Post on 02-Apr-2015
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Buddhism
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Life of the Buddha6th century b.c.e.
Shakya Clan
Warrior Caste
Lumbini – Northern India
Father = ShuddhodanaMother = Maya
Siddhartha means:
“he through whom everything wonderful is accomplished”
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Legend
• Asita, a widely respected hermit came to see the child.
• He said: “either the child will become a king whose chariot wheels would roll everywhere or the greatest sage who would set the wheel of good law throughout the world.”
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Family Life
• Wife:Yasodhara• Son: Rahula
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4 passing sights
• Sickness• Old Age• Death• Sannyasin
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The Noble Eightfold Path 1) right understanding2) right intention3) right speech4) right action5) right livelihood6) right effort7) right concentration8) right mindfulness.
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Deer Park Sermon
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Buddhist TeachingsThe Dharma
The Dhammapada
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The Three Jewels
• I take refuge in the Buddha• I take refuge in the Dharma• I take refuge in the Sangha
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The Sangha
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The Five PreceptsBasic Moral Code
• Refrain from taking life• Refrain from Stealing• Refrain from sexual misconduct• Refrain from lying• Refrain from alcohol
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Three Main Divisions
• Theravada Buddhism– “doctrine of the elders”– Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand
• Mahayana Buddhism– “Great Vehicle”– Zen Buddhism– Pure Land Buddhism– Northern India, China, Japan
• Vajrayana Buddhism– “Diamond Vehicle”– Tibetan Buddhism
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TheravadaDoctrine/Teaching of the Elders
• No written records on early development of Buddhism. Earliest scriptures written about 400 years after Siddhartha.
• Theravada emphasizes a solitary life, detachment, seclusion for the sake of spiritual goals.
• Followers believe that this is the most authentic form of Buddhism.
• 100 million followers worldwide
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Theravada
• Ashoka: spread Buddhism. Son and daughter went to Sri Lanka as monk/nun and converted everyone. Also opened 10 original stupas which has the Buddha’s remains.
• Scriptures: 3 parts known as the Tipitaka or Three Baskets.
• Arhat: “worthy one”; saint; attained the ideal of spiritual perfection.
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The square base represents earth The hemispherical dome/vase represents water The conical spire represents fire The upper lotus parasol and the crescent moon represents air The sun and the dissolving point represents the element of space.
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Angkor Wat, Cambodia12th century
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Mahayana Buddhism
• “great vehicle”• Many different branches:
– China – Pure Land– Japan – Zen
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Mahayana BuddhismThe Bodhisattva
The nature of the Bodhisattva is apparent from a teaching story in which three people are walking through a desert. Parched and thirsty, they spy a high wall ahead. They approach and circumnavigate it, but it has no entrance or doorway. One climbs upon the shoulders of the others, looks inside, yells "Eureka" and jumps inside. The second then climbs up and repeats the actions of the first. The third laboriously climbs the wall without assistance and sees a lush garden inside the wall. It has cooling water, trees, fruit, etc. But, instead of jumping into the garden, the third person jumps back out into the desert and seeks out desert wanderers to tell them about the garden and how to find it. The third person is the Bodhisattva.
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Samantabhadra
• Represents great practice, which helps us create more discipline in our daily life.
• Riding and elephant – symbolizing the mind, since the elephant is the wildest of all animals when out of control and the most docile when trained.
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KsitigarbhaVowed to remain in hell, helping
all being to be released from hell – will only attain Buddhahood when hell is emptied.
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Maitreya• Future Buddha• Symbol of great
benevolence• Happy Buddha• Universal tolerance
towards all beings brings joy.
• Large belly = prosperity
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Avalokitesvara
• Pure Land = Kuan Yin• Tibetan = Dalai Lama• Compassion and love. • She can hear all suffering in
the world – will come to aid anyone who is suffering
• Many arms = immense power to help all people simultaneously
• Vase = limitless compassion to aid all suffering
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Manjusri
• Represents great wisdom – universal morality
• Lion = through wisdom one can tame one’s nature no matter how wild.
• Sword = destroying ignorance
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Sutra
• a classic religious text of Buddhism, especially one regarded as a discourse of the Buddha
• Literally, "thread" or "string." • A scripture containing the teachings of
Buddha.
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Well-known SutrasNew body of scriptures emerged around the1st century b.c.e – 1st century c.e.
