INTRODUCTION TO WORLD RELIGIONS AND BELIEF SYSTEMS

Subject: Introduction to World Religion and Belief System

Theravada Buddhism

LEARNING CONCEPT
I. Theravada Buddhism at a Glance
 Buddhism is a spiritual tradition that focuses on a personal spiritual development
and the attainment of deep insight into the true nature of life.
 There are 376 million followers of Buddhism worldwide who were largely influenced
by the teachings of their acknowledged founder.
 The history of Buddhism revolves around the story of one man’s spiritual journey
to enlightenment and of the teachings and ways of living that developed from it.
II. Siddharta Gautama
Opinions differ as to the dates of Siddhartha Gautama's life. Historians have dated his birth
and death as circa 566-486 BCE but more recent research suggests that he lived later than
this, from around 490 BCE until circa 410 BCE.
He was born into a royal family in the village of Lumbini in present-day Nepal, and his
privileged life insulated him from the sufferings of life; sufferings such as sickness, age and
death.

One day, after growing up, marrying and having a child, Siddhartha went outside the royal
enclosure where he lived. When he went outside he saw, each for the first time, an old man,
a sick man, and a corpse.

This greatly disturbed him, and he learned that sickness, age, and death were the inevitable
fate of human beings - a fate no-one could avoid.Siddhartha had also seen a monk, and he
decided this was a sign that he should leave his protected royal life and live as a homeless
holy man.

Siddhartha's travels showed him much more of the suffering of the world. He searched for a
way to escape the inevitability of death, old age and pain first by studying with religious men.
This didn't provide him with an answer.
Siddhartha encountered an Indian ascetic who encouraged him to follow a life of extreme self-
denial and discipline.

The Buddha also practised meditation but concluded that in themselves, the highest
meditative states were not enough.Siddhartha followed this life of extreme asceticism for six
years, but this did not satisfy him either; he still had not escaped from the world of suffering.

He abandoned the strict lifestyle of self-denial and ascetism, but did not return to the
pampered luxury of his early life. Instead, he pursued the Middle Way, which is just what it
sounds like; neither luxury nor poverty. Tall tree with flags decorating its branches. Visitors walk
past and Buddhists sit in the louts position beneath it Bodhi tree next to Mahabodhi temple,
the spot where Buddha achieved enlightenment.

One day, seated beneath the Bodhi tree (the tree of awakening) Siddhartha became deeply
absorbed in meditation, and reflected on his experience of life, determined to penetrate its
truth. He finally achieved Enlightenment and became the Buddha. The Mahabodhi Temple
at the site of Buddha's enlightenment, is now a pilgrimage site.

Buddhist legend tells that at first the Buddha was happy to dwell within this state, but
Brahma, king of the gods, asked, on behalf of the whole world, that he should share his
understanding with others.
Buddha set in motion the wheel of teaching: rather than worshipping one god or gods,
Buddhism centres around the timeless importance of the teaching, or the dharma.

For the next 45 years of his life the Buddha taught many disciples, who became Arahants or
'noble ones', who had attained Enlightenment for themselves.

