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self, death and afterlife Flashcards

1
Q

Buddhism and the meaning of life

A
  • doesnt have a god centered meaning or a soul centered meaning
  • this is because there is no god and no self, due to anatta
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2
Q

difference between laity and sangha belief on the meaning of life

A

L: better rebirth, good karma
S: enlightenment

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3
Q

difference between M and T belief on the meaning of life

A

M: bodhisattvas, come bakc and help others reach enlightenment
T: arhats, enlightenment for yourselves

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4
Q

quotes on the meaning of life

A
  • ‘you will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life’ Camus :)
  • ‘who won the lottery of birth against all odds…inevitable return to that prior state from which the vast majority have never stirred’ Richard Dawkins –> gratefulness
  • ‘life is trivial in comparison to time’ Carl Sagan
  • ‘the existence of God is morally oppressive and leaves no room for personal choice, geniune moral freedom..’ julian baggini –> life is more meaningful without God
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5
Q

what is punabhava

A

rebirth

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6
Q

what is samsara and quote

A

cycle of death and rebirth
‘continuous circle of life..without beginning or end’ Wilson

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7
Q

what is paticcasamuppada

A

dependent origination

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8
Q

what is Karma

A

action/intention with consequence

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9
Q

point of life: rebirth vs nirvana

A

rebirth
- conventional truth
- L: more attainable
- in T: only monks can become arhats, so better rebirth allows a person to become a monk

nirvana
- ultimate truth
- M: become a bodhisattva and help, others become enlightened through their help
- T and S –> goal to be arhats

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10
Q

why is a better rebirth important in buddhism

A
  • punya, karmic merit for the L, shape better society –> B teachers how to live not focus on why (p of poisoned arrow), PRACTICAL ADVICE
  • zen buddhism, dogen zenji ‘things are so’, accept things as they are
  • dalai lama: ahimsa, 1 precept links with karma –> cause and effect
  • pure land B: rebirth in sukhavati, better way to achieve buddhahood in pure land –> only in pure land schools in M traditions
  • B past lives needed to become B, necessary for Nirvana
  • ‘those on the good course go to heaven, while those without effluent: totally unbound’ DHP 126
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11
Q

why is nirvana more important in B

A
  • ‘one thing teach is suffering and cessation of suffering’ B, 4NT
  • 4NT: cessation of dukkha, D aim into lead people to spiritual liberation and transcendence of suffering, the last NT is about Nirvana
  • 8FP, extinguishes suffering as a whole –> that is its aim
  • tathagatagarba: everyone has potential for buddhahood
  • ‘come behold this world which is like a decorated chariot, here fools flounder but the wise have no attachment’ dhammapada
  • M: bodhisattvas is goal, help others attain nirvana, goal for all sentient beings, central part of the faith
  • T: monasticism, meditation to prepare mind for nature of existence and deeper knowledge of B teachings –> have concentration and insight to know nirvana,
  • ‘one who has laid down the burden’ tipitaka
  • only minor schools do not see nirvana as the goal, such as pure land
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12
Q

point of life: individual or collective

A

Individual
- T: enlightenment for yourself

collective
- no self: so no individual –> ANATTA, sunyata no svabhava
- karma, actions have consequences on others and yourself due to anatta
- L and S interdependence
- M: bodhisattvas, enlightenment for all

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13
Q

point of life: making this life better or the next

A

this life
- parable of the poison arrow, what we can do now, not focusing on the metaphysical
- 8FP, 4NT, –> nirvana in this life
- sunyata, time is cycle, no difference between now and later

next
- better rebirth, more likely to achieve nirvana

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14
Q

ARHATS AND BODHISATTVAS

A
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15
Q

what is anatta

A
  • one of the 3 marks of existence
  • no permanent unchanged fixed self
  • names are labels not proof of a self –> giving names to the 5 aggregates (skandas) do create an individual
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16
Q

nagasena and the chariot analogy

A
  • name does not equal impermanence + unchanging self –> chariot, ultimate reality
  • chariot is needed to converse on a conventional level but on ultimate level no chariot (T and M)
  • anatta and rebirth: rebirth is not linear, actions and consequences of yourself have been reborn and death will be the same
  • NOT LIKE HINDU OR SIKHI BELIEF where permanent soul is reborn
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17
Q

nagasena chariot and karma

A
  • karma is connection between lives
  • consequences is reborn
  • rebirth is a continual process
  • consciousness is not reborn, only tibetan buddhists believe this
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18
Q

