buddhism

buddhism

1. meditation

   • samatha / vipassana
     • samatha meditation (calming meditation) aims to still the mind
       • five hindrances
         • doubt
         • restlessness
         • ill-will
         • lust
         • laziness
       • divine abidings (four immeasurables)
         • sufficient for obtaining enlightenment, recommended for those with a hate disposition
         • metta (all loving)
         • karuna (all compassionate)
         • mudita (all sympathetic)
         • upekkha (all equanimity)
       • develops calm abiding of the mind which links to right effort from the eightfold path and leads to the first two jeans
     • vipassana meditation (insight meditation)
       • seven purifications
         • engagement in proper moral conduct (sila)
         • developing calm (samatha)
         • purification of view, breaking down the sense of self through constant direct awareness
           • five aggregates (heaps)
             • form (matter)
             • sensations (feelings)
             • perceptions
             • formations
             • consciousness
         • purification by overcoming doubt, awareness of interdependence of mind and body (understanding kamma)
         • knowing and seeing what is the way, and what is not the way, taking various groups of phenomena and seeing that they're all impermanent, suffering and not self
         • purification through knowing and seeing the path (magga) they attain a series of eight knowledges in a state of concentration
         • purification by knowing and seeing
       • directing the mind towards a deeper understanding of reality
       • only vipassana can lead to higher levels of chana so only it can lead to nibanna
       • cannot be practiced without samatha
   • eightfold path
     • right understanding (wisdom)
       • understanding of things as they are, the four noble truths explain things as they really are
     • right thought (wisdom)
       • denotes the thoughts of detachment, thoughts of love and non violence
     • right speech (ethical conduct)
       • absention from: telling liesbackbiting harsh language idle chat
     • right action (ethical conduct)
       • abstain from: destroying life stealing dishonest dealings illegitimate sexual intercourse
     • right livelihood (ethical conduct)
       • abstain from: harming others  intoxicating cheating clouding the mind
     • right effort (mental discipline)
       • prevent evil get rid of evil produce good and wholesome states of mind develop the good
     • right mindfulness (mental discipline)
       • be diligently aware, mindful and attentive with regard to: the activities of the body sensations or feelings activities of the mind ideas, thoughts, conceptions
     • right concentration (mental discipline)
       • four stages of Dhyana  passionate desires and drill are discarded, happiness and joy are maintained all intellectual activities are surpressed feeling of joy disappears all sensations disappear
   • jhanas
     • first jhana is characterised by applied thought, examination, joy, happiness and one pointedness of mind
     • second jhana has just joy, happiness and one pointedness, since consciously applied thought is no longer needed to place the mind on an object
     • third jhana lacks joy, which can become a disturbance, has only happiness and one pointedness
     • fourth jhana lacks happiness and possesses just one pointedness and equanimity. supposedly possible to develop supernatural powers

2. the buddha

   • birth and hedonistic upbringing
     • queen dreamt about a baby elephant blessing her side
     • lotus flowers grew in the footsteps of the buddha
       • signifying enlightenment
     • 3 palaces, one for each season
       • father tried to hide suffering and pain
         • when siddhartha left his father cleared streets of old and sick people
   • four passing sights
     • old man
     • sick man
     • dead man
     • holy man
       • asita, said buddha was be a king or holy man
   • asceticism
     • ascetics gave up home, family and world comforts
     • the tree leant down to cover him
     • a massive snake covered him to protect him from the rain
     • lived in silence in the forest for six years
       • drank rain, ate mud and natural food
     • 'if the string is too tight it will snap, if the string is too lose it will not play'
       • middle way
   • enlightenment
     • became the awakened one
       • realises that the entire earth is united by suffering
         • should not bathe in luxury, but should not abstain from comforts
           • five hindrances
     • parinirvana
       • when physical form dies, theres nothing to pass on, as he was enlightened he made no karmic choices
   • brahmanism / shramana
     • brahmanism - vedic religion
       • priests were brahmans
       • worshipped a pantheon of gods but there was a sense that they were all one
       • origins of the hindu caste system
       • buddha did not accept that being born into a class made you better
         • rejected vedic scriptures
         • rejected animal sacrifice
         • did not reject the gods, but saw them as also trapped in samsara
     • shaman movement
       • shraman - beggar
       • known as renouncers - quite alternative
       • key topics - soul, rebirth, release form material world
       • key methods - yoga, meditation, asceticism, fasting
       • rebirth run by fate not karma
       • buddha shared idea of rebirth, peace, karma, meditation
         • rejected individual separate soul
         • rejected materialists who believed death was the end
         • rejected eternalists who believed the soul was immortal and unchanging
         • rejected sceptics who don't believe in anything
   • nirvana
     • 'blowing out of the flames of desire'
   • first sermon
     • deer park
     • first sermon preserved as a discourse (sutta)
       • setting in motion the wheel of the dharma'
     • four noble truths
     • audience becomes 'stream enterer' (one who has achieved preliminary degree of spiritual understanding)
     • buddha disciples were known as arhats
   • death
     • kusinara

3. three refuges

   • the buddha
     • speaking of the historical buddha
     • buddha - nature, the absolute nature of all things
     • buddha may be a person who has awakened to enlightenment, or to enlightenment itself (bodhi)
   • the dharma
     • refers to the buddhas teachings, and also the law of karma and rebirth
     • two levels of dharma
       • the teachings of the buddha the buddhist path (nirvana)
     • unmediated truth
     • uncovered gradually through sustained practice
   • the sangha
     • group of buddhists, lay or monastic, who practice together
     • willing to work work with others in the dharma

4. samsara

   • six realms of existence
     • forms of existence into which beings are born according to their karma
     • the realm of gods (devas)
     • the jealous god realm
     • realm of hungry ghosts
     • the hell realm
     • the realm of animal beings
     • the human realm
   • wandering on
   • all conditioned existence
   • wheel of life
     • cycle of birth and rebirth
   • karma
     • means action - willed actions of the body and mind
   • rebirth
     • for brahmanism a soul (atman) is reincarnated
     • for buddhists there is no soul (anatto) there is only rebirth
     • nothing is handed on except the karmic charge
   • three poisons
     • cock - greed
     • snake - hatred
     • pig - ignorance
     • actions motivated by three poisons create karma and keep us in samsara

5. four noble truth

   • truth of suffering (dukkha)
     • four passing sights
     • satisfaction from desires only temporary
   • truth of the offering of suffering (samudaya)
     • three poisons
     • the fire sermon
   • truth of cessation of suffering (nirodha)
     • liberate selves from attachment
     • nirvana means extinguishing - extinguishing the three poisons after reaching enlightenment
   • truth to the path of cessation of suffering (magga)
     • eightfold path
     • middle way

6. three marks of existence

   • anicca (impermanence)
     • everything that is conditioned changes, except nirvana itself
   • dukkha (suffering)
   • anatta (not self)
     • denial that there is a soul (atman)
     • the buddha does not claim that there is definitely not a self, only that the self we tend to identify with is not fixed
     • if every part of our body changes then we can't have a fixed identity
     • five skhandas (aggregates)