– Heart Sutra: regarded by many as the essence of true wisdom – best known/most popular
– Diamond Sutra: focuses on the nature of emptiness. Can be read in 40 minutes - often memorized
– Lotus Sutra: emphasizes the grace of the eternal Buddha and councils enduring faith
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The Diamond Sutra:
Often repetitive dialogue regarding the nature of perception. The Buddha often uses paradoxical phrases like "What is called the highest teaching is not the highest teaching".
Buddha teaches Subhuti that what makes a Bodhistattva so great is that the Bodhisattva does not take pride in his work to save others, nor is his compassion calculated or contrived. The Bodhisattva practices sincere compassion that comes from deep within, without any sense of ego or gain.
A famous four-line verse appears at the end of the sutra, a list of vivid metaphors for impermanence:[5]
Thus shall you think of this fleeting world: A star at dawn, a bubble in a stream, A flash of lightning in a summer cloud, A flickering lamp, a phantom, and a dream.
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The Heart Sutra
Mahāmantro, mahā-vidyā mantro, ‘nuttara mantro samasama-mantraḥ“
The current Dalai Lama Dalai explains the mantra as both an instruction for practice and as a device for measuring one's own level of spiritual attainment, and translates it as go, go, go beyond, go thoroughly beyond, and establish yourself in enlightenment.
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Lotus Sutra
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Sunyata
• Emptiness
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Pure Land Buddhism
• China 2nd century c.e.• China, Japan (called Jodo), Korea, Vietnam• Nirvana has become increasingly difficult to
attain – need help!• Amitabha “Infinite Light”• Pure Land is where one has a better chance of
attaining nirvana.
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Amitabha(O mi to fo)
“bless you with infinite life and light (wisdom)”
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Medicine Buddha
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Shakyamuni Buddha
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Hsi Lai Temple3456 Glenmark DriveHacienda Heights, CA
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Arhat Garden
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Zen BuddhismChan (in Chinese)
• Zazen: seated meditation– Concentration– Koans– Shikantaza (just sitting)
Once the mind is able to be unhindered by its many layers, one will then be able to realize one's true Buddha nature
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Page 144
• “We deceive ourselves through becoming attached to the pleasures of this world and the diversity of objects we think we see. But we also deceive ourselves through becoming attached to the desire to escape attachment to the world. We are trapped by both out normal consciousness of the world and out desire to be liberated from it.”
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A Koan can get you Satori
• It consists of a story, dialogue, question, or statement; the meaning of which cannot be understood by rational thinking.
– One widely known kōan: "Two hands clap and there is a sound; what is the sound of one hand?"
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Bodhidharma
• Did he really exist?
• To China in 520 c.e.
• Wall-gazing Brahman– I’ve meditated and can’t
get up!– Tea anyone?
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Bloodstream Sermon (6th century c.e.)
Buddhas don't save Buddhas.
If you use your mind to look for a Buddha, you won't see the Buddha.
As long as you look for a Buddha somewhere else, you'll never see that your own mind is the Buddha.
Don't use a Buddha to worship a Buddha.
And don't use the mind to invoke a Buddha.
Buddhas don't recite sutras.
Buddhas don't keep precepts. And Buddha's don't break precepts. Buddhas don't keep or break anything.
Buddhas don't do good or evil.
To find a Buddha, you have to see your nature.
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Meeting with Emperor Wu of Liang
Emperor Wu took an interest in Buddhism and spent a great deal of public wealth on funding Buddhist monasteries in China. When he had heard that a great Buddhist teacher, Bodhidharma, had come to China, he sought an audience with him. When they met, Emperor Wu had asked how much karmic merit he had gained from his noble support of Buddhism. Bodhidharma replied, "None at all." The Emperor asked, "Then what is the truth of the teachings?" Bodhidharma replied, "Vast emptiness, nothing holy." So the emperor asked, "Then who are you standing in front of me?" Bodhidharma replied, "I do not know," and walked out.
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VajrayanaTibetan Buddhism
• Tibetan Buddhism includes a pantheon of Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and Dharma protectors.
• Arya-bodhisattvas are able to escape the cycle of death and rebirth but compassionately choose to remain in this world to assist others in reaching nirvana or buddhahood.
• Dharma protectors are mythic figures incorporated into Tibetan Buddhism from various sources (including the native Bön religion, and Hinduism) who are pledged to protecting and upholding the Dharma. Many of the specific figures are unique to Tibet.
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• Tibet remained independent until the early 1900s, when it was occupied first by Britain and then China. The Tibetans reasserted their independence from China in 1912 and retained it until 1951, when it was "liberated" by China.
