Introduction to Basic Buddhism
All honour to Shakyamuni Buddha,
To his teachings, the Buddhadharma,
And to the Sangha, the community he established.
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- History
- Siddhartha
- Three Turnings & Three Collections
- Vinaya (Dharma Training)
- Sutra (Dharma Summaries)
- Abhidharma (Dharma Science)
- Three Trainings
- Three Schools (Southern, Mahayana, Vajrayana)
- Three Jewels
- Four Noble Truths
- Eightfold Path
- Interdependent Co-Operation
- Three Dharma Seals
- Skandhas & Samskrta
- Shunyata & Anatman
- Nirvana
- Three views from; Madhyamika, Yogachara, Chan
- Six Perfections
History
Buddhism began some 2500 years ago in northern India, which is now the country of Nepal. Siddhartha Guatama was born a prince. His father had him live in a controlled environment, sheltering him from the unpleasant conditions of everyday life. When Siddhartha was in his 20’s, he would sneak out of the palace grounds, bringing him into contact with the very things his father tried to shelter him from: the sick and dying, the old and newborn, the holy and the mundane. These conditions troubled him so much that, in his late 20’s, he left his wife and family in order to seek a way to escape the pain and suffering, the fear and anxiety that now haunted him to no end.
India at that time was full of many various religious paths: theism, materialism, scepticism, hedonism, and fatalism. Spending six years in intensive training in these systems, and having mastered every one of them, he found no relief and was left with the same dissatisfaction. Becoming completely desperate, he vowed to sit and meditate under a fig tree (Bodhi Tree or Ficus religiosa) until either he found liberation from suffering or died trying. Surviving on nothing but rice water (provided by a certain woman once a day as an offering), he remained in meditation for many weeks until he finally realized freedom from suffering. Upon his discovery he arose from his seat, bathed and renounced all his prior religious trainings and headed into the nearest town to begin teaching the path to liberation from suffering.
Surviving on nothing but rice water that a certain woman would bring once a day to him as an offering, he remained in meditation for a number of weeks until he finally realized freedom from suffering. Upon his discovery he arose from his seat, bathed and renounced all his prior religious trainings and headed into the nearest town to begin teaching the path to liberation from suffering.
Three Turnings & Three Collections
The Buddha taught over a course of some 40 years. His teachings have been systematized into three categories that present a progressive path. The first of the Three Collections lays a foundation with teachings focused on moral discipline (Vinaya or Dharma Training); the second set of teachings were concerned with developing meditative concentration (Sutra or Dharma Summaries); and the final teachings, extremely profound yet subtle, are called the Abhidharma or Wisdom Teachings (Dharma Science or Prajña).
Three Trainings
All of the Buddha’s teachings fit into one of three categories called the Three Trainings. The Three Trainings are:
(1) Moral conduct or virtue (sila) through which one’s habitual nature and the consequences of it are removed; progression on the path cannot take place if one’s conscience is not “clean.” (Cf. karma)
(2) Meditative concentration (samadhi) allows the practitioner to achieve the different meditative states thus attaining a calm and focused field. These states allow one to fully observe, contemplate and investigate harmful patterns and develop the confidence to disengage from them.
(3) Wisdom-knowledge (prajña) is the development of fully understanding the path of liberation. It is at this stage that one begins to cut through the illusion of self and the ignorance that is the root of all the emotional and karmic activity that perpetuates the cycle of existences (samsara).
Three Schools
After the death of the Buddha (a.k.a. his passing into parinirvana), three primary schools developed: the Southern School (of which only the Theravada tradition survives); the Mahayana; and the Vajrayana (which is only a sub-division of the Mahayana proper). All three of these traditions originated in India before spreading throughout Asia.
The Theravada tradition is the primary form of Buddhism in South and Southeast Asia. This tradition is strongly focused on the path of renunciation, the monastic code where the main goal is personal liberation through perfect monasticism.
