Introduction to Buddhism

Einstein on Buddhism

"The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend personal God and avoid dogma and theology. Covering both the natural and spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense of arising from the experience of all things natural and spiritual as a meaningful unity. . . Buddhism answers this description. . . If there is any religion that could cope with modern scientific needs it would be Buddhism."

On Whose Authority?

Do not accept what I have said to you because it has been so said in the past;

Do not accept it because it has been handed down by tradition;

Do not accept it because it also in the holy scriptures;

Do not accept it because it can be proved by inference;

Do not accept it because it is said by a famous or holy monk.

But if you find that it appeals to your sense of discrimination and conscience as being conducive to your benefit and happiness, then accept it and live up to it."

Sounds like the ethical theory called "consequentialism" (value lies in consequences rather than intentions) but this is most likely a one sided interpretation of Buddhist ethics. Intentions do count for Buddhists.

COMPARISONS BETWEEN BUDDHISM AND CHRISTIANITY

The Buddha was a Hindu who founded a new world religion
Jesus was a Jew whose religious movement also led to a new world religion.
Both Buddhism and Christianity were missionary religions.
Both Jesus and the Buddha preached a Gospel of Weak Belief (see link).
Both the Buddha and Jesus were later deified by their disciples.
Buddhism and Christianity are egalitarian and nonesoteric.

Contrasts between Buddhism and Christianity

Buddhism is humanistic and nontheistic.

The Buddha was a philosopher and master dialectician of historic proportions.

Buddhism’s spiritual focus is internal rather than external.

Jesus more feminist than the Buddha.

THE FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS

I. All is DUKHA (DUKKHA, Pali)

All is sour vs. SUKHA (SUKKHA): literally "sweet"

SUKHAVATI - The Pure (Sweet) Land in Pure Land Buddhism

Common translations: All is ill, all is suffering, all is transient, all things are frustrated

II. DUKHA is caused by TANHA (TRISHNA, Pali) craving, passion, clinging, grasping for things that can't be obtained.

CHANDA - ordinary desires for food, clothes, shelter, and family are OK.

TANHA, caused by AVIDYA--ignorance of the twelve-fold chain of causation.

Three types of craving: sensual craving, craving for eternal (substantial) existence, and craving for temporal happiness. Subtlest craving is for permanent substance or permanent self.

III. The end of craving is NIRVANA (NIBBANA, Pali). Two etymologies of Nirvana--"blowing-out" of the fires of passion or cessation of the turnings of the wheels of the mind ("internal dialogue") and the wheel of Samsara.

Self-frustration is brought to an end. Nirvana is, in a word, freedom--freedom from hate, lust, and greed, and freedom from craving.

Nirvana "with substrate" (while in a body) vs. Nirvana "without substrate," without a body at the end of the cycles of existence. The "bare bones" interpretation of this state is that it is simply a state of nothingness, the end of personal existence. Later Buddhist, not satisfied with this, believed that one became one with the Buddha or lived in his presence as in the Christian Heaven.

IV. Fourth Noble Truth of the Eight-Fold Path (given in Sanskrit).

1. SAMYAG-DRISHTI - "suitable" view, belief, understanding.

2. SAMYAK-SAMKALPA - "suitable" resolve, aim, purpose, aspiration.

3. SAMYAK-VAK - "suitable"words, speech.

4. SAMYAK-KARMANTA - "suitable" behavior, action, deeds, conduct.

5. SAMYAG-AJIVA - "suitable" livelihood, vocation.

6. SAMYAG-VYAYAMA - "suitable" efforts.

7. SAMYAG-SMRITI - "suitable" thoughts, alertness.

8. SAMYAK-SAMADHI - "suitable" concentration, thought, meditation.

The priority of right views, conception, and speech is significant because the Buddha believes that a view that the self is an immortal substance will undermine any effort at the moral or spiritual life.

The meaning of "right" is not an absolute right that is the same for everyone, but "right for you," hence the term "suitable" or "appropriate." For example, the right vocation for one inclined to spiritual discipline would be to become a monk or nun, but that would not be right for everyone.

Robert Thurman (Inside Tibetan Buddhism, p. 17) has taken a little liberty with the Four Noble Truths, but the result is an important qualification that takes the nihilistic implications out of the first truth:

All egocentric life is suffering

This suffering is caused by misknowing and its consequences

There is real freedom from this suffering

The path to that freedom is eightfold.

THE BUDDHIST SELF

THE FIVE AGGREGATES (CONSTITUENTS) OF HUMAN EXISTENCE

(SKANDHAS; KHANDHAS, Pali).

1. RUPA: bodily form made up of the four elements. The four elements are (1) Solids (earth); (2) Fluids (water); (3) Heat (fire); (4) Vibrating breath/gas (air). Greek elements in parentheses. Represents the "Function of Identification" and constitutes one's physical identity.

2. VEDANA: feeling--gives us, along with (3) SANJNA, basic experience.

3. SANJNA: perception--along with (2), gives us basic experience.

4. SANSKARA: "mental formations," or better: karma formations or dispositions. This is the locus of karma, character, will, and moral responsibility. David Kalupahana calls this the "function of individuation" and it constitutes our personal identity.

Sankara performs "a special function of process the personality, that is, giving form, guiding or directing, setting up goals, and trying to achieve them."

5. VIJNANA: consciousness or awareness--the "function of continuity" in our experience. The whole person is sometimes called nama-rupa, with nama including constituents-aggregates 2-5.

The Buddhist view of the self-soul is not dualistic, i.e., the soul vs. the body, with the body playing no role in human personality or dignity. The Buddhist view is a psychophysical unity or monism (Gk. monas = one). This again is similar to the Hebrew somatic view of the soul.

THREE BASIC FACTS OF EXISTENCE

(1) All formations are transient (ANICCA Pali; ANITYA, sk.)

(2) All formations are suffering (DUKKHA)

(3) All formations are without Ego-entity (ANATTA Pali, ANATMA sk.)

Buddhist view is roughly parallel to the Hebrew view. Both selves (Hebrew and Buddhist) are fully relational and functional. The Hindu soul is neither and is an unchanging, eternal spiritual substance. Many Christian views of the soul are like the Hindu view.

The Hebrew SKANDHAS: (1) nephesh - soul; (2) ruah - spirit; (3) hayyim - life; (4) dam - blood; (5) basar - flesh; (6) leb - heart-mind. (1) and (2) rough equivalent to Buddhist vibrating element. Hindu atman and Gk. psyche or pneuma, all original meanings of "breath" or "wind". (4) one of the Buddhist fluid elements. (5) equivalent to rupa - body; Greek soma; (6) equivalent to Buddhist disposition/consciousness. Both the Buddhists and Hebrews have a "somatic" soul, one in which spirit and body are unified.

THE BUDDHA'S THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE

The Buddha was a strict empiricist. He believed that we can have knowledge of only those things that can directly experience. He differs from scientific empiricists in that he believes that his ESP powers can give him direct contact with other minds, with things at a great distance, and with his and other's past lives. Empiricism also plays a strong role in the motto "They would know causation know the Dharma." What you ought to do (the Dharma) can be drawn directly from your own mindful experience of your action's effects on your body, other people, and your surroundings.

Click here for an extended discussion on karma and reincarnation.