Gautama Buddha:

Siddhartha Gautama
c.563 – c.483 BCE

Prefatory Remarks

Biography

Names:
    Gautama (Sanskrit)
    Gotama (Pali)
    Shakyamuni
Four Sights
    Old Age
    Disease
    Death
    Ascetic
Enlightenment

Vis-à-vis Religion

Began as a revolt against religion, viz., orthodox Hinduism

Source in the Upanishads, the commentaries on the Veda, the sacred Hindu texts, which formed part of the common cultural backdrop
    Life is a burden
    Meditation
    Samsara

Rejects much of Brahmanic doctrine
    Authority of Vedic laws
    Doctrines of caste and priesthood
    Theology and ritual

Secular orientation: Reliance on reason and experience

Buddha – "the Enlightened One"

Theravada Buddhism

Buddhism as Humanism

Practical orientation - elimination of human suffering

Individualistic / spiritual orientation - the key to nirvana lies in changing oneself, not external relations

People possess the power to deliver themselves from suffering

Not dependent on: Gods, Priests, Prayers, Power, Possessions, Status

Dependent on what one individually does

Samsara

The endless chain of birth, death, and rebirth

Hinduism
    - Reincarnation of an eternal soul

Buddhism
    - Anatman - no soul
    - Continuation of karmic forces through a stream of causation establishes a continuity

Nirvana/Nibbana
"To Blow Out"

Physical – deliverance from suffering

Psychological – eradication of egoism

Ethical – destruction of lust, hatred, greed and ignorance

Stages:

§Life – experienced in a state of indifference, tranquility; awareness of the unitive state

§Death – extinction of remaining karma and the passing into parinirvana

Absolute Reality, Truth, Permanence

Attainment (enlightenment) ends the cycle of life, i.e., samsara

Ignorance (non-enlightenment) is the cause of birth and death

The Four Noble Truths

Suffering: both birth and death bring suffering, life is vain, unsatisfactory

Its cause: the indulgence of desire stemming from ignorance

Its end: with the ending of desire will come the cessation of suffering – nirvana

The path to end suffering: the Noble Eightfold Path

The Noble Eightfold Path

Wisdom

1. Right belief
2. Right aims

Morality

3. Right speech
4. Right conduct
5. Right livelihood

Mental Discipline

6. Right effort
7. Right thought
8. Right rapture

Law of Karma
"Action"

Nothing happens without a cause

We are the cause of our own fate

Effected through karma - the law of moral causation
Good > Good; Evil > Evil
Not absolute - one of five processes making things what they are

Human Nature

Suffering (dukkha)

Absence of soul/self (anatman)
Mistaken notion of ego - at any moment we are a temporary and changing composition of the "five aggregates"

–Physical body

–Feelings

–Perceptions

–Predispositions

–Consciousness

Impermanence (anicca)

Reality is a process
Futility and frustration of attachment

The Sangha

In order to secure the extinction of desire adopted the quiet, secluded, contemplative life of the Brahmin ascetics within a monastic order

Detachment from family, possessions, & power - being in the world but not of it

"Middle path" of moderate asceticism

Buddhist Texts

Tripitaka (Three Baskets) (The Pali Canon)

Analysis of Doctrine (Abhidhamma)

Discourses (Sutta)

Rules of Conduct (Vinaya)

The Five Precepts

Apply to all Buddhists

1. Do not kill any living being
2. Do not steal
3. Do not commit adultery
4. Do not speak wrongly
5. Do not partake of intoxicants

Additional Precepts

Apply only to members of the Sangha

6. Do not partake of food after midday
7. Do not be present at any dramatic, dancing, or musical performance
8. Do not use any personal adornment or perfume
9. Do not sleep on a broad, comfortable bed
10. Do not own any gold or silver