Notes on Walpola Rahula,
What the Buddha Taught
(1907 - 1997)
The Three Jewels of Buddhism
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Buddha = a title not a personal name (“Awakened One”) especially
Siddhartha Gautama (born c. 563 BCE in Lumbini, modern Nepal; died
c. 483 BCE [or 411-400 BCE] in Kushinagar, modern Uttar Pradesh,
India)
Dharma = teaching about the way things are (from linguistic root dhr =
“to fasten, support, or hold”)
Sangha = the community of Buddhists, especially monks and nuns
For an excellent overview of the Three Jewels (and the historical
development of Buddhism), watch the BBC documentary Seven
Wonders of the Buddhist World:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQRCGBeXiow&feature=youtu.be
The Buddha as a Teacher
“The Buddha was not a computing machine giving answers
to whatever questions were put to him by anyone at all,
without any consideration. He was a practical teacher, full of
compassion and wisdom. He did not answer questions to
show his knowledge and intelligence, but to help the
questioner on the way to realization. He always spoke to
people bearing in mind their standard of development, their
tendencies, their mental make-up, their character, their
capacity to understand a particular question” (Rahula, p.
63).
Buddhist Ontology:
The Three Signs/Marks of Existence
• Anitya/Anicca = “impermanence”
• Anatman/Anatta = “not-self”
• Dukkha = “suffering, unsatisfactoriness, anxiety, distress”
The Four Noble Truths
• Dukkha (= suffering, unsatisfactoriness, distress)
• The Cause of Dukkha (= thirst, craving, attachment,
excessive desire; forms of greed, hatred, and delusion)
• The Cessation of Dukkha (= Nirvana/Nibbana, “blowing
out” of excessive desire)
• The Way leading to the Cessation of Dukkha (= The Noble
Eightfold Path)
The Noble Eightfold Path
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Wisdom
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Virtue
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Right Understanding
Right Thought
Right Speech
Right Action
Right Livelihood
Meditation
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Right Effort
Right Mindfulness
Right Concentration
Four “Sublime States” (or Supreme Virtues)
• Unlimited, Universal Love and Good Will (or
Lovingkindness) = seeking the well-being of others
• Compassion = feeling the suffering of others
• Sympathetic Joy = sharing in the happiness of others
• Equanimity (or Impartiality) = maintaining a calm, steady
mind and avoiding extremes (e.g., of expressing too much
or too little of the previous three virtues)
The Buddha’s Theory of Anātta
(“No Soul” or “Not-Self”)
According to the Buddha, every human being is composed of
physical and non-physical components that can be categorized
as belonging to one of the following five categories or
“aggregates”:
•Matter
•Sensations
•Perceptions
•Mental Formations/Volitions
•Consciousness
The Buddha’s Argument for No Permanent Self
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
If any of the five aggregates (matter, sensations,
perceptions, mental formations, or consciousness) were (an
aspect of) a permanent self, then it could be controlled, and
so it would not lead to suffering.
But none of these aggregates can be controlled, and so each
of them does lead to suffering.
Therefore, none of the five aggregates is (an aspect of) a
permanent self.
But every individual human being is comprised of nothing but
a combination of these five aggregates.
Therefore, no individual human being has a permanent self.
Some Objections to Buddhism
• Nirvana is self-contradictory (one cannot desire to overcome
desire).
• Nirvana is unattainable (some forms of dukkha cannot be
overcome).
• Nirvana is not desirable (some forms of dukkha are good;
focus on the “present moment” undermines the possibility of
individual or collective transformation).
• Backsliding from nirvana is possible (through moral
weakness).
• Buddhism ignores collective nirvana (an enlightened
individual might still ignore the dukkha of others).
• Buddhism is impractical (the institutional obstacles to nirvana
are too great) .
The Buddha’s Social Thought
“Those who think that Buddhism is interested only in lofty
ideals, high moral and philosophical thought, and that it ignores
the social and economic welfare of people, are wrong. The
Buddha was interested in the happiness of men. To him
happiness was not possible without leading a pure life based
on moral and spiritual principles. But he knew that leading
such a life was hard in unfavourable material and social
conditions.
Buddhism does not consider material welfare as an end in
itself; it is only a means to an end--a higher and nobler end.
But it is a means which is indispensable, indispensable in
achieving a higher purpose for man’s happiness. So Buddhism
recognizes the need of certain minimum material conditions
favourable to spiritual progress--even that of a monk engaged
in meditation in some solitary place” (Rahula, p. 81).
The Buddha on War and Peace
“ It is too well known to be repeated here that Buddhism
advocates and preaches non-violence and peace as its
universal message, and does not approve of any kind of
violence or destruction of life. According to Buddhism there is
nothing that can be called a ‘just war’--which is only a false term
coined and put into circulation to justify and excuse hatred,
cruelty, violence and massacre. Who decides what is just or
unjust? The mighty and the victorious are ‘just’, and the weak
and the defeated are ‘unjust’. Our war is always ‘just’, and your
war is always ‘unjust’. Buddhism does not accept this position”
(Rahula, p. 84).
Rahula’s Response to the Objection
that Buddhism is “Impractical”
“There can be no peace or happiness for man as long as he desires and thirsts after
conquering and subjugating his neighbour. As the Buddha says, ‘The victor breeds hatred,
and the defeated lies down in misery. He who renounces both victory and defeat is happy
and peaceful.’ The only conquest that brings peace and happiness is self-conquest. ‘One
may conquer billions in battle, but he who conquers himself, only one, is the greatest of
conquerors.
You will say this is all very beautiful, noble and sublime, but impractical. Is it practical
to hate one another? To kill on another? To live in eternal fear and suspicion like wild
animals in a jungle? Is this more practical and comfortable? Was hatred ever appeased by
hatred? Was evil ever won over by evil? But there are examples, at least in individual
cases, where hatred is appeased by love and kindness, and evil won over by goodness.
You will say that this may be true, practicable in individual cases, but that it never works in
national and international affairs. People are hypnotized, psychologically puzzled, blinded
and deceived by the political and propaganda usage of such terms as ‘ national ’ ,
‘international’, or ‘state’. What is a nation but a vast conglomeration of individuals? A
nation or a state does not act, it is the individual who acts. What the individual thinks and
does is what the nation or the state thinks and does. What is applicable to the individual is
applicable to the nation or state. If hatred can be appeased by love and kindness on the
individual scale, surely it can be realized on the national and international scale too. Even
in the case of a single person, to meet hatred with kindness one must have tremendous
courage, boldness, faith and confidence in moral force. May it not be even more so with
regard to international affairs? If by the expression ‘not practical’ you mean ‘not easy’, you
are right. Definitely it is not easy. Yet it should be tried. You may say that it is risky trying it.
Surely it cannot be more risky than trying a nuclear war” (Rahula, pp. 86-7).
The Buddha on Freedom and Determinism
• According to the Buddha’s concept of conditioned genesis
(what Thich Nhat Hanh calls “interbeing”), nothing exists as
a separate individual; everything exists in relation to others,
interdependently.
• As a result, the Buddha’s position on the problem of free will
and determinism would seem to be that of compatibilism.
(See Rahula, pp. 54-55.)