Buddhism 101
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THE BUDDHA
The First Jewel
The Buddha was both a human being and a symbol. When you take refuge in the Buddha you bow in respect to what he accomplished in his lifetime. When you take refuge in the Buddha you also bow to what he represents—your awakened nature. The Buddha’s example can be a raft that carries you across the river of samsara. He can show you a path, but he cannot walk it for you. Once you cross over the river, you no longer need to carry the raft. In this way, Buddha is neither a god nor a saint but a role model.
Some people, especially those in traditional Buddhist cultures, may look to the Buddha as a source of salvation. In Tibet he is referred to as Lord Buddha. In the West, however, he is more the hero of an epic story of sacrifice and deliverance from greed, hatred, and delusion. He had everything, then nothing before finding the Middle Way. Through his voluminous teaching over a long career he has left a detailed path that any interested party can follow. He left a repertoire of methods that can lead to liberation. He was a great yogi and represents the potential for radical transformation, from a life of suffering to a life of liberation.
Lasting Legacy
The Buddha may have dwelled in obscurity, yet he decided to share his insights with those willing to listen. By doing so, he revolutionized humanity and the potential for transformation, compassion, and happiness.
Buddha-nature—the Buddha within everyone—is not created, but rather is revealed. It is present now, but perhaps obscured by your stories of desire and aversion. Buddha-nature is not made; it is not a destination. It is here right now. The Buddha showed humanity this potential.
Practicing the Buddhist path will help to make this buddha-nature accessible and clear. You will go through similar trials that the Buddha did if you commit yourself to these practices. This path is challenging, but anything worthwhile is. When you are struggling to keep yourself on the cushion, you can imagine the Buddha confronting the temptations of Mara, sitting steadfast and resolute. This image can inspire you to keep sitting.
Budai, Not Buddha
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The fat and happy “Buddha” you’ve seen in Chinese restaurants is not Siddhartha Gotama, or Shakyamuni Buddha. He is Budai in China or Hotei in Japan. He is often depicted smiling and laughing. He is a folklore figure but is often mistaken for the historical Buddha.
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The Buddha does not ask you to believe in him or to pray to him. Any peace of mind that comes to you comes from your own effort and not divine intervention. He shows you a path that you are free to take all on your own. There is no blind allegiance; there is only practice. See for yourself: you, too, can take refuge in the Buddha.
Living Buddha
Bearing in mind the Buddha’s caution to avoid people who claim to be “enlightened,” taking refuge in the Buddha can also mean finding an appropriate teacher. You might know of a Buddhist who is qualified to teach you the dharma in your community or at special dharma centers around the country. Find yourself a teacher who embodies the teachings of the Buddha. When you find a living Buddha—you witness the compassion and lovingkindness that is possible.
THE DHARMA
The Second Jewel
The second of the Three Jewels is the dharma. The dharma is the entire collection of Buddhist scripture and thought, including all modern Buddhist teachings, as well as the traditional, original teachings, such as the sutras in the Pali Canon. The dharma is all the spoken word and written text passed down through the generations.
Today there are many sources for the dharma: books, DVDs, MP3s, streaming Internet videos, and recorded dharma talks. There are also practice centers and monasteries. The proliferation of Buddhism in the West in conjunction with modern communication technologies has created an unprecedented availability of the dharma.
Nalanda University
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According to Joseph Goldstein, Nalanda University flourished from the fifth to the twelfth centuries. “According to reports of travelers in those times, there were over two thousand teachers and more than ten thousand monks from all over the Buddhist world who practiced and studied there side by side. Today, although we are not all gathered on one campus, the ease of travel and communication has created a similar wealth of available teachings.”
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There are two types of dharma: that which can be read or heard—transmitted from person to person—and that which is realized. Realized dharma is dharma experienced through the practice of the Four Noble Truths—the realization of the truth, or awakening.
The dharma surrounds you. Any experience can awaken you to the dharma. Have you ever found yourself sitting outside, enjoying the wonders of a beautiful day? Suddenly you hear a bird call out, and its call is pure and sweet and fills you. You lose yourself completely in that moment, just listening to the sounds of the bird. The bird is the dharma; the bird teaches you something about awakening. In that moment, your story of “me” disappears and you awaken to a reality that takes over where stories stop. Anything can be the dharma: a bird, a work of art, a cup of coffee, a dog barking, the rain, even difficult experiences are dharma. Every experience holds the possibility of revealing some truth.
Venerable Master
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Roshi is a title given to a Zen master, under whom a student must study if he or she hopes to reach enlightened mind. In Japanese it means “venerable master.”
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Zen master Suzuki Roshi tells us that it is difficult to keep our mind pure. In Japan, there is a phrase, shoshin, which means “beginner’s mind.” In Buddhism, the aspiration is always to keep this beginner’s mind, this openness and readiness. Suzuki tells us, “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities; in the expert’s mind there are few.” Do not take the dharma as an absolute, definable, and fixed reality. It changes just as everything changes. Be open to what you experience and avoid preconceived notions, especially those that apply to being on a spiritual path. As you journey on the path toward enlightened mind, let go of what you learn on the way and keep your mind fresh and clean.