Mahayana Buddhism uses universal compassion as its underlying motivation for practice. This approach is solely based on the Bodhisattva Path which is supported by the 2nd and 3rd Collections. Monasticism is not nearly as important, fundamentally, in the Mahayana tradition where the Bodhisattva is held as the highest ideal.
Vajrayana Buddhism is probably the most misrepresented of the three schools. More often than not, it is mistakenly used interchangeably with Tibetan Buddhism. Just like the previous traditions, Vajrayana was also developed in India as another facet within the Mahayana tradition. It shares the exact same tenets as Mahayana but it developed a system for integrating “magical” or “mystical” practices (known as Tantra) to be used in its ceremonies or outer practices.
Within the Mahayana (including the Vajrayana), many different sub-schools or traditions have emerged, some of which have their origins in India and some developing much later. A few of the best known examples would be that of Chan (or Zen in Japanese), the Madhyamika, the Yogachara and Pure Land traditions. Just like most other religious institutions, Buddhism also has its share of rogue traditions that have sprouted up here and there. These groups are never considered to be “authentic” due to the fact that they integrate practices considered harmful by the teachings of Siddhartha, or reject/ignore fundamental tenets that were taught by the Buddha himself. Some examples of these rogue groups would be the various sexual Tantra traditions or the more modern occurrence of another group called the “New Kadampa” (NKT) which was founded by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso – an organization that has been excommunicated by the current Dalai Lama.
The Mahayana tradition as a whole, meaning all the sub-schools or traditions under the umbrella of the Mahayana, hold to the same tenets but differ in how they practice those tenets or on which ones they place greater emphasis.
The Three Jewels
The Three Jewels, sometimes called the Triple Gem and other similar terms, refers to the three aspects or “bodies” that make up Buddhism as a whole: the Buddha, the teachings (Dharma), and the community of practitioners (Sangha).
The term “Buddha” here, from the Mahayana perspective, not only refers to the historical Buddha, but also to all the Buddhas throughout time and space.
The “Dharma” refers to the teachings of Siddhartha as well as those of all other Buddhas and authentic masters/teachers. Additionally, this would also include those profound truths that we discover within ourselves through our disciplined practice.
“Sangha,” or community of practitioners, includes all the Buddhas, the ordained members which are the Bodhisattvas, monastics, priests and ordained teachers, and all the laity – everyone that has become a practicing Buddhist (i.e., taken Refuge).
The Four Noble Truths
The very first teaching that the Buddha gave was what he called the Four Noble Truths which are the very foundation of all Buddhist philosophy. These four truths are the very things he discovered and worked through during his meditation under the Bodhi tree. They are:
1. The existence of suffering
2. The origin or cause of suffering
3. There can be an end to suffering
4. The path that leads to the end of suffering
A deep and profound understanding (or in Chan terms, the direct, immediate knowledge through direct experience) of these four truths must be attained to become liberated from suffering (duhkha). Each truth must be fully realized, as it is through this realization that the key to liberation is held. The Fourth Noble Truth – the path – refers to the teachings and practices that work to expose the underlying meaning of the other three Noble Truths. The “path” in fact points to the Dharma and Sangha or the Teachings and the community that supports and maintains the integrity of the Teachings.
The Eightfold Path
There are eight specific areas that the plan or path of the Dharma focuses on developing and perfecting. These eight items underlie every teaching Siddhartha gave and are the basis that every practice seeks to develop. These eight are:
1) Right View
2) Right Thought
3) Right Speech
4) Right Action
5) Right Livelihood
6) Right Effort
7) Right Mindfulness
8) Right Meditation
The term “Right” is used in place of the Sanskrit word samyak which more closely means “genuinely pure.”
Genuinely Pure View refers to the profound meaning within each of the Four Noble Truths, including but not limited to: karma, meditation, Precepts, cause and effect and so on.
