Buddhism
Buddhism is based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, better known as the Buddha, an Indian spiritual seeker who attained a state of enlightenment over 2,600 years ago. The Buddha taught his disciples Four Noble Truths which describe the nature of human suffering and an Eightfold Path that leads to enlightenment, the achievement of Nirvana and release from suffering.
Buddhism spread from India throughout Asia. Currently the world. While the broader Buddhist family includes many different schools with their own beliefs and practices, these various traditions share a conviction that one can come to understand the truth of existence by living an ethical life dedicated to spiritual development.
Buddhists, like Hindus, believe in Saṃsāra, the continual cycle of birth and rebirth. Buddhists believe that life is suffering so release from Saṃsāra is the main purpose of life. The existence of pleasure is recognized by Buddhists, but pleasure, or happiness, is elusive and transitory. It soon diminishes and must be sought anew. Only aging, sickness, and death are inevitable, and unavoidable. Buddhists do not believe in a supreme deity, but they do acknowledge a host of supernatural figures who either help or hinder pilgrims travelling their individual paths toward enlightenment, toward escape, toward Nirvana.
At age 29 the Buddha left the bosom of his privileged family to seek enlightenment. He was shocked to discover people who were poor, sick, and dying. He lived as a poor, itinerant beggar, devoting himself to meditation. He remained unfulfilled living as a poor person, so he eventually settled into an intermediate lifestyle he called the “Middle Way,” between the two extremes of asceticism and affluence. Eventually he returned home to share his insights with his family.
Two of the Buddha’s cousins became prominent monks, the brothers Ananda and Devadatta. Ananda had a good memory and is credited with preserving many of the Buddha’s remarks. Devadatta was a troublemaker who tried to replace the Buddha’s as head of the sangha (the Buddhist community of monks, nuns, novices, and laity) and even tried to kill him. Other relatives who played a role in the early sangha were Sundari, the Buddha’s half-sister (a proficient meditator), Nanda, the Buddha’s half-brother (renown for his appearance and his love of beautiful women), and Mahanaman, Aniruddha’s brother, one of the earliest monks, said to be present at the Buddha’s first sermon.
Meditating one day beneath a fig tree, Gautama Buddha achieved his own release from suffering. The site of his trailblazing liberation from Saṃsāra is a now a major Buddhist pilgrimage site. Some variations of practices and belief systems have emerged since the Buddha first gave rise to Buddhism.
Theravada Buddhism is the oldest of the three main Buddhist traditions, it is the one most closely associated with the teachings of the historical Buddha is common in Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar (formerly Burma). It emphasizes asceticism and meditation as the shortest road to enlightenment. This school is rooted in the Tipitaka, “the three baskets,” which is three collections of texts: (1) the Suttas (sutras in Sanskrit) which are records of the hundreds of oral teachings given by the Buddha and his senior disciples, (2) Vinaya, the rules of the monastic order, and (3), the Abhidhamma (Abhidharma in Sanskrit), scholarly commentaries on the teachings. These three baskets form the Pali canon, a collection of foundational texts that comprise the doctrinal basis of Theravada.
Mahāyāna Buddhism is common in Tibet, China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, and Mongolia. It developed in India five centuries after the Buddha’s enlightenment and is the second of two main continual threads of Buddhism. It spawned an offshoot, Vajrayāna Buddhism (see below). Mahāyāna accepts the main scriptures and teachings of early Buddhism but adds doctrines and texts such as the Mahāyāna Sūtras. It also emphasizes the bodhisattva path, learning how to achieve Nirvana by following in the footsteps of those who have successfully achieved it and have graciously returned to the world of suffering to share the secrets of their success with the unenlightened. Mahāyāna Buddhism also honors the Prajñāpāramitā, a term for a perfected way of seeing the nature of reality and inclusive of a particular body of Mahayana scriptures, or sūtras, which expound on this wisdom
Vajrayāna, or Mantra traditions are a subset of Mahāyāna, which make use of numerous tantric methods considered to be faster and more powerful at achieving Nirvana, what the Buddha was first to achieve. Tantric methods include practices that make use of mantras (repeated Sanskrit words believed to have religious, magical, or spiritual power), dharanis (symbolic or ritual gestures and poses, and, in some cases, visualizations), mandalas (a geometric configuration of symbols that help to focus the attention of practitioners and adepts), and the visualization of deities and Buddhas.
