02 - Basic Buddhist Teaching

8/9/2019 02 - Basic Buddhist Teaching

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Professor Guang Xing

CCCH9018: Lecture Two


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1. Introduction

• Unlike other religions, Buddhism never considers its teachingswhich are called Dharma as a divined revelation but merely as

an instrument for mental training as it shows in the well known

Buddhist simile that the Dharma is similar to a raft for crossing

over the stream of saṃsāra.


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1. Introduction• Buddhism has no Dogmas, but encourages critical reflections and analytical

understanding, because it is only through intuitive wisdom, ignorance, the rootof all human bondage and sufferings, can be dispelled. The Buddha said,

“The destruction of the cankers, monks, is for one who knows and sees,

I say, not for one who does not know and does not see .”

“This freedom of thought” as Venerable Rahula said, “is necessary because,according to the Buddha, man’s emancipation depends on his own realization

of Truth, and not on the benevolent grace of a god or any external power as

a reward for his obedient good behaviour .”

• Even the Buddha is neither a creator nor a saviour but

only a teacher who guides his disciples and followers to

practice the Dharma he discovered and this Dharma is

nothing but a way to realize truth.all powerful

mighty being


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2. Dependent Arising

•The doctrine of dependent arising or origination (Paḷi: Paticcasamupada , Skt: Pratītyasamutpāda) or sometimes called

causality is the central philosophy of Buddhism because all other

philosophical teachings such as the four noble truths, karma and rebirth,

no-soul and impermanence are based on this foundation. Hence it is said,

“One who sees dependent or igination sees the Dhamma,

and one who sees the Dhamma sees dependent or igination .”

“When this exists, that comes to be;

with the arising of this, that arises.

When this does not exist, that does not come to be;

with the cessation of this, that ceases.”


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•The doctrine of dependent arising is also called the Middle Teaching

because it rejects the two extreme views of the human condition that have

polarized reflective thought through the centuries: one is the metaphysical

thesis of eternalism and the other extreme is annihilationism.

1. The first Represents a religious view that everything is reducible to a common

ground, some sort of self-substance, like soul and god.

2. The second the opposite pluralistic view that the whole of existence is resolvable

into a concatenation of discrete entities.

an extreme form of realism

which asserts that everything

exists absolutely

an extreme form of nihilism,

which asserts that absolutely

nothing exists

the Middle Teaching


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•

This theory does not try to explain how the universe started, theultimate beginning and it also makes no attempt to solve the riddle of

an absolute origin of life.

What the theory intends to explain:

• The theory of dependent arising explains the conditionality,

or dependent nature, of all the manifold mental and physical

phenomena of existence; of everything that happens, be it in the realm

of the physical or the mental as Venerable Nyanaponika put it.

In other words, the theory explains how things work and proceed

rather than how things are formulated and begin. It explains how the

phenomena in the world arise and disappear, particularly the process

of human life.


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The implications of the theory are as follows:

1. Everything in this world is interdependent,

therefore, nothing is permanent .

2. Everything in this world is interrelated,

therefore, nothing is independent .

3. Everything in this world is relative,

therefore, nothing is absolute .

Hence, everything in this world is interdependent ,

interrelated and relative.

permanent

independent

absolute

inter-dependent

inter-related

relative


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singlecause

singleeffect

multipleeffects

singlecause

multipleeffects

multiplecauses

everythinghappens by

chancefatalism determinism


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•

This theory mainly explains human life.

• According to this theory, life is not an identity, it is a becoming. It is a flux of

psychological and physiological changes, a conflux of mind and body.

• Just as Bhikkhu Bodhi said, “The ultimate purpose of

the teaching on dependent origination is to expose the conditions

that sustain the round of rebirths, samsara, so as to show

what must be done to gain release from the round .”

