RG ST 3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Hinayana, Bodhi, Common Era
Hinayana (Theravada) and Mahayana
**Know Krishna well; avatar!
•
Bhagavad Gita Answer 3
•
**See GS sample answer!
•
Use 3-4 good sentences; as much info as possible; use long, full sentences
•
The best answers will contain the terms from the study guide!
•
Don't leave any answers blank!
•
Use 3-5 terms from the study guide that inform the short-answer!
•
Not-Self (anātman)--key distinguishing characteristic b/w Buddhism
and other religions
Buddhism denies existence of a permanent or static entity that
remains constant behind changing bodily and non-bodily
components of a living being
There is no fundamental identity behind the physical and
mental processes that we associate with ourselves
§
○
Just as body changes from moment to moment, so thoughts
come and go
○
According to the anātman doctrine, there is no permanent
conscious substance that experiences these thoughts
○
“Personality” analyzed into 5 psycho-physical transitory
“aggregates” (skandhas)
○
•
Five "Aggregates" (skandhas)
Physical form (rūpa)
Refers to bodies and external phenomena
§
Composed of the “4 elements”
§
○
Feeling/sensation (vedanā)
Pleasant, unpleasant, neutral
§
○
Perception/recognition (samjñā)
Discerning between specific objects
§
○
Karmic formations (saṃskāra)
Emotions, motivations, mental states
§
○
Consciousness (vijñāna)
Consciousness of sense impressions & mental objects
Is yet another effect
□
Is impermanent and influx and not the equivalent of
a self?
The problem of suffering, which is based on
the cause of attachment; based on the belief of
the concept in a self; my needs and desires are
important and valid--this is ego; attachments
are formed due to a misunderstanding about
the nature of one's self
b/c you believe in this, you invest in these
mental states
When they change you experience
suffering (of your body and mental
capacities)
}
◊
®
□
§
○
•
Questions of King Milinda
Scripture of early Buddhism
**do this reading!
§
A Buddhist monk is invited to visit and instruct an
important king
§
A highly narrativized dialogue--indicates the kind of
cultural exchanges taking place
§
The king invites the monk to school him in Buddhism
§
Monk introduces himself as Nagasena but says
Nagasena doesn't exist
This statement undercuts all the theories; king
thinks Buddhism is absurd
□
§
The king is perplexed
§
Compares the chariot to this example
§
The parts are one thing but the term chariot is a name
that you superimpose on a collection of parts; but you're
relating to the chariot itself; the parts are a transitory
collection
§
Made up of parts which will come apart
§
○
•
Buddhist Schools
2 main “schools” or movements:
Early Buddhism: Theravada (“School of Elders”) or Hīnayāna
(“Lesser Vehicle”/bad/deficient/inferior)
Hinayana is considered inappropriate b/c it's demeaning□
Monks and nuns are the only people actually following
the religion; their job is to become enlightened; strong
emphasized in the Hinayana/Theravada
The role model, idea is to attain nirvana; nirvana is
a state beyond karma, a state of peace, free from
pain; a person who obtains nirvana is called arhat
®
□
Monastic emphasis□
“Arhat” Ideal--has followed the path and attained
nirvana
The path of the arhat is an individual path
®
The arhat became the exemplar
®
This form of buddhism spread and flourished
®
□
South & Southeast Asia□
§
Mahāyāna (“Great Vehicle”)
Greater lay emphasis
Lay means nonmonastic, every day, ordinary
joes
®
The Mahayana includes greater emphasis for
people who aren't monks or nuns
®
The ideal model people emulate is the
Bodhisattva
®
□
“Bodhisattva” (enlightenment-being) Ideal
A person who strives to attain buddha-hood
NOT enlightenment
®
Buddhas in training
®
□
Elaborate cosmologies
There have become more buddhas and
stories; broaden the conception of what it
means to be Buddha
®
Takes place during the Christian era
®
□
North & East Asia
□
§
○
•
Early Buddhism (Theravāda)
Conceives of Buddha in human terms
Not about a relationship with a higher being but taking
your humanity and developing it to the highest extent;
founded by a human being
§
Perceiving the Buddha as a human being
§
○
Buddhism originally a personal path to liberation or nirvāṇa,
i.e. state of anarhat
Quickest way to achieve nirvana is through a monastic
lifestyle
§
○
Focuses on monastic ideal (renunciation, self-discipline)
Leaving a life of moderation and chastity
§
○
Core teaching = “4 Noble Truths”
Life is sorrow
§
The cause of sorrow is attachment
§
Sorrow can cease
By following the 8-fold path
□
Buddha was born from a human being
□
§
There is a path to stop sorrow
§
○
•
Mahayana (Great Vehicle)
By early centuries of Common Era (500-600 years after the
death of the Buddha) Buddhism developing new forms of
belief & practice.