Genuinely Pure Thought is considered to be focused on the aspiration toward kindness, compassion and renouncing that which is unwholesome or incorrect.
Genuinely Pure Speech deals directly with refraining from harmful speech such as slander or verbal abuse.
Genuinely Pure Action focuses on physical actions: renouncing harmful actions such as killing, stealing, sexual misconduct etc.; it also implies developing compassionate actions that benefit our selves and others.
Genuinely Pure Livelihood literally refers to how we go about making a living, whether it is collecting alms as a monastic or holding down a job. In any case, it should be one that is not harmful to oneself, other people, sentient beings or the environment.
Genuinely Pure Effort may be said as Genuinely Pure Intent, meaning it is the stirring up of energy to support and practice that which is virtuous and to set aside all that is non-virtuous.
Genuinely Pure Mindfulness is the direct paying attention to this very moment, the activity/inactivity of mind, emotions and paying attention to our bodies.
Genuinely Pure Meditation means exactly that – the meditation practices that we take up.
Interdependent Co-Operation
The Buddha taught that there are 12 “links” that are crucial to the operation of suffering (samsara). An in-depth and proper study or investigation of this teaching reveals the interconnectedness of all things and will remove incorrect views such as eternalism, nihilism, materialism and fatalism. Interdependent co-operation is the foundational study for Middle Way Buddhism (Madhyamika).
Master Hsing Yun demonstrates the 12 links as follows:
Ignorance (1) gives rise to activity (2) which gives rise to individual consciousness (3). This consciousness affects the thought process – the Five Aggregates or Skandhas and the physical body (4) and those influence the sense organs (5) which influence all they contact (6) and the sensations (7) that derive from that contact. The sensations condition the desires (8) and attachments or fixations (9) that appear. The fixations give rise to the existence of karma (10) and then birth (11) old age and death (12) of whatever events have arisen due to the foregoing process.
Three Dharma Seals
The Three Dharma Seals (trilakshana) relate the nature of all things. The Buddha gives this teaching on the Three Dharma Seals in the Dhammapada (DP XX: 5-9);
5. When one sees by insight (meditation) that all conditioned states are transitory, one then wearies of misery; this is the path to purity.
6. When one sees by insight that all conditioned states are miserable, one then wearies of misery; this is the path to purity.
7. When one sees by insight that all things are without a self, one then wearies of misery; this is the path to purity.
Thus the Three Dharma Seals state all things are:
1. Impermanent (anitya)
2. Subject to suffering (duhkha) due to their connection to the emotions.
3. Lack an innate self (anatman) or any kind of innate identifier.
Skandhas & Samskrta
The term Skandha is normally translated as “compounded” which means assembled, a composite, or an aggregate. There are five skandhas which Buddhism uses to analyze the make- up of personal existence:
1) Form (rupa) – anything that stimulates the second skandha.
2) Feeling (samjña) - this refers only to the mental discrimination of perceptions into one of three “feelings”: pleasant, unpleasant and neutral – and nothing more.
3) Perception (vedana) - the five sense consciousnesses that make sight, sound, smell, taste, touch; and mental consciousness, meaning direct perception.
4) Activity (vijñana) – any activity or action that is in response to the prior skandhas.
5) Individual Consciousness (samskara)
In the Abidharmakosabhasya, Samskrta is explained as: “Samskrta – conditioned that which has been created by causes in conjunction and combination. No dharma is engendered by a single cause.”
Shunyata & Anatman
Generally translated as “emptiness,” Shunyata specifically denotes the “lack of an innate ‘self’ or ‘identifier’. Meaning that whenever anything is divided (through investigation) there will never be any one substance that can be found to be the ‘soul’ or a particle that solely identifies the object being investigated. The definition of shunyata as “void” is a gross misunderstanding and leads to nihilism or a belief that there is nothing but a vacuum.
