REL 102 Buddhism

Buddhist Ideal Types

-*Perfect Buddhas- those who attain enlightenment without the help of a teacher (such us Siddhartha) -Arahant- one who has achieved enlightenment -Bodhisattva- one who vows to postpone nirvana until all other beings attain enlightenment -As Buddhist tradition develops there are Buddhist schools that hold that Siddhartha was one of many Buddhas

Buddhist Rejection of Anthropocentrism

-A number of the traditions we have reviewed so far assume an anthropocentrism (a human centered view), Daoism perhaps being an exception -In Buddhist tradition, there is no telos, no overall aim, that the world, or human life, is trying to realize. There is no "plan". -The created world is caught up in Samsara, eternal and ongoing cycles of creation and destruction. All that exists in the world is impermanent and shaped by interdependent origination -This core teaching does not assume that the world was created for us or for our flourishing. It also does not assume that there will be any divine redemption of the world or our lives which will lead to a world or a life in which there will be no more human suffering.

Monkey Trap

-A villager builds a trap, usually out of a gourd. The gourd has an opening big enough for a monkey to get its hand in. The villager puts something in the gourd that would tempt the monkey. The monkey reaches in but cannot get its fist out of the opening. -The monkey desperately attempts to get out of the trap. -Usually, it does not find its way out, because it would require letting go. -We are the stupid monkey.

Rejection by Ascetics

-A young maiden sees Siddhartha in distress and offers him rice pudding to eat (there are other versions of this story- but I like this one...) -Siddhartha accepts and the ascetics reject him. -They say he is not serious about the path.... -Siddhartha rejected this kind of profound asceticism as a solution to the problem of suffering.

Three Marks of Reality

-Annica (impermanence) -Anatman (no atman, no eternal self) -suffering (as fundamental to human experience of the world)

Buddhism and Other Paths to Liberation

-Around the time of the Buddha, there were a number of spiritual teachers/teachings, teaching paths to liberation or to the best possible life for human beings -I think contrasting the dharma/teaching/path of the Buddha with these others helps to clarify Buddhism

Ataraxia, Apatheia, and Buddhist Equanimity

-Both the Epicureans and the Stoics offered deep and analytic approaches to our psychologies, and also had the goal of cultivation of serenity, tranquility -Epicureans hoped to calm the desires -Stoics help to calm the passions -Buddhism desires both, but as Flanagan notes, the goal is not just any kind of tranquility, but a tranquility from which one feels regard for all sentient beings (all creatures capable of suffering are worthy of your moral concern, this includes animals)

Three Legs of the Stool of Enlightenment

-Buddhist teachers came to organize the Eightfold Path into three basic areas of discipline/practice -morality -mindfulness/meditation -insight

Does Buddhism Deny "Happiness"?

-Buddhist thought does not deny that we can have experiences that are pleasant, satisfactory, or "happy". -What it asserts is that none of those normal experiences persist and that our attachments to them contribute to our experience of suffering -All of these experiences are experiences of the impermanent flux of our own natures and the impermanent flux of the world

Materialists

-Buddhist tradition did not hold that this was the only level of reality or that all that existed was material -Buddhist tradition has tended to accept multiples levels of heavens and hells, but all of these are "samsaric" -There is no eternal life in a heaven or in a hell -Even the gods, in their heavenly abodes, are also caught up in Samsara -Like the materialists, the Buddha emphasized experiential knowledge

Buddhist Worldview

-Buddhist tradition largely accepted the Hindu notions of samsara (ongoing cycles of creation, destruction), rebirth (both reincarnation and transmigration), that rebirth is connected to karma (though not to caste), and the goal of liberation from samsara and rebirth (in Buddhist tradition- nirvana) -Buddhism will have to offer an alternative account of the nature of rebirth, as it rejects the Hindu notion of atman -in Buddhist tradition, we can't fully realize nirvana as long we exist in a material form

Skepticism

-Buddhist tradition shares some similarities to skepticism in that it also urges us to avoid "dogmatism" -Buddhist tradition holds that the Buddha held that both the materialists and the skeptics had gone too far in rejecting karma and rebirth -The Buddha believed that meditative experience showed both to be true (even if not true in the way understood by belief in atman or jiva)

