Introduction to Buddhism Origins of Buddhism The origins

Introduction to Buddhism

Origins of Buddhism • The origins of Buddhism lie in ancient India. • The religious landscape of the time was shaped by the ideology of the Aryas, a nomadic group who travelled into India around the beginning of the second millennium BCE. • The teachings of the social group known as brahmanas are found within texts such as the Ṛg Veda and Upaniṣads. These contain teachings, philosophies and ritual guides. • The Brahmanic tradition also introduced the caste system. • There were also ascetic movements found within India which had ideologies that did not necessarily agree with brahmanic thought.

Who is the Buddha? • The dates that the Buddha lived are not agreed upon, but generally placed around 400 -500 BCE. • The Buddha appears in Buddhist literature under a number of names. His name is given as Gautama (Pali: Gotama). He is only referred to as the Buddha after his enlightenment. • He is also referred to as Śākyamuni Buddha, literally meaning sage (muni) of the Śākya clan. It is believed that he was born in what is now South Nepal. • The Buddha has the 32 marks of a great man (Sanskrit: mahāpuruṣa-lakṣaṇa/ Pali: mahāpuriṣa-lakkhaṇa)

Hagiography of the Buddha • The life story of the Buddha is taken from a variety of sources such as the Mahāvastu, Nidānakathā and Buddhacarita. • Many aeons ago an ascetic called Sumedha encountered the Buddha Dīpaṃkara and vowed to become a buddha himself, cultivating the necessary qualities and becoming a bodhisattva. • The Jātakas show the various kind deeds of the Bodhisattva before he became the Buddha. • When the previous buddha’s teaching had been lost the Bodhisattva descended from Tuṣita into his mother’s womb. That night his mother dreamt of a white elephant carrying a white lotus entering her womb. • After 10 lunar months the Bodhisattva was born. He was delivered whilst his mother was standing. As soon as he was born he took 7 steps and declared, ‘I am chief in the world, I am the best in the world, I am first in the world. This is my last birth. There will be no further rebirth. ’ • Seven days after the birth his mother died and was reborn in Tuṣita.

Hagiography Continued • He was part of the Śākya clan in the kṣatryia family whose name was Gautama. He was known as Siddhārtha. • As he grew up he forgot his previous births, but predictions of his greatness were made to his father. This was made apparent by the 32 marks that were found upon his body. It was predicted that he could have one of two destinies: he could become a great ‘wheel turning’ king (cakravartin/cakkavattin) or a buddha. • His father wanted him to become a powerful king and so arranged that his son should be provided with every pleasure and comfort and sheltered from all things ugly and unpleasant so that he would not renounce and become an ascetic. • The Bodhisattva married Yaśodharā and had a child called Rāhula. • The Bodhisattva rides with his charioteer and sees an old man, a sick man, a corpse and an ascetic. Upon seeing this he decides to leave his home and become an ascetic.

Hagiography continued • The Bodhisattva spent the next 6 years practicing a number of ascetic techniques such as meditation, gradually ending up practicing severe austerities with five other ascetics where he became emaciated. • Finding that these methods did not work he accepted an offering of food and settled himself under a Bodhi tree, determining that he would not move until he had attained complete awakening. Many gods gathered to watch knowing that something important was happening. • Māra appeared with his army and tried to distract the Bodhisattva from his meditation with desire, fear, doubt, hunger and thirst, and tiredness. He sent his beautiful daughters and great storms but the Bodhisattva remained unmoved. • When Māra asked the Bodhisattva what right he had to sit under the tree the Bodhisattva responded and said that it was because of his many aeons practicing the perfections. Māra then claimed that he had also achieved this and his armies with vouch for him. The Bodhisattva touches the ground and calls on the earth as his witness. On this action the ground trembled and Māra was knocked from his elephant and his armies ran away, signifying his defeat. The Buddha had attained enlightenment.

The Four Noble Truths • After his enlightenment the Buddha is believed to given his first discourse on the topic of the Four Noble Truths, known in Pali as the Dharmacakkappavattana Sutta. • Suffering (duḥkha/dukkha): all that is unenlightened is marked by this. Perhaps a more useful translation is ‘dis-ease’. • Origin (samudaya): the origin of dukkha lies in craving (tṛṣṇā/ taṇhā). The unenlightened crave sensuals pleasures, things that they do not have and the removal of things that they do not want. The root of this lies in ignorance. • Cessation (nirodha): the cessation of dukkha, will come through the cessation of ignorant thought and action. In other words, the only cure for dukkha is nirvāṇa/ nibbāna. • Way (mārga/ magga): the path to enlightenment is outlined in in the eightfold path.

