BUDDHISM

1. BUDDHISM

2. What’s (Not) In Your Mind? All things come at first from MIND Mind creates them, mind fulfills them Speak or act with tainted mind, You’ll drag around a cart of pain All things come at first from MIND Mind creates them, mind fulfills them Speak or act with lucid mind And joy will follow like your shadow. The Dhammapada

3. The whole aim of Eastern religion is to shift self-identity from the light bulb to the light – • Joseph Campbell • Enlightenment

4. Big Questions • How can we be happy? What prevents it? • To Hell in a Hand Basket or Heaven on Earth? • Buddhism – A Raft out of Hell? • Did you know you’re my Hero’s Journey? • What’s funny bout peace, love and understanding? • Dr. Buddha: Dukkhalogist - 8-fold Path • What’s (not) in your Mind? • The Jewel’s in the What? • WWBK – What would Buddha know?

5. Same Goal? • “The only thing that is unqualifiedly good is extended vision, the enlargement of one’s understanding of the ultimate nature of things” (8). • What is the nature of things? • What is the state of the world? • Story – “Birdsnest”

6. “Fire and Ice” Robert Frost Some say the world will end in fire. Some say in ice. From what I’ve tasted of desire, I hold with those who favor fire. But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate To say that for destruction ice Is also great, And would suffice.

7. Fear and Desire – The Only Way? • “The Last Flower” • Gandhi – “I know a way out of hell” • Story – “Heaven and Hell” • Buddha – “I teach suffering and the end of suffering”

8. The Three Poisons • Grasping/Desire • Aversion/Hatred/Fear • Delusion/Ignorance • Cause all suffering • Reflect Personality types

9. Buddhist View of Life • A. 6 senses - Sights, Sounds, Tastes, Smells, Physical perceptions, Mental perceptions • B. 6 accompanying consciousnesses – Sight and the seeing of it, etc. • C. 52 feeling/thought reactions/responses (26 wise, 26 unwise) interplaying between sense experiences and consciousness

10. Unwise/Unskillful Hatred Jealousy Fear Anger etc. Wise/Skillful Love Compassion Generosity Openness Tranquility Equanimity, etc. Wise and Unwise Responses to Life

11. Two Ways of Living • Unwise/Unskillful – Wandering about at the whim of every desire, impulse, emotion, like a stick in a river, moody etc. 2. Wise/Skillful/Enlightened – intentional, deliberate, skillful, wise, etc. Quick Write - Name a person from your life, from a story, or from history or news that you would describe as “enlightened” or “wise” and give specifics Repeat for someone “unenlightened” or “unwise”

12. Gandhi’s morning prayer Let our first act in the morning be to resolve such as this: I shall not fear anyone on earth I shall fear only that which is sacred I will not bear ill will towards anyone I shall not submit to injustice I shall conquer untruth by truth I shall conquer hatred by love And in resting in truth I shall bear all suffering And bring freedom of spirit to my own heart and all those that I touch

13. Others • Love your enemies – Jesus • Meet physical force with soul force – MLK • Make me an instrument of your peace – St. Francis of Assisi • Buddhist Quotes – page 3 in packet • Okay, but how?

14. “Buddhism is a voyage across life’s river –a transport from the common sense shore of ignorance, grasping and death to the further bank of wisdom and enlightenment” (144).

15. Wisdom? • “What is the wisdom we’ve lost in knowledge?” • Socrates = poster boy for Western Wisdom – what did he know? • “All I know is that I do not know” • Oracle at Delphi – Know Thyself • What did Buddha discover?

16. Goal – Mindfulness/Awareness/ Enlightenment “The more deeply we pay attention the more deeply we experience that we do not exist separate from the sunlight or the clouds or the earthworms…To the extent that we have learned to grasp and identify with this limited life, we suffer. The amount of our identification with it is our delusion, our suffering.” Jack Kornfield

17. Big Ideas • It’s all in the MIND Consciousness/ Awareness/Mindfulness/Enlightenment • Life is suffering caused by 1) Selfish Desire/ Grasping, 2) Fear/ Aversion, and 3) Ignorance/ Delusion • Empty Self thru 8fold Path, Middle Way • The Jewel is in the Lotus • Buddha nature and the Nirvanic World

18. BUDDHA • "What are you"? • "I am Awake” • "Buddha" = the Awakened, the Enlightened • Siddhartha Gautama • 563-483 B.C.E. • Nepal/India • Sakyamuni (silent sage) • “Wisdom Incarnate”