The Saṃsāra doctrine is tied to the karma theory that is central to both Hinduism and Buddhism. Whether a new body obtained upon rebirth is an upgrade or a downgrade depends on how a person has behaved in their previous lives. Karma, determined by all previous lives, is an amalgamation of one’s good and bad actions. One’s Karma determines, at death, which of the six separate realms into which a living being can be reborn.
There are three fortunate realms and three unfortunate realms. Those with favorable karma are reborn into one of the fortunate realms: (1) the realm of demigods, (2) the realm of gods, and (3) the realm of men. Demigods and gods inhabit rarified heights and experience exquisite gratifications that are denied to men, but are also plagued by jealousy and envy. They continually struggle to determine who is going to be King of the Hill.
The realm of man, a relatively peaceable kingdom, is considered the highest and most desirable spot to be reborn into. Humanity may never be gratified beyond measure like the demigods, but mortals are spared their relentless conflicts. The inhabitants of the three unfortunate realms, the realms of animals, ghosts, and hell, suffer to an extreme degree. The suffering of the realm of man is light in comparison. The realm of man also offers something the other five planes do not, the opportunity to achieve enlightenment, or Nirvana. Through the ages there have been trillions of living things, from amoebas to mighty oaks. To be born human offers a unique opportunity to obtain spiritual bliss so humans would be foolish to ignore this privilege.
Buddha, like Socrates and Christ (but unlike Mohammed), committed none of his insights to paper. His discoveries have been written down and perpetuated by his followers. The Four Noble Truths are central to Buddha's teachings. These are the truths of suffering, of the cause of suffering, of the end of suffering, and of the path that leads one to the end of suffering. Suffering exists, has a cause, has its end, and there exists a way to hasten its end. The centrality of suffering in Buddhism is not intended to depress and paralyze its adherents. Ideally, the incontrovertible presence of suffering ought to motivate Buddhists to interact with, and to accept the world just as it is, a world abundantly filled with pain and suffering, and to labor not only to ease the suffering of others, but to ultimately escape it forever. Pleasure, a balm for suffering, is transitory and impermanent. Only aging, sickness, and death are certain. The Four Noble Truths serve as an outline to a master plan for overcoming the suffering of humanity.
The First Truth identifies the presence of suffering. The Second Truth identifies the root and cause of suffering as desire and ignorance. Desire is humanity’s insatiable lust for pleasure, possessions, and for immortality. Buddhists believe these objects of our lust are unobtainable. Pursuing them can only lead to suffering. Greed, envy, hatred, and anger derive from ignorance, the inevitable consequence of an underdeveloped mind. When one neglects to cultivate the capacities for mental concentration and insight, one is unable to grasp the true nature of things. The Third Noble Truth refers both to the end of suffering in this present life by dying and in the perpetuated spiritual life by escaping it, by achieving Nirvana. The Fourth Noble truth outlines the method for being released from suffering, a technique known as the Noble Eightfold Path.
The ennobling steps of the Noble Eightfold Path are Right Understanding, Right Thought, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration. Each step can be divided into three subcategories: (1) good moral conduct, (2) meditation and mental development, and (3) wisdom or insight.
The purpose of Noble Eightfold Path fold one, Right View, or Right Understanding is to clear one's existence from confusion, misunderstanding, and deluded thinking. It is a means to gain right understanding of reality. In the interpretation of some of the various Buddhist movements, right view is non-view, a suspension of judgement The enlightened being becomes aware that nothing can be expressed in fixed conceptual terms, so a rigid, dogmatic clinging to concepts is discarded. Socrates advocated a similar unbiased viewpoint in ancient Greece. He was condemned to death for having done so.
