Buddhism Final Fall 2017

Visuddhimagga

(Path of purification) (How to meditate on love) (Buddhaghosa) Treats the practice of the Buddhist path in the framework of three trainings—1. The training in ethics (which includes observance of the monastic code), 2. The training in meditation (Which includes the developing various levels of concentration), 3. The training in wisdom (Which includes the development of insight into the three marks of existence, impermanence, non self, and suffering.

Satipatthana Sutta:

(The Benefits of Mindfulness) (The Establishment of Mindfulness) he Buddha sets forth what he calls the "direct path". Four objects of mindfulness are prescribed. The mindfulness of the body, feeling, mind, dharmas.At the end of the text the Buddha makes a powerful claim for the efficacy of the practice, which he calls "the direct path for the purification of beings"—a path that leads to nirvana in as little as 7 days

Nidanakatha

(The Life of the Buddha) (Account of the Beginning)-Ascribed to the great scholar Buddhagosa—three sections 1. The Distant Epoch (Sumedha) 2. The Not Distant Epoch (Last lifetime) 3. The Recent Epoch (First 7 weeks after enlightenment -Buddha picks his birth circumstances. Deities predicted he would see 4 omens—man of old age, sick person, dead person, and a mendicant(poor person) and he did.

Smokey Bear Sutra

An American sutra written by Gary Snyder. The buddha assumes the form of smokey the bear—symbolized as a protector of the environment. He will protect anyone who devotes themselves to saving the environment and will punish anyone who doesn't.

Dharma

Can mean many different things. The word of the Buddha. The teachings. Spinning the wheel of dharma-it spreads. The liberating truth set in motion by the Buddha's first teaching.

Tantra

Text setting forth rituals and practices for the attainment of all manner of supernatural powers, including the power to achieve buddhahood, that began to appear in India in the seventh century c.e; highly influential in India, Nepal, Tibet, and East Asia.

Pure Land

With the rise of Mahayana Buddhism, a new realm that was neither heaven or non rebirth appeared. A combination of nirvana's security and heavens relative ease of entry--A place filled with numerous world systems, similar to our own. Differ in things like life span and the degree of happiness and suffering

Prince Vessentra gives away his children

immediately prior to his birth as prince siddartha—in tushita heaven—gives elephant that brings rain to a person in need—banished from kingdom for this—gives away his children and wife

Buddha

One Buddha at a time. Takes a very long time to become a Buddha. Sakyamuni/Prince Siddartha=Main Buddha. Birth to Queen Mahamaya. Jataka tales are centered around him. Matrea-The Buddha now.

Anitya(Impermanence)

One of the 3 marks of existence. Falls under right mindfulnes. Helps the third noble truth. All conditioned things must perish. Helps attain Nirvana. Percieving impermanence means to see reality in a fundamentally different manner from the commonsense perceptions that develop as humans reach maturity

Anatman(Nonself):

One of the three marks of existence, rejects any notion of an intrinsic, unchanging entity at the core of a person. Like god. Created out of desire for answers. Like emptiness in Mahayana Buddhism.

Dukkha(Suffering)

One of the three marks of existence. All things suffer. Four noble truths are based around it. Things like birth, aging, sickness, death, desire, loss. Even pleasure and good times are suffering because of anitya

Shinran

Pure land. Author of the tannisho. Large believer of fate and nembtsu and nyanfo. Amitaba. Said that if a good man can be reborn in the pure land then and evil person can get in even easier.

Contemplation Sutra

Said to have been delivered by Shakyamuni Buddha--Introduces pure land--Contemplations start with the setting sun and gradually get more difficult to visualize. The 9th one is to visualize Amida himself.--The Buddha also goes through the nine grades of birth

Amitabha

"Infinite Light" The Buddha who presides over the pure land of Sukhavati, to which he vowed to lead all beings who call upon him. Venerated by all Mahayana schools, he is the focus of Pure Land Buddhism.

