Lecture 7 Three Buddhist Insights Everything is dependently cooriginated Nothing exists independently of everything else Reality is a constant flux of change What we perceive as being our external reality is in fact an illusion The real nature of things is not disclosed to us in our exper ID: 135272
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Slide1
Asian Philosophy
Lecture
7Slide2
Three Buddhist Insights
Everything is dependently co-originated. Nothing exists independently of everything else.
Reality is a constant flux of change. What we perceive as being our external reality is in fact an illusion. The real nature of things is not disclosed to us in our experience.
There is no self. What appears to us as a permanent substantial self that persists over time is actually an illusion. Slide3
Two Schools of Thought on the Three Insights
Madhyamaka: The middle school way.
Core Figure: Nagarjuna.
Yogacara: The practice of discipline.
Core Figure: VasubanduSlide4
Nagarjuna
150-250CE
Born in South India to a Hindu Brahmin family.
Became a Buddhist
Famous for his work: Fundamental versus of the middle way.
MadhyamakaSlide5
Madhyamaka: Between Two Extremes
Substantialism
: existence is permanent.
Nihilism
: nothing really exists.
Madhyamaka (Middle Way)
: things exist as processes, continually arising and ceasing in dependence on each other.
Madhyamaka
takes the Buddhist teaching of dependent origination and teaches it as the idea of
EMPTINESS = Shunyata Slide6
The Goals of Argumentation
Nagarjuna
aims to show that
Dependent arising
No-Self
Flux
Do
not
depend on absolutes in anyway.
That is
there is no good argument for holding that
(i)-(iii) require absolutes at the fundamental level.
We can make sense of the these notions through the idea of emptiness.Slide7
The Method
Nagarjuna
Aims to show the methods and arguments used by other Buddhists to interpret the central doctrines as requiring absolutes can be used against the very claims for absolutes. That is he
aims to show that arguments for absolutes
, actually
undermine the claim that there are absolutes
.
His method sometimes involves using the method of argument by reduction to absurdity.
His method sometimes involves using the Buddhist logic of four corners. Slide8
Argument by Reduction to Absurdity
Assume that P is true
.
Argue that P by standard reasoning leads to a conclusion that no one would accept.
Conclude that not-P is true.
Assumptions:
Argument by reductio is an acceptable means for proving something.
In certain contexts when P is false, not-P is true. Slide9
Buddhist Catuskoti
The four corners:
A.
not-A.
Both A and not-A.
Neither A nor not-A.
Assumptions:
Each option is distinct from the other options.
Each option can be realized in certain cases. Slide10
Nagarjuna Against Causality
Either
an effect produces itself.
A
(b) an effect is produced by something other than itself.
n
ot-A
(c) an effect both produces itself and is produced by something other than itself.
Both
A a
n
d not-A
(d) an effect is neither produced by itself nor is it produced by something other than itself.
Neither A nor not-A.Slide11
Nagarjuna Against Causality
If an effect
produces itself
, then it is identical to the cause, and thus there is only one thing. Since causation requires two things this is not a possible option.
If an effect is
produced
by something
other
than
itself
, then the two things are essentially different things. Two things that are essentially
different
cannot
bear a causal relation to one another.
Examples:
A
s
eed can cause a sprout
because they are not essentially different
.
A stone cannot cause a sprout
because they are essentially different
. Slide12
Nagarjuna Against Causality
Could an
effect both
produce
itself and
be
produced by something other than itself?
N argues that it cannot, since an effect cannot be produced by itself and an effect cannot be produced by something other than itself.
So, we are left with:
A
n
effect is neither produced by itself nor is it produced by something other than itself.
But this just abandons causation. Since we need causation to understand the order in the world, we must reject this option.Slide13
Nagarjuna on Causal Conditions
Things arise, exist, and cease in dependence on conditions, but none of these conditions are self-existent causes.
Four conditions of arising, existing, and ceasing:
(i) Efficient conditions.
(ii) percept-object conditions.
(iii) Immediate conditions.
(iv) Dominant conditions. Slide14
Efficient Conditions
Efficient conditions account for change by
identifying
the appropriate prior changes.
For example: why are there letters on this screen?
Because Anand wanted to write a lecture.
Because Anand moved his fingers on the keyboard.
The efficient condition is (2) not (1). Even though (1) is also necessary. Slide15
Precept-Object Conditions
Precept-object conditions account for the
arising
of perceptions.
The
physical
computer in front of me is the percept-object condition for me seeing a computer.
The
idea
of conditions in my mind is the precept-object condition for my thinking about conditions. Slide16
Immediate Conditions
Immediate conditions account for
change
in activities triggered by the efficient conditions.
The immediate conditions for moving my fingers on the key board are changes in:
Neuron firings in my brain.
Signals to my muscular system to move my fingers thus and so. Slide17
Dominant conditions
Dominant conditions account for
change
in terms of
ends
or
goals.
The dominant condition can be understood as the purpose for which certain actions take place.
For example, the dominant condition for typing these notes is simply to produce an explanatory lecture.
The dominant condition pertains to why a thing is done or comes about.Slide18
Nagarjuna’s View
Only if causes are seen as empty of self-existence and causal power can they produce effects. But this very emptiness means that they are not causes in the usual sense, but simply conditions of change.
Things arise and cease interdependently due to conditions without independent, self-existing entities.
We do not need independent absolutes with essences to explain the central doctrines of the Buddha.
We need to understand the emptiness of everything
.Slide19
Nagarjuna on Motion
N argues against the intelligibility of motion:
If motion is an
entity
, then either it is identical to the mover or different from the mover.
If motion is identical to the mover, then each time the mover moved, she would be different from that which she was.