• The Buddha further explains the process of human life into twelve factors

with an aim to illustrate the human bondage and his freedom. It is expounded

in two orders by way of origination to explain the arising of suffering and by

way of cessation to explain the ending of suffering.

samsara


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Ignorance無明

moral &immoral

conditioningactivities行

(relinking)conscious-

ness識

mind andmatter名色

six spheresof sense

contact觸

feeling受

craving愛

Grasping取

becoming有

birth生

decay, death,sorrow,

lamentation,pain, grief &

despair老死愁悲苦憂惱

repeat cycle of suffering


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• However, one should not misunderstand or take ignorance as the Buddhistexplanation of ultimate beginning or the first cause which is NOT discussed in

the Buddhist literature as discussed above. In fact, the dependent arising with its

twelve factors forms a circle. There is no beginning and no end to it.

• This method of dividing up the factors should not be

misconstrued to mean that the factors are mutually exclusive,

but they may rise together. So whenever there is ignorance,

then craving and clinging invariably come along; and whenever

there is craving and clinging, then ignorance stands behind them.

It is the arising of ever changing conditions dependent on similar evanescent

conditions. Here there is neither absolute non-existence nor absolute existence,

only bare phenomena roll on.


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3. Four Noble Truths

• The four noble truths are the fundamental teaching of Buddhism

and it is the Buddhist philosophy of life. According to the Book of

Discipline , the Buddha himself discovered and realized the four

Noble Truths by his own intuitive knowledge at the foot of the

Bodhi tree.

• Whether the Buddhas arise or not in this world these truths exist and

it is a Buddha who reveals them to the deluded world. So the four

noble truths are the Buddhist analysis of life and its problems as

well as the solutions to these problems.


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• The Four Noble Truths are:

(1) Dukkha , suffering or unsatisfactoriness,

(2) the arising or origin of dukkha ,

(3) the cessation of dukkha ,

(4) the way leading to the cessation of dukkha .

• The Buddha taught the four noble truths to his five disciples in the

first sermon, “This, monks, is the noble truth that is suffering .

Birth is suffering; old age is suffering; illness is suffering;

death is suffering; sorrow and grief , physical and mental suffering,

and disturbance are suffering. Association with things not liked

is suffering, separation from desired things is suffering;

not getting what one wants is suffering; in short, the five

aggregates of grasping are suffering .”


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3. Four Noble Truths• Why and how the five aggregates of grasping are said to be suffering? According

to the Buddhist analysis of the empiric individuality, a person consists of fiveaggregates which are a combination of the ever-changing physical and mental

forces or energies. They are the aggregate of matter, the aggregate of sensations

or feelings, the aggregate of apperceptions, the aggregate of mental formations,

and the aggregate of consciousness. The first one is physical which serves as the

basis for the rest four which are psychological. It is called a sentient being ora human being when the five aggregates work together. In other words, the human

personality can therefore be defined as their sum total.

matter

apperceptions

consciousness sensations

or feelings

mentalformations


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3. Four Noble Truths• The five aggregates are interrelated, interdependent and interconnected to

one another working according to the laws of dependent arising. Thus theyhave the three distinctive characteristics of impermanence, no-self and

suffering.

• These The five aggregates are all impermanent, all are constantly changing.(1) Each of the five such as matter or consciousness is impermanent and

(2) the combination of the five together is also impermanent.

They are not the same for two consecutive moments as they are in a flux of

momentary arising and disappearing.

• Hence there is nothing that can be called a permanent self or soul

or individuality, or anything that can in reality be called ‘I’.


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• According to the Buddhist teaching, “whatever is impermanent is suffering,

dukkha.” For the impermanent nature of everything can but lead to one

inescapable conclusion: suffering. This is the true meaning of the Buddha’s

words: “ In brief the five Aggregates of Attachment are dukkha.”

As everything is impermanent, they cannot be made the basis of permanent

happiness.

• The five aggregates of grasping takes place in our mind, because it is our

mind that appreciates and grasps the five aggregates. In short, dukkha can

be explained as the problems in our lives. As long as we grasp the five

aggregates as ourselves so we have problems.


