Buddhism - Daniel Bonevacphilosophical.space/philosophy/Buddhism.pdf · 2017-11-06 · –“This, O monks, is the Noble Truth of the Cessation of suffering: it ceases with the complete

Buddhism

“What are you?”

“I am awake.”

Sunday, November 5, 17

Buddha (563 - 483 BCE)


Four Passing Sights

• Old age

• Disease

• Death

• Monk


Quest for fulfillment• Self-indulgence (path of desire)

• Asceticism (path of renunciation)


Four Noble Truths

• 1. Life is suffering.

• 2. Desire, craving, or clinging is the cause of suffering.

• 3. Nirvana extinguishes craving and hence suffering.

• 4. The path to Nirvana is the Eightfold Noble Path.


Four Noble Truths

• 1. Life is suffering. (Symptom)

• 2. Desire, craving, or clinging is the cause of suffering. (Diagnosis)

• 3. Nirvana extinguishes craving and hence suffering. (Prognosis)

• 4. The path to Nirvana is the Eightfold Noble Path. (Prescription)


Four Noble Truths: 1

• Life is suffering, painful, out of joint.

–“This, O monks, is the Noble Truth of Suffering (dukkha): Birth is suffering; decay is suffering; illness is suffering; death is suffering. Being around what we hate is suffering; being apart from what we love is suffering; not to obtain what we desire is suffering. Briefly, clinging to existence is suffering.”



•Desire, craving, causes suffering.

–“This, O monks, is the Noble Truth of the Cause of suffering: the craving (tanha), which leads to rebirth, accompanied by pleasure and lust, finding its delight here and there. This craving is threefold, namely, craving for pleasure, craving for existence, craving for prosperity.”



• Eliminating desire can eliminate suffering.

–“This, O monks, is the Noble Truth of the Cessation of suffering: it ceases with the complete cessation of this craving—a cessation which consists in the absence of every passion with the abandoning of this craving, with doing away with it, with the deliverance from it, with the destruction of desire.”



• The Eightfold Noble Path (the Middle Way) eliminates desire: Right

– – Livelihood

–Effort

–Concentration

–Meditation

–Thought

– Intention

– Speech

–Conduct


Right Thought

• Right Thought:

–Dhammapada: “All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts.”

–You must know the Four Noble Truths

–You must avoid harmful thoughts


Right Thought

• 33. As an archer makes his arrow straight, so a wise man makes straight his trembling and unsteady thought, which is difficult to guard and difficult to hold back.

• 35. It is good to tame the mind, which is difficult to hold in and flighty, rushing wherever it wishes; a tamed mind brings happiness.

• 36. Let the wise man guard his thoughts, for they are difficult to perceive, very artful, and they rush wherever they wish: thoughts well guarded bring happiness.


Right Intention

• Right Intention:

–You must try to eliminate selfish desire

–186. There is no satisfying desires, even by a shower of gold pieces; he who knows that desires have a short taste and cause pain, he is wise.

–202. There is no fire like passion; there is no losing throw like hatred; there is no pain like this body; there is no happiness higher than stillness.


Right Speech• Right Speech

–Avoid saying harmful things

–133. Do not speak harshly to anybody; those who are spoken to will answer you in the same way. Angry speech is painful, blows for blows will touch you.

–134. If like a shattered gong, you make no utterance, then you have reached Nirvana; strife is not known to you.


Right Speech

• Right Speech

–306. He who says what is not, goes to hell; he who, having done a thing, says he hasn’t done that thing, also goes to hell. After death, both are equal: they are men with evil deeds in the next world.


Right Conduct

• Right Conduct

–Avoid harming others

–Obey the five restraints


Ethical restraints

• Do not kill

• Do not steal

• Do not lie

• Do not be unchaste

• Do not ingest intoxicants


Right Livelihood

• Right Livelihood

–You must enter the right career

–Avoid what requires you, or even tempts you, to harm others


Right Effort

• Right Effort

–You must work constantly to avoid selfish desire

–163. Bad deeds, and deeds hurtful to ourselves, are easy to do; what is beneficial and good, that is very difficult to do.


Right Concentration

• Right Concentration

–You must develop mental powers to avoid desire

– “Binding mind to a single spot”, as in Hindu meditation

–


Right Meditation

• Right Meditation

– Like Hindu meditation

–Cessation of fluctuations

– Illumination of object as object, empty of what it is


Two kinds of Buddhism

• Theravada Buddhism

–Southern Canon, early writings

–Southeast Asia

–Ideal: arhat


Mahayana Buddhism

• Northern Canon, later writings

• China, Korea, Japan

• Ideal: bodhisattva


Two Ideals• Arhat: saint who attains enlightenment, experiences nirvana. Chief virtue:

wisdom


Mahayana Ideal• Bodhisattva: one who postpones his/her own enlightenment to promote the

enlightenment of others. Chief virtue: compassion


Bodhisattva

• “The Bodhisattvas are those earnest disciples who are enlightened by reason of their efforts to attain self-realisation of Noble Wisdom and who have taken upon themselves the task to enlighten others.”


