The Buddha’s Enlightenment

FIRST WATCH (6-9 PM) : retrocognition, recalling former births (1,000s of them). Jataka stories recounts 550.

The Buddha confirms process philosophy.

There are no enduring, substantial things--

Second Watch

Again, the Buddha confirmed that all things are in flux.

The Buddha's emotional response throughout the night is one

Third Watch (12-3AM)

Discovers the twelve-fold chain of causation and the principle of interdependent coorgination.

If there are no independent substances then every thing must be dependent on every other thing.

The Buddha passed through the eight stages of meditation and reached Nirvana while still occupying a body.

Fourth Watch (3-6AM)

Celestial events take place.

"Here I have found freedom!" is the best description of Nirvana while in the body.

He remains under the Bodhi Tree for seven days.

The First Noble Truth

• Lit. “all is sour”--

• Sukha (lit. “sweet”) is the opposite.

• Sukhavati:

• Common translations:

• Most accurate:

The Second Truth

• Suffering is caused by craving (tanha).

• Ordinary desires (chanda)

• Three types of craving:

Third Noble Truth

• The end of craving is Nirvana

– Two etymologies of Nirvana

• In a word Nirvana is freedom.

Fourth Noble Truth: 8-Fold Path

• Right view, belief, understanding.

• Right resolve, aim, purpose, aspiration.

• Right words, speech.

• Right behavior, action, deeds, conduct.

• Right livelihood, vocation.

• Right efforts.

• Right thoughts, alertness

• Right concentration, thought, meditation.

On the Meaning of “Right”

• The meaning of samyak:

• The Buddha's mean "is not a mere, narrow, or exclusive middle, but a broad, ambiguous, inclusive middle.”

• samyak as "evenness," "equilibrium," "balance," and "equipose"

The Buddhist self

• Body

• Feeling

• Perception

• Dispositions

• Consciousness

• A “bundle” theory of self made of five constituents (skandhas).

• The elements are always in flux, but our identity remains the same.

• Buddhist self is neither substantial nor dualistic.

• It is neither immortal or unchanging.

• The body and passions are not opposed to the mental or spiritual states.

Elements of Buddhist Ethics

• Law of Karma

• Consequentialism

• Eudaimonism

• Eight-fold path

• Self-interest vs. other-interest

• Five Precepts

Consequentialism

• Moral value lies in consequences

• Utilitarianism:

• Buddha’s “beneficial” is liberation oriented, not pleasure oriented.

• Is it a “spiritual” conseqentialism?

• Is it also a “character” consequentialism?

Buddhist Personalism

• The Buddha’s Middle Way is a personal way.

• “They who know causation know the Dharma” (the moral law).

• “Causation” means interdependent coorigination.

• All the causes and conditions of your life.

Contextual Pragmatism