sramana
- Means "striver" in Sanskrit
- A sramana is a renouncer
- They sought to escape samsara by stopping the process of karma by not acting
- The Buddha saw the sramana and materialistic lifestyles to be too extreme, which led him to create the Middle Path
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Buddha
- Means "the Awakened One"
- This name was given to Siddhartha Gautama after he achieved enlightenment
- According to Buddhist beliefs, there is a Buddha for each age, Gautama is just the Buddha of our age
- The Buddha is one of the three Refuges
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Shakyamuni/Siddhartha Gautama
- Both are names for the Buddha
- Shakyamuni means "the sage from Sakyas)
- History has proved that this is a real person who became known as the Buddha after attaining enlightenment
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Bodhisattva
- "Being-awakened"
- a person who is on the path of attaining enlightenment, they are usually pretty far along
- It generally means a future Buddha
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Jataka
- Literally means "Birth Story"
- It is a collection of 550 tales of the Buddha's past lives as a Bodhisattva
- Begins with the tale of Sumati- the Brahmin boy who vows to Buddha of the age to attain enlightenment one day
- Part of the Sutta Pitaka in the Pali Canon
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Mara
- Derived from the Sanskrit verb meaning "to die"
- The name of the demon who tempted the Buddha with his three daughters- Discontent, Delight and Desire
- It is depicted as a real individual in stories and is meant to personify temptation
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4 Signs
- When Siddhartha is a member of the royal class, he is kept in the palace by his father the King who wants his son to unify the kingdoms and be a great ruler, not a sage. He does this so he will only see happines
- One day Siddhartha Gautama escaped the palace and he saw the 4 signs:
- Old Man, Sick Man, Corpse, Ascetic
- This convinced him that the world was imperfect and he knew he could not find happiness in samsara--> led him to seek enlightenment
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Sujata
- The first laywoman
- She offered food to the Buddha right before he attained enlightenment
- After eating the milk-rice, the Buddha realized how much more clear his thoughts were with some food
- This led him to decided that the sramana path was too extreme
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Rahula
- The Buddha's son, his name means "to fetter"
- His mother Yasodhara presented him to the Buddha after hearing he (her husband) had obtained enlightenment
- Rahula became the first novice monk at age 7
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Nirvana
- Literally means to "blow out" or "extinguish"
- It is the goal of Buddhist religious practice, an escape from samsara and suffering
- It can be reached by following the 8-fold path
- It is real but it is beyond our understanding and description, we have to experience it
- There are two types (Parinirvana-Nirvana w/out remainder and Nirvana with Remainder_
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Parinirvana
- The final "blowing out"
- A state of permanent Nirvana, ends samsara
- It is Nirvana w/out Remainder
- The Buddha achieved this at his death
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Bodgaya
- The birthplace of Buddhism
- It is the place where the Buddha obtained enlightenment
- He is said to have reached enlightenment at a bodhi tree (tree of liberation)
- His meditation and insight led to:
- 1st Watch: his past lives
- 2nd Watch: sees others' past lives
- 3rd Watch: destroyed all desires an ignorance
- 4th Watch: calls the Earth to witness that his is awakened
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Deer Park/ Sarnuth
- Where the Buddha preached his first sermon to the five ascetics
- The 5 ascetics originally mocked the Buddha's Middle Path, but once realizing that he had reached Enlightenment, they followed him- became the first monks
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Lumbini
- Where Queen Mayadevi gave birth to Siddhartha Gautama, who later became the Buddha
- He lived here for the first part of his life until he saw the 4 signs and left to seek Enlightenment
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Yashodhara
- The wife of Siddhartha before he ronounced his wordly life to become a sramana
- When she learned that the Buddha was her husband, she brought her son, Rahula, to him
- He became the first Novice Monk
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Mahaprajapati
- The sister of Queen Maya, the mother of Siddhartha Gautama
- After Queen Maya died, she raised Siddhartha
- She became the first Buddhist nun
- She led a group of women who followed the Buddha's teachings
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Mt. Meru
- The center of the Buddhist Cosmos
- It is the center of the three realms:
- The Desire Realm
- The Form Realm
- The Formless Realm
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3 Realms of the World
- Part of the Buddhist Cosmos, centered around Mt. Meru
- The Desire Realm (kama-dhatu)
- The Form Realm- (rupa-dhatu)
- The Formless Realm (arupa-dhatu)
- Each has sub realms
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Dharmachakra
- The Wheel of Life, symbolizes samsara, life cycle and the flow of life
- It contains the 12 Links of Conditionality, the 6 realms you can be born into, and the 3 poisons
- Yama- the Lord of Death holds the wheel of life, he weighs your karma at the time of your death
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12 Links of Conditionality (Dependent Origination)
- Depicted on the Outside of the Wheel of Life
- Represents the idea that nothing in this world comes to be of its own volition, it follows the 12 links
- Divided into features of: past life, present life and future life
- 1. Ignorance
- 2. Karma formations
- 3. Consciousness
- 4. Name and Form
- 5. 6 Sense Organs
- 6. Contact
- 7. Sensation
- 8. Craving
- 9. Clinging/Grasping
- 10. Becoming
- 11. Birth
- 12. Death/old age
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Triratna
- 3 Jewels:
- The Buddha, Dharma, Sangha
- These are the 3 Refuges that practitioners take a vow to find refuge in the master, his teachings and teh community (his followers)
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Refuge/ the 3 Refuges