Around the 1st century or so of the Common Era, new
forms of Buddhism begin to emerge
§
They are based on the main ideas, but they begin to put
their own spin on things
§
○
New movement called “Great Vehicle” to distinguish it from
older Buddhism, which it called “Inferior Vehicle” (hīnayāna).
○
New texts arise c. 1st cent CE connected w/ Mahāyāna such
as Prajñāpāramitā (Perfection of Wisdom).
The rational is that these beings have been protecting
these new texts
§
New texts begin to arise but they are represented as the
authentic words of the Buddha that were kept secret
during his lifetime and are now being made available
§
○
Contain new doctrines and concepts.
○
Mahāyāna not a separate “sect” – refers to a universal or
encompassing vision
An orientation towards the Buddhist project or path
§
When you attain Nirvana for yourself, it's a selfish act but
that requires help
§
In some way, the pursuit of nirvana is selfish in itself
§
○
Mahayana tries to emphasize everyone
○
Emphasis on devotional and “lay” practices
Ordinary people should be involved in attaining nirvana
§
This represents a shift in the ethos; all of a sudden, it
becomes other focused
§
Worshiping, offering, praying, become part of this
Similar to the movement between the Upanishads
and the Bhukti movement
This is roughly the same historical period
®
□
§
○
Gives rise to elaborate cosmologies & doctrines:
“Three Bodies” of the Buddha (tri-kāya)
Similar to the doctrine of the trinity in Christianity
□
§
“Emptiness” (śūnyatā)
§
“Mind-Only” (citta-mātra)
Everything is nothing but mind
□
§
“Buddha-nature” (tathāgata-garbha)
Each of us, in our true nature, has a Buddha nature;
we're all potential buddhas or we're buddhas as our
true identity
□
§
○
Focuses on Bodhisattva Ideal, i.e., altruistic motivation to
become enlightened (i.e., to become a Buddha) to help others
attain nirvāṇa
Bodhisattva ideal: To attain enlightenment for the sake of
all living creatures
Ex. I want to attain enlightenment for all the fishes in
the sea, people in Goleta, fir every single living
creature
□
§
○
•
Mahayana Cosmology
There's a greater ability to achieve enlightenment; there's a
world that's populated with Buddhism
○
Shows how the popular imagination began to talk about these
things?
○
There's also female Buddhas
○
•
Bodhisattva
Before Mahāyāna,
bodhisattva
referred to Buddha before
enlightenment
Ex. He would be a prince and make some grand
gestures; story of the Buddha born as a prince, saw a
starving tiger, and he gives himself, his body to the
tigress; the acts of the Bodhisattva
§
Ultimately, you have to get good at this; you're following
the bodhisattva path; it results not in mere nirvana, but
total enlightenment
§
○
In Mahāyāna, the
bodhisattva
becomes the ideal—seeking
enlightenment for all living beings
○
Mahāyāna has multiple buddhas & bodhisattvas in multiple
realms helping multiple living beings
○
Bodhisattvas (“enlightenment being”) are persons on their way
to becoming Buddhas
a buddha-in-training who has their sights on becoming a
buddha?
§
○
Bodhisattvas become mythological super-heroes
a spiritual hero who fights these battles
§
Develop mythologies around them; some can fly others
can walk through walls
§
○
Bodhi-sattva=“One who is intent on bodhi (enlightenment)”
○
Mahāyāna emphasizes bodhi over one’s personal nirvāṇa
○
•
3 Buddha Bodies
In reality, Buddha has 3 bodies (trikāya)--have the historical
Buddha, but thinking more metapjorically
Truth Body (dharmakāya) – embodies principle of
enlightenment w/ no limits
Reflect reality; they're real and true; interesting
progression; the dharma is first technical
instructions but then it becomes important b/c it puts
you in charge of truth?
□
It's not constrained by physical limitations; it's the
truth of everything at all times
□
These Buddha bodies can appear to people able to
receive/perceive them--visions; in meditation, it's
possible to get deep enough into meditation where
you're receptive of visions; the Buddha is appearing
to them?? Who?
□
§
Enjoyment Body (sambhogakāya) – a blissful
manifestation made of light
A psychic body; it's not material; made out of light
□
§
Emanation Body (nirmāṇakāya) – exists in time & space
This is the one that walks and talks, is born and dies
□
§
○
•
Emptiness
•
Śūnyatā (“emptiness”) is a refinement of doctrines of no-self,
impermanence & interdependent origination
Emptiness means that things are not as they appear
○
Ex. When you look at a chariot and say you see a chariot,
what you actually see is the collection of parts of the chariot;
but you look at it and see a chariot; but there is not chariot, the
collection of phenomena grouped together is empty, empty of
chariot nests?