Thich Nhat Hanh

"Love in action" Non-violence even in the face of the Vietnam war. Did not choose a side, stood for peace. Engaged buddhism. Self-immolation. Setting themselves on fire. This releases some sort of change. Willing to endure great suffering for all of the other people.

Bhodicitta

"Mind of enlightenment" The aspiration to enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings, possessed by the Bhodisattva

Bhodisattva

"One whose goal is awakening" A being intent on enlightenment. One who has vowed to achieve buddhahood for the welfare of all beings.

Jataka Tales:

"birth". Accounts of the Buddha's previous lives.

Early Buddhism / Theravada:

"way of the elders", The Buddhist tradition of modern Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. A school of mainstream Buddhism, it does not consider Mahayana sutras to be the authentic word of the Buddha.

Vimalikarti Sutra

(A Layman Humbles the Monks) -The Buddha requests that his leading monk disciples visit his lay disciple Vimalikirti, who is ill. He asks Manjushri, the bodhisattva of wisdom, who agrees to visit Vimalikarti He asks about his sickness and he says his sickness is the sickness of all sentient beings; he describes how a sick bhodisattva should understand his sickness

Diamond Sutra

(The Perfection of Wisdom that Rends like a Thunderbolt) (The Vajracchedika Prajnaparamita) - A wisdom sutra. The knowledge of emptiness. One of the only wisdom sutras known by an English title.--Opens with the Buddha "realized one" residing in the Jetavana grove with 1250 monks and a large number of Bodhisattvas.--"If subhiti, the idea of a living being occurs to a bhodisattva, he should not be called a bhodisattva."(Setting forth the doctrine of emptiness)--"A is in fact not A, therefore it is called A"

Trikaya

(Three Bodies of the Buddha) -A Buddha has three bodies. Mahayana doctrine of the three bodies of the Buddha: Dharmakaya(truth body), Sambhogakaya(enjoyment body), and nirmanakaya(emanation body).

Lotus Sutra

(White Lotus of the True Dharma) (The Saddharmapundarika) Most important of the Mahayana Sutras. Author is unknown. Suggests the Buddha had been enlightened long ago and only pretended to do these things in order to offer inspiration to the world.How to accomodate innovation when there is nothing that the Buddha did not reveal

The Four Noble Truths

1. All life entails suffering (Humanity is trapped in Samsara, the cycle of rebirth) The intention of this truth is to direct one's attention towards clear, realistic observation. "Spiritual maturity is not possible if one remains in denial about one's own mortality or ignores the suffering of others" Birth, aging, sickness, death, meeting w the unpleasant, separation from the pleasant, not finding what one wants, the 5 aggregates subject to changing. 2. States that "The cause of suffering is desire". (Origin) All humans yearn for food, power, posessions, sex. The cause/origin of the suffering. Emphasizes detachment. 3."that the removal of desire in turn removes suffering" can create nirvana. 4. The formula for removing desire. the noble eightfold path.

King Shibi rescues a dove

A Jataka Tale--king of the gods and a deity turn themselves into a hawk and a dove. The King Shibi protects the dove from the hawk. The hawk then protests that the King is depriving him of food. The King offers all of his own flesh. He then performs an "act of truth" and his body is restored

Buddha Nature

A Mahayana Buddhism concept--Potentiality, embryo, seed, all have this potential to become a Buddha.In zen, "Does a dog have Buddha Nature?" The answer is NO. Why not? Because Buddha Nature is not something you have. By saying dogs do not have it, the master is correcting/emptying out the concept.

Mahayana(The Great Vehicle) and Vajrayana Buddhism

A group of sutras that began to appearing India four hundred years after the Buddha's death, containing new doctrines, as well as those who accepted those sutras as the word of the Buddha. Among the most important of these doctrines was the claim that all beings would one day achieve buddhahood. Declares supremacy and promises reward to those who exalt it.