Descartes vs. the Buddha on Consciousness

-Descartes- I think therefore I am -the Buddha- Thinking happens... sometimes -For the Buddha, we could say that Descartes did not follow his project to its logical conclusions. An examination of our experience does not reveal the "I", the holder of consciousness, but only episodes of "consciousness". Descartes assumed this. For the Buddha, our "ego" is impermanent, though we cling to them like they are not (a source of suffering)

Outline of Life of Siddhartha

-Father "King", Mother "Queen" (these are probably an elevation of their actual status) -Tradition reports that his mother had a dream in which a white elephant entered her side, and this is when she knew she had conceived the Buddha. -Buddhism thus has its own "Virgin Birth" story. -Tradition also reports that when the Buddha is born, he stands up, walks, and declares "I am victorious. This is the last of my rebirths." -His mother dies within about a week of his birth. -He is raised by his mother's sister. She will become his mother-in-law.

On Being Human

-Flanagan uses the language of "first nature" and "second nature" -First nature- our nature prior to our being socialized into being a certain kind of person -Second Nature- the self that we have been socialized into being -To this I might add another category- something like "ideal nature"- the self that we could be if we realize virtue, righteousness, salvation, enlightenment, etc. (different traditions offer us different pictures of what this ideal is

Meditation

-Guru 1 -Guru 2 -both gurus teach a style of meditation that Siddhartha says distracts him from the problem of suffering but is not a solution. He masters these quickly, but he decides to leave these teachers

On Dasein

-He is just showing us that he is a member of the philosophers club and can throw around terms from Heidegger (a German philosopher, 1889-1976) -For Heidegger, humans are beings in time, and thrown into time (so to speak). Heidegger uses this term- Dasein- to refer to the human experience in the being in time and being in the world

Daodejing

-Heaven and earth are not ren: they treat the things of the world as straw dogs. The sage is not ren: he treats the people as straw dogs. -Unlike the Confucian vision, which sees harmony with the Dao as a social harmony, at least in this line, the Daodejing does not see "heaven and earth" as interested in human flourishing. -Unlike the Daoist tradition, Buddhism does not really refer to any kind of ground of all being (does not discuss the Dao or Brahman)

Overcoming Thirst/Craving

-If the Buddha had asserted only the first two of the Four Noble Truths, Buddhism would truly be a pessimistic philosophy, but with the third, the truths take a therapeutic turn -To overcome suffering, we must overcome the cause of suffering -With his enlightenment, the Buddha has seen the path to overcoming this cause- the Noble Eightfold Path

How Can We Make Sense of Rebirth?

-If there is no atman, no jiva, if nothing about the self is eternal and unchanging, how can we make sense of rebirth? -Think of a house- if the architect dies, does the house fall down? -We put "energy" into the world that does not die when our material form dies. -The Buddhist doctrine of Interdependent Origination offers an account of karma and rebirth.

Consider

-Imagine you are an outcaste/untouchable. You hear the story of the beautiful young price, married to a beautiful young woman, with a healthy son, who has become obsessed with the problem of suffering. -You might be tempted to say- the problem, young prince, is that you have no clue 1) how good your life is or 2) what suffering really is. -You might propose a "Freaky Friday" experiment. You, young prince, take my place as an outcaste/untouchable and clean up excrement all day. I will live in your beautiful palace. -After this, we can discuss the nature of the good life, of suffering.

Three Marks of Reality

-Impermanence- all is in flux -Anatman- no atman, there is nothing about the self that is eternal -suffering (as a basic feature of human experience of world)

On Nirvana

-In Buddhist tradition, the ultimate goal is nirvana, the extinguishing of karmic suffering and rebirth -Buddhist schools came to hold different positions on our potential to attain enlightenment. The most traditional school holds that attainment of nirvana requires lifetimes of moral and spiritual purification and is a rare accomplishment, even of the moral and spiritual elite. -Other schools hold that it is possible to attain enlightenment in this lifetime.

Three Poisons

-In Buddhist tradition, there are a number of poisons, afflictions, that keep us caught up in samaric, karmic, suffering -"Original sin, Buddhist style, consists of the three poisons of delusion (moha), avaricious, greedy desire (lobha), and hatred (dosa). The poisons obstruct gaining eudaimoniaBuddha, and they come with being a human.4"

On the Advantage of Being Born Human

-In Buddhist tradition, those in heavenly realms lack the motivation to seek liberation from samsara -Those in hell realms are too caught up in suffering -Those in non-human forms, such as animals, lack the moral and spiritual resources -To be reborn as a human is to experience enough suffering to be motivated to seek liberation and the potential to have the moral and spiritual resources required to attain it.