Anatman is one of the earliest and central teachings of the Buddha. It states that no self exists in the sense of a permanent, eternal, integral and independent substance within an individual existent. Thus it is considered nothing more than a transitory -- and changeable -- and therefore it is a suffering-prone empirical personality that is constructed via the skandhas.
Nirvana
The Sanskrit word “nirvana” literally means “extinction” and there are a number of different views or perspectives on just what that “extinction” means. The three definitions presented here are from the most profound and influential schools of Buddhist thought within the Mahayana proper.
Three views from; Madhyamika, Yogachara, Chan
The Madhyamikas see nirvana as emptiness (shunyata), which they define as "coming to rest of the manifold creations of the mind." This means the cessation or temporary absence of everything relating to a perverted projection of the discriminating mind. Nirvana is a conscious experience of the oneness with reality that has always existed, only is not recognized. Nirvana and samsara are not different if one perceives the world in its true nature, which is shunyata. It is our discriminating mind that prevents us from recognizing this true nature.
Nirvana for the Yogachara is the awareness that the world as we know it is a manifestation of the mind. This "mind-only" view of nirvana refers to the cessation of discrimination of all things experienced. This teaches the concept that only mind exists and that the belief in the concrete, absolute existence of the phenomenal world represents nothing but a confusion of the mind. Experiences are made of objects in the presence of the senses interacting with the mind. The perception that the objects seen are separate from the mind is a delusion. This school recognizes two types of nirvana: (1) that of the arhat, with whom, only silent knowledge remains; it is a coming to rest, a consciously experienced bliss.
(2) The nirvana of a Buddha is seen as a conscious exercise of compassion, where the Buddha knowingly seeks ways to help others attain nirvana. In this form of nirvana, which exhibits a positive character and represents conscious unity with all beings, the individual continues in force.
In Chan Buddhism nirvana is the realization of the true nature of the mind (consciousness), which is identical with the true nature of how human beings experience their world - the Buddha-nature (Buddhata). This realization is only possible through prajña. Thus nirvana is often equated with prajña. In the Chan sense, prajña and nirvana are two aspects of the same state. Nirvana is the state in which a person lives who has attained prajña and thus also insight into his own mind or true nature; and prajña is the wisdom-knowledge of a person who has attained nirvana. "The Bodhisattva's nirvana is perfect tranquillity, but it is neither extinction nor inertness." - Lankavatara Sutra.
Six Perfections
The Six Perfections (paramita or six paramitas) are virtues that are perfected during a practitioner’s development through the hearing, the active study, and application of the Buddha-dharma within each of the Three Trainings. These virtues or attributes coincide with the Three Trainings as follows:
Trainings Perfections
Sila Generosity
Discipline
Patience
Samadhi Exertion (effort or energy)
Meditation (observation/contemplation/investigation)
Prajña Wisdom-knowledge
The Buddha said that these perfections must be developed before one realizes liberation and that these perfections can only be attained via the Three Trainings. The order of the six paramitas is very critical due to their interconnectedness as shown below:
Generosity opens the way for compassion and kindness by removing greed and stinginess. This not only refers to money but also one’s time and energy. Discipline is required to conduct oneself in a way that is conducive to breaking the habitual patterns of negative and harmful behaviour. Patience, which also includes tolerance, develops with the understanding that the suffering of all sentient beings arises from a cause. It should be added that patience must be developed so that one can remain disciplined in their practice. Effort or exertion means the complete resolve to stay true to the path and not be distracted or to become lazy so as to not make progress. Meditation refers to the actual development of a meditation practice that allows one to cut through all forms of delusion and see the true nature of things. This includes the discovery of the illusion of “self” or ego and “independence from other.” Wisdom-knowledge is the realization of supreme wisdom which is the sum of all the perfections. This supreme wisdom is what the Heart Sutra (Mahaprajñaparamita Hrdaya Sutra) says is the foundation for attaining “Unsurpassed, Complete and Perfect Enlightenment” (annutara-samyak-sambodhi).