19. The Man Who Woke Up • A man “judged by hundreds of millions of people, from Ceylon [Sri Lanka] to Japan, and throughout large sections of the Asian mainland, to have exerted by his intellectual integrity, moral persuasiveness and spiritual insight, the most pervasive influence on the thought and life of the human race.” – Del Byron Schneider • "The rest of us dream the dream known as the awakened state of human life"

20. Classic Hero’s Journey • I. Prince, 4 Passing Sights, Great Going Forth – Quest, find the cause of suffering • II. Finds Middle Way, Temptations • Enlightenment under Bodhi Tree – finds cause and end of suffering • III. Returns with a mission to preach a religion of wisdom and compassion

21. Four Passing Sights Journal –Mindblower • old man - aging • sick people - disease • corpse - death • monk - withdrawal • "Life is subject to age and death - where is the realm of life in which there is neither?" • Fleshly pleasures lose their charm, so at 29 goes into forest

22. The Great Going Forth • Learns Raja Yoga w Hindu Gurus • Tries austerity of ascetics - didn't work to bring enlightenment, but did lead him to principle of • The Middle Way – like a string on an instrument

23. Enlightenment Sits under peepul/Bo tree (bodhi=knowledge) Gaya in NE India • Vows - “Let my skin and sinews and bones become dry…. all the flesh and blood in my body dry up, but never from this seat will I stir, until I have attained the supreme and absolute wisdom.”

24. Temptation • (like Christ’s on the eve of his ministry) • 1. Kama - desire - babes • 2. Mara - death - empties finite self • Mara challenges his right to be there - Buddha touches the earth to bear witness • Lost in rapture for 7 days, tries to get up, overcome by waves of bliss, stays 7x7 days • 3. Mara appeals to reason, don't go back - "How show what can only be found, teach what can only be learned?” Buddha replies – “Some will understand.”

25. Mission • Lives message • Preaches 50 years - withdraws • 6 yrs, preaches 45. • 3 mos, preaches 9. • 3x/day • Dies c.483 B.C. at 80 • Last words - "Work out your own salvation with diligence."

26. The Silent Sage • Sakyamuni - silent sage of the Sakya Clan • “One of the greatest personalities of all time” – Smith • “Wisdom incarnate” - cool head/ rational (like Socrates) and warm heart of “infinite compassion”(like Francis) • transforming presence - moved among kings and villagers with equal ease, took no notice of caste

27. The Rebel Saint • Unlike Hinduism, Buddhism sprang fully formed as an Indian Protestantism against Hindu perversions • 6 Common Elements of Religion that were corrupted • 1.      Authority • 2.      Ritual – (“People danced out their religion before they thought it out”) • 3.      Speculation – metaphysics • 4.      Tradition • 5.      Grace • 6.      Mystery • What started was a religion almost entirely devoid of each of these ingredients without which we would suppose that religion could not take root.

28. Original Buddhism • Empirical - know for yourself, validate • Scientific - cause and effect experiments • Practical - not speculative • Therapeutic - suffering and its end • Psychological – v. metaphysical - began with human problems instead of universe • Egalitarian - women equal, caste breaking • Individuals - Be lamps unto yourselves, work out your own salvation with diligence

29. 2 Ways of Living 3 Poisons 3 Marks of Existence 3 Jewels 4 Noble Truths 4 Foundations of Mindfulness 5 Precepts 5 Skandhas 5 Hindrances 6 Senses 6 Accompanying Consciousnesses 6 Moments of Dukkha 7 Factors of Enlightenment 8 Fold Path 52 Skillful and Unskillful Responses To Life "Suffering have I explained - for this is useful“ its cause, destruction and path that leads to its destruction. Numerical too and Useful

30. Kalama Sutta • "Do not accept what you hear by report, do not accept tradition, do not accept a statement because it is found in our books, nor because it is in accord with your beliefs, not because it is the saying of your teacher. Be lamps unto yourselves. Those who either now or after I am dead, still rely upon themselves only and not look for assistance to anyone besides themselves, it is they who will reach the topmost height.“

31. The Four Noble TruthsBuddha’s First Sermon

32. Dr. Buddha - Dukkhalogist • Symptom: Dukkha – suffering, transitory, finite existence, life out of joint • Diagnosis: Tanha – cause of suffering is desire/selfish craving based on egoism. Private fulfillment increases separateness. Tanha - always present when suffering is present, always absent when suffering is absent • Prognosis: To cure Dukkha, get rid of Tanha - release from the narrow limits of self-interest into vast expanse of human life – How? • Remedy/Prescription: The Eightfold Path

33. Mindfulness Journal Quick Writes 1. Who do you surround yourself with? List people who enlighten you, people who drag you down. 2. Write about a moment you had today when you felt • Anxious, stressed, nervous, dissatisfied, wanting, etc. OR • Peaceful, calm, relaxed, fulfilled, happy, etc.