Enlightenment/Nirvana/Parinirvana

-In Buddhist tradition, though one can be enlightened in this lifetime, one cannot attain full release from suffering until one attains Parinirvana, the nirvana that is realized after death (release from karmic rebirth, suffering) -As suffering is inevitable as long as one is embodied, full release from suffering can only be attained after death

Breathing and Attention

-In a "simple" meditation, you might combine a breathing and an attention meditation. -See if you can count your breaths, without thinking of anything else. -If you are honest with yourself, you may find that it takes you a long time, lots of training of discipline and attention, to get yourself to a place where you can count four breaths without your attention wandering.

Comments on Mindfulness vs. Meditation

-In ethics, we can distinguish the intention of an action, from the action, from the consequences of that action -Buddhist tradition tends to emphasize the importance of the intention of the action -Buddhist tradition also sees us karmic creatures- often unaware of what we are doing (because so much of it is habitually shaped) and even when we think we are aware, often deluded as to the true nature of our motivation (as we are still too rooted in the three poisons and the delusion of a some substantial and persisting Ego self). -Given this, we should strive to become more aware of what we do and why we are really doing it

Eightfold Path

-In my outline of the Eightfold Path below, I note some distinctions between lay Buddhists (followers of the Buddha who do not become monks/nuns) and monks/nuns -As I have outlined it, this is most true of Theravada Buddhist tradition, the tradition generally seen as the oldest of the existing Buddhist schools and the one closest to the original teaching of the Buddha

The Teachings of the Buddha

-Interestingly, we have no teachings of the Buddha believed to have been written by him (here the Buddha is similar to other influential teachers, such as Socrates, and Jesus) -The teachings of the Buddha were compiled after his death, by the Sangha, who had committed them to memory -The collection of these teachings is known as the Pali Canon, or the Tipitaka (the Three Baskets)

On Metta Meditation and Love of Enemies

-Jesus taught a love ethic, even of enemies -Buddhist tradition would likely argue that only those who made some good progress in moral and spiritual purification are ready for love of enemy -In Buddhist tradition, pre-enlightenment, we are very bad at loving. -Metta Meditation typically begins with learning to love yourself -You would then move to people you claim to love, then to those to whom you know but are indifferent toward, to your enemies, and then to all sentient life (as all life is suffering)

Siddhartha and Renunciation

-Late 20s, they have a son, Rahula (you could translate this name as "my ball and chain")- What has happened? -Four Passing Sights- the entourage breaks down. Siddhartha, out with his charioteer, encounters a sick man, an old man, and a dead man. Having never seen this before, he asks his charioteer what he is seeing (this reminds me somewhat of the Bhagavad-Gita). Siddhartha becomes obsessed with the problem of suffering. The last of his passing sights is a renouncer. With this, he sees the path he must take.

Thoughts on Ascetic Practice

-One of the ways our bodies deal with pain is to provide us with chemical responses to help with the pain and with chemical responses that help us forget the pain (amnesiac) -Part of the perversity of our wiring, if I could say it, is that pleasure and pain are wrapped around each other- please can lead to pain and pain can lead to pleasure.

Atman/Brahman

-One teaching, from Hindu tradition discussed earlier, is that there is in us an atman, that is eternal, and cycles through rebirth until we achieve union with Brahman, the eternal unchanging source of all reality -This school of Hindu jnana used many of the same moral and spiritual disciplines embraced by Buddhism, but sees our situation very differently -The Buddha rejected both atman (that there is anything eternal in us) and Brahman (that there is an eternal unchanging source of all reality)

Enlightenment

-Siddhartha decides to seek enlightenment on his own. -He sits under the Bodhi Tree (the Tree of Enlightenment as it is now known) and vows to find a solution to the problem of suffering -He returns to meditation as a way, but a meditation that will not distract him, but increase his awareness -With this strategy, he succeeds.