Saṃsāra • Saṃsāra is not a place, instead it is the type of existence experienced by all unenlightened beings. • Unenlightened beings are caught in perpetual cycle of life, death and rebirth. • Saṃsāric existence is conditioned by three marks: impermanence (anitya/ anicca), not-Self (anātman/ anattā), and dis-ease (duḥkha/dukkha). • As there is no permanence there is no stability. Saṃsāric existence is in a constant state of flux and change. • The teaching of anātman outlines that there is nothing that has a permanent Self, there is no underlying consciousness or sense of person that is carried from life to life. • There is no being that can be classed as immortal, even the gods (devas) that are found in Buddhist thought will one day die.

Karma • Karma or kamma can be translated as ‘action’. • In the brahmanical society it was initially understood in terms of ritual behaviour. If one performed a certain ritual action it would have a specific result. • Ideas concerning karma evolved and all actions were understood to cause an effect. Actions performed by an individual would cause some sort of effect on the individual in this life, or even in a later life. • In Buddhist thought karma has a causative nature. The actions that are intentionally performed by the individual will have a particular karmic result. Well-intentioned good deeds will result in a pleasant and favourable karmic result whilst malicious and hurtful misdeeds will result in a poor and unfavourable karmic result. • Karma does not always have immediate results, but can take many lifetimes to have an effect.

Dependent Origination • Buddhism offers a system of causation known as Dependent Origination (pratītyasamutpadā/ paṭiccasmuppāda). • This system of thought maintains that everything has been caused into existence. Nothing has been created ex nihilo. • This is useful in understanding how there can be rebirth without a belief in a soul. When a person is alive they accumulate karma, this does not simply disappear at death. Instead, due to the remaining karmic seeds a new being is caused into existence so that remaining karmic results may take place. • In relation to rebirth, the Buddha taught a twelvefold formula for Dependent Origination in the Mahānidāna Sutta.

Dependent Origination Continued • “conditioned by ignorance are formations, conditioned by formations is consciousness, conditioned by consciousness is mind-and-body, conditioned by mindand-body are the six senses, conditioned by the sixsenses is sense contact, conditioned by sense contact is feeling, conditioned by feeling is craving , conditioned by craving is attachment, conditioned by attachment is becoming, conditioned by becoming is birth, conditioned by birth is old age and death” Saṃyutta Nikāya

Nirvāṇa • Nirvāṇa/nibbana, as with saṃsāra, is not a place. Instead it is a form of existence which is free from the conditions of saṃsāra. • Nirvāṇa is attained through seeing the world as it really is (yathābhūtadarśana). One must have a complete understanding of the nature of Dependent Origination, saṃsāra, and karma. • Nirvāṇa is often described using negatives. This is to show that it is not conditioned, there is no death, no rebirth, no karma. • The Buddha had attained enlightenment during his lifetime, he did not die nor did he vanish. Despite being enlightened he still had to receive the results of previous karmic actions. It should be remembered that one enlightened the Buddha was not producing any karma. • Upon death a person who has nirvāṇic existence is understood to enter a state known as parinirvāṇa/ parinibbana.

Monastic Order • In the religious landscape that Buddhism arose in there was an emphasis based on the importance of a lineage of teachers and disciples. The Buddha had his own disciples who went on to teach the Dharma (the teachings of the Buddha) to their pupils. This lead to the creation of a monastic community which is known as the Saṅgha. • The Buddha ordained monks (bhikkhus) and nuns (bhikkhunis) during his lifetime and there was the creation of the Vinaya, a text outlining the rules of the monastic community. • The Saṅgha appears to be a single entity until several years after the Buddha’s death when there was a disagreement between Saṅgha (the reason for this is still the subject of debate for scholars) and the Saṅgha split into two. The two sects were known as the sthaviras/ theras (elders) and the mahāsāṃghikas (those of the great community).

Types of Buddhist Practice • The split in the Saṅgha saw the creation of different schools of thought within Buddhism. After the initial spilt, more divisions in the Saṅgha occurred. • The different approaches towards the Buddha’s teaching can be split into two different parties: Mainstream Buddhism and Mahāyāna Buddhism. • Mainstream Buddhist schools include: Sarvāstivāda, Sautrāntika, Theravāda, Pudgalavāda, and Mahāsāṃghika. • In modern Buddhism the only surviving mainstream school is Theravāda Buddhism. • Mahāyāna schools include: Zen/Chan, Pure Land, Shingon, Tendai, Nichiren, and Tibetan Buddhism.