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•This process of grasping manifests itself in three ways:- this is mine: due to craving

- this I am: due to conceit

- this is myself : due to the mistaken belief in a self-entity

• It is through this process of three-fold self-identification that the idea

of 'mine', 'I am' and 'my self ' arises.


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3. Four Noble TruthsCauses of Suffering

• One of the major causes of suffering is the self-centred desire which

manifests itself in many forms. The Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta says,

“ It is the craving that produces renewal of being accompanied by

enjoyment and lust, and enjoying this and that; in other words,

craving for sensual desires, craving for being, craving for non-being .”

• The technical term for craving is ta ṇhā in Pāli language. The Buddha said

in the F ire Sermon that all is burning, the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body,

and mind are burning, burning with craving.

“The image of fire connotes all-consuming movement within the mind of

a person, something hot, dangerous, destructive, and potentially out of

control. The implication is that craving in the form of lust and hatred is

a f ire that inf lames every aspect of a person – all the aggregates – and

thus brings suffering in its wake.”


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3. Four Noble Truths• However, craving is not the only cause in the Buddhist analysis of the causes of

suffering, but one of the causes as discussed in the dependent arising becauseBuddhism always thinks of multiple causes leading to multiple effects.

• The twelvefold formula of dependent arising is a chain of causes and effects and

this ‘is the origin of this whole mass of suffering’. But in this chain ignorance is

the key factor in consideration and it is ignorance that leads to craving and hatred

which in turn lead to more grasping and becoming.

• Sometimes, the Buddha also gave three causes

of suffering: craving, hatred and delusion which

are all psychological. Here delusion is equal to

ignorance which is the root cause for craving

and hatred. But craving and hatred lead to

more ignorance as they defile the mind.

craving

ignorance

hatred


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•According to the Buddhist philosophy, ignorance means the lack ofunderstanding of the four noble truths and dependent arising. Hence, the

ignorant person regards the impermanent as permanent, the painful as pleasant,

the soulless as soul, the impure as pure, and the unreal as real.

•Thus he entertains wrong views and does wrong deeds which lead him tofurther suffering. Therefore in the Buddhist analysis, the causes of suffering are

found within us, not outside, and in the same way, the solutions to suffering are

also found within us.


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4. The Concept of Nirvāṇa

• Nirvāṇa or nibbāna 涅盤 is the third of the four noble truths, so it is the

complete elimination and cessation of the main causes of dukkha, which are

craving, hatred and ignorance. Therefore nirvāṇa is also known by the term

“Extinction of Craving, Extinction of Hatred, and Extinction of Ignorance.”

If craving is compared to a fire as in the Fire Sermon quoted above, then

nirvāṇa is compared to a fire gone out when the fuel is finished and no more

fuel is added so it cannot be kindled again.


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4. The Concept of Nirvāṇa Five ways to understand nirvāṇa

1) From the moral point of view, nirvāṇa is the highest level of moral perfection,

because it is the highest form of cultivation of morality.

- For one who has attained nirvāṇa, all unwholesome motivational roots such asgreed, hatred, and delusion have been fully eradicated with no possibility of their

ever becoming active again.

- The first and most important way to reach nirvāṇa is by means of the eightfoldPath, and all expressions which deal with the realization of emancipation from

lust, hatred and delusion apply to practical habits and not to speculative thought.

do thework

yourself

building habit ethical state


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2) From the experiential point of view, nirvāṇa is the highest level of

happiness, because all kinds of suffering are eliminated as a corollary in theformula of four noble truths. The Buddha taught Māgandiya,

The greatest of al l gains is health,

Nibbāna is the greatest happiness,

The eightf old path is the best of paths, For it leads safely to the Deathless .

