What is Buddhism? Flashcards
Beginnings
- Indian religion initiated around the 5th c. BCE
- The founder is known as the Buddha (“The Awakened One”)
-community grew and spread in India, and to the rest of Asia - Over time (both in South Asia and in the other regions where it spread), the religion developed scriptures, institutions, rituals, scholastic practices & philosophical thought, devotional and contemplative practices, material culture
- disappears from India around the 13th c. CE, but continues to be practiced in Asia (and now, worldwide)
Three Jewels
The Buddha : The teacher
TheDharma:Theteachings
The Saṃ gha : The community
key terms
Buddha = the Awakened One
bodhi = Awakening
√budh = to wake up, to awaken
bodhi-sattva = a being (on the path to) Awakening
4 noble truths
- Suffering (duḥkha)
pain and dissatisfaction in all aspects of life (birth, illness, old age, death,
association with what is unpleasant, etc.) - The Origin of Suffering
nescience, and craving that can never be satisfied, the three poisons or defilements (delusion, attachment, aversion) - The Cessation of Suffering (nirvāna)
- The Way to the Cessation of Suffering The Teachings (dharma)
nirvāṇa
nir√vā, to blow away
pari-nirvāṇa, complete extinction
Not “nothing” but a domain of experience which defies categorization (as is free from even the more subtle forms of ordinary consciousness)
It is the object of consciousness at the moment of Awakening, when craving is extinguished, one sees the Four Truths (that is, experiences the ultimate Truth about reality), and the mind known the unconditioned realm.
Three aspects:
- Cessation of the thre defilements, which is thecessation of suffering, liberation from the cycle of existence (saṃsāra)
- Final condition of Buddhas & Arhants
- Unconditioned realm known at the moment of Awakening
The noble eightfold path
- Conduct
- Meditation
- Wisdom
4 noble truths as medical treatment
- Suffering (Diagnosis)
- Its Cause (Etiology)
- Its Cessation (Existence of cure/health)
- The Path (Treatment)
Buddhist “Saints”
- Samyaksaṃbuddhas, Complete and Perfect Buddhas that discover and teach the Dharma
- bodhisattvas : beings on the path to become Buddhas
pratyekabuddhas, solitary Buddhas)
arhants, the worthy ones (attained Liberation)
Periodization
- Early Buddhism: ca. 5th c. BCE-1st c. CE
Slow diffusion of Buddhism, progressive institutionalization,
and scriptural formation - Middle Period of Indian Buddhism: ca. 1st c. CE-ca. 6th c. CE
Consolidation of monastic Buddhism and emergence of the Mahāyāna (Great Vehicle) movement - Late Indian Buddhism: ca. 6th c.-12th c. CE
Development of Tantric Buddhism
Segmentation of Indian Buddhism
- No central authority (no clear patriarch), no Buddhist unified “Church”, no “canon” of scriptures, no monastic rules agreed upon
- Great importance paid to the continuity (and purity) of the monastic lineage linking oneself to the Buddha
- Slow process of diversification, which at some point “crystallized” into “sects” or schools (nikāya),
- Each resulting school developed its own claims for orthodoxy, ordination lineage, monastic regulations, and authoritative scriptures (“canon”)
Periodisation if Indian Buddhism
Early Buddhism: ca. 5th c. BCE-1st c. CE
Slow diffusion of Buddhism, progressive institutionalization,
and scriptural formation
- Middle Period of Indian Buddhism: ca. 1st c. CE- ca. 6th c. CE
Consolidation of monastic Buddhism and emergence of the Mahāyāna (Great Vehicle) movement
- Late Indian Buddhism: ca. 6th c.-12th c. CE
Development of Tantric Buddhism
Mahāyāna
- A polemical label:
Mahāyāna = the great (or superior) vehicle vs. Hīnayāna, the inferior vehicle. - Didn’t define a clearly constituted movement before the 3rd/4th century CE (Almost not attested outside of texts in India)
- key factor: The vow to become a perfect Buddha for the sake of all living beings. (praṇidhāna, bodhicitta)
- Earliest texts of this movement in the turn of the Common Era.
- But aspirations to become a Buddha, or the very name Mahāyāna, mostly don’t appear in the public sphere before the 5th century.
- Mahāyāna was very much of a minority movement in India during 4 centuries.
(In China, became the dominant form of Buddhism already in the 4th c.)
Tantric Traditions
- Tantric traditions are a development within Indian religious traditions at the middle of the 1st millemmium CE
- The social reality of the emergence and organisation of these religious groups, and their integration with the wider community, and among each other, is poorely understood
- Between the Hindu (Śaiva and Vaiṣṇava) and Buddhist traditions there is much ritual and textual overlap
Tantric new revelations
- New phase of scriptural formation: the newly revealed texts are often called tantra
- The religious goal is the same as in the Great Vehicle: Perfect Buddhahood for the sake of all living beings
- The Buddha has insight into the necessary means (upāyakauśalya) to teach different kinds of individuals
- The inferior vehicles are like rungs of a ladder for those of inferior abilities.
- More effective means to reach Awakening sooner:
Ritual emphasis, variety of tantric methods (according to the pupils’ propensities) & reflections on the nature of the embodied being (relationship between mind & body)
Tantric new means of awakening
- Main goal is becoming a fully Awakened Buddha
- Secrecy, access only by consecration/initiation
- The main practice is identification with a Buddha through a series of practices of “union” (yoga)
- Range of ritual and contemplative practices employed to achieve Awakening: mantras (sacred syllables & formulas), yantras (diagrams) & maṇḍalas (representations of celestial palaces), visualization techniques, body postures, breath control.
- Transgressive elements (funerary imaginary, consumption of impure substances & intoxicants, sexual practices)