There's no chariot, it's just your idea; it's a fixed idea that
you think as an intrinsic identity
§
There was never a chariot, just your idea of a chariot
§
○
•
Circle is called an enso--Japanese image
•
Denies self of persons
and
self of phenomena
•
Emptiness = groundlessness of phenomena & all concepts,
including Buddhist doctrine
•
Emptiness sometimes called ultimate “ground” of being
•
Like images in a dream, things are neither substantially existent nor
absolutely non-existent
Things do exist, but they exist in a way that you don't image
○
Ex. They exist in the ways that trees exist in trees
○
To say that things don't exist is to go to the extreme of nihilism
We always strive for the middle path in Buddhism
§
The acceptance that there was a phenomena; but it was
really just a branch of neurons firing
§
○
•
Self-dependent substances are merely hypostatized concepts or
words
Becomes a critique of linguistics; must learn to separate the
word to relate to things outside yourself but to not confuse the
word or thing with the concept itself
○
•
Negation of such reified concepts is derived from theory of
Conditioned Arising – whatever exists arises & exists dependent on
other things
•
Things (ideas) exist relative to other things
•
Saṃsāra & nirvāṇa exist only in dependence on each other – both
are “empty” of “inherent existence” (svabhāva)
Don't be grossed out by samsara b/c it's nirvana
○
•
Perceiving everything as interdependent or empty shifts from
conventional perception
•
Conventional experience divides world into likes, dislikes, desires,
fears, self, other, as separate entities
•
To perceive “emptiness” one must be aware of how one
“constructs” attachments & fears while perceiving & judging thru
concepts & language
•
Mind-Only
Consciousness has fundamental role in experience of reality
○
Absolute mode of reality is consciousness/mind/ideas
○
A “store consciousness” (ālaya-vijñāna) contains karmic seeds
that are source of all experiences
○
Sometimes called the “one,” “absolute” mind or “Great Self”
○
•
Store-house consciousness
•
Buddha-Nature
Buddha Nature (tathāgata-garbha) theory presents a positive
view of the absolute
○
Basis for all Buddha’s virtues & experiences is innate in all
beings
○
Critical of “negative” doctrine of emptiness
○
Tathāgata-garbha = essence, womb, embryo of a “one-gone-
thus” (= Buddha)
○
“Embryonic buddha” or “buddha-potential” present within all
beings
○
Beings unaware they possess this treasure
○
Buddha Nature is our true, pure identity covered by delusion,
greed, anger, etc.
○
•
Lecture 10: Buddhist Vehicles
Thursday, May 3, 2018
5:50 PM
Hinayana (Theravada) and Mahayana
**Know Krishna well; avatar!•
Bhagavad Gita Answer 3•
**See GS sample answer!•
Use 3-4 good sentences; as much info as possible; use long, full sentences•
The best answers will contain the terms from the study guide!•
Don't leave any answers blank!•
Use 3-5 terms from the study guide that inform the short-answer!•
Not-Self (anātman)--key distinguishing characteristic b/w Buddhism
and other religions
Buddhism denies existence of a permanent or static entity that
remains constant behind changing bodily and non-bodily
components of a living being
There is no fundamental identity behind the physical and
mental processes that we associate with ourselves
§
○
Just as body changes from moment to moment, so thoughts
come and go
○
According to the anātman doctrine, there is no permanent
conscious substance that experiences these thoughts
○
“Personality” analyzed into 5 psycho-physical transitory
“aggregates” (skandhas)
○
•
Five "Aggregates" (skandhas)
Physical form (rūpa)
Refers to bodies and external phenomena
§
Composed of the “4 elements”
§
○
Feeling/sensation (vedanā)
Pleasant, unpleasant, neutral
§
○
Perception/recognition (samjñā)
Discerning between specific objects
§
○
Karmic formations (saṃskāra)
Emotions, motivations, mental states
§
○
Consciousness (vijñāna)
Consciousness of sense impressions & mental objects
Is yet another effect
□
Is impermanent and influx and not the equivalent of
a self?