- The 3 Jewels
- This is the first step to becoming a monk--> you state refuge
- You can enter Refuge as either a layperson or a monastic
- The 3 Refuges are the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha
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Yama
- The lord of Death
- He is depicted as holding the wheel of life
- He represents karma
- Weights the good and bad deeds of a person at the time of their death
- He is not actually a good- just a representation of the concept of karma
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10 Non-Virtuous Actions
- The are unwholesome actions
- Also represented in the 10 precepts taken by monks
- Divided into body, speech and mind
- 1. Killing
- 2. Stealing
- 3. Sexual Misconduct
- 4. Lying
- 5. Divisive Speech
- 6. Hurtful Speech
- 7. Gossip
- 8. Covetousness
- 9. Ill-will
- 10. Wrong Views
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3 Characteristics of Samsara/Cyclic Existence
- Impermanence- nothing lasts forever or is permanently existing
- No-Self- we do not have a self, we are just a combination of the 5 aggregates
- Dissatisfactoriness- "duhka"the world is inherently dissatisfactory, happiness is impermanent
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Dependent Arising
- All things arise and pass away due to certain conditions. When necessary conditions are present to support a thing's existence, it comes to be (as a combination of the 5 aggregates)
- This was very important to the dharma of the Buddha, comprehension of dependent arising is necessary to the awakened Buddhist experience of life
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5 Aggregates
- We do not have a self (atman), but we are instead are constituted by the 5 aggregates:
- Form
- Sensaton
- Perception
- Mental Formation
- Consciousness
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Anatman
- The Buddhist idea of no-self
- We do not have souls that transfer from life to life, we are only ever constituted by the 5 aggregates and come about due to dependent arising
- Contradicts the Hindu idea of a pure, eternal self (atman)
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4 Noble Truths (arya satyas)
- The basic teachings of the Buddha:
- 1. Life is Dissatisfactory, suffering
- 2. The origination/cause of suffering (craving, desire)
- 3. The cessastion of suffering (nirvana)
- 4. The way leading to cessation of suffering (8 fold path)
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8 Fold Path
- Path that leads to Nirvana or cessation of suffering. Part of the 4th Noble Truth
- It is the way to bring samsara to an end, but is not meant to be checked of one by one
- 1. Right Understanding
- 2. Right Thought
- 3. Right Speech
- 4. Right Action
- 5. Right Livelihood
- 6. Right Effort
- 7. Right Mindfulness
- 8. Right Concentration
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Dana
- "giving" or "charity"
- For the layperson, it means giving food, clothing, etc to the monastic members of the sangha. For a monastic, it means giving advice, teachings, etc to the laity.
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Shamata
- Calm Meditation
- It is meant to cultivate concentration
- It is the basic practices of metiation which needs harmony between physical presence and posture
- Only with a calm mind can you contemplate the issues (through Insight meditation)
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Vipassana
- Insight Meditation
- Cultivates Wisdom, but you must have a basis of calm meditation before you can start contemplating issues
- You must master 5 obstacles to meditation: sensual desires, aversion, sloth/torpor, restlessness, doubt
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Satipatthanasutta
- Discourses on teh Establishment of Mindfulness
- A sutta of the Pali Canon
- It outlines the essentials of Buddhist meditation
- It states that there are 4 Foundations of Mindfulness: Mindfulness of the body, feelings, mental states, and intelectual topics
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Tripitaka
- "3 Baskets"
- It is universally accepted by Buddhists as the teachings of the Buddha
- The Sutra-pitka and Vinaya-Pitaka are said to have been recited at the First Council (following the death of the Buddha)
- The Abhidharma-pitaka is a doctrinal and textual analysis of the teachings
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Sutra-pitaka
- Part of the 3 Baskets
- It relates the original teachings of the Buddha
- There are 4 collections of the Buddha's Teachings
- Broken up into 5 Agamas (Nikayas)
- Recited by Ananda at First Council
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Vinaya-Pitaka
- Part of the Tripitaka (3 Baskets)
- It is the code of discipline for monastics
- Upali recited the Vinaya code of monastic discipline at the First Council after the Buddha's death
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Pratimoksha
- A code of monastic offenses which is recited twice montly at a ceremony and is the primary tool for the enforcement of monastic discipline
- It contains 227 rules for men and 311 for nuns
- Durint its recitation, a monastic is required to confess to their misdeeds
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Duhkha
- "suffering"
- It is the first of the 4 Noble Truths
- All life is characterized by suffering, and the only way to end suffering is to reach Nirvana
- Its cause is craving and desire
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Abhidarma-pitaka
- Part of the 3 Baskets
- It is the doctrinal and textual analysis of the teachings (dharma)
- Means "higher teachings"
- Was asked to be recited by Ananda at the First Council
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Buddhavacana
- Means "Buddha's Word"
- Refering to the teachings of the Buddha in Buddhist Scriptures
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Bhavana
- Means "bringing into being"
- Mental exercises aimed at developing and cultivating wholesome mental states conducive to the realization of the Buddhist Path
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Yoga
- Means "effort" "work" "yoke"
- Spiritual work and techniques through contemplation practices and physical exercises
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Pali Canon
- The Tripitaka of teh Therevada school of Buddhism the "elder's Teachings"
- Popular in South/SE Asia
- It contains 50 volumes and was written around 1st Centurty BCE
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