Six Perfections of the Bodhisattva

• Charity

• Good moral character (concern for others)

• Patience

• Energy

• Deep concentration

• Wisdom


Non-Attachment

• The key to enlightenment is non-attachment:

• 170. Look upon the world as a bubble, look upon it as a mirage: the king of death does not see him who thus looks down upon the world.

• 171. Come. Look at this glittering world, like a royal chariot; the foolish are immersed in it, but the wise do not touch it.


Non-Attachment

• 367. He who never identifies himself with name and form, and does not grieve over what is no more, he indeed is called a Bhikshu [mendicant].

• 368. The Bhikshu who acts with kindness, who is calm in the doctrine of Buddha, will reach the quiet place (Nirvana), cessation of natural desires, and happiness.


Arguments for the Arhat Ideal

• The goal is to eliminate suffering; the means, enlightenment

• If bodhisattvas help others to enlightenment, they help them become arhats

• If it is good to help others to enlightenment, it is because enlightenment is the goal


Arguments for the Bodhisattva Ideal

• If your ideal is the arhat, you seek your own enlightenment

• That is a selfish desire; it leads to suffering

• Concern for self presupposes that you have a separate self

• Only bodhisattva ideal leads you beyond yourself


Zen Buddhism


Zen (Meditation)

• Sanskrit dhyana (meditation) +

•Daoist idea of concentration —>

•Chinese chan —>

• Japanese zen


Mahayana & Zen

•Mahayana Buddhism split into five schools, one of which is Zen.

•Sudden enlightenment

•Mind as simple, a unity, indivisible


Mahayana and Zen

•Buddha-nature (or Buddha-mind; nirvana) is everywhere.

•Anything can bring about its realization.


Enlightenment

•Zen theses are not descriptive.

•They try to induce certain experiences.

•Goal: satori (enlightenment)


Enlightenment

• Joy

•World is beautiful and good.

•Heightened sense of reality

• See beyond appearances to true nature of things

•Unity of mind and world


Means to Enlightenment

• Zazen: seated meditation

• Sanzen: consultation

• Koan (paradoxes): puzzles —> break down

rational thought


Koan

•What is the sound of one hand clapping?

•How did your face look before your ancestors were born?

•What direction does the twelve-face Kuan-yin face?

•A cow passes by a window. The horns, head, and four legs pass by. Why doesn’t the tail pass by?


More Koan

•A man kept a goose in a bottle. It grew larger and larger until it couldn’t get out anymore. He didn’t want to hurt the goose, and he didn’t want to break the bottle. How can he get it out?

• “What is the Buddha-nature?” “Three pounds of flax.”

• “Does a dog have Buddha-nature?” “Mu!”


The Point of Koan

• Thought depends on discrimination (drawing distinctions)

•Discrimination leads to suffering

•Koan try to force the mind out of usual habits of discrimination

•Goal: to experience emptiness (sunyata)


Development of Zen

•Buddha’s Flower Sermon

•Bodhidharma —> China

•Yixuan (I Hsuan, Linji, Lin-chi, Rinzai), d. 869; sudden enlightenment


The Lightning Method

• Yixuan uses shouts and beatings to prepare mind for enlightenment.


Yixuan

• A monk asked, “What is the basic idea of the Law preached by the Buddha?”

• Thereupon the Master shouted at him. The monk paid reverence.

• The Master said, “The Master and the monk can argue all right.”


Empty Space

• Question: “Master, whose tune are you singing? Whose tradition are you perpetuating?”

• The Master said, “When I was a disciple of Huang-po, I asked him three times and I was beaten three times.”

• As the monk hesitated about what to say, the Master shouted at him and then beat him, saying, “Don’t nail a stick into empty space.”


Yixuan

• The Master ascended the hall. A monk asked, “What is the basic idea of the Law preached by the Buddha?” The Master lifted up his swatter. The monk shouted, and the Master beat him.

• [The monk asked again], “What is the basic idea of the Law preached by the Buddha?” The Master again lifted up his swatter. The monk shouted, and the Master shouted also. As the monk hesitated about what to say, the Master beat him.


Yixuan

• Thereupon the Master said, “Listen, men. Those who pursue after the Law will not escape from death. I was in my late Master Huang-po’s place for twenty years. Three times I asked him about the basic idea of the Law preached by the Buddha and three times he bestowed upon me the staff. I felt I was struck only by a dried stalk. Now I wish to have a real beating. Who can do it to me?” One monk came out of the group and said, “I can do it.” The Master picked up the staff to give him. As he was about to take it over, the Master beat him.


Dharmas are Empty

• Seekers of the Way, do not make any mistake. All mundane and supramundane dharmas have no nature of their own. Nor have they the nature to be produced [by causes]. They have only the name Emptiness, but even the name is empty. Why do you take this useless name as real? You are greatly mistaken!


Yixuan

• If you seek after the Buddha, you will be taken over by the devil of the Buddha, and if you seek after the patriarch, you will be taken over by the devil of the patriarch. If you seek after anything, you will always suffer. It is better not to do anything.