The problem of suffering, which is based on
the cause of attachment; based on the belief of
the concept in a self; my needs and desires are
important and valid--this is ego; attachments
are formed due to a misunderstanding about
the nature of one's self
b/c you believe in this, you invest in these
mental states
When they change you experience
suffering (of your body and mental
capacities)
}
◊
®
□
§
○
•
Questions of King Milinda
Scripture of early Buddhism
**do this reading!
§
A Buddhist monk is invited to visit and instruct an
important king
§
A highly narrativized dialogue--indicates the kind of
cultural exchanges taking place
§
The king invites the monk to school him in Buddhism
§
Monk introduces himself as Nagasena but says
Nagasena doesn't exist
This statement undercuts all the theories; king
thinks Buddhism is absurd
□
§
The king is perplexed
§
Compares the chariot to this example
§
The parts are one thing but the term chariot is a name
that you superimpose on a collection of parts; but you're
relating to the chariot itself; the parts are a transitory
collection
§
Made up of parts which will come apart
§
○
•
Buddhist Schools
2 main “schools” or movements:
Early Buddhism: Theravada (“School of Elders”) or Hīnayāna
(“Lesser Vehicle”/bad/deficient/inferior)
Hinayana is considered inappropriate b/c it's demeaning□
Monks and nuns are the only people actually following
the religion; their job is to become enlightened; strong
emphasized in the Hinayana/Theravada
The role model, idea is to attain nirvana; nirvana is
a state beyond karma, a state of peace, free from
pain; a person who obtains nirvana is called arhat
®
□
Monastic emphasis□
“Arhat” Ideal--has followed the path and attained
nirvana
The path of the arhat is an individual path
®
The arhat became the exemplar
®
This form of buddhism spread and flourished
®
□
South & Southeast Asia□
§
Mahāyāna (“Great Vehicle”)
Greater lay emphasis
Lay means nonmonastic, every day, ordinary
joes
®
The Mahayana includes greater emphasis for
people who aren't monks or nuns
®
The ideal model people emulate is the
Bodhisattva
®
□
“Bodhisattva” (enlightenment-being) Ideal
A person who strives to attain buddha-hood
NOT enlightenment
®
Buddhas in training
®
□
Elaborate cosmologies
There have become more buddhas and
stories; broaden the conception of what it
means to be Buddha
®
Takes place during the Christian era
®
□
North & East Asia
□
§
○
•
Early Buddhism (Theravāda)
Conceives of Buddha in human terms
Not about a relationship with a higher being but taking
your humanity and developing it to the highest extent;
founded by a human being
§
Perceiving the Buddha as a human being
§
○
Buddhism originally a personal path to liberation or nirvāṇa,
i.e. state of anarhat
Quickest way to achieve nirvana is through a monastic
lifestyle
§
○
Focuses on monastic ideal (renunciation, self-discipline)
Leaving a life of moderation and chastity
§
○
Core teaching = “4 Noble Truths”
Life is sorrow
§
The cause of sorrow is attachment
§
Sorrow can cease
By following the 8-fold path
□
Buddha was born from a human being
□
§
There is a path to stop sorrow
§
○
•
Mahayana (Great Vehicle)
By early centuries of Common Era (500-600 years after the
death of the Buddha) Buddhism developing new forms of
belief & practice.
Around the 1st century or so of the Common Era, new
forms of Buddhism begin to emerge
§
They are based on the main ideas, but they begin to put
their own spin on things
§
○
New movement called “Great Vehicle” to distinguish it from
older Buddhism, which it called “Inferior Vehicle” (hīnayāna).
○
New texts arise c. 1st cent CE connected w/ Mahāyāna such
as Prajñāpāramitā (Perfection of Wisdom).
The rational is that these beings have been protecting
these new texts
§
New texts begin to arise but they are represented as the
authentic words of the Buddha that were kept secret
during his lifetime and are now being made available
§
○
Contain new doctrines and concepts.
○
Mahāyāna not a separate “sect” – refers to a universal or
encompassing vision
An orientation towards the Buddhist project or path
§
When you attain Nirvana for yourself, it's a selfish act but
that requires help
§
In some way, the pursuit of nirvana is selfish in itself
§
○
Mahayana tries to emphasize everyone
○
Emphasis on devotional and “lay” practices
Ordinary people should be involved in attaining nirvana
§
This represents a shift in the ethos; all of a sudden, it
becomes other focused
§
Worshiping, offering, praying, become part of this
Similar to the movement between the Upanishads
and the Bhukti movement
This is roughly the same historical period
®
□
§
○
Gives rise to elaborate cosmologies & doctrines:
“Three Bodies” of the Buddha (tri-kāya)
Similar to the doctrine of the trinity in Christianity
□
§
“Emptiness” (śūnyatā)
§
“Mind-Only” (citta-mātra)
Everything is nothing but mind
□
§
“Buddha-nature” (tathāgata-garbha)
Each of us, in our true nature, has a Buddha nature;
we're all potential buddhas or we're buddhas as our
true identity
□
§
○
Focuses on Bodhisattva Ideal, i.e., altruistic motivation to
become enlightened (i.e., to become a Buddha) to help others
attain nirvāṇa
Bodhisattva ideal: To attain enlightenment for the sake of
all living creatures
Ex. I want to attain enlightenment for all the fishes in
the sea, people in Goleta, fir every single living
creature
□
§
○
•
Mahayana Cosmology
There's a greater ability to achieve enlightenment; there's a
world that's populated with Buddhism
○
Shows how the popular imagination began to talk about these
things?
