Buddhism

Founders: Siddhartha Gautama (c563 -483 bce)

Siddhartha Gautama was born into a rich aristocratic family in northern India
A great seer predicted that he would either become a great king or a great holy man. He was shielded from
religious teachings or knowledge of human suffering.
Siddhartha was very well educated
He saw an old crippled man, a diseased man, a dying corpse and finally an ascetic. He realized that death,
disease, age, and pain were inescapable.
He learnt yogic meditation, deep austerity and enlightenment.
he found that none of these methods lead to enlightenment
he went through 4 meditative states:
o 1. dukkha: all worldly life is unsatisfactory, disjointed, suffering
o 2. samudaya: there is a cause of suffering, which is attachment or desire
o 3. nirodha: there is no way out of suffering, which is to eliminate attachment and desire
o 4. marga: the path that leads out of suffering is called the eightfold path

Revelation: the pali canon which consists of the tripitaka (3 baskets) in which were original passed down by word
of mouth. They consist of:
sutra -sayings of the Buddha vinya - discipline of the abidharma - sets of creeds based
contains five collections of brotherhood (sangha) on the essential teachings
discourse and dialogues spoken contains monastic rules for the Contains doctrinal analysis and
by Buddha, previous births of members of the brotherhood refinement of a specific and
Buddha, path of teaching technical nature.

Variants:
Theravada: (elder teachers) more conservative stream of Buddhism:
man as an individual
man on his own in the universe
key virtue: wisdom
religion a full-time job (primarily for monks)
Buddha is a saint
emphasis- saving others through action

Mahayana: (within Mahayana Buddhism, a person delays enlightenment until salvation- compassion)
man as individual with others
man not alone
virtue: karuna (compassion)
religion relevant to life in the world
Buddha as savoir
includes rituals

Vajrayana: (predominate in Himalayas eg) Tibet, Nepal, butane)

built upon Mahayana + Theravada traditions
Emphasis on magical and sacramental rites as well as the unity of relative truths (appearance) and
absolute truth (emptiness).
enlightenment is attained through the chanting of magical spells and mystic diagrams
traditionally passed on orally from master to student
belief that all physical reality was an illusion the only thing that exists was void or emptiness

4 noble truths:
1. Life is full of pain
Birth, disease, old age, death, not getting what one desires or getting what one does not desire.
2. Life is full of seeking pleasure (desire)
Growing (tanha, selfish desire) which is the result of ignorance
3. To overcome pain you much overcome seeing pleasures.
Nirvana:
Cessation of suffering
Extinction of craving
Extinction of greed, hatred and delusion
Consummation in peace and understanding
4. To follow the eightfold path.
right view: being open minded to new things or opposing ideas
right thought: do not think negatively, think about good things in life
right speech: be polite, courteous and respectful in your speech
right action: do acts of kindness to those that need help
right livelihood: live life in harmony with those around you
right efforts: attempt to fix the wrongs in society
Right mindfulness: be positive, especially when considering the bad things in life.
Right concentration: concentrate on what you can do to be released from the world.

Creation belief: creation is a cycle- has no start and no end.

Meaning of life: the movement of nirvana (perfect peace). Birth is the result of past karma. The purpose of life is
to reach enlightenment.

Evil and suffering: evil effect of karma (good graces), suffering is caused by wanting thing wrong things or the
right things in the wrong way. To end follow the eightfold path.

Death: endless cycle of reincarnation

Sacred stories and writing: the Pali canon, sutras, prajanaparamita, hevajra tantra.

Rituals: the 3 jewels- tradition Buddhist prayer of initiation and devotion, meditate and celebrate wasak - Buddhas
birth, path to enlightenment and reaching of nirvana. Celebrated over 3 days.

Rites of passage: boys and sometimes girls celebrate in a coming of age ceremony between 8 and 20, monks
are ordained at 20. Some stay in monasteries for their whole life, others for several weeks.

Ethics: living by the eightfold path

The five precepts abstain from:
killing living beings
taking what is not given
engaging in sexual misconduct
speaking falsely (lying)
taking drink and drugs which confuse the mind

Ways of holiness: meditation, devotional practices at a shrine invocation of 3 jewels (I go for refuge to the
Buddha, the dharma and the sangha)

Human experience and culture: Buddhist tries and reaches enlightenment through meditation and following the
4 noble truths and eightfold path in order to achieve total moral self control.

Sacred sites: temples and shrines

Sacred times: times of meditation, festival of wasak, dhammacakka which celebrates the Buddhas first sermon
where he taught the principals of Buddhism (July)

Buddhism in Australia:
people are attracted to buddhism in Australia because they want a release from material possession that
often accompany our western lifes
 Buddhism offers a release from suffering and reincarnation. it offers a more personal and effective religion
than Christianity
There are 81 000 Buddhists in NSW and 199 812 nationwide.
Australia is a secular society, thus buddhism and Buddhists go unnoticed, also due to there reservedness
and pacifisms
Immigration in the 1850s brought waves of Asians to Australia, they brought Buddhism with them. in the
1900s anti-Asian sentiment sent many Asian away from Australia
in 1970 buddhism started to grow again in Australia