BUDDHISM
Introduction
and
Basic Concepts
BUDDHA
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WHAT WILL WE LEARN IN THIS
LESSON
About Buddhism
About Buddha
The Four Sights
Buddha’s teachings: The Four Noble Truths
The Eightfold Path
The Three Jewels or Refuges
The Five Precepts & the Ten Precepts
The Buddhism Schools
Basic and Important concepts in Buddhism
Death and Dying from the Buddhist
perspective
Bibliography
Open dialogue based on questions from
participants
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About Buddhism
Buddhism is created as an answer to the question of what
is the cause of entanglement of beings in the cycle of
existence (Samsara) and how to free oneself from it.
The heart of the historical Buddha teachings can be
summarized as follows:
• Life is impermanence
• Life is without essence
• Life is characterized by suffering
These three marks of existence are the beginning of the
Buddhist path.
The suffering of existence is created by craving and
ignorance. Through clearing away craving and ignorance,
liberation of Samsara can be attained.
The entanglement of beings in the cycle of existence is
explained in Buddhism by the chain of conditioned arising
(karma).
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ESSENCE OF BUDDHISM
•The Four Nobles Truths
•The Eightfold path
•Training in discipline and
morality
•Meditation
•Wisdom and insight
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ABOUT BUDDHA
Buddha (literally meaning ‘awakened one’, enlighten).
A person who has achieved the ‘enlightenment’ which leads
to the release of the cycle of existence (Samsara) and has
thereby attained complete liberation (Nirvana). After death,
he/she, will not be reborn again.
The historical Buddha, Shakyamuni Buddha, was born in 563
B.C., son of a prince of the Shakyas clan, in a small kingdom
in the foothills of the Himalayas, today Nepal. His first name
was Siddhartha and his family name Gautama. That is why he
is sometimes called by the name of Gautama Buddha. After is
enlightenment, the Buddha taught for about forty-five years,
dying at the age of eighty (483 B.C.
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IMAGES OF BUDDHA
BUDDHA ALONG WITH HIS
DISCIPLES
BUDDHA
35 FORMS OF BUDDHA
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The Four Sights
It is said that four sights cause Siddhartha Gautama determination
to start his quest for the truth:
• The sight of an old person
• The sight of a sick person
• The sight of a corpse
• The sight of a mendicant or holy man
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JOURNEY FROM SIDDHARTHA TO
BUDDHA
Buddha’s Teachings :
The Four Noble Truths
• The truth of suffering
• The truth of the origin of suffering
• The truth of the cessation of suffering
•The truth of the path to the cessation of suffering
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THE FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS
The last Noble Truth:
The Path to the Cessation of Suffering
gives origin to the so-called
Eightfold Path:
I. Right view
II. Right resolve
III. Right speech
IV. Right conduct
V. Right livelihood
VI. Right effort
VII. Right meditation
VIII. Wisdom
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The Five Precepts. Heart of
Ethical Practice
Rules that identify the aspirations of a Buddhist.
Not commandments, but prescriptions for treating the human
condition and an antidote to the three poisons: greed, aversion
and ignorance.
I undertake to observe the precept to…
• abstain from harming living beings
• abstain from taking things not freely given
• abstaining from sexual misconduct
• abstain from false speech
• abstain from intoxicating drinks and drugs causing heedlessness
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The Buddhist Schools
Like other religious traditions, Buddhism has divided into various
branches over its history. Two main Schools:
Hinayana Mahayana
Called Small Called Great Vehicle.
Vehicle as well Developed through
Theravada or Way Nepal, China, Tibet,
of the Elders of the Japan, Korea and
Order.
Vietnam
It has developed in
southward India:
Sri Lanka,
Thailand, Burma,
Cambodia and
Laos.
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Hinayana and Mahayana are both
rooted in
the basic teachings of the historical
Buddha
Shakyamuni, but they stress different
aspects
of those teachings.
While Hinayana seeks
the liberation of the individual, the
follower of
the Mahayana seeks to attain
enlightenment
for the sake of the welfare of all beings. 23
Basic and Important
concepts in
Buddhism
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Compassion
Infinite love…….
Compassion manifests itself in many
different
ways, depending on the circumstances. It
includes without distinction the entire
Universe
and it is expressed in our daily life
through
actions, thoughts, speech, and hearing,
giving
and receiving.
Being one with the world.
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Dharma
(Sanskrit). Is the Cosmic Law, the ‘great norm’ underlying our
world.
Above all, the law of karmically conditioned rebirth.
The Dharma is considered as the teaching of the Buddha
expressing the universal truth. It existed before the birth of the
historical Buddha, who is no more than a manifestation of it.
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Ego
In Buddhism the concept of Ego is use in the
sense of consciousness of one’s self. As a result,
we think and act as though we are entities
separated from everything else, against a world
that lies outside of us. Ego dominates the mind,
it attacks everything that threatens its
dominance and is attracted to everything that
seems to extend its power.
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Rebirth
Since the time of ripening of our actions generally exceeds a
lifespan, the effect of actions is necessarily one or more rebirths,
which together constitute the cycle of existence (Samsara)
Samsara
(Sanskrit). The ‘cycle of existence’. A succession of rebirths that
a being goes through within the various modes of existence until
it has attained liberation and entered nirvana.
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Meditation
General term for a multitude of religious practices, often quite
different in method, but all having the same goal: to bring the
consciousness of the practitioner to a state in which he can come to
an experience of ‘awakening’, ‘liberation’, ‘enlightenment’.If this
experience, in the process of endlessly ongoing spiritual training,
can be integrated into daily life, then finally that stage is reached
which religion refers to as salvation, liberation or complete
enlightenment.
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Middle Way
Generally a term for the way of the historical Buddha, which
teaches avoidance of all extremes like indulgence in the
pleasures of the senses, on one hand, and self-mortification and
asceticism on the other. Refrain from choosing between
opposing positions, and in relation to the existence or
nonexistence of all things, treads a middle way.
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Karma
(Sanskrit: action). Universal law of cause and effect. The effect
of an action, which can be of the nature of the body, speech, or
mind, is not primarily determined by the act itself but rather
particularly by the intention of the action. It is the intention of
the action that causes a karmic effect to arise. Only a deed that
is free from desire, hate and delusion is without karmic effect.
Karma provides the situation, not the response to the situation.
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Death and Dying
from the Buddhist
perspective
“At the moment of death our life becomes clear. Death is our
greatest teacher…Life is nothing but changes, which are little
deaths.”
Tibetan Lama
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BUDDHA’S LAST WORDS
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