Intermediate 1 & 2. Religious, Moral and Philosophical Studies
World Religions
BUDDHISM
What will I be learning about?
You will be learning all about the religion called BUDDHISM.
This will include learning about the BELIEFS and PRACTICES of Buddhists, and their SACRED WRITINGS and SYMBOLS.
You will also learn what Buddhists believe about;
THE HUMAN CONDITION
* What people are really like and why they behave the way they do.
THE GOALS IN LIFE
* What the point of life is, the aims and goals in life.
THE MEANS
* How these goals can be achieved.
Homework
You will be given homework assignments and tasks as part of the course to help with your understanding of Buddhism.
Assessments
Unit Assessment
This will be completed in the class under test conditions and will involve answering a set of questions over a period of about 1 hour.
COURSE CONTENT
What topics will I be studying?
The following is a brief outline of the main topics you will be learning about. Don’t worry if some of the words and phrases are new to you. All will become clear as you work through the course.
What is Buddhism?
Buddhism is named after the title given to its founder, Siddhata Guatama – The Buddha ( enlightened one ). Siddhata was born in Lumbini in North India in about 563 BCE ( Before Common Era ) and died at the age of 80 in about 483 BCE. The exact dates are unknown to us, but all we need to know is that he lived for about eighty years sometime between the 6th and 8th centuries BCE.
Over the following centuries Buddhism spread to Thailand, Burma, Cambodia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and many other countries in South East Asia. Two main types of Buddhism called Theravada and Mahayana emerged. In more recent times Buddhism has spread to many other countries around the world including Britain and America. Scotland has the largest Buddhist temple in Western Europe, and there is estimated to be 130,000 Buddhists living in Britain with more than 327 million Buddhists worldwide.
The Early Life of the Buddha
Siddhata Guatama was an Indian prince. He lived in an area of Northern India that is now called Nepal. The stories say that when Siddhata was born his father ( The King ) asked some wise men what he would become. All of them agreed that he would be a great man, but they said that if he ever saw suffering he would become a great religious leader rather than a great King.
Siddhata’s father wanted him to become a great and powerful ruler like he was. Therefore he knew what he had to do.
He ordered that Siddhata should remain in the palace grounds, and no one who was sick or old should be allowed near the prince. Servants were replaced with young and healthy people if they become old or sick. Even flowers in the palace were removed just before they began to wilt. Siddhata grew up to be handsome and clever. When he was sixteen he married a beautiful girl and they had a son. He was rich, powerful, handsome, clever and spent his days playing games and being with friends in the palace grounds.
It seemed that Siddhata had everything he could want in life.
* WATCH THE FILM ‘LITTLE BUDDHA’ *
( his birth and early life in the palace )
At the age of 29, Siddhata grew dissatisfied with his life of leisure in the palace and began to think seriously about life and what it meant. On an excursion from the palace with his charioteer Channa, Siddhata saw 4 sights or signs which changed his life. He saw an old man, a sick person, a corpse and a holy man. These 4 sights distressed him deeply, especially the content face of the holy man. This led to his decision to leave the palace and become a wandering holy man.
SIDDHATA NOW REALISED FOR THE FIRST TIME THAT LIFE WAS TEMPORARY,AND FULL OF SUFFERING. HE HAD TO FIND A WAY TO OVERCOME THIS TERRIBLE SITUATION.
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* WATCH THE FILM ‘LITTLE BUDDHA’ *
( his first trip outside the palace and leaving the palace )
There were many teachers at the time claiming to have the answers to questions in life and methods for achieving peace of mind. At first Siddhata trained in meditation, but he became dissatisfied with this; it did not offer the complete release he was looking for.
He then began to follow an extremely ascetic life.
He spent long periods of time standing or sitting in
the same position, in solitude, without food and
without washing. While all these things helped him
to develop greater self-control, to conquer feelings
of fear, desire and disgust, and to have greater
mental control, they still however did not
answer his questions about life.
Siddhata almost starved himself to death in his quest. In the end he gave up this austere way of life. He rejected the idea of a strictly ascetic life just as he had rejected the rich, luxurious and indulgent one. By the age of 35 Siddhata had experienced 2 extremes of lifestyle and had still not found satisfaction in his quest. Determined to fulfill this he sat under a Bo tree and vowed to meditate until he achieved enlightenment.
* WATCH THE FILM ‘LITTLE BUDDHA’ *
( his life with the ascetics and achieving enlightenment )
After Siddhata became enlightened he became known as The Buddha ( awakened one ) and he was now able to help others towards enlightenment by teaching the DHAMMA. He decided he would do this for the 5 ascetics that he had lived with the year before. His first sermon is known as THE SERMON OF BENARES. It was given at the deer park at Sarnath by the Varanasi (once called Benares.) His first sermon is also known as the DEER PARK SERMON or the SETTING IN MOTION THE WHEEL OF THE LAW, in which he explained the 4 noble truths.
For the next 45 years, or the remainder of his life, the Buddha traveled around India teaching people from all walks of life. Buddhists take refuge in the Buddha to recognize not only that he was a historical person but also to recognize the possibility of their own enlightenment.