○
There's also female Buddhas
○
•
Bodhisattva
Before Mahāyāna,
bodhisattva
referred to Buddha before
enlightenment
Ex. He would be a prince and make some grand
gestures; story of the Buddha born as a prince, saw a
starving tiger, and he gives himself, his body to the
tigress; the acts of the Bodhisattva
§
Ultimately, you have to get good at this; you're following
the bodhisattva path; it results not in mere nirvana, but
total enlightenment
§
○
In Mahāyāna, the
bodhisattva
becomes the ideal—seeking
enlightenment for all living beings
○
Mahāyāna has multiple buddhas & bodhisattvas in multiple
realms helping multiple living beings
○
Bodhisattvas (“enlightenment being”) are persons on their way
to becoming Buddhas
a buddha-in-training who has their sights on becoming a
buddha?
§
○
Bodhisattvas become mythological super-heroes
a spiritual hero who fights these battles
§
Develop mythologies around them; some can fly others
can walk through walls
§
○
Bodhi-sattva=“One who is intent on bodhi (enlightenment)”
○
Mahāyāna emphasizes bodhi over one’s personal nirvāṇa
○
•
3 Buddha Bodies
In reality, Buddha has 3 bodies (trikāya)--have the historical
Buddha, but thinking more metapjorically
Truth Body (dharmakāya) – embodies principle of
enlightenment w/ no limits
Reflect reality; they're real and true; interesting
progression; the dharma is first technical
instructions but then it becomes important b/c it puts
you in charge of truth?
□
It's not constrained by physical limitations; it's the
truth of everything at all times
□
These Buddha bodies can appear to people able to
receive/perceive them--visions; in meditation, it's
possible to get deep enough into meditation where
you're receptive of visions; the Buddha is appearing
to them?? Who?
□
§
Enjoyment Body (sambhogakāya) – a blissful
manifestation made of light
A psychic body; it's not material; made out of light
□
§
Emanation Body (nirmāṇakāya) – exists in time & space
This is the one that walks and talks, is born and dies
□
§
○
•
Emptiness
•
Śūnyatā (“emptiness”) is a refinement of doctrines of no-self,
impermanence & interdependent origination
Emptiness means that things are not as they appear
○
Ex. When you look at a chariot and say you see a chariot,
what you actually see is the collection of parts of the chariot;
but you look at it and see a chariot; but there is not chariot, the
collection of phenomena grouped together is empty, empty of
chariot nests?
There's no chariot, it's just your idea; it's a fixed idea that
you think as an intrinsic identity
§
There was never a chariot, just your idea of a chariot
§
○
•
Circle is called an enso--Japanese image
•
Denies self of persons
and
self of phenomena
•
Emptiness = groundlessness of phenomena & all concepts,
including Buddhist doctrine
•
Emptiness sometimes called ultimate “ground” of being
•
Like images in a dream, things are neither substantially existent nor
absolutely non-existent
Things do exist, but they exist in a way that you don't image
○
Ex. They exist in the ways that trees exist in trees
○
To say that things don't exist is to go to the extreme of nihilism
We always strive for the middle path in Buddhism
§
The acceptance that there was a phenomena; but it was
really just a branch of neurons firing
§
○
•
Self-dependent substances are merely hypostatized concepts or
words
Becomes a critique of linguistics; must learn to separate the
word to relate to things outside yourself but to not confuse the
word or thing with the concept itself
○
•
Negation of such reified concepts is derived from theory of
Conditioned Arising – whatever exists arises & exists dependent on
other things
•
Things (ideas) exist relative to other things
•
Saṃsāra & nirvāṇa exist only in dependence on each other – both
are “empty” of “inherent existence” (svabhāva)
Don't be grossed out by samsara b/c it's nirvana
○
•
Perceiving everything as interdependent or empty shifts from
conventional perception
•
Conventional experience divides world into likes, dislikes, desires,
fears, self, other, as separate entities
•
To perceive “emptiness” one must be aware of how one
“constructs” attachments & fears while perceiving & judging thru
concepts & language
•
Mind-Only
Consciousness has fundamental role in experience of reality
○
Absolute mode of reality is consciousness/mind/ideas
○
A “store consciousness” (ālaya-vijñāna) contains karmic seeds
that are source of all experiences
○
Sometimes called the “one,” “absolute” mind or “Great Self”
○
•
Store-house consciousness
•
Buddha-Nature
Buddha Nature (tathāgata-garbha) theory presents a positive
view of the absolute
○
Basis for all Buddha’s virtues & experiences is innate in all
beings
○
Critical of “negative” doctrine of emptiness
○
Tathāgata-garbha = essence, womb, embryo of a “one-gone-
thus” (= Buddha)
○
“Embryonic buddha” or “buddha-potential” present within all
beings
○
Beings unaware they possess this treasure
○
Buddha Nature is our true, pure identity covered by delusion,
greed, anger, etc.