Noble Eightfold Path fold two, Right Resolve, or Right Thought, is like Right Understanding in that it has two levels. At the mundane level, this resolve stipulates that one cause no harm, and that one refrain from harboring ill will towards any living being. Like all the Eightfold paths, his pacific and forgiving attitude accrues good karma that ensures a more advantageous rebirth. The Buddha adhered to this roadmap so completely that he avoided any potential Via Dolorosa. He led by example when he resolved to leave home, renounce his worldly prospects, and dedicated himself to asceticism, self-denial, and meditative introspection at the supramundane level. Right Thought includes the resolve to consider everything and everyone as impermanent and, at root, only a source of suffering. Right Thought is denial of the world and denial of self.
Noble Eightfold Path fold three, Right Speech, is detailed in a record of the Buddha’s sayings, the Pali Canon, as never speaking a word that is not uplifting and only saying things that are true and beneficial (even if the hearer of these spoken words might be offended by them). Words ought only to be spoken when they are factual, agreeable, and endearing. Right Speech will hasten one’s release from the continual cycle of rebirths.
Noble Eightfold Path fold four, Right Conduct or Right Action prescribes no killing or injuring, no taking what is not given (stealing), no sexual misconduct, and no material desires. For monastics, abstention from sexual misconduct translates as strict celibacy. For nonmonastic Buddhists, adultery and other forms of sensual misconduct are prohibited.
Noble Eightfold path fold five, Right Livelihood is defined as the avoidance of wrong livelihood. One might live as a beggar, but one ought not accept, as a wandering mendicant, everything that is offered nor possess more substance than is needed to sustain life. For lay nonmonastic lay Buddhists, this precept requires that their livelihoods, the means whereby they earn a living, cause no harm to sentient beings by cheating them, harming them, or killing them. Right livelihood does not trade in weapons, living beings, meat, alcoholic drink, or poison. Raising and trading livestock for slaughter is a breach of "right livelihood.” Buddhist countries do not feature the slaughterhouses found in Western countries.
Noble Eightfold path fold six, Right Effort involves continual monitoring of stray sensual thoughts, doubts about the path, restlessness, drowsiness, and ill will of any kind. Of these, the Buddhist traditions consider sensual thoughts and ill will as requiring the lion’s share of right effort. Sensual desire that must be eliminated by an act of will includes anything related to the senses, like sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and touch. Emotional impediments such as hatred, anger, or resentment towards anything or anyone must also be overcome.
Noble Eightfold path fold seven, Right Mindfulness is concerned with the altered state of consciousness that meditation can lead to. Cultivating a Right Mind helps the seeker to not to crave and cling to any state or thing, or to any phenomena that is delusive, transitory, and impermanent. Subcategories spin off from fold seven, Right Mindfulness. Buddhist literature prescribes the contemplation of four major domains: body, feelings, mind, and phenomena.
Ten mechanisms for facilitating these contemplations are regarded as wholesome: (1) Śraddhā, or faith, (2) Vīrya, or energy, (3) Hrī, or shame at doing evil, (4) Apatrāpya, or shunning unwholesome actions to not be reproached by others of good character, (5) Alobha, or non-attachment, (6) Adveṣa, or non-aggression, (7) Praśrabdhi, or calmness, (8) Upekṣā, or equanimity, (9) Appamāda, or conscientiousness, and (10) Ahiṃsā, or non-injuriousness.
Six mechanisms are regarded as being unwholesome: (1) Moha, or delusion, (2) Pramāda, or heedlessness, carelessness, and unconcern, (3) Kauśīdya, or laziness and sloth, (4) Āśraddhya, or lack of faith and trust, (5) Styāna, or lethargy and gloominess, and (6) Auddhatya, or excitement and ebullience.
