Introduction to
BUDDHISM
The Prince Siddhartha
The Prince Siddhartha
This figure is the Monk Pu-Tai, a popular
representation of Buddhist principles in
Classical/Popular Chinese religion
The Prince Siddhartha
The Prince Siddhartha
The Prince Siddhartha
The Prince Siddhartha
 Siddhartha Gautama,
 also known as Śākyamuni
 Sage, or muni, of the Śakya clan
 A prince in a small kingdom called
Kapilavatthu, in the foothills of the Himalayas
 Upon his birth, the wise men of the kingdom
foretold that the young Siddhartha would
grow to be either a great king or a great sage
The Prince Siddhartha
 His father, hoping for his son to follow in his
footsteps, raised Siddhartha in the lap of
luxury, hiding all manner of suffering from
him
 Siddhartha, however, suspected something
was missing, and one day snuck out of the
castle with his loyal charioteer, Channa. It was
then he saw the “four sights”
The Four Sights
An Old Man
A Sick Man
A Dead Man
And a Monk
The Ascetic Life for Me
“Give too much slack, and you’ll never
catch any fish,
Pull too tight, and
you’ll break the line”
The Middle Way
The Middle Way
 This path was a
reaction to both
 The overemphasis on
artha and kama that
Siddhartha saw in
Hinduism
 The over emphasis on
self-denial and
asceticism that he saw
in Jainism
The Middle Way
 Hence, Buddhism is
 The practice of non-
extremism: a path of
moderation away from
the extremes of selfindulgence and selfmortification
The Middle Way
 It is also
 The middle ground
between certain
metaphysical views
 Including the claim that things
ultimately either do or do not
exist)
The Middle Way
 The Buddha provides an
explanation of Nirvana as a
state wherein it becomes
clear that all dualities
apparent in the world are
delusory
 And this ‘middle’ is to be
understood as emptiness, the
ultimate nature of all
phenomena, lack of inherent
existence, which avoids the
extremes of permanence and
nihilism or inherent existence
and nothingness
The Four Noble Truths
The Four Noble Truths
 Duhkha/Dukkha– All life suffers
 Samudāya – suffering is caused by
desire/craving (trishnā)
 Nirvāņa/Nibbāna – only when craving ceases
will suffering cease
 The Way (Marga) to Liberation is
The Eight-Fold Path
The Four Noble Truths
 Duhkha/Dukkha– All life suffers
 Samudāya – suffering is caused by
desire/craving (trishnā)
 Nirvāņa/Nibbāna – only when craving ceases
will suffering cease
 The Way (Marga) to Liberation is
The Eight-Fold Path
The Four Noble Truths
 Duhkha/Dukkha– All life experiences
dissatisfaction
 Samudaya – dissatisfaction arises from
seeking satisfaction in a way that is itself
unsatisfying
 Nirvāņa/Nibbāna – only when this inherently
flawed method is abandoned will satisfaction
ever be attained
 The Way (Marga) to Satisfaction is
The Eight-Fold Path
The First Noble Truth
 “What is the Noble Truth of suffering? Birth is
suffering, aging is suffering, sickness is
suffering, dissociation form the loved is
suffering, not to get what one wants is
suffering: in short, the five categories
(skandhas) affected by clinging (trishnā) are
suffering”
The First Noble Truth
 The five skandhas (or in Pāli -khandhas) are
the five "aggregates" which categorize all
individual experience, among which there is
no "self" to be found
 Rūpa – the corpo-reality or form, body
 Vedanā - sensation
 Samjñā/Sannā – perception
 Samskāra – mental formations, habits
 Vijñāna - consciousness
The Second Noble Truth
 “What is the Noble Truth of the Origin of
Suffering? It is craving which renews being
and is accompanied by relish and lust,
relishing this and that: in other words, craving
for sensual desires, craving for being, craving
for non-being.”
The Second Noble Truth
 It is this
‘craving/clinging’, or
trishnā, that binds the
cycle of existence
together
 This ‘stuck-together’
cycle is, in turn,
governed by the laws of
cause and effect, or
karma/kamma
The Second Noble Truth
 Three types of desire
 craving for "sensuality" or "sensual pleasures“
 kāma-taņhā
 craving for "becoming" or "existence"
 bhava-taņhā
 craving for "no becoming" or "non-existence" or
"extermination"
 vibhava-taņhā
 Taņhā literally means "thirst,“ figuratively denotes
"desire" or "craving,"
The Third Noble Truth
 “What is the Noble Truth of the Cessation of
Suffering? It is the remainderless fading and
cessation of that same craving; the rejecting,
relinquishing, leaving and renouncing of it.”