○
•
Lecture 10: Buddhist Vehicles
Thursday, May 3, 2018 5:50 PM
Hinayana (Theravada) and Mahayana
**Know Krishna well; avatar!•
Bhagavad Gita Answer 3•
**See GS sample answer!•
Use 3-4 good sentences; as much info as possible; use long, full sentences•
The best answers will contain the terms from the study guide!•
Don't leave any answers blank!•
Use 3-5 terms from the study guide that inform the short-answer!•
Not-Self (anātman)--key distinguishing characteristic b/w Buddhism
and other religions
Buddhism denies existence of a permanent or static entity that
remains constant behind changing bodily and non-bodily
components of a living being
There is no fundamental identity behind the physical and
mental processes that we associate with ourselves
§
○
Just as body changes from moment to moment, so thoughts
come and go
○
According to the anātman doctrine, there is no permanent
conscious substance that experiences these thoughts
○
“Personality” analyzed into 5 psycho-physical transitory
“aggregates” (skandhas)
○
•
Five "Aggregates" (skandhas)
Physical form (rūpa)
Refers to bodies and external phenomena
§
Composed of the “4 elements”
§
○
Feeling/sensation (vedanā)
Pleasant, unpleasant, neutral
§
○
Perception/recognition (samjñā)
Discerning between specific objects
§
○
Karmic formations (saṃskāra)
Emotions, motivations, mental states
§
○
Consciousness (vijñāna)
Consciousness of sense impressions & mental objects
Is yet another effect
□
Is impermanent and influx and not the equivalent of
a self?
The problem of suffering, which is based on
the cause of attachment; based on the belief of
the concept in a self; my needs and desires are
important and valid--this is ego; attachments
are formed due to a misunderstanding about
the nature of one's self
b/c you believe in this, you invest in these
mental states
When they change you experience
suffering (of your body and mental
capacities)
}
◊
®
□
§
○
•
Questions of King Milinda
Scripture of early Buddhism
**do this reading!
§
A Buddhist monk is invited to visit and instruct an
important king
§
A highly narrativized dialogue--indicates the kind of
cultural exchanges taking place
§
The king invites the monk to school him in Buddhism
§
Monk introduces himself as Nagasena but says
Nagasena doesn't exist
This statement undercuts all the theories; king
thinks Buddhism is absurd
□
§
The king is perplexed
§
Compares the chariot to this example
§
The parts are one thing but the term chariot is a name
that you superimpose on a collection of parts; but you're
relating to the chariot itself; the parts are a transitory
collection
§
Made up of parts which will come apart
§
○
•
Buddhist Schools
2 main “schools” or movements:
Early Buddhism: Theravada (“School of Elders”) or Hīnayāna
(“Lesser Vehicle”/bad/deficient/inferior)
Hinayana is considered inappropriate b/c it's demeaning□
Monks and nuns are the only people actually following
the religion; their job is to become enlightened; strong
emphasized in the Hinayana/Theravada
The role model, idea is to attain nirvana; nirvana is
a state beyond karma, a state of peace, free from
pain; a person who obtains nirvana is called arhat
®
□
Monastic emphasis□
“Arhat” Ideal--has followed the path and attained
nirvana
The path of the arhat is an individual path
®
The arhat became the exemplar
®
This form of buddhism spread and flourished
®
□
South & Southeast Asia□
§
Mahāyāna (“Great Vehicle”)
Greater lay emphasis
Lay means nonmonastic, every day, ordinary
joes
®
The Mahayana includes greater emphasis for
people who aren't monks or nuns
®
The ideal model people emulate is the
Bodhisattva
®
□
“Bodhisattva” (enlightenment-being) Ideal
A person who strives to attain buddha-hood
NOT enlightenment
®
Buddhas in training
®
□
Elaborate cosmologies
There have become more buddhas and
stories; broaden the conception of what it
means to be Buddha
®
Takes place during the Christian era
®
□
North & East Asia
□
§
○
•
Early Buddhism (Theravāda)
Conceives of Buddha in human terms
Not about a relationship with a higher being but taking
your humanity and developing it to the highest extent;
founded by a human being
§
Perceiving the Buddha as a human being
§
○
Buddhism originally a personal path to liberation or nirvāṇa,
i.e. state of anarhat
Quickest way to achieve nirvana is through a monastic
lifestyle
§
○
Focuses on monastic ideal (renunciation, self-discipline)
Leaving a life of moderation and chastity
§
○
Core teaching = “4 Noble Truths”
Life is sorrow
§
The cause of sorrow is attachment
§
Sorrow can cease
By following the 8-fold path
□
Buddha was born from a human being
□
§
There is a path to stop sorrow
§
○
•
Mahayana (Great Vehicle)
By early centuries of Common Era (500-600 years after the
death of the Buddha) Buddhism developing new forms of
belief & practice.