Jnana Marga Path of Siddhartha

-Siddhartha leaves shortly after seeing the renouncer, at 29, becomes a renouncer, and begins his quest for enlightenment -Siddhartha was born in what is today Nepal. He heads south, into India, to study with spiritual teachers -Siddhartha studies with three "Gurus", teachers: Guru 1 Meditation, Guru 2 Meditation, Five Ascetics

Five Ascetics

-Siddhartha then becomes a student of the five ascetics -he takes on an asceticism so severe that he very nearly starves to death. He is eating only a few grains of rice a day -he can touch his belly button and feel his spine -side-note: you could say that he traded one problem- depression- for another- anorexia

Other Causes of "Dukkha"

-The Buddha also identified our attachments to our own views and conceit as causes of dukkha -The Buddha argued that even when we believe we have given up our attachment to our own views, we have yet to transcend a deep and fundamental conceit, about the importance and existence of our own Ego self, even if the assertion of it leads to our suffering and/or the suffering of others

Cartesian Skepticism

-The French philosopher René Descartes (1596-1650) is famous for his "cogito ergo sum" -Long story short, Descartes asked what could he doubt was true. -Having seriously considered this question, he determined that there was much that he could doubt. -He even poses a philosophical thought experiment- the evil demon experiment- in which our experiences of an external world have been created for us by an evil demon, but are not "real" (something like the Matrix) -What Descartes says he cannot doubt is that he is doubting, leading him to his famous "cogito ergo sum"- "I think therefore I am"

Jain

-The Jains see our problem differently from the Hindu atman/Brahman school and from Buddhism -The goal is not some kind of union with the source -The goal is liberation of that which is immaterial and eternal in us (our jiva) from our corruptible and material natures -Jain tradition also embraced similar moral and spiritual disciplines, but leaned more toward ascetic practice than Buddhist tradition typically did

On the Nature of Suffering and the Cause of Suffering

-The Sanskrit term commonly translated as suffering is dukkha. -In this ancient Sanskrit, the root that makes its way into good, pleasant, etc (su) and the root which makes its way into bad, unpleasant (du) originated, interestingly, with a description of a chariot axle. -A chariot axle that was balanced was good, leading to a more comfortable ride and a chariot that was less likely to tear itself up as it moved. -One that was not was bad, leading to a more uncomfortable ride and an chariot that was tearing itself up as it moved. -By analogy, the axle, so to speak, of human life, is out of balance. Because of this, our lives are unpleasant (dukkha).

The Cause of Suffering

-The Sanskrit term for the cause of suffering, tanha, is commonly translated as "desire" but this is misleading. -It could be more literally translated as "thirst". -The Buddha's first sermon refers to our thirst/craving for sensual pleasures, existence, and for non-existence -The craving for existence is our craving for enhancement of our ego and for protection of our ego, including the protection of an eternal life for our ego self -The craving for non-existence is our craving to be rid of unpleasant experiences, unpleasant situations, unpleasant people, etc.

On Divine Abodes

-The divine abodes are states of mind of the individual who has them, or better perhaps, they engage the heart-mind of the person who enacts them, and they have a unique first-personal phenomenological feel for that person. Each abode also necessarily involves a distinctive and wholesome state of mind toward others, which normally involves dispositions to act in certain wholesome ways toward these others. -The aim of compassion (karuna) is [to end the suffering of others]. The aim of lovingkindness (metta) is [to bring happiness to others in the place of suffering].8 Sympathetic joy (mudita) is [joy at the success of, or, what is different, the good fortune of others]. Sympathetic joy is appropriate even in zero-sum games, where the one who I am happy for has just beaten me fair and square.9 Even equanimity (upekkha) has the good of another as its object, which shows that the translation of upekkha as equanimity is not perfect. In English, equanimity can refer to a narrow state of my heart-mind that has nothing to do with anyone else's welfare, and that is not directed at, for, or toward anything outside me. My being calm and serene might make me more pleasant to be around, or more caring toward others, but it is not constitutive of equanimity, as we English speakers understand the state, that it has this aim or quality.

"Karmic" Self

-The karmic self (the self prior to enlightenment) is both conditioned by its past and conditioning its karmic future -Consider- how many of you have witnessed, or participated in, arguments that have predictable forms, so predictable that you could almost call the play before it happens- -Now this is going to be said, now that, now this done, now that, etc. -Let's call that, riding karma, your experience of "karmic self" -How many of you having experienced that experience some level of shame, of frustration with yourself, etc. (I cannot believe I did that again, etc.)