THE MIDDLE WAY
The Middle Way ( or Middle Path ) was one of the Buddha’s first teachings and was the reason he decided to leave the ascetic lifestyle that he had lived for so long with the holy men. When Siddhata witnessed old age, sickness and death for the first time he realised that life was full of suffering. He wanted to find a way to overcome or avoid suffering as much as possible so that people could lead happier lives.
The Middle way teaches that if people avoid extreme ways of living and follow a lifestyle which is a middle path between the extremes in life then people will avoid suffering and therefore be happier.
For example if I eat too much food I will get ill. I also know that I will get ill if I don’t eat enough food. Eating too much or too little food are opposite extremes. The Buddha would say we should live in the Middle Path between the extremes and therefore eat enough food to be healthy, but not so much that you become unhealthy.
EXTREME / MIDDLE WAY / EXTREMENot eating enough
/ Eating just enough
Getting enough sleep / Eating too much
What do you think these words mean?
The Four Noble Truths
Soon after the Buddha achieved enlightenment he began to teach people about The Four Noble Truths.
An easy way to explain this is to use a common analogy often used in Buddhism. A doctor identifies the illness, diagnoses why the patient has the illness and then offers a cure by prescribing a medicine. Lets look at it another way:
· Buddha is the doctor who makes the diagnosis – DUKKHA
· The illness is craving or TANHA
· The cure is NIBBANA
· The prescription is the NOBLE EIGHTFOLD PATH.
DUKKHA
Dukkha is the first noble truth. Dukkha means suffering and Buddhists believe it is important to realise that all living beings suffer. In fact, Buddhist believe all life is suffering and that no one can escape dukkha. This is because Buddhist believe in a cycle of rebirth, or reincarnation, which means living beings are destined to be reborn and suffer in life over and over again. This will go on until we can break free from the cycle of rebirth.
Dukkha is more than just physical suffering. It is also emotional or mental suffering. It can be a negative emotion, anxiety or dissatisfaction. It can be a sense of discontent when things change in your life. It is any situation that is unsatisfactory.
Even the Buddha suffered when he became dissatisfied with life in the palace, when he saw the four sights, and when he was an ascetic.
TANHA
Tanha is the second noble truth. Tanha is craving or desire. It also describes the greed and selfishness which results in suffering and attachment to things in life.
Buddhists believe that the first noble truth, Dukkha ( suffering ), is caused by the second noble truth, Tanha ( craving / desire ). Desire and craving causes us to be trapped in the cycle of rebirth ( Samsara ). Desire causes attachment to things which cause us to suffer when they don’t last.
Can Tanha ( craving or desire ) really cause us to suffer???
Firstly, Buddhists believe that when our minds or bodies desire something that we don’t have we suffer because of this. If you want something it must mean that the situation you are in just now is not ideal. Not what you want it to be. It is less than perfect and unsatisfactory. For example, the screaming child is suffering because his Mum won’t buy him the ice cream cone that he is craving for. The girl ends up with a terrible haircut from the new hairstylist. She is distressed and suffering because she desires to go back to get her hair styled the way she wants it. When we are suffering from hunger it is because our body wants food.
If your life situation is not 100% perfect right now then you must be suffering to some degree. Do you have a cold? Do you feel tired?
Is craving or desire causing you to suffer??
The following passage is from the Buddhist scriptures called the DHAMMAPADA.
What do you think these verses are saying about the connection between suffering ( Dukkha ) and craving ( Tanaha )?
HOW DESIRE ( WANTING SOMETHING ) CAN CAUSE PEOPLE TO SUFFER./
TYPE OF SUFFERING
Desiring your friend’s new computer game that you don’t have yet. / Jealousy
Grief
Being out of breath
Frustration
Confusion
The body wanting water. / Thirst
Discussion point
Can you think of a form of suffering ( DUKKHA ) which does not have desire or craving ( TANHA) as a first cause? Explain your answer.
We all get attached to things in life. This could be clothes, toys, pets, or people. We even get attached to feelings and emotions. These could be in the form of happy memories, romantic feelings, or even sadness. Buddhists believe that attachment leads to suffering. This is because things are not permanent, they change over time. Moods change, people change and even objects change. If we become attached to things we will only be disappointed and suffer when they eventually change. Our desire for things to remain the way we would like them to leads us to suffer when they don’t.
ANICCA
Anicca is impermanence. It is the belief that nothing lasts and everything constantly changes. People, plants, even things like mountains are changing all the time. Some things are in a constant state of change. The weather is a good example of this, particularly in Scotland. Other things change more slowly. The height of the school building. Building blocks erode over time.
It is not just objects which are impermanent. Are you the same shape and size as you were five years ago? Our likes and dislikes change. Do you like the same music or clothes as you did when you were ten years old? How many times do your moods change in one day, or one hour?
Discussion point
Can you think of anything that is permanent and never changes? Explain your answer.
ANICCA AND SUFFERING
Buddhists believe that failure to recognise anicca leads us to imagine that things are permanent. This is closely related to the idea of attachment. Holding on to, or attachment to impermanent things leads us to crave and desire things that we can no longer have because they have now changed. This in turn leads to suffering because we are separate from our desires. Even happiness can lead to suffering because of its impermanence.