Around the 1st century or so of the Common Era, new
forms of Buddhism begin to emerge
§
They are based on the main ideas, but they begin to put
their own spin on things
§
○
New movement called “Great Vehicle” to distinguish it from
older Buddhism, which it called “Inferior Vehicle” (hīnayāna).
○
New texts arise c. 1st cent CE connected w/ Mahāyāna such
as Prajñāpāramitā (Perfection of Wisdom).
The rational is that these beings have been protecting
these new texts
§
New texts begin to arise but they are represented as the
authentic words of the Buddha that were kept secret
during his lifetime and are now being made available
§
○
Contain new doctrines and concepts.
○
Mahāyāna not a separate “sect” – refers to a universal or
encompassing vision
An orientation towards the Buddhist project or path
§
When you attain Nirvana for yourself, it's a selfish act but
that requires help
§
In some way, the pursuit of nirvana is selfish in itself
§
○
Mahayana tries to emphasize everyone
○
Emphasis on devotional and “lay” practices
Ordinary people should be involved in attaining nirvana
§
This represents a shift in the ethos; all of a sudden, it
becomes other focused
§
Worshiping, offering, praying, become part of this
Similar to the movement between the Upanishads
and the Bhukti movement
This is roughly the same historical period
®
□
§
○
Gives rise to elaborate cosmologies & doctrines:
“Three Bodies” of the Buddha (tri-kāya)
Similar to the doctrine of the trinity in Christianity
□
§
“Emptiness” (śūnyatā)
§
“Mind-Only” (citta-mātra)
Everything is nothing but mind
□
§
“Buddha-nature” (tathāgata-garbha)
Each of us, in our true nature, has a Buddha nature;
we're all potential buddhas or we're buddhas as our
true identity
□
§
○
Focuses on Bodhisattva Ideal, i.e., altruistic motivation to
become enlightened (i.e., to become a Buddha) to help others
attain nirvāṇa
Bodhisattva ideal: To attain enlightenment for the sake of
all living creatures
Ex. I want to attain enlightenment for all the fishes in
the sea, people in Goleta, fir every single living
creature
□
§
○
•
Mahayana Cosmology
There's a greater ability to achieve enlightenment; there's a
world that's populated with Buddhism
○
Shows how the popular imagination began to talk about these
things?
○
There's also female Buddhas
○
•
Bodhisattva
Before Mahāyāna,
bodhisattva
referred to Buddha before
enlightenment
Ex. He would be a prince and make some grand
gestures; story of the Buddha born as a prince, saw a
starving tiger, and he gives himself, his body to the
tigress; the acts of the Bodhisattva
§
Ultimately, you have to get good at this; you're following
the bodhisattva path; it results not in mere nirvana, but
total enlightenment
§
○
In Mahāyāna, the
bodhisattva
becomes the ideal—seeking
enlightenment for all living beings
○
Mahāyāna has multiple buddhas & bodhisattvas in multiple
realms helping multiple living beings
○
Bodhisattvas (“enlightenment being”) are persons on their way
to becoming Buddhas
a buddha-in-training who has their sights on becoming a
buddha?
§
○
Bodhisattvas become mythological super-heroes
a spiritual hero who fights these battles
§
Develop mythologies around them; some can fly others
can walk through walls
§
○
Bodhi-sattva=“One who is intent on bodhi (enlightenment)”
○
Mahāyāna emphasizes bodhi over one’s personal nirvāṇa
○
•
3 Buddha Bodies
In reality, Buddha has 3 bodies (trikāya)--have the historical
Buddha, but thinking more metapjorically
Truth Body (dharmakāya) – embodies principle of
enlightenment w/ no limits
Reflect reality; they're real and true; interesting
progression; the dharma is first technical
instructions but then it becomes important b/c it puts
you in charge of truth?
