Cards To Add Not Advanced Flashcards
What is meant by Paramita?
Perfection or perfections. In Buddhism, the pāramitās refer to the perfection or culmination of certain virtues. In Buddhism, these virtues are cultivated as a way of purification, purifying karma and helping the aspirant to live an unobstructed life, while reaching the goal of enlightenment.[1]
Buddhavacana
Buddhavacana, from Pali and Sanskrit, means “the Word of the Buddha.” It refers to the works accepted within a tradition as being the teachings of the Buddha. All traditions recognize certain texts as buddhavacana which make no claim to being the actual words of the historical Buddha, such as the Theragāthā and Vimalakīrti Nirdeśa Sūtra.
Mahāsāṃghika
The Mahāsāṃghika (Sanskrit “of the Great Sangha”, Chinese: 大眾部; pinyin: Dàzhòng Bù) was one of the early Buddhist schools. Interest in the origins of the Mahāsāṃghika school lies in the fact that their Vinaya recension appears in several ways to represent an older redaction overall. Many scholars also look to the Mahāsāṃghika branch for the initial development of Mahayana Buddhism.
Mūlasarvāstivāda
The Mūlasarvāstivāda vinaya is one of three surviving vinaya lineages, along with the Dharmaguptaka and Theravāda. The Tibetan Emperor Ralpacan restricted Buddhist ordination to the Mūlasarvāstivādin vinaya. As Mongolian Buddhism was introduced from Tibet, Mongolian ordination follows this rule as well.
The Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya is extant in Tibetan (9th century translation) and Chinese (8th century translation), and to some extent in the original Sanskrit.
Who are the Sarvāstivāda’s?
The Sarvāstivāda (Sanskrit; Chinese: 說一切有部; pinyin: Shuō Yīqièyǒu Bù) were an early school of Buddhism that held to the existence of all dharmas in the past, present and future, the “three times”. Vasubandhu’s Abhidharmakośa-bhāṣya states, “He who affirms the existence of the dharmas of the three time periods [past, present and future] is held to be a Sarvāstivādin.”[1]
The Sarvāstivādins were one of the most influential Buddhist monastic groups, flourishing throughout Northwest India, Northern India, and Central Asia. The Sarvāstivādins are believed to have given rise to the Mūlasarvāstivāda sect, although the relationship between these two groups has not yet been fully determined.
The Three Original Vehicles
Early history Edit
The Sarvāstivāda enjoyed the patronage of Kanishka, during which time they were greatly strengthened, and became one of the dominant sects of Buddhism for the next thousand years.[3]
In Central Asia, several Buddhist monastic groups were historically prevalent. A number of scholars have identified three distinct major phases of missionary activity seen in the history of Buddhism in Central Asia, which are associated with the following sects, chronologically:[4]
Dharmaguptaka
Sarvāstivāda
Mūla
Dharmaguptaka
The Dharmaguptaka (Sanskrit; Chinese: 法藏部; pinyin: Fǎzàng bù) are one of the eighteen or twenty early Buddhist schools, depending on the source. They are said to have originated from another sect, the Mahīśāsakas. The Dharmaguptakas had a prominent role in early Central Asian and Chinese Buddhism, and their Prātimokṣa (monastic rules for bhikṣus and bhikṣuṇīs) are still in effect in East Asian countries to this day, including China, Vietnam, Korea, and Japan. They are one of three surviving Vinaya lineages, along with that of the Theravāda and the Mūlasarvāstivāda.
Dharmaguptaka doctrine is characterized by an understanding of the Buddha as separate from the Sangha so that his teaching is superior to the one given by arhats. They also emphasise the merit of devotion to stūpas, which often had pictorial representation of the stories Buddha’s previous lives as bodhisattvas as portrayed in the Jataka tales. The Dharmaguptakas regarded the path of a śrāvaka (śrāvakayāna) and the path of a bodhisattva (bodhisattvayāna) to be separate. A translation and commentary on the Samayabhedoparacanacakra reads:[1]
Tantra
Tantra, also called Tantrism and Tantric religion, is an Asian tradition of beliefs and meditation and ritual practices that seeks to channel the divine energy of the macrocosm or godhead into the human microcosm,[1] in order to attain siddhis and moksha. It arose in India no later than the 5th century CE,[2] and had a strong influence on both Hinduism and Buddhism.