III. The Four Noble Truths

1. The Truth of Suffering (Dukkha)
 Obvious kinds of suffering correspond to the first three sights the Buddha saw on his
first journey outside his palace: old age, sickness and death.
 Human beings are subject to desires and cravings, but even when they are able to
satisfy these desires, the satisfaction is only temporary.
 This feeling of non-contentment or non-satisfaction is the truth of suffering
according to Buddha.
2. The Truth of the Origin of Suffering (Samudaya)
 The Buddha taught that the root of all sufferings is desire or tanha.
 Three roots of evil:
o Greed and desire- represented in art by a rooster
o Ignorance and delusion- represented by a pig
o Hatred and destructive urges- represented by a snake
3. The Truth of the Cessation of Suffering (Nirodha)
 The Buddha taught that the way to extinguish desire, which causes suffering, is to
liberate oneself from attachment.
 The Buddha was a living example that this is possible in human lifetime.
4. The Truth of the Path to the Cessation of Suffering known as the Eight-fold Path (Magga)
 The path is a process to help a person remove or move beyond the conditioned
responses that obscure his true nature.
 In this sense the path is ultimately about unlearning rather than learning.
IV. The Eight-fold Path
1. Samma-Ditthi (Complete or Perfect Vision)
 It is translated as right view.
 It is the vision of the nature of reality and the path of transformation.
 2. Samma-Sankappa (Perfected Emotion or Aspiration)
 It is translated as right intention.
 It liberates emotional intelligence in life and acting from love and compassion.
3. Samma-Vaca (Perfected or Whole Speech)
 It is translated as right speech.
 It is clear, truthful, uplifting and non-harmful communication.
4. Samma-Kammanta (Integral Action)
 It is translated as right action.
 It is an ethical foundation for life based on the principle of oneself and others.
5. Samma-Ajiva(Proper Livelihood)
 It is translated as right livelihood.
 This is a livelihood based on correct action. This is the basis of an ideal society.
6. Samma-Vayama (Complete or Full Effort, Energy and Vitality)
 It is translated as right effort.
 It means consciously directing one-life energy to the transformative path of
creative healing actions that fosters wholeness.
7. Samma-Sati (Complete or Thorough Awareness)
 It is translated asright mindfulness.
 It is developing awareness that ‘if you hold yourself dear, watch yourself well”.
8. Samma-Samadhi (Full, Integral, or Holistic Samadhi)
 It is translated as right concentration.
 This could mean being focused which means that the mind is fixed on a single object
at a given time.
V. The Middle Way
 It is considered the ultimate solution to man’s suffering and therefore leads him
to the attainment of Nirvana.
 It is a life that is neither in extreme luxury nor in extreme poverty.
 It is avoiding the extremities of life, and one should live a life of moderation.
VI. Key Concepts of Buddhism
1. Concept of Nirvana
 It is a state of enlightenment which means that a person’s individual desires
and sufferings are extinguished.
 It is a state of profound spiritual joy, without negative emotions and fears.
 Buddhists believe that someone who has attained enlightenment is filled with
compassion for all living things.
2. Concept of Morality
 Karmic conditioning- it is a process by which a person’s nature is shaped by his
moral actions.
 This means that every action a person takes molds his/her character for the future.
 Both positive and negative traits can become magnified and all of these cause a
person to acquire a karma.
3. Concept of Karma
 It explains that a person’s actions affect him/her, either positively or negatively,
 and his/her present actions will affect him/her in the future.
4. Concept of the Great Tragedy of Existence
 The great tragedy of existence is that it is both endless and subject to
impermanence, suffering and uncertainty These three are called tilakhana or
three signs of existence.
o Existence is endless because individuals are reincarnated over and over again,
experiencing suffering throughout many lives.
o It is impermanent because no state, good or bad, lasts forever. Peoples’
mistaken belief that things can last is the chief cause of suffering.
o It is uncertain because when people examine their experience, no knower
can be defined and no enduring essence of experience can be located.
o Only achieving liberation or Nirvana can free a human being from the cycle
of life, death and rebirth.
5. Concept on the Origin of the Universe
 Buddhism has no creator god to explain the origin of the universe. It teaches that
everything depends on everything else- present events are caused by past events
and become the cause of future events.
 Indian Religions often see space and time as cyclical, such that world systems
come into being, survive for a time, are destroyed and then are remade.
 In Buddhism, this happens naturally without the intervention of gods.
 One tale told by the Buddha in the AgannaSutta describes the process of recreation
on the grand scale.
o An old world system has just been destroyed, and its inhabitants are reborn
in a new system.
o To begin with, they are spirits, floating happily above the earth, luminescent
and without form, name or sex.
o In early stages, there is no light or land, only water.
o Eventually, earth appears and the spirits came to taste and enjoy it.
o Their greediness caused their eternal bodies to become solid and
coarse and differentiate into male and female, good-looking and ugly.
o As they lose their luminescence the sun and moon came into being.
o Gradually, the beings fall into further wicked habits, causing themselves and
the earth itself to become less pleasant.
o In this way, the Buddha seems to be saying that desire, greed and
attachment not only cause suffering for people but also caused the world to
be as it is.
o The physical world, according to the Buddha, with all its imperfections
and sufferings is the product of what he called dependent origination.