Depression

-The temptation, with depression, is to try to "reason" people out of it- You have a great life, etc. but those of you familiar with depression know that it usually does not respond to these nudges. -One of the morals, for me, of the story of Siddhartha is this- we should never assume we understand what is happening on the insides of someone because we think we understand their outsides (so to speak). -To me, this also exposes one of the limits of the Schools of Athens, in that there are limits to our ability to "reason our way out", so to speak.

My House in on Fire...

-This line leads me to suspect a profound clinical depression. -What many who are not familiar with depression do not know, it is that it can be experienced as physical pain, fatigue. -Experiences that would normally be pleasurable are unbearable. This leads to withdrawal from those experiences, activities, people.

Core Teachings of Siddhartha, the Buddha

-Three Marks of Reality -Four Noble Truths -Dependent Co-Arising -Eightfold Path

Interdependent Origination

-Unlike Aristotle, for example, Buddhist tradition does not see the world, or human beings, as realizing the potentials of some essence -There is no "tree form", or "human form", that is trying to actualize itself -All that exists is impermanent and caught up in a web of interdependencies. It is, what it is, because of its situation in this way of interconnection. -This includes human beings -Buddhist doctrine that attempts to make sense of something like karmic rebirth, given that there is no permanent Ego self, no atman, no jiva, no soul -Buddhism (unlike the monotheistic faiths) has no special creation story- that humans are made in the image of God, or made to be God's representatives -Buddhist tradition also does not claim that we are the "children" of the gods (a claim found in Hindu Vedic tradition)

Death of the Buddha

-Unlike the monotheistic faiths, the Buddha did not claim to be a prophet or an incarnation of a god -He did not come bringing a revealed law -As Siddhartha was near death, one of this disciples, Ananda, came to the Buddha and told him that his anxiety was comforted in the knowledge that the Buddha would not leave them without giving them something that would regulate them after his death. -The Buddha told Ananda that the monks should trust in the dharma, that he had not hidden any of it from them. He also said that they should look to their own experience. They should not believe because they read it or heard it from a teacher. They should test it with their own experiences. They should believe because they have experienced the truth of the dharma.

Consider Your Car

-What makes your car a car? -You can start breaking a car down into individual components- engine, transmission, etc -None of those make a car a car -You could break those individual components into smaller pieces- rods, pistons, etc -A rod does not make an engine -None of the parts make the car what it is. The car is a temporary arrangement of parts that are all impermanent

Early Life

-When Siddhartha is born, his Father consults with fortune tellers who report that Siddhartha will either be a great king or a great spiritual teacher. -His father wants his son to become a great king, so goes to great efforts to give his son no reason to renounce the world (the path of a spiritual teacher) -He has a protected youth and a life of indulgence (some stories say he has an entourage to insure that he never encounters any ugliness or unpleasantness). -He is married at 16, maybe 19. Tradition reports that they are passionately in love with each other.

Renunciation

-When he goes to his father, his father is not happy. He tells Siddhartha that he should wait, fulfill his obligations as a husband, father, prince, become a king, raise his son to assume the throne. When this work is done, then, if he wants, he can become a renouncer. -Siddhartha responds something like- if a man's house is on fire, would you refuse to let him leave? My house is on fire.

On Impermanence

-While we are still afflicted by the three poisons, of ignorance, attachment, and aversion, the impermanence of the self and of the world contributes to our experience of suffering. -As we move toward enlightenment, the impermanence of the self and the world is key to the elimination of karma and rebirth. -Deep spiritual insight into the true nature of impermanence and its significance, reduces our ignorance, our attachment, and our aversion, and can lead to clarity, tranquility, enlightenment/wisdom, generosity, and compassion.