 In other words, through the ‘remainderless’
elimination of craving/clinging, suffering can be
brought to an end
The Third Noble Truth
 This is achieved by
reaching
Nirvāņa/Nibbāna, a state
wherein it becomes clear
that all dualities
apparent in the world are
delusory
 The differences in how,
exactly, this state is to be
understood and achieved
is what differentiates the
various schools of
Buddhism from one and
other
Buddhist Ontology
 Buddhist scholars have
produced a prodigious
quantity of intellectual
theories, philosophies
and world view concepts
 Some schools of Buddhism
discourage doctrinal study,
some regard it as
essential, but most regard
it as having a place, at
least for some people at
some stages
Buddhist Ontology
 The concept of
Liberation
(Nirvāņa/Nibbāna), is
closely related to the
correct perception of
reality
 In awakening to the true
nature of the self and all
phenomena one is
liberated from the cycle of
suffering and involuntary
rebirths
King Milinda and Nagasena
Impermanence, Suffering and NonSelf
 The Three Marks of Existence
 Anitya/Anicca or "impermanence".
 This refers not only to the fact that all conditioned things
(sankhara) eventually cease to exist, but also that all
conditioned things are in a constant state of flux
 Duhkha/Dukkha or "unsatisfactoriness/dis-ease/suffering“
 Nothing found in the physical world or even the psychological
realm can bring lasting deep satisfaction.
 Anatman/Anatta or "no-self"
 denotes that phenomena are not, or are without, a permanent
self, to describe any and all composite, consubstantial,
phenomenal and temporal things, from the macrocosmic to
microcosmic, be it matter pertaining to the physical body or
the cosmos at large, as well as any and all mental
machinations, which are impermanent
Dependent Arising
 The doctrine of
Pratītyasamutpāda/Paticcasamuppāda
 often translated as "Dependent Arising,"
 An essential part of Buddhist metaphysics
 It states that phenomena arise together in a
mutually interdependent web of cause and effect
 It is variously rendered into English as "dependent
origination", "conditioned genesis", "dependent coarising", "interdependent arising", or "contingency"
Twelve Nidānas
 The Twelve Nidānas describe a causal connection
between the subsequent characteristics/conditions
of cyclic existence, each giving rise to the next:
 Avidyā: ignorance, specifically spiritual
 Samskāras: literally formations, explained as referring to




Karma.
Vijñāna: consciousness, specifically discriminative
Nāmarūpa: literally name and form, referring to mind and
body
Ṣadāyatana: the six sense bases: eye, ear, nose, tongue,
body and mind-organ
Sparśa: variously translated contact, impression,
stimulation (by a sense object)
Twelve Nidānas
 Vedanā: usually translated feeling: this is the "hedonic





tone", i.e. whether something is pleasant, unpleasant
or neutral
Trishnā : literally thirst, but in Buddhism nearly always
used to mean craving
Upādāna: clinging or grasping; the word also means
fuel, which feeds the continuing cycle of rebirth
Bhava: literally being (existence) or becoming.
Jāti: literally birth, but life is understood as starting at
conception
Jarāmaraṇa (old age and death) and also
śokaparidevaduhkhadaurmanasyopāyāsa (sorrow,
lamentation, pain, sadness, and misery)
Pratitya samutpada
or the BhavaChakra
The Fourth Noble Truth
 “What is the Noble Truth of the Way Leading
to the Cessation of Suffering? It is the Noble
Eightfold Path, that is to say: Right View,
Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action,
Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right
Mindfulness and Right Concentration”
The Fourth Noble Truth
The Fourth Noble Truth
The Fourth Noble Truth
The Fourth Noble Truth
The Fourth Noble Truth
The Fourth Noble Truth
Fractals and Introspection
 Fractals are, in a sense,
the effect of turning a
mathematical graph on
itself, or graphing a
formula that feeds off
itself
 “Recursive”
Fractals and Introspection
Fractals and Introspection
Fractals and Introspection
Fractals and Introspection
Fractals and the Perception of
Dimensions
 8Q_GQqUg6Ts
The Eight Fold Path
1. Right View
2. Right Intention
Wisdom
3. Right Action
4. Right Speech
5. Right Livelihood
Ethics
6. Right Effort
7. Right Mindfulness
8. Right Concentration
Meditative Goals
The Eight Fold Path
1. Right View - samyak dŗșţi/ditthi
2. Right Intention - samyak
samkalpa/sankappa
Wisdom – Prajñā/paññā
3. Right Action – vāc/vāca
4. Right Speech – karman/kammanta
5. Right Livelihood – ājīvana/ājīva
Ethics - Sila
6. Right Effort – vyāyāma/vāyāma
7. Right Mindfulness - smṛti/sati
8. Right Concentration - samādhi
Meditative Goals - Samādhi
Reincarnation, or Re-Birth
 So, how does Buddhism deal with the
concept of Reincarnation?