Anatta in the Buddhas life

A
  • 4th watch of gautamas time under bodhi tree understanding anatta: ‘here I have found freedom’
  • Buddha emphasises how he wasnt important as an individual but his life was interconnected with all sentient beings –> understanding dhamma and anatta is more important than buddha character
  • buddhas death shows insignificance of self and importance of selflessness –> died in kusinara, place of no significance and criticised ananda of being sad as he should know all is impermenant
  • TB: tathagata Buddha
  • MB: shakyamuni B has no real distinction between other bodhisattvas or buddhas –> understanding truth and enlightenment is goal
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19
Q

anatta in buddhist practice

A
  • meditation:
  • samatha meditation: mindfulness of the current state of the skhandas
  • brings calmness of mind and body –> zen walking, japanese tea ceremony, martial arts

-vipassana meditation: aims to producing insight and enables buddhists to analyse attachments to the world and see things as they really are; aim is enlightenemtn

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19
Q

Anatta in buddhist teachings

A
  • 5 skandas attachment leads to suffering, sermon at benares
  • chariot, king melinda and nagasena
  • ultimate and conventional truth concerning anatta
  • anatta in life: caring, kindness and lack of separation between others
  • 8 fold path encourages understanding of anatta –> makes people reflect on the way which people are impermeant and interconnected
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20
Q

implications anatta poses on rebirth

A
  • punabhava is not reincarnation
  • continuous process of karma + conciousness when continual rebirth occurs
  • continuum/stream of rebirth/karma –> continual life and death concerning rebirth, not just final death
21
Q

anatta in practice

A
  • shared karma, shared good deeds (meta bhavana)
  • ethical motivation: karma for you is karma for all, equality
22
Q

Mahayana and Anatta

A
  • sunyata, no sambhava
  • interconnectivity and interderdependence, indras web
  • ultimate reality to realise we as an individual are not earning karma
23
Q

Theravada and Anatta

A
  • dependent origination
24
Q

what does Anatta not mean

A
  • fixed soul: B teaching at the time of Hindu dominance in india (atman/self taught)
  • soul is not fixed or permanent and does not move between bodies upon death
  • anatta is the negative of this
25
Q

scholars on anatta

A
  • ‘buddha taught that this belief was a dangerous illusion’ cush (belief in the self)
  • ‘a true disciple will develop an aversion to the physical form’ Buddha
26
Q

gross and subtle level of anatta

A
  • gross: physical people
  • subtle: objects
27
Q

why is anatta not relevant for most buddhists

A
  • too difficult and complex for the average buddhist
  • theoretical and not experienced
  • not a priority for Lay b who prioritise merit making and morality
  • less relevant than dukkha and anicca which can be seen in everyday life
  • practical matters more important
28
Q

why is anatta relevant for most buddhists

A
  • truth on many levels, anatta is an important Ult Truth
  • useful reminder about the interaction between mind and body
  • understood through meditation
  • reminder of the futility of attatchment to all things
  • for monks, a necessity on the route to nirvana
29
Q

what is karma

A
  • conditioning: buddhist psychology, karmic fruits –> we are karmically conditioned to think in a certain way (an incidident can have a different effect dependant on conditioning)
  • actions with consequences, cause and effect, intention et cetera
  • understanding the effect of your external actions
  • karmic neutral: no intention, the enlightened
30
Q

misconceptions about karma

A
  • not always achieved through physical action: thought and speech is not always physical
  • ultimate reality: mind creates reality, enlightened beings create not karma as they have no intention
  • laity: do good, get good, and multiple actions and consequences
31
Q

misconceptions of karma concerning free will

A
  • no determinism as we can change wat we experience and what we do
  • not predetermined as someone external does not determine what will happen
  • there is no free will as their is no individual independent of everything, as all we experienced is caused by something else
32
Q

karma and rebirth

A
  • bad moral actions lead to a bad rebirth
  • good moral actions lead to wholesome rebirth
  • anatta: karma for all is karma for yourself, so good actions are selfless –> conditions are reborn, not a self
  • rebirth is rebecoming, not the reincarnation of a fixed self
33
Q

how does karma interact with samsara

A
  • T: Nirvana is the unconditioned
  • M: Nirvana is the conditioned
34
Q

quotes on karma

A
  • ‘karma is action, and..its reaction’
  • ‘if with a pure mind a person speaks or acts happiness follows him like his never-departing shadow’ Dhammapada
  • ‘every volitional action of individuals..is called karma’
  • ‘the buddhas view rooted karma in the process of rebirth’ Erriker
35
Q

what is dependent origination

A
  • system of causality
  • within samsara everything exists because of a prior cause
  • ceaseless series of cause and effect –> no stability
36
Q