• According to Buddhism, happiness is the peace of mind or tranquillity of

mind in ordinary sense, free from all worries and troubles. The Buddha said,

“ Monks, I know not of any other single thing that brings such happiness as

the mind that is tamed, controlled, guarded and restrained. Such a mind

indeed brings great happiness.”


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4) From the psychological point of view, nirvāṇa is the highest level of mental

emancipation, the freedom of our mind, because all the

polluting factors that restrict and restrain the mind such as

selfish desire, hatred, ignorance, conceit, pride, so on and

so forth are eliminated, so the mind is pure and healthy.

It is full of universal love, compassion, kindness, sympathy,understanding and tolerance.

• Negative emotions restrict an individual's psychological freedom; therefore greed,

hatred, and ignorance are described as poisons in the Buddhist literature because

they circumscribe an individual's freedom. Greed, hatred, and ignorance are

roots of unwholesome mental states which fetter the individual within saṃsāra.

So when all these bad mental elements are removed, our mind becomes truly free.


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5) From the point of ultimate reality, nirvāṇa is the highest truth.

The Dhātu-vibhaṅga Sutta of the Majjhimanikāya says:

His deliverance, being founded upon truth, is unshakable.

For that is false, monks, which has a deceptive nature, and that is

true which has an undeceptive nature ― Nibbāna.

Therefore, a monk possessing [this truth] possesses the supreme

foundation of truth. For this, monk, is the supreme noble truth,

namely Nibbāna , which has an undeceptive nature.

• When one attains nibbāna, one realizes the truthof life, one understand things as they truly are,

the three characteristics of life: impermanence,

suffering and no-self .


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• According to the Buddhist teaching, this kind of nirvāṇa is

realizable in this world and in this life if it is mature.

• The Dhammakathika Sutta of the Saṃyuttanikāya says:

“ If through revulsion towards aging-and-death , through its fading

away and cessation, one is l iberated by nonclinging , one is fit to

be called a bhikkhu who has attained nibbāna in this very life.”

“ If through revulsion towards ignorance , through its fading away

and cessation, one is l iberated by nonclinging , one is fit to be

called a bhikkhu who has attained nibbāna in this very life.”


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5. Noble Eightfold Path

• The fourth of the four noble truths is the noble eightfold path

which is also called the middle path because it is not

a compromise but transcends the two extremes in practice,

two misguided attempts to gain release from suffering.

indulgence in sense pleasures

practice of

self-mortification

the middle path


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• One extreme is the indulgence in sense pleasures by gratifying desires which

gives enjoyment but not happiness because enjoyment or pleasure is gross,

transitory, and devoid of deep contentment.

• The noble eightfold path avoids the extreme of sensual indulgence by

its recognition of the futility of desire and its stress on renunciation.

Desire and sensuality, far from being means to happiness, are springsof suffering to be abandoned as the requisite of deliverance.


• The other extreme is the practice of self-mortification,

the attempt to gain liberation by afflicting the body.

This practice may be motivated by genuine aspiration

for deliverance, but it is guided by a wrong view that

“the body is the cause of bondage, when the real

source of trouble lies in the mind — the mind

obsessed by greed, aversion, and delusion .”


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• The Buddhist renunciation does not mean physical renunciation,

but psychological one. Because the causes of human suffering is within

the human mind not outside.

• What the Buddha wanted to convey is that the manifold objects in the

external world do not constitute our craving.What constitute our craving is the lustful intention,

lustful desire within us, not things themselves,

but lustful desire towards them.

• The true renunciation is not completely withdrawn from the world

physically, but the cultivation of particular attitude of mind within us.

So mental culture is not based on the suppression of senses, but to

develop the senses to see the phenomena as they truly are.


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• The Noble Eightfold Path “gives r ise to vision , gives rise to knowledge ,

and leads to peace , to direct knowledge , to enl ightenment , to Nibbāna.”

The noble eightfold path is the whole of Buddhist training leading one

to perfection both mentally and morally. This training can be

summarized as:

To abstain from all evil ,

to cul tivate the good,

and to purify one's mind

this is the teaching of the Buddhas .”