Buddhist Philosophy of Mind

-Would Buddhists agree that all "mental states" are "brain states"? -Buddhist philosophy of mind might identify some states we identify as "mental states" as "brain states" but would not identify all mental states as "brain states"

Philosophy of Mind

-a dominant model of the mind in current western philosophy and psychology is that the mind is an emergent property of the brain -mental states should, in theory, be reducible to brain states

The First "Converts"

-according to Buddhist tradition, the Buddha's first teaching was to the Five Ascetics who had rejected him -they were the first to recognize Siddhartha as the Buddha and to be enlightened from his teaching (becoming arahants, those who attain individual enlightenment)

Sunyata

-as Buddhist tradition developed, a doctrine related to the three marks of reality developed, that of sunyata, or emptiness -this is a subtle philosophical concept and one defined and understood in different ways -for our sake, we can understand it as something like the following- as far as we can go in exploring phenomenon, we will never find anything that has a substantial essence -everything is "empty" of defining essences

Buddha on the Gods

-doesn't deny the existence of the goods -doesn't ask his followers to deny the existence of the gods -doesn't ask lay followers to stop any of their religious obligations (offerings to Brahmins, students, sacrifices to god/s, sacrifices to ancestors) -the Buddha is a kind of consequentialist atheist (performance of these religious obligations will not lead to nirvana)

Interdependent Origination (Human)

-ignorance leading to actions -actions leading to awareness/consciousness -awareness/consciousness leading to sense of personal existence -personal existence leading to awareness of individual mind and senses -mind and senses leading to sensations and feelings -sensations and feelings leading to cravings -cravings leading to grasping -grasping leading to new karma -karma leading to new rebirth -rebirth leading to suffering -suffering leading to ignorance -ignorance leads us back to actions

Four Noble Truths

-life is suffering -suffering has a cause -to overcome suffering, overcome the cause -to overcome the cause, follow the Eightfold Path

Siddhartha on the Nature of the Self, the Five Skandhas (All Impermanent, Interdependent)

-material shape, or form (the body) -Feeling states, especially our hedonistic evaluation (our experience of something as pleasurable, unpleasurable, "blah" neither pleasurable nor unpleasurable) -Cognitive states, especially cognitive categorizing of experience, our "labeling" of an experience -"constructing activities"- the tendencies that have shaped us and the will, volition, intention that we use to shape ourselves. This is the most characteristic and is connected to karma in Buddhist thought -"consciousness"

Buddhist Sangha

-the Sangha- the community of monks and nuns -like Siddhartha, they are renouncers, having given up attachments to family, to property, and to sensual desires (celibacy is a traditional vow) -Siddhartha accepts disciples from all castes -Buddhist tradition sees the dharma/(truth/wisdom/path) of the Buddha as a path for all humanity

On Psychological Weeding

A philosophical psychology must answer the question of how it is possible for persons to get from first nature to the normatively endorsed second nature, in the present case from a first nature partly constituted by the poisons to a second nature where these are quieted, quelled, or eliminated and the expansive virtues of the bodhisattva are embodied. The answer, similar to Mencius (the great Chinese philosopher), Aristotle, Hume, and Darwin, is that, in addition to the bad or destructive seeds or sprouts in our nature, there are also the seeds of fellow feeling, empathy, and compassion. An attentive moral community works to suppress, weed, and eliminate the bad seeds and to cultivate and grow the good seeds.

The Middle Way

According to Buddhist tradition, Siddhartha saw his teaching (dharma) as a Middle Way, between the self-indulgence of his youth and the extreme self-denial of the ascetics

On Attention Meditation

Another idea (about 50 percent certified Buddhist) is that attention meditation is for training in attention itself, which will come in very handy when one needs to figure out what state one is in and why, this being necessary if one is to effectively control negative states of heart and mind. A common view in the West is that concentration meditation is good for helping people focus at work, in relationships, and so on—part of good mental hygiene, possibly an antidote for the ubiquitous ADD, which all young males were diagnosed with starting in the 1980s, and that has now become a glib equal opportunity—young, old, male, female—moniker, and for which ironically "speed" is one answer.

More on Mindfulness

Being mindful, at least trying to be mindful, is part of what it means to be a Buddhist. Compare: most Christians are taught to pray, say they pray, believe in the power of prayer, and so on. It is highly variable when, where, how, and why they pray, and whether their prayers are in the spirit of the tradition, and thus for the good of others, or selfish, "foxhole" prayers. Same situation among the Buddhisms.

