Notes from 2/10/03
Buddhism

Siddhartha Gaitama,
· Founder of Buddhism.
· Was born in India in 563BC.
· A prince of Kapilavastsu in N.India.
· Father was upset because he thought his son was going to become a wondering monk after he sees the four signs.
1. An old man
2. A diseased man
3. A dead man
4. A wondering monk
· To stop this from happening, his father sheltered him. Siddhartha had a yearning to see the world, yet was only aloud to go around the palace. He would go on little outings around the palace in a chariot. During these outings, he saw an old man, a diseased man, and then finally a dead man. For each of these signs, he asked his chariot driver who these people were and if this could happen to him. The chariot driver told him that it could. On another outing, he saw a wondering monk and asked who he was. The driver told him that he wonders around in search of the truth. Siddhartha vowed to himself that he would become a wondering monk. His father was very upset and threw him a party in order to stop him from going away. Siddhartha exchanged his royal robe for a simple monk robe and cut off his beard. He meets people that he learns things from on his trip.
1. Meditation alone: decided that meditation alone was not enough.
2. Ascetic Yogis (Hindus): Go long periods without eating, sleeping, and drinking. They sit lone in the snow to meditate, and do anything that will punish the body. He decided that you can't find the truth in these practices, the hunger/tiredness/etc. distract the mind.
3. Middle path: steer a middle course between decadent indulgence and punishing ascetism. Eat enough for the hunger to go away in order to focus. He ate a bowl of rice, showered and sat under a boddhi tree and resolved no to move until enlightenment. He recalled his past lives, which he found were filled with suffering. He then awoke and was enlightened and knew the four noble truths.

Four Noble Truths:
1. Life is suffering: life isn’t all that great.
2. Desire is the cause of suffering. Tanha =craving desire.
3. Extinguishing desire extinguishes suffering. In order to get rid of suffering you need to get rid of desire.
4. The way to extinguish desire is by the eight-fold path.

· Nirvana = a “blowing out” or “smothering”
· Suffering = having to face the unpleasant and being removed from the pleasant. Having what you don’t want and wanting what you don’t have.
· Desire: is seen as itching. Itching is only a temporary fix. It really bothers you. Desire is the same way, it really bothers you and when you fulfill it, it is only temporary fixed. It distracts you from meditation.

Right…Eight-Fold Path:
1. Understanding
2. Intention (purpose) (Have the commitment to follow the path)
3. Speech (Say what is helpful, tell the truth, give advice, make people more enlightened)
4. Action/Conduct (Eating the right food, being a good person, not harming and killing other living things)
5. Vocation (job) (cant have a job that causes harm or kills any living being)
6. Effort (apply yourself to obtain enlightenment)
7. Mindfulness (The miracle of mindfulness [Book] pay attention to the now, live for the moment, pay attention and be alert of what you are doing)
8. Meditation (important for obtaining enlightenment)

Similarities and differences with Hinduism:
Similarities:
1. Importance of mediation (jnana, raja)
2. Belief in samsara (ring of reincarnation and karma)
3. The idea of the twin human problem of desire and ignorance.
4. Salvation through detachment and enlightenment.
Differences:
1. No Bhakti (no devoting yourself to god as a way of salvation)(if you are desiring your god, Buddha saw this as a distraction)
2. De-emphasis on tradition, ritual and ceremony
3. No caste system (it is how you act that makes you who you are, not where you came from)
4. No Brahman
5. No atman (Buddhist doctrine of an atman or no-self, no-soul)
6. No metaphysical speculation (as in upishads)(parable of the arrow) (don’t address how to alleviate suffering) (practical spirituality)(does assume some metaphysics to regard it as self-evident.) (The importance is to get rid of suffering)
7. Moksha as nirvana: (liberation from the ring of carnation
· The self is a series of related processes, not a thing or substance. Is the first flame the same as the flame it made? Existence, The flame is not the same because it is a process.
· Utilitarianism= try to maximize satisfaction of desires, brings happiness.


Nirvana = a state of bliss, free from desire, unconditioned and free.
Two kinds of nirvana:
1. Nirvana now: as experienced by the Arhat (perfect saint) always happy, does not feel the pull of desire. Is it nothingness, or is it a heavenly realm?
2. Final nirvana: State of bliss. What the arhat achieves after death. You exist in some since, but it is hard to quantify what it is.