"First of all, loving-kindness should be developed only toward oneself"

Author: Buddhaghosa(The voice of the Buddhism) Text: Visuddhimagga--Early Buddhism. Why not start with others? We are all connected. You are concerned for yourself and your own happiness. Out of that you can expand and extend that love to others.

"Think of not thinking, Not thinking-what kind of thinking is that? Non-thinking. This is the essential art of zazen."

Author: Dogen Text: Fukan Zazengi-The essentials of Zen meditation

"The Dharmakaya Buddha, for his own enjoyment, with his own retinue, preached the doctrine of the three mysteries"

Author: Kukai Text: Esoteric buddhism--The cosmic Buddha. The whole cosmos is the Buddha in it's true nature. He preaches for his own enjoyment because he is everything. Personifying this cosmic Buddha as a Buddha preaching a sutra. What is the sutra here? It is everything. The sutra is the world, is the cosmo. What are the three mysteries? Body, speech, and mind. Emulate the Buddha. Take on the body speech and mind of the cosmic Buddha. Mudras-body, gestures, postures. Mandala-mind, represent all of reality. Esoteric is basically a later form of Mahayana Buddhism.

"Even a good person attains birth in the Pure Land, how much more so an evil person!"

Author: Shinran Text: Tannisho (Lamenting the Deviations) Nyanfo--chanting--Amida--Nembetsu--Blind passion

"If, Subhuti, the idea of a living being occurs to bodhisattva, he should not be called a bodhisattva."

Author: Text: The Diamond Sutra--Mahayana, Perfection of wisdom. Ideas and concepts are bad. If you have an idea of a living being, you are essentializing people, and thus their compassion is self-oriented. By emptying all ideas and concepts, you have a more enlightened understanding. You cannot see the inter relationship between all things if you essentialize. Emptiness, Bodhisattva, Idea.

"With this in mind, the Buddha said, "In all things, there is neither male nor female."

Author: The Buddha Text: The Vimalikirti Sutra--Gender is, like all things, empty. Quotes the Buddha. Exchange between Goddess and someone else.

"O Shariputra, You should know that the Buddhas, with the power of skillful means, teach the single Buddha vehicle, dividing and teaching it as three."

Author: Unknown Text: The Lotus Sutra--Skillful means, single Buddha vehicle, the three vehicles are arhat, solitary buddhas, and bodhisattvas. Burning house, the dad grabs the three toys. The single buddha vehicle: the vehicle toward becoming the Buddha. Goal of all Mahayana buddhists- Teaching them all along to get goal of Buddha-hood for all.

Dalai Lama

Awarded nobel peace prize in 1989. Advocated for peaceful solution based upon tolerance and mutual respect in order to preserve the historical and cultural heritage of Tibetan people. The importance of compassion, non-violence, and mutual cooperation. He was an engaged buddhist.

Modern Buddhism

Engaged, esoteric, zen.

Kukai

Esoteric buddhism. Author off the Treatise Distinguishing the Two Teachings of Exoteric and Esoteric Methods. Founder of true word school of esoteric buddhism in Japan. (Kobo Daishi) His text explains the superiority of esoteric buddhism over exoteric buddhism.

Emptiness

Expansion of the notion of non-self. The claim that all phenomena are falsely imagined to have a self, a soul, and "own-being", a reality that they in fact lack. Any meritorious deed, from the giving of a gift to the vow to free all beings, is not a deed of a bodhisattva if it is tainted with this misconception of self.

Bodhidharma

Flew from India to China and spread Buddhism to China. A new style of Buddhism that would later be referred to as Zen=Mind to mind transmission. The founding patriarch in China of Chan. #1

Nianfo/Nembutsu

Homage to Amitabha Buddha"—In pure land buddhism, the phrase used to call on the power of Amitabha for salvation--Meditational and devotional practice of reciting the name of the buddha Amitabha, which is central to Pure Land Buddhism

Engaged Buddhism

Kenneth Kraft--Active involvement by Buddhists in society and with it's problems. Envirionment, non-violence, nuclear war. Compassion. nterconectedness, web of life. All are mutually conditioning.