On Mindfulness and the Poisons

Buddhism is both analytic and deep, analytic in the way I have just been discussing, deep in the sense that depth psychology is said to be deep, when it posits motives in human nature, in persons, that are causally highly consequential but that are not always visible to the people themselves, the very people motivated by these motives. This is revealed in the elaborate analysis of the hidden, deep nested structure of the three poisons contained in the Abhidhamma. The three motives of thirst and acquisitiveness (basic egoism), anger and resentment, and delusion, especially about what I really need or should sensibly want—for example, if I want to be eudaimonBuddha, which is a necessary condition for being happyBuddha—are first elaborated as giving rise to "the Six Main Mental Afflictions," attachment or craving, anger (including hostility and hatred), pridefulness, ignorance and delusion, afflictive doubt, and afflictive views.

On Mindfulness and Meditation

I have been insisting throughout that the Western emphasis on meditation, especially sitting meditation, is simply not nearly that big a thing across Asian Buddhisms. That said, mindfulness, as a form of attention to the purity of one's motivational states, is emphasized across the Buddhisms. Everyday mindfulness, conceived as mental attentiveness, is often equated with meditation. Sometimes mindfulness techniques are taught initially meditatively, sometimes not. But most Buddhist people in countries as diverse as Thailand, Tibet, and Japan do not sit. Nonetheless, they will all say they practice mindfulness.

On the Divine Abodes and Buddhist Eudaimonia

The four divine virtues complete the picture of eudaimoniaBuddha. Per- haps with the description in place we can feel our way into what it would be like to achieve eudaimoniaBuddha, as opposed to what it would be like to achieve eudaimoniaAristotle, or even some more familiar conception such as eudaimoniaNorth Atlantic Liberal Early 21st Century. Each conception of the good life both presupposes and requires a certain psychological configuration, a neuro- biological configuration. Buddhism is better than most other traditions in spelling out the psychology and explaining how to attain it. That said, a Westerner might wonder this: What "reasoning" could lead a tradition to develop a theory of eudaimonia that entails that the best life for a human is a life of maximal service to others?

Moral Meditation

Then there is specifically moral meditation. Metta meditation (metta = lovingkindness), for example, involves guided thought experimentation, pitting one's selfish side against one's compassionate, loving side. One might visualize oneself in an open field with moderate resources (money, food), with other people or a group in need of those resources. One then imagines—to one's left and right respectively—a more and less selfish version of one's actual self, one who wants to horde all the resources and another who wishes to help those in need by great acts of altruism. Normally, when metta meditation goes as planned, one will find oneself identifying with one's loving self and not with one's inner selfish creep. And this will help strengthen that positive and (now) reflectively endorsed identification.

On Concentrating on the Breath

There are many kinds of mental discipline or meditation. The familiar practice of concentrating on the breath (for hours) is for what? A very Buddhist idea is that such attention will teach impermanence. Every breath yields to the next, every sensation I attend to changes, sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. But always each sensation yields to another. Some forms of concentration involve trancelike techniques (dhyana) whose explicit function is practice in learning about impermanence or emptiness by analyzing and decomposing some thing or experience in thought. In this way concentration meditation yields a piece of Buddhist metaphysical wisdom (prajna), possibly two, impermanence and emptiness.

On the Afflictions

These in turn are roots for the "Twenty Derivative Mental Afflictions": anger, which comes in five types (wrath, resentment, spite, envy/jealousy, cruelty); attachment, which also comes in five types (avarice, inflated self-esteem, excitation, concealment of one's own vices, dullness); and four kinds of ignorance (blind faith, spiritual sloth, forgetfulness, and lack of introspective attentiveness). Finally, there are six types caused by ignorance + attachment: pretension, deception, shamelessness, inconsideration of others, unconscientiousness, and distraction.7

More on Equanimity

This is not how Buddhists understand equanimity. Equanimity (upe- kkha) means more than personal serenity. It is constitutive of upekkha that I feel impartially about the well-being of others. If I am in the state of equanimity, interpreted as upekkha, I am in a state that involves, as an essential component, equal care and concern for all sentient beings, minimally, sentient human beings. We might translate upekkha as "equanimity-in-community," if it helps avoid confusion with our understanding of equanimity as a purely self-regarding state of mind.

Fatalists

the Buddha thought the teaching of the fatalists were very damaging, as it could lead people to despair and apathy

Siddhartha, the Budha

the Buddha, the one who woke up, the awakened one