(Dhammapada 183)



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• The Noble Eightfold Path consists of eight factors as follows:

Division Eightfold Path factors

Wisdom1. Right understanding or view

2. Right intention or thought

Ethical conduct

3. Right speech

4. Right action

5. Right livelihood

Meditation

6. Right effort

7. Right mindfulness

8. Right concentration

prajñā (sanskrit)

paññā (pāli)


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• The eight factors are not step by step training but they are components of

training and thus should be practiced simultaneously as they are interdependent

and interrelated.

• The moral discipline which is based on the universal love and compassion

for all living beings is training in verbal and physical behaviors and it aims at promoting a happy and harmonious life both for the individual and for society.

• Thus meditation will lead finally to enlightenment, the attainment of highest

wisdom which sees the nature of things as they are. It is in this sense that the

Buddhist training aims at the perfection of man in two qualities that should bedeveloped equally: compassion and intelligence. In other words, the noble

eightfold path leads one to the attainment of wisdom that dispels ignorance,

the root of human life’s problem. As the Buddha says: “The element of

ignorance is indeed a powerful element .”


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Significance of the Noble Eightfold Path

1) In the Noble Eightfold Path, you do not find

faith, any prayer , ritual formalism or worship,

ceremony. So it can be accepted and practiced

by all people without changing their life styleand belief.

2) The noble eightfold path lies its emphasis

on human effort for liberation, not on the

power of an outside supernatural agent

because it is a practice of self-discipline

in body, speech and mind,

self-development and self-purification.

self-discipline:body, speech,mind


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3) The Noble Eightfold Path is to be followed by all those who

work for their happiness, it is a way of life to be followed,

practiced, and developed by each and every individual.

4) The Noble Eightfold Path is both a means as well as an end as it starts with moral training and ends up with moral

perfection. Two factors are achieved when one follows

the path: right knowledge and right liberation.

5) The Noble Eightfold Path begins with right view because,

according to the Buddha, nothing is more dangerous than

wrong view.

rightview


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5. Noble Eightfold Path • What is the right view? Sariputta explains in the Sammaditthi Sutta:

“When, friends, a noble disciple understands the unwholesome ,

the root of the unwholesome , the wholesome , and the root of the wholesome ,

in that way he is one of right view, whose view is straight, who has perfect

confidence in the Dhamma, and has arrived at this true Dhamma .”

• non-greed

• non-hatred

• non-delusion

• greed

• hatred

• delusion root

unwholesome

opposite to

the ten virtues

wholesome

Ten Kusala Dhamma

(the ten virtues)


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6) Dogmatic attachment to any view is wrong. Although right view is

good, but attachment to right view is also condemned by the Buddha,

because dogmatic attachment to any view may lead one to suffering.

- Because a view is only a guideline to action,even the Buddhist teaching is only like a raft.

That’s why the Buddha says that he does not hold any view.

- The Buddha says in the Sallekha Sutta, “we shal l not misapprehendaccording to individual views nor hold on to them tenaciously, but shall

discard them wi th ease — thus effacement can be done .”


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6. Karma and Rebirth • First let us look at the definition of karma given in the early Buddhist literature.

In the Anguttaranikāya, one of the five collections of Buddhist teachings,we find this saying of the Buddha:

“I declare, O Monks, that voli tion is Kamma. Having wil led one acts

through body, speech and thought .”

will

body

speechmind


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6. Karma and Rebirth

1) The word karma or kamma literally means “action” or“doing”, but in the Buddhist theory of karma it does not

mean any action, it is only the volitional action. Karma or

action is performed in three ways, by the mind, speech and body.

2) The Buddhist theory of karma is the theory of cause and effect,

action and reaction.

- The nature of karma is determined by its motives. According to the

Buddhism, any action motivated by desire or attachment, hate or

aversion and ignorance or confusion is morally bad andunwholesome. On the other hand, any action is motivated

by the absence of greed, hatred and ignorance is

morally good and wholesome.