Buddhist Philosophy
Buddhist philosophy is the elaboration and explanation of the delivered teachings of the Buddha as found in the Tripitaka and Agama. Its main concern is with explicating the dharmas constituting reality. A recurrent theme is the reification of concepts, and the subsequent return to the Buddhist Middle Way.[1][2]
Early Buddhism avoided speculative thought on metaphysics, phenomenology, ethics, and epistemology,[3] but was based instead on empirical evidence gained by the sense organs (ayatana).[4]
Nevertheless, Buddhist scholars have addressed ontological and metaphysical issues subsequently. Particular points of Buddhist philosophy have often been the subject of disputes between different schools of Buddhism. These elaborations and disputes gave rise to various schools in early Buddhism of Abhidhamma, and to the Mahayana traditions and schools of the prajnaparamita, Madhyamaka, buddha-nature and Yogacara.
Tripiṭaka
Tripiṭaka (Pali: Tipiṭaka) is a Sanskrit word meaning Three Baskets. It is the traditional term used by Buddhist traditions to describe their various canons of scriptures.[1] The Tripiṭaka traditionally contains three “baskets” of teachings: a Sūtra Piṭaka (Sanskrit; Pali: Sutta Pitaka), a Vinaya Piṭaka (Sanskrit and Pali) and an Abhidharma Piṭaka (Sanskrit; Pali: Abhidhamma Piṭaka).
Abhidharma
Abhidharma (Sanskrit) or Abhidhamma (Pali) are ancient (3rd century BCE and later) Buddhist texts which contain detailed scholastic reworkings of doctrinal material appearing in the Buddhist sutras, according to schematic classifications. The Abhidhamma works do not contain systematic philosophical treatises, but summaries or abstract and systematic lists.[1]
The Sutta Pitaka
The Sutta Pitaka (suttapiṭaka; or Suttanta Pitaka; cf Sanskrit सूत्र पिटक Sūtra Piṭaka) is the first of the three divisions of the Tripitaka or Pali Canon, the Pali collection of Buddhist writings, the scriptures of Theravada Buddhism. The Sutta Pitaka contains more than 10,000 suttas (teachings) attributed to the Buddha or his close companions.
What is said to have been done at the First Council?
The scriptures tell how the First Council held shortly after the Buddha’s death collected together the discipline (vinaya), and the dharma in five collections. Tradition holds that little was added to the Canon after this.
Pain
The greater part of human pain avoidable. The pain you create no is always some form of non acceptance, some for of unconscious resistance to what IS.
In thought it is some form of judgment.
On the level of emotion it is some form of negativity.
The strength of the pain is equal to the resistance of the present moment.
And this in turn is equal to the amount you have identified with your mind.
The mind always seeks to deny the now and escape from it.
The more you are able to honor the now the more you are free of suffering and free of the egoic mind.
Why does the mind habitually resist the now?
Because it cannot function and remain in control without past and future. So it perceives the time that’s “Now” as threatening. Time and mind are inseparable. The mind, to retain its control, seeks to cover up the present moment with past and future covering over your true nature. All individuals are suffering from this affliction but they are making It worse when they seek to deny the present moment or reduce it to some means of getting to some future moment.
What do you need to do if you no longer want to create pain for yourself and others?
Do not create anymore time than is needed to deal with the practical aspects of your life.
How do you stop creating time?
Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have. Make the now the primary focus of your life. Instead of making brief visits to the now and living in the past or future live in the now and make brief visits to the past and future.
How would you ever plan your life if you are only concerned with the NOW?
You can easily be in the now and planing your future. The difference is that planning in the now is not based on an avoidance of the present moment. RIGHT NOW you are planning. You are not planning for the future, then being carried off by another thought of what you must do in the future because you are bored of the other thought you were just having and you are not planning in the future because you are trying to avoid something that has not yet happened but you are worried about happening.
(There is a neat little way of putting it…. planning is living in the NOW for the future and WORRYING is an avoidance of the NOW with self created pain)
How is worrying related to avoiding the NOW ?
It is not living in the NOW. It is self created suffering for some future event that may or may not manifest. It is a second dart. It is self created suffering.
The Self created suffering of boredom, skill acquisition and the cycle that keeps you exactly where you are.
Microscopic or REAL reincarnation that until you break the cycle of, you will be stuck in, reliving your present pain.
Someone who acquires massive amounts of skill is someone who has broken the cycle of reincarnation by breaking through boredom to find the fascination of repeated task. Someone who despite doing the act repeatedly over extended periods of time still sees the value, the fascination, the curiosity in it. Someone who has not is continually trying to move on to the next skill, continually looking to the future and desiring to be there and when they arrive there they are continually trying to be somewhere else. The is the definition of the truth of rebirth, reincarnation, samsara and of the second dart of suffering.