□
It's not constrained by physical limitations; it's the
truth of everything at all times
□
These Buddha bodies can appear to people able to
receive/perceive them--visions; in meditation, it's
possible to get deep enough into meditation where
you're receptive of visions; the Buddha is appearing
to them?? Who?
□
§
Enjoyment Body (sambhogakāya) – a blissful
manifestation made of light
A psychic body; it's not material; made out of light
□
§
Emanation Body (nirmāṇakāya) – exists in time & space
This is the one that walks and talks, is born and dies
□
§
○
•
Emptiness
•
Śūnyatā (“emptiness”) is a refinement of doctrines of no-self,
impermanence & interdependent origination
Emptiness means that things are not as they appear
○
Ex. When you look at a chariot and say you see a chariot,
what you actually see is the collection of parts of the chariot;
but you look at it and see a chariot; but there is not chariot, the
collection of phenomena grouped together is empty, empty of
chariot nests?
There's no chariot, it's just your idea; it's a fixed idea that
you think as an intrinsic identity
§
There was never a chariot, just your idea of a chariot
§
○
•
Circle is called an enso--Japanese image
•
Denies self of persons
and
self of phenomena
•
Emptiness = groundlessness of phenomena & all concepts,
including Buddhist doctrine
•
Emptiness sometimes called ultimate “ground” of being
•
Like images in a dream, things are neither substantially existent nor
absolutely non-existent
Things do exist, but they exist in a way that you don't image
○
Ex. They exist in the ways that trees exist in trees
○
To say that things don't exist is to go to the extreme of nihilism
We always strive for the middle path in Buddhism
§
The acceptance that there was a phenomena; but it was
really just a branch of neurons firing
§
○
•
Self-dependent substances are merely hypostatized concepts or
words
Becomes a critique of linguistics; must learn to separate the
word to relate to things outside yourself but to not confuse the
word or thing with the concept itself
○
•
Negation of such reified concepts is derived from theory of
Conditioned Arising – whatever exists arises & exists dependent on
other things
•
Things (ideas) exist relative to other things
•
Saṃsāra & nirvāṇa exist only in dependence on each other – both
are “empty” of “inherent existence” (svabhāva)
Don't be grossed out by samsara b/c it's nirvana
○
•
Perceiving everything as interdependent or empty shifts from
conventional perception
•
Conventional experience divides world into likes, dislikes, desires,
fears, self, other, as separate entities
•
To perceive “emptiness” one must be aware of how one
“constructs” attachments & fears while perceiving & judging thru
concepts & language
•
Mind-Only
Consciousness has fundamental role in experience of reality
○
Absolute mode of reality is consciousness/mind/ideas
○
A “store consciousness” (ālaya-vijñāna) contains karmic seeds
that are source of all experiences
○
Sometimes called the “one,” “absolute” mind or “Great Self”
○
•
Store-house consciousness
•
Buddha-Nature
Buddha Nature (tathāgata-garbha) theory presents a positive
view of the absolute
○
Basis for all Buddha’s virtues & experiences is innate in all
beings
○
Critical of “negative” doctrine of emptiness
○
Tathāgata-garbha = essence, womb, embryo of a “one-gone-
thus” (= Buddha)
○
“Embryonic buddha” or “buddha-potential” present within all
beings
○
Beings unaware they possess this treasure
○
Buddha Nature is our true, pure identity covered by delusion,
greed, anger, etc.
○
•
Lecture 10: Buddhist Vehicles
Thursday, May 3, 2018 5:50 PM
Document Summary
Use 3-4 good sentences; as much info as possible; use long, full sentences. The best answers will contain the terms from the study guide! Use 3-5 terms from the study guide that inform the short-answer! Not-self (an tman)--key distinguishing characteristic b/w buddhism and other religions. Buddhism denies existence of a permanent or static entity that remains constant behind changing bodily and non-bodily components of a living being. There is no fundamental identity behind the physical and mental processes that we associate with ourselves. Just as body changes from moment to moment, so thoughts come and go. According to the an tman doctrine, there is no permanent conscious substance that experiences these thoughts. When they change you experience suffering (of your body and mental capacities) capacities) A buddhist monk is invited to visit and instruct an important king. A highly narrativized dialogue--indicates the kind of cultural exchanges taking place. The king invites the monk to school him in buddhism.