THE SANGHA
The Third Jewel
Sangha is the community of Buddhist practitioners. The Buddha’s first followers were his five former ascetic colleagues. Soon, though, he went from teaching men who were already renunciants to laypeople. A wealthy young man named Yashas became a follower and attained enlightenment under the Buddha’s tutelage. Yashas’s father also became a follower but as a lay practitioner (upasaka). Lay followers did not follow monastic rules but practiced the teaching by taking the Triple Refuge, or Triple Jewel: buddha, dharma, sangha. Yashas’s mother also took refuge in the Triple Jewel and became the first female lay follower. In the days before Facebook, Buddha’s teaching caught on through the social networking means available in the sixth century B.C.E. Friends of Yashas came, and friends of friends. Word spread. The Buddha sent the first sixty enlightened ones out to spread the teachings. Noted Buddhist scholar Kevin Trainor cites the Buddha saying, “Travel forth, monks, for the benefit of the many, for the happiness of the many, out of compassion for the world, for the well-being, benefit, and happiness of gods and humans.”
Can the Average Person Attain Enlightenment?
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Vacchagotta approached the Buddha and asked him if there were lay followers practicing the Buddha’s principles who achieved “high spiritual states.” The Buddha told Vacchagotta that yes, there were “not one or two, not a hundred or two hundred or five hundred but many more” who did.
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Despite the Buddha’s repudiation of the caste system, not everyone was welcome in the sangha. If you were a debtor, a criminal, or a runaway slave you may not have been welcome. The Buddha likely made such rules mindful of not offending his wealthy patrons upon whose generosity the sangha depended. In this way, he was a skilled politician and not detached from the practical realities of life. The sangha depended upon the patronage of kings and the wealthy. T
he most controversial issue where the Buddha did depart from social norms was allowing women to ordain as nuns (bhikkunis). It took some repeated pleading, however, from his aunt Prajapati.
The Buddha and the sangha wandered around much of what is today northern India. During the three-month monsoons, they would take refuge in special places built by wealthy patrons. They also did not want to travel during the rainy season for fear of injuring life that may be out during the rains, such as worms.
How Long Is a Meditation Retreat?
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An auspicious-length meditation retreat is three months—the same amount of time as the monsoon rains when the monks (bhikkus) and nuns (bhikkunis) of the sangha sought refuge indoors. Since this duration is not practical for most people, ten-day retreats are popular.
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Monastery (vihara) life consisted of meditation, initiation rituals, study, and recitation of what later became the Pali Canon. Two traditions emerged—the forest refuge where monks could do intensive meditation practice and the village monastery where they served the local community through education and rituals, and did their own practice. In some places, monks retreated to caves. Charismatic leaders led many of these communities.
CONTRACT WITH THE COMMUNITY
Lay practitioners were known as upasakas (males) and upasikas (females). A lay practitioner becomes so by formally reciting the Triple Refuge and committing to the Five Precepts in a ceremony with other members of the community. In some traditional Buddhist societies, for example, Sri Lanka, there is little emphasis on meditation and more emphasis on generosity (dana) and morality (sila).
The most basic act of dana is a food offering to wandering monks. Or, as in Sri Lanka, women will take prepared food to the monastery for the monks. In Tibet, generosity may take the form of the “tea offering,” where money is donated so that all the monks can have yak butter tea. The laity can also “sponsor” the recitation of mantras or sutras. Money, clothing, flowers, and incense may also be given.
Generosity is an important part of spiritual practice. To give is to overcome ego-based attachment to things. It also helps to foster a sense of interconnectedness. According to the Jataka tales, which recount the “past lives” of the Buddha, the Buddha made a generous offering of himself to a hungry tigress so that she could sustain the strength to feed her young. Such selfless acts also generate merit (punya) for the lay practitioner, and the generation of merit is a primary motivation in Asian cultures.
On special occasions the lay community will adopt additional precepts such as not eating anything after lunch (only having lemon water), and not dancing, singing, listening to or playing music, ornamenting the body with perfumes, garlands, etc., or sleeping in high and luxurious beds (monks already partake of these restrictions). In Asia, the focus for the laity is on right conduct and right action, rather than on the meditative disciplines, and visiting holy pilgrimage sites. In Tibet, prostrations and turning prayer wheels are central practices for the lay practitioner.
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“We take refuge in the Buddha because Buddha is our great teacher . . . We take refuge in the law, in the Dharma, because it is good medicine . . . We take refuge in the Buddha’s community, or sangha, because it is composed of excellent friends. . . .”