34. More Mindfulness Journal Quickies • Stop and listen – what are you aware of about yourself or your surroundings of which you weren’t aware until you paid attention? 4. What is most on your mind? 5. What are you aware of about yourself or your world at this point of your life of which you were not aware as a child?

35. Dukkha = life out of joint • Trauma of birth • Sickness • Aging • Fear of death • Being tied to what you hate • Being separated from what you love

36. The Remedy - The Eightfold Path • intentional living, rather than pulled and pushed by impulse and circumstance • series of changes designed to release the individual from ignorance, impulse and Tanha • Preliminary - Begin with Right Association - yoke wild elephant to tamed

37. The Eightfold Path – Right… • Belief – Noble Truths – make up mind, then… • Intent - …Make up our hearts, dedicate • Speech –3 switches control us, become aware of what our speech reveals about us, of how many times and why we deviate from truth or kindness, of motives • Conduct - understand motives before trying to change behavior - how generous/selfless, follow 5 Precepts • Livelihood - what occupies our time. Promote life • Effort – Middle Way, slow and steady, like an ox • Mindfulness – Be aware, awake, conscious • Concentration - Raja Yoga regeneration - change into a new creature who experiences the world in different way.

38. Five Precepts Buddhist version of the Ten Commandments (2nd half) Knowing how deeply our lives intertwine, I undertake the training to abstain from: • Killing living beings • Taking things not given • Sexual misconduct • False speech • Intoxicating drinks and drugs

39. All in your Mind? • The Dhammapada: "All we are is the result of what we have thought." "All things can be mastered by mindfulness.“ • “There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so” – Hamlet • For Buddha ignorance, not sin, is the offender - sin is prompted by fundamental ignorance of our true nature

40. Continuous self-awareness/examination - freedom from unconscious, robot-like existence • See everything as it is - "If we maintain a steady attention to our thoughts and feelings, we perceive that they swim in and out of our awareness, and are in no way permanent parts of us…." • "We should witness all things non-reactively, especially our moods and emotions, neither condemning some nor holding onto others."

41. Ways to practice Mindfulness • Meditate on fearful and disgusting sights until they no longer bother us or repel us • Pervade world with thoughts of loving kindness • become aware of every action - when sleep takes over, whether breath is in or out • special routine for complete withdrawal • Packet page 17 and 18 • Mindfulness Experiment - Speech and Action

42. Buddha's Insights • 1. Every emotion, thought or image is accompanied by a body sensation and vice versa • 2. Obsessive patterns arise in mind and these constitute misery/dukkha • 3. Every mental and physical state is in flux, none is solid and enduring, even pain - each is comprised of series of discrete sensations that can suddenly change. • 4. We have little control over our minds and physical sensations • 5. There is nobody behind the mental/physical events • No Self? No Observer? What up wit dat?

43. 3 Marks of Existence • Anicca - transitoriness/impermanence • Dukkha – suffering • Anatta - absence of permanent identity/soul

44. “All Things Must Pass” by George Harrison Sunrise doesn’t last all morning A cloudburst doesn’t last all day Seems my love has up and has left you with no warning It’s not always going to be this wayAll things must passAll things must pass away Sunset doesn’t last all eveningA mind can blow those clouds awayAfter all this, my love is up and must be leavingIt’s not always going to be this grey

45. Anicca - Impermanence • All Things Must Pass • Regard this world: “As a star at dawn, a bubble in a stream, a flash of lightning in a summer cloud, a flickering lamp – a phantom - and a dream.” • This applies to the self too – hence:

46. Anatta – No Soul doctrine • No soul/permanent self. What gets reborn? • “Bad habits” – Desire/Fear threads each life to past and future • No spiritual substance/soul transmitted - but ideas, impressions, feelings, consciousness, memories • Desires and dislikes influencing my mind have lineages • Not bound by personal history - can break the chain through will

47. Karma, Tanha, Samsara, • Buddha's reincarnation differed from Hindus who attribute rebirth to Karma • Buddhists to Tanha - "as long as the wish to be a separate self persists, that wish would be granted. Desire is key - it is possible to step permanently out of the cycle of rebirth whenever one wished wholeheartedly to do so."

48. Nirvana?

50. Nirvana • Arhat who extinguishes all desires - reborn doesn't apply, not reborn doesn't apply. • Response to disciple: You ought to be bewildered - this is "profound, recondite, hard to comprehend, rare, excellent, beyond dialectic, subtle, only to be understood by the wise." • Supra-sonic? • "blow out/extinguish" boundaries of finite self, left w/ boundless life