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3) Karma is a law in itself which operates according to the principle ofdependent arising. There is no intervention of any external,

independent ruling agency or power. Even the Buddha is neither

a creator nor the controller of karma.

4) The Buddhist doctrine of kamma thus places ultimate responsibility

for human destiny in our own hands. It reveals to us how our ethicalchoices and actions can become either a cause of pain and bondage

or a means to spiritual freedom.


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5) Karma is NOT tit for tat, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

• Therefore, karma is similar to the natural law, but not exactly the

same, so karma cannot be interpreted as a tooth for a tooth.

• The Buddha said, Monks, for anyone who says, ' I n whatever way

a person makes kamma, that is how it is exper ienced,' there is

no living of the religious life, there is no opportunity for the right

ending of suffering. But for anyone who says, 'When a person

makes kamma to be felt in such & such a way, that is how its

result is experienced,' there is the living of the religious life,

there is the opportunity for the right ending of suffering.

d b h


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6) Karma does not necessarily mean only past actions,

it embraces both past and present deeds. In the Buddhist scriptures,

the present action (karma) is more emphasized because past actions

are already done and we cannot change them. It is the present actions

that contribute to build our future life. It is in this sense that every

moment we are creating our future . Each and every moment wemust be careful .

7) Many people misunderstand karma as an occult power or as

an inescapable fate. If karma is fate then it is like determinism orfatalism. However, karma is neither, because the future of

our life is not determined as we are now still creating

our future.

6 K d R bi h


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8) In the working of karma its most important factor is

the mind. All our words and deeds are colored by

the mind or consciousness we experience at such

particular moments.

• That is why, as discussed above,

the Buddhist training aims at the

cleansing the mind of impurities on one hand and cultivating good

mental qualities on the other.

cleansingthe mind

of

impurities

cultivating

goodmentalqualities

6 K d R bi h


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6. Karma and Rebirth Vipāka

• The correlated consequences of action (karma) are called vipāka which means

fruit in Buddhism.

• As karma is action so vipāka is its consequence or result. Karma may be

ethically good or bad, so Vipāka, fruit, is also ethically good or bad. Karma is

mental, so Vipāka too is mental; it is experienced as happiness or bliss,

unhappiness or misery according to the nature of the karma seed.

The Samyuttanikāya states:

Whatever sort of seed is sown,

That is the sort of frui t one reaps:

The doer of good reaps good;

The doer of evil reaps evil.

By you, dear, has the seed been sown;

Thus you wil l exper ience the frui t.

6 K d R bi h


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• The fruits or consequences of karma are many different kinds dependent

on the nature of karma and rebirth is the most important fruit of karma.

At the moment just preceding death, the death-proximate kamma may

take the form of a reflex of some good or bad deeds performed during

the dying person’s life.

• This determines the nature of the linking consciousness that serves as

a condition to next birth. Thus, the accumulation of good karma in life

ensures one a good rebirth.

6 K d R bi th


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• King Milinda questioned the Venerable Nāgasena,“Where, Venerable Sir, is Kamma ?”

• Nāgasena said, “Kamma is not said to be stored

somewhere in this fleeting consciousness or in

any other part of the body. But dependent on

mind and matter it rests manifesting i tself at the

opportune moment, just as mangoes are not said

to be stored somewhere in the mango tree,but dependent on the mango tree they lie,

springing up in due season .”


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Conclusion

The basic Buddhist teachings concentrate on the analysis of life, how

life goes on from one birth to another, how our ethical behaviors affect

our life, our life’s problems and their causes and solutions. The

practical aim of this teaching is to lead one to attain happiness througha practice called three trainings: morality, concentration and wisdom.

with which ignorance, the root cause of our life’s problems can be

eradicated. So Nirvana is nothing but happiness that we can experience

here and now.


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