In the oldest texts of Buddhism, dhyāna. or jhāna is a component of the training of the mind commonly translated into English as meditation, a withdrawal the mind from its automatic responses to sense-impressions, Withdrawal leads to a state of perfect equanimity and awareness and, despite one’s awareness, a subsequent state of detachment.
The first jhāna is entered when one is secluded from sensuality and unwholesome mental factors. The seeker experiences rapture and non-sensual pleasure because of their seclusion and groundwork laid by Noble Eightfold path fold six, Right Effort, but discursive thought continues to intrude upon their thoughts. The second jhāna leads to a unification of awareness that is liberated from discursive thought. Inner tranquility is achieved. The third jhāna transitions a meditator into a state of equanimous and affective detachment, yet they remain mindful, and alert, and they sense pleasure with their body. The fourth jhāna leads to a complete purification of one’s equanimity and mindfulness, a mind that senses neither pleasure nor pain. In the throes of deep meditation, the Buddha achieved Nirvana. This enlightenment was not the inevitable outcome of having proceeded through the four preliminary jhāna exercises, but of impressions that could impact him once the distractions of life had been successfully eliminated. A derivative of jhāna, yoga, is practiced by millions of people at present.
Noble Eightfold path fold eight is Right Concentration (single-mindedness). Once a meditating seeker’s mind has become completely focused and freed from all distractions, enlightenment can, hopefully, be achieved.
In the Western world, Buddhism has had a strong influence on modern New Age spirituality and other alternative spiritualities. This began with its influence on 20th century Theosophists like Helena Blavatsky, one of the first Westerners to take Buddhism seriously. Buddhist meditation practices have also influenced the development of modern psychology, particularly the practice of Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), a meditation therapy originally designed for stress management, but has expanded to become a treatment for a variety of illnesses like depression, anxiety, chronic pain, cancer, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, skin and immune disorders. and other afflictions that might result from a combination of disordered mind and fallible matter.
Buddhism, like other world belief systems, became modified by whatever context it was introduced into. Shamanism is a widespread practice in certain Buddhist societies. Buddhist monasteries have long existed alongside local shamanic traditions. Buddhism is not a highly organized and hierarchical movement, so as it spread Buddhist traditions often merged with the pre-existing shamanic traditions of local cultures. Orthodox Buddhism requires the acceptance of the Buddha as the greatest being that ever lived, so local shamanic traditions that became integrated with Buddhism, were (and continue to be) regarded as being imperfect by those who aspire to perfectly preserve the legacy of founder Siddhartha Gautama.
The website of the Kadampa Meditation Center, New York asserts that, “Practicing Dharma is the supreme method for improving the quality of our human life. The quality of life depends not upon external development or material progress, but upon the inner development of peace and happiness. For example, in the past many Buddhists lived in poor and underdeveloped countries, but they were able to find pure, lasting happiness by practicing what Buddha had taught. If we integrate Buddha’s teachings into our daily life, we will be able to solve all our inner problems and attain a truly peaceful mind. Without inner peace, outer peace is impossible. If we first establish peace within our minds by training in spiritual paths, outer peace will come naturally; but if we do not, world peace will never be achieved, no matter how many people campaign for it.”
We are all seeking inner peace, a peace that is personally more important to us than the peace of the world. Meditation, Buddhist style, parallels other spiritual strategies for coping with the vicissitudes of life. Buddha’s teachings are not primarily focused on coping with reality, but upon transcending it, upon achieving release from the suffering intrinsic to life and an ultimate release from bondage to the continual cycles of rebirth. Buddhism remains a major world belief system, if not a major world religion. It is not rigid or well defined, so it is easily adapted to conform to novel circumstances and to meld with other belief systems. Whether this relationship is symbiotic or parasitical depends on the varying agendas of those who hope to reap the advantages of meditation as a coping mechanism and a stress reliever without also embracing moral obligations the Buddha originally attached to it.