Paramitas(Perfections)

Mahayana schools view the bodhisattvas path as cumulating paramitas through meditation. Bhodisattvas are directed to cultivate a list of 6 virtues or perfections, later expanded into 10: generosity, morality, patience, vigor, meditation, wisdom, skill in means, conviction, strength, and knowledge.

Nirvana

Marks both the completion of his own quest for total liberation from samsara and a crucial moment in the life of his community. Received when suffering is eliminated. End goal. Enlightenment. No more rebirth. Out of samsara. Bliss.

Karma

Moral causality. Merit. A process that links present actions to future consequences. All intentional acts of body, speech, and mind produce karma. Karma is what makes humans differ from one another. Makes Buddhism not a "spiritual democracy. Nor fully knowable but can be generally read.

Nagarjuna

Most famous figure in Indian buddhism. Wrote versus on the middle way. Middle way originated from the buddha but is most associated with Nagarjuna. Middle way between extremes. Founded the school Madhyamaka (middle-ist). For nagarjuna, the middle way lied between existence and non-existence.

Buddhaghosa

Most important monk in theravada buddhism. Author of Visuddhimagga.The voice of the Buddhism.

Therigatha:

Nuns achieve Nirvana) (Songs of the Female Elders) -The Buddha visited his home city of Kapilavastu after his enlightenment. Aunt and step mother, Mahapajapati asked him to allow women in the order. He refused. Buddha and his monks left city and were followed by 500 women led by Mahapajapati. After Ananda's third request, the Buddha relented, on the condition of 8 rules.

Zazen

Seated meditation, associated particularly with the Chan and Zen schools, which sometimes debated the value of prolonged sessions of silent seated meditation versus the value of Koans. -Seated Zen meditation. -Dogen )Fukan Zazengi

Sakyamuni

THE Buddha of Theravada Buddhism

Platform Sutra

Text that relates a story of Hui-neng meeting the fifth patriarch. The 5th patriarch asked his disciples to create a poem. His competitor failed. Hui-neng demonstrated that he was more enlightened than his competitor and was therefore confirmed as the sixth patriarch.Sudden Enlightenment. He says Meditation and Wisdom(Prasna) are one. You don't meditate to achieve it. They are the same thing. The notion of non-thought. Not getting attached to thoughts. Letting them come and letting them go

Sangha

The Buddhist monastic community. Role of women. See above in text. Means "community". Especially the community of monks and nuns; one of the three jewels. -The three jewels: The Buddha, The Dharma, and the Sangha; by tradition, a Buddhist is anyone who states that he or she takes refuge in them.

Skillful Means

The ability to make use of various expedient devices in order to convey the truth in such a way that it can be comprehended by a particular audience.

Hui neng

The sixth patriarch--Zen master--Stars in the platform sutra. Preached sudden enlightenment and that meditation and wisdom are one. Notion on non-thought.

Tipitaka

The tri, the three parts of the canon. Three types of texts. Sutras(discourses), rules(Vinyas), and abidharma(small d dharma-analyzing the phenomena of the world, detailed examinations of the self, karma. Mention some specific sutras in the canon, traditional poly canon. Added more with Mahayana.

Eightfold Path:

Three categories: Morality, meditation, and wisdom/insight.—Right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration, right view, right thought.— Rejected 2 ideas: 1. No belief in or relationship with a God. 2. The belief in an immortal soul is rejected as another false consolation

Milarepa

Tibetan master.

Dogen

Zen master--Suggests enilightenment happens in every day life Much in common with Hui-neng. Non-abiding. Things don't abide. Our minds should be like that. A flow of thoughts. Should not get attached to things. Thoughts and feelings should pass through without attachments. Wrote about gender. Women can as easily attain enlightenment.