• Today, Tibet is still occupied by China. The Dalai Lama, the spiritual and political leader of the Tibetan people, lives in exile in India, and Chinese officials outnumber Tibetans in their own homeland.
• Lhasa
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Buddhist Scriptures
• Between the 11th and 14th centuries, the Tibetans translated every available Buddhist text into Tibetan. Today, many Buddhist works that have been lost in their original Sanskrit survive only in Tibetan translation.
• The most famous Tibetan Buddhist text is the Bardo Thodol ("liberation through hearing in the intermediate state"), popularly known as the Tibetan Book of the Dead. The Bardo Thodol is a funerary text that describes the experiences of the soul during the interval between death and rebirth called bardo. It is recited by lamas over a dying or recently deceased person, or sometimes over an effigy of the deceased.
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Four School in Tibetan Buddhism
• Nyingmapa "School of the Ancients“is the oldest of the Tibetan Buddhist schools and the second largest after Geluk.
• Kagyüpa ("Oral Transmission School"; also spelled Bka'-brgyud-pa) is the third largest school of Tibetan Buddhism.
• Sakyapa is today the smallest of the four schools of Tibetan Buddhism.
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Gelugpa“yellow hats”
• youngest of the Tibetan schools, but is today the largest and the most important. It was founded in the late 14th century by Tsongkhapa, who "enforced strict monastic discipline, restored celibacy and the prohibition of alcohol and meat, established a higher standard of learning for monks, and, while continuing to respect the Vajrayana tradition of esotericism that was prevalent in Tibet, allowed Tantric and magical rites only in moderation."
• Practices are centered on achieving concentration through meditation and arousing the bodhisattva within.
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His Holiness The Dalai Lama
• The Dalai Lama is the head of the dominant school of Tibetan Buddhism, the Gelugpa (or Yellow Hats). From 1642 to 1959, the Dalai Lama was the spiritual and temporal leader of Tibet. Until the Chinese takeover in 1959.
• The current Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is the 14th in a line of succession that began with Gendün Drub (1391–1475), founder and abbot of Tashilhunpo monastery (central Tibet). He and his successors came to be regarded as reincarnations (tulkus) of the bodhisattva of compassion Avalokiteshvara.
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Dharamsala
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The Panchen Lama
The Panchen Lama is the second highest ranking figure in the Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism after the Dalai Lama. The Panchen Lama bears part of the responsibility for finding the incarnation of the Dalai Lama and vice versa. The current Dalai Lama identified Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the 11th reincarnation of the Panchen Lama on May 14, 1995. The People's Republic of China did not recognize this choice, naming Gyancain Norbu to the office of Panchen Lama instead. The whereabouts of the original Panchen Lama are currently unknown. Many observers believe that upon the death of the current Dalai Lama, China will direct the selection of a successor, thereby creating a schism and leadership vacuum in the Tibetan independence movement.
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Gyaincain Norbu(PRC)
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Mandala
• Mandala “ essence" + "having" or "containing", also translates as "circle-circumference" or "completion"; is a concentric diagram having spiritual and ritual significance in both Buddhism and Hinduism. In Tibetan Buddhism, mandalas have been developed into sand painting. They are also a key part of meditation practices.
• According to David Fontana, its symbolic nature can help one "to access progressively deeper levels of the unconscious, ultimately assisting mediator to experience a mystical sense of oneness with the ultimate unity from which the cosmos in all its manifold forms arises."
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Prayer Wheel
• a cylindrical “wheel” (Tibetan: 'khor) on a spindle made from metal, wood, stone, leather, or even coarse cotton.
• Traditionally, the mantra Om mani padme hum is written in Sanskrit externally on the wheel. spinning such a wheel will have much the same meritorious effect as orally recting the prayers.
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"Jesus and Buddha: The Parallel Sayings" edited by Marcus Borg,
Jesus: "Do to others as you would have them do to you." Luke 6:31Buddha: "Consider others as yourself." Dhammapada 10:1
Jesus: "If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also." Luke 6:29Buddha: "If anyone should give you a blow with his hand, with a stick, or with a knife, you should abandon any desires and utter no evil words." Majjhima Nikaya 21:6
Jesus: "Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me." Matthew 25:45Buddha: "If you do not tend to one another, then who is there to tend you? Whoever would tend me, he should tend the sick." Vinaya, Mahavagga 8:26.3