what does dependent origination teach us about life in samsara

A
  • everything has been caused to some condition, so there is nothing eternal
  • things do have an existence, meaning that buddhist doctrine is not nihilistic
  • shows the way to the cessation of samsara –> no cause means nothing new will exist
  • shows how there can be rebirth without a permenant self, atman
37
Q

how is there rebirth without an atman, but person A and B are still linked

A
  • linked through CAUSAL PROCESSES
  • A is dead and their karmic actions are factors in the cause that created B
  • A and B are connected as they have a shared karmic causality, so are not completely different from eachother
  • 12 fold formula for dependent orig that explains rebirth
38
Q

quotes on samsara

A

‘a state characterised by suffering impermenance and no self or essence’ cush

‘we are as addicted to word life as to cigarettes or heroin’ cush

‘nirvana is seeing samsara for what it really is - empty’ cush

‘the entire wheel becoming a representation of neurotic suffering’ epstein

‘long is the wordly existence to fools who know not the good teaching’ dhammapada

‘this world is like a decorated chariot..fools flounder…the wise have no attachment to it’ dhammapada

39
Q

what is the wheel of life and what are its meanings

A
  • tibetan and originated in buddhas time
  • talks of 3 poisons, realms of rebirth and 12 niddanas
  • what it means to be human and what stops us from attaining nirvana
  • conventional: helps us understand how to achieve a better rebirth
  • ultimate: wheel cannot be interpreted literally as anatta –> refers to human psychology
40
Q

what do the snake pig and rooster represent on the wheel of life

A
  • 4 poisons,
  • hate, ignorance and desire respectively
41
Q

what are the 6 realms and intermediate state

A

3 GOOD REALMS OF SAMSARA, good karma = good rebirth
- heavens
- human: the only realm u can reach nirvana in,
- azuras

3 BAD REALMS OF SAMSARA
- hungry ghosts: represents craving
- animals
- hell

  • bardo: intermediate state, feeling through rebirth
42
Q

12 niddanas and yama

A
  • 12 links of interdependent origination –> chain of cause and effect
  • 2 weak links, craving and ignorance
  • craving dispelled by meditation and ignorance dispelled by studying ways out of samsara
  • yama: lord of death
  • symbolic, shows that every being is subject to death
43
Q

why should we study the wheel of life

A
  1. gives knowledge
  2. triggers compassion
  3. motivates renunciation
44
Q

how does the wheel of life give knowledge

A
  • brings knowledge of the buddhist way of understanding the world
  • depicts samsara (conditioned existence) and describes experiences of beings go through due to circumstances of birth
  • circumstance determines life experience
  • knowledge and understanding on ways of life and variety of beings
  • takes us beyond human condition and life but to beings in diff circumstances and broadens minds in terms of the world (perspective)
  • 6 states of samsara are psychological –> helps us understand ourselves because it helps us identify the various states of mind we go through –> can help us have a clear understandings of our feelings and what triggers them
  • depicts casual connections at work creating life as we know it on outer ring –> explains chain reaction that creates the state of mind and types of experience we have in life

‘our life is shaped by our mind’
‘joy follows a pure thought like a shadow that never leaves’
dhammapada

45
Q

how does the wheel of life trigger compassion

A
  • help someone along their spiritual path, gives knowledge that allows us to connect with the experience of beings allowing sympathy and empathy
  • gives perspective on life supporting sympathy and respect for other beings as we are all in samsara and will be reborn in different realms
  • humans are not separate from other types of beings, interconnected –> closeness and affinity and intimacy
  • shared experience of suffering for all beings, creating connection between all beings –> develop love and compassion for others as we understand others situation
46
Q

renunciation in the wheel of life

A
  • we see our worldly goals as less priority, continuing to pursue them makes us a slave to our habits, making us go round in samsara
  • need to escape 3 poisons
  • develop a wish to free ourselves from samsara and follow a spiritual path –> aren’t limited by short term goals
  • vision of the future is only about this life, but also our future lives
47
Q

14TH dalai lama

A
  • exiled when china conquered tibet
  • lives in northern india
  • reincarnation, clashes with anatta
  • head of state and tibetan buddhism
  • viewed as reincarnation of all previous dalai lamas and AVALOKITESVARA, bodhisat of love and compassion
48
Q

how is a dalai lama chosen

A
  • monk dream about location to find him
  • oracle lake to find him
  • folow smoke from dead lamas cremation
  • child picks artefacts from previous lamas
49
Q
A

rs (34 decks)

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