Yixuan

• Those who truly seek after the Law will have no use for the Buddha. They will have no use for the bodhisattvas or arhats. And they will have no use for any excellence in the Three Worlds (of desires, matter, and pure spirit).


Consciousness Only

• Why? Because I know that all dharmas are devoid of characters. They exist when there is transformation [in the mind] and cease to exist when there is no transformation. The Three Worlds are but the mind, and all dharmas are consciousness only. Therefore [they are all] dreams, illusions, and flowers in the air. What is the use of grasping and seizing them?. . .


Message beyond scriptures

•Zen is a special message that lies beyond the scriptures.

• It doesn’t depend on language; it can’t be written down.

• Tries to transmit an experience that yields direct insight into mind and Buddha-nature.


Zen Theses: Interrelation

•All things interrelate and affect one another.

• Each object (dharma) can be

defined only in terms of other dharmas.


Zen Theses: Emptiness

•The nature of dharmas is empty.

•The ultimate truth of the world is emptiness.


Mt. Kailash, Tibet


Discrimination and Language

• Language involves discrimination.

–Noun: pig/not pig

– Adjective: pink/not pink

– Verb: fly/not fly

– Adverb: quickly/ not quickly

– Preposition: on/ not on


Experience and Language

•Experience goes beyond discriminations.

•Experience can’t be captured in language.


Discrimination and Desire

•Desire also requires discrimination.

–Satisfaction: what we want

–Frustration: not what we want


Discrimination and Desire

• The dharmas are empty.

• The distinctions are unreal.

• We think in language —> we project distinctions onto world —> we desire —> we suffer.


Cocoon of discrimination

• Language —> suffering

• We can avoid desire and suffering by transcending language.

• To escape cycle of birth and death, avoid “becoming imprisoned in a cocoon of discrimination.”


Two Kinds of Experience

• Reflective experience: experience with thought and self-awareness; mind distinct from objects of thought.


Clear Mind

•Prereflective experience— “clear mind”— experience without thought or self-awareness; mind as mirror: no distinction between mind and object.


Levels of Self-awareness

• ** driving **

• I’m driving

• I’m thinking, “I’m driving”

• I’m thinking, “I’m thinking, ‘I’m driving’”

• I’m thinking, “I’m thinking, ‘I’m thinking, . . . .’”


How to break out?

• Rational thought about reflection leads to more reflection.

•Cf.: “Don’t be self-conscious!” “Try not to try so hard!”

•Koan, shouts, beatings, etc., try to break pattern of rational reflection.


Ultimate truth

• “The ultimate truth is Mind itself, which is free from all forms, inner and outer. No words can therefore describe mind, no discriminations can reveal it.”


Understanding Zen

•Zen can’t be understood by rational thought.

• Those who understand Zen don’t understand it.

• Those who don’t understand Zen understand it.


Selecting the Sixth Patriarch

•Hongren, on why he chose Hui-neng (638-723) as his successor: “Of my 500 disciples 499 possess a remarkable understanding of Zen. Only Hui-neng did not understand Zen. That’s why I chose him.”


The Zen Circle


The Zen Circle

0°: Small I360°: Big I

90°: Karma I

180°: Nothing I

270°: Freedom I

Theoretical Zen

Tathagata Zen

Patriarchal Zen


0°: Small I

•We use language, make distinctions

•Attached to name and form

•We label and define objects

• Book ≠ pencil

•We desire and suffer


90°: Karma I

• Theoretical Zen

• Attached to thinking

•Dharmas are empty

• Everything is manifestation of mind

• Book = pencil; all things ultimately one

• Form = emptiness


180°: Nothing I

• Tathagata Zen

• First Enlightenment

• Give up attachment to thinking

• Attached to emptiness

• Everything empty

• Can’t define anything

• “What is a book?” “Is the book the same as the pencil?” “HO!”


270°: Freedom I

• Attached to freedom

• Even emptiness is empty

• Not bound by name, form, or emptiness

• World can be anything we like; we are free

• “The book is angry; the pencil laughs”


360°: Big I

• Patriarchal Zen

• Full Enlightenment

• No attachment to anything

• We see things as they are

• Action intuitive

• Mind is clear mirror

• No desire

• “The book is the book; the pencil is the pencil”

• “Just like this”


Not Much

• The Master went to Ta-yu, who asked him, “Where have you come from?”

• The Master said, “I am from Huang-po’s place.”

• Ta-yu said, “What did Huang-po have to say?”

• The Master said, “I asked three times about the basic idea of the Law preached by the Buddha and I was beaten three times. I don’t know if I was mistaken.”

• Ta-yu said, “Old kindly Huang-po has been so earnest with you and you still came here to ask if you were mistaken!”

• As soon as the Master heard this, he understood and said, “After all, there is not much in Huang-po’s Buddhism.”


Documents

Buddhism - Daniel Bonevacphilosophical.space/philosophy/Buddhism.pdf · 2017-11-06 · –“This, O monks, is the Noble Truth of the Cessation of suffering: it ceases with the complete