—Dainin Katagiri
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As you sit to do your meditation, perhaps you start wondering why you are sitting on a cushion when you could be watching Law & Order. Perhaps work beckons or the house needs cleaning. Without a sangha to keep you on track, the voices in your head that discourage you from your practice may get louder and louder until they crowd out that little voice inside yourself that urges you onward. The sangha can help bring you back to the path and hold you there. The sangha can be a powerful force of encouragement.
GENEROSITY
Dana (“donation”) is a key Buddhist practice throughout the world. Giving generates a sense of generosity that is an antidote to the fire of greed. Giving also helps the practitioner to cultivate a sense of compassion for others and to overcome selfishness and the notion of an enduring self.
There would be no Buddhism today without the generosity of kings, merchants, and common people at the time of the Buddha and beyond. Giving results in merit, but the giving cannot be calculated solely to attain merit; giving should be done with selfless joy.
Some Buddhists believe that merit can also be transferred to others, such that your generous acts could be offered for the benefit of all humanity. In Tibet, for instance, family members of the deceased will offer merit to assist in a favorable rebirth. Even kings took this seriously. For example, Sri Lankan kings would keep “merit books” of all their good deeds and have these read back to them on their deathbeds to put their minds at ease.
According to Professor Trainor, King Sirisanghabodhi reflects the epitome of generosity. This fourth-century Sri Lankan king abdicated his throne when his treasurer mounted a coup against him. He became a wandering monk, much like Gotama did when he left the palace. Paranoid, the new king worried about Sirisanghabodhi’s popularity and placed a bounty on his head. One day, a poor man shared his meal with Sirisanghabodhi and told him about the reward for his death. The king rejoiced upon hearing this news and asked the poor man to take his head as a payment for his generosity and to fulfill his own sense of perfection of generosity. After the poor man hesitated, Sirisanghabodhi cut off his own head!
UPAYA
Flexibility in Teaching
Upaya (“skillful means”) refers to a teacher’s ability to reach the student and admits a flexibility of approach to teaching Buddhist concepts. The Buddha reached people at all levels of awareness. He tailored his message to a person’s experience, and he did so through the skillful use of stories, parables, and metaphors. Metaphors run through his teachings as a river runs through the countryside. Skillful means is the ability to make the dharma accessible. Modern-day examples of upaya would be teaching troubled teenagers mindfulness through music, as the meditation teacher Shinzen Young has done. Enlightenment on an iPod? Now that’s upaya!
The Buddha’s Metaphors
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The Buddha used metaphors that included things familiar to the world of 2,500 years ago: oxcarts, fire, mountains, rain, streams, bows, and arrows. If the Buddha were teaching today, he would use metaphors from the technological present such as DVDs, email, and pause buttons on remote controls.
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A TRADITIONAL METAPHOR
One traditional metaphor is the story of Kisa Gotami from the Buddha’s time. Having lost her infant son to an illness, she desperately sought the Buddha for his reputed healing abilities. The Buddha listened to her plea and promised to bring her son back to life if she could bring him a mustard seed from a home that had never known death. She eagerly set out on her task but soon realized that death had touched everyone. She returned to the Buddha having “gotten” the concept of impermanence without him having to preach a word. Had he done so at the outset, this teaching would have likely fallen on deaf ears.
THE ORIGINAL METAPHOR
Enlightenment is a term closely associated with Buddhism. What happened to the Buddha under the Bodhi Tree is often characterized as enlightenment. This, of course, is a metaphor. When he overcame all the obstacles and temptations, the “lights” came on and he became “illuminated.” Buddhist artwork often depicts Gotama with light radiating out in a circle around his head. But is this the best metaphor? The Buddha said he was buddho and that means “awake,” not illuminated. The implications of each metaphor are different. Enlightenment makes it (enlightenment) sound like something heavenly and otherworldly. But awakening sounds like something you do every day, thus, making it more common and more accessible than you might think.
SIDDHARTHA GOTAMA
The Buddha
Buddhist texts contain few references to biographical events from the Buddha’s life. However, historians agree that he did exist and lived a long and prosperous
life—he died at eighty years old after teaching for forty-five years, traveling all over India to do so. Although the Buddha’s teachings were preserved through oral recitation and first written down hundreds of years after his death, they are considered credible and accurate representations, for the most part. However, it is impossible to know for certain, and it appears that some material was added over the course of the centuries.
GOTAMA THE MAN
Little consensus can be found among scholars on the historical facts of the Buddha’s life. This is due in part to the lack of biographical detail he shared in his teachings that later became the Pali Canon. A few key moments in the Buddha’s story are known. Up until recently the year of the Buddha’s death was taken to be either 483 or 486 B.C.E. However, new evidence suggests that it might have been as late as 400 B.C.E. His birth would have been eighty years prior to the earlier or later date (either 566 or 563 B.C.E. or as late as 480 B.C.E.). Many of the details of the Buddha’s biography come from the poem Buddhacharita by Ashvogosa, which was written in the second century C.E.