 Abhidharma philosophy claims that all entities
with parts are simply conceptual constructs on
the basis of their parts. Further, even the
partless, atomic physical and mental events
(dharmas) out of which all entities with parts
are constructed are themselves momentarythey are radically impermanent (although they
are not conceptually constructed)
Reincarnation, or Re-Birth
 Yogacara claimed not just that
entities are impermanent but
also that the entire ordinary
world of dualisms is a
fabrication, a product of
deluded conceptualization. The
only entities that are
unfabricated, that is, that exist
independent of conceptual
construction, are the
momentary mental events that
make up the flow of non-dual
consciousness
Reincarnation, or Re-Birth
 Madhyamaka takes the
teaching of the fabricated
nature of entities to its
logical conclusion
 Madhyamikas claim that one
must see not only that all
entities are impermanent but
also that all entities are
entirely conceptual
constructs, including the
dharmas of the Abhidharma
and the non-dual flow of
consciousness of the
Yogacara
Reincarnation, or Re-Birth
 There is absolutely
nothing that is
anything but a
complete fabrication
Reincarnation, or Re-Birth
A series of
discrete moments
that are
interconnected to
each other, while
appearing
separate
Buddhist Dialect Technique
 Buddhism also
famously employs a
teaching technique
known as upaya
 “efficient means”
 The Art of the Controlled
Accident
 The Poison Arrow
Schools of Buddhism
 Hinayana – the little vehicle
 Theravada school
 The oldest surviving school
 Ascribe to the idea of an Arhant
 Would never consider
themselves
the ‘little vehicle’
Schools of Buddhism
 It is relatively
conservative, and
generally closest to early
Buddhism
 This school gradually
declined on the Indian
subcontinent, but its
branch in Sri Lanka and
South East Asia continues
to survive
 Theravada Buddhism has
recently made a comeback
in India, which continues
to grow
Schools of Buddhism
 The Theravada school
bases its practice and
doctrine exclusively on
the Pāli Canon and its
commentaries
 After being orally
transmitted for a few
centuries, its scriptures,
the Pali Canon, were
finally committed to
writing in the last century
BCE, in Sri Lanka, at what
the Theravada usually
reckon as the fourth
council
Schools of Buddhism
 It is also one of the first
Buddhist schools to
commit the complete
set of its canon into
writing
Schools of Buddhism
 The Sutta collections and
Vinaya texts of the Pāli
Canon (and the
corresponding texts in
other versions of the
Tripitaka), are generally
considered by modern
scholars to be the
earliest Buddhist
literature, and they are
accepted as authentic in
every branch of
Buddhism
Schools of Buddhism
 In Theravada doctrine, a
person may awaken from
the "sleep of ignorance" by
directly realizing the true
nature of reality; such
people are called arahants
and occasionally buddhas
 After numerous lifetimes of
spiritual striving, they have
reached the end of the cycle
of rebirth, no longer
reincarnating as human,
animal, ghost, or other being
Schools of Buddhism
 The commentaries to the
Pali Canon classify these
awakened beings into
three types:
 Sammasambuddha, usually
just called Buddha, who
discovers the truth by himself
and teaches the path to
awakening to others
 Paccekabuddha, who
discovers the truth by himself
but lacks the skill to teach
others
 Savakabuddha, who receive
the truth directly or indirectly
from a Sammasambuddha
Schools of Buddhism
 Also, in Theravada, Bodhi
and nirvana carry the
same meaning, that of
being freed from craving,
hate, and delusion
 Thus, in attaining bodhi,
the arahant has overcome
these obstacles
 As a further distinction,
the extinction of only
hatred and greed (in the
sensory context) with
some residue of delusion,
is called anagami