If the motion is different from the mover, then it would be possible for there to be motion without a mover.
So, motion is
not
an entity.
Rather it is a continuous process over time!Slide20
Nagarjuna on the Self
Either the self is identical with its components or it is different from them.
If the self is identical with its components, then because they change at every moment, the self changes at every moment – so there would be no enduring self.
If the self is distinct from its components, then any changes in the components could not effect the self, since it is distinct.
So, the self is neither identical nor different from its components.
So, there is no self. Slide21
Nagarjuna on the two truths
Nagarjuna, following the Buddha, holds that there are two truths:
Conventional truths
help us understand conventional reality. The reality that we stay in throughout most of our lives, and which forms our social fabric.
Ultimate truths
reveal the way reality fundamentally is. Ultimate truths are to be realized by transcending conventional reality and seeing the emptiness of everything. Slide22
Nagarjuna on the emptiness of emptiness
Nagarjuna maintains that
Everything is empty
Emptiness is empty
That the ultimate truth is that there is
no
ultimate truth.
An important question in Buddhist scholarship is how can we understand these seemingly paradoxical claims. Slide23
Vasubandhu
Lived in 4
th
and 5
th
century
Co-founder of Yogacara school of Buddhism with his half brother Asanga.Author of the Abhidharmakosha (treasury of A
bhidarma), a pre-
Y
ogacara work.
And
Author of the Yogacara works
Vimshatika
(20 Verses)
and
Trimshatika
(30 Verses)Slide24
Yogacara Basics
Important questions:
What is ignorance?
What is enlightenment?
What is the nature of consciousness?
What is knowledge?
What are the processes that produce ignorance and knowledge?Slide25
Yogacara on Knowledge
Something can be known
As something conceptually constructed. To know it in this way is not to know it for what it really is.
As something conditioned by other things. To know it in this way is to know it relative to the conditions that bring it about.
As something free of conceptual constructions. To know it in this way is to know it in mindfulness and free of conceptual constructions. There is no subject – object distinction.
Direct insight free of conceptual constructions gives real knowledge.Slide26
Yogacara on Consciousness
Discursive knowledge
involves a subject and an object. In discursive knowledge something is known by way of it being represented to consciousness.
Non-Dualistic Knowledge
occurs when an individual knows something immediately, directly, and not by way of conceptual representations. Slide27
Yogacara on Store Consciousness
Ordinary Consciousness
is intentional. There is a subject and an object. Consciousness is always
for someone
and
of something.
The intentionality of consciousness pertains to the fact that being conscious is always of something.
Store Consciousness
is non-intentional. It has no subject - object connection, and it is not
for someone
or
of something
.
Store consciousness is used to explain the continuity between moments of ordinary consciousness.
It is like the unconscious, but it is not a permanent self. Slide28
The Eight Kind of Consciousness
Sight produced by eye consciousness.
Sound, produced by ear consciousness.
Smell, produced by nose consciousness.
Taste, produced by tongue consciousness.
Feel, produced by touch consciousness.
Knowledge of store consciousness as a permanent self.
Knowledge of store consciousness as it is itself through direct awareness.Slide29
Continuity: past-present-future
What does store consciousness do?
Past ----------> Present ------------> Future
Seeds of Seeds of
Store Store
Consciousness Consciousness
Store consciousness explains the continuity of the person that is ignorant with the person that becomes enlightened.
Slide30
Is Yogacara a form of Idealism?
Realism
is the view that external reality is fundamental, and everything else is
real
relative to external reality.
Idealism
is the view that consciousness is fundamental and everything is
real
relative to consciousness.
Yogacara is neither idealistic nor realistic.
Realists make the mistake of thinking there are real permanent self-existent things in reality.
Idealists make the mistake of thinking that everything must exist in the end as an idea in some mind.
Slide31
Yogacara on Knowledge of Reality
Asanga on four kinds of knowledge:
What is universally accepted by ordinary beings.
What is universally accepted by reason.
Cognition completely purified of obscurations of defilements.
Cognition completely purified of obscurations to the knowable.
Knowledge is not for its own sake, nor for the sake of changing the environment. Rather it is for changing oneself.
Slide32
Ordinary Knowledge
The keys to ordinary knowledge are:
That they are shared views about reality common to a group of people.
That the knowledge is linguistic. It comes about because we know a name for a thing, or a way to describe it.
However, since knowing a name for a thing and knowing how to describe it are different, we must say that ordinary knowledge is incomplete.
Slide33
Scientific Knowledge
The keys to scientific knowledge
That the thing being investigated is established and proven by demonstration.
It involves rationality, reasoning, logic, deduction and induction, as well as observation.
However, scientific knowledge is inferior to other forms of knowledge. Because it rests on consciousness at the ordinary level where concepts are involved. To know by way of concepts is not to know things as they area.
Slide34
Knowledge Free of Personal Defilements
The keys
to knowledge free of personal defilements
This kind of knowledge does not involve ignorance, grasping, and hatred. These kinds of states give rise to suffering (duhkha)
It provides knowledge of how and why we are not separate selves existing independently of everything else.
This kind of knowledge is superior to ordinary and scientific knowledge because it does not rest on that which gives rise to suffering. It is free of ignorance. Slide35
Knowledge Free of Discursive Thought
The keys
to knowledge free of discursive thought
Knowledge free of discursive thought cannot be explained completely through discursive thought.
However,
Those that have this kind of knowledge arrive through discursive thought at the truth that things which appear independent and permanent are in fact not independent and permanent.
Those that have this kind of knowledge arrive through direct
insight at the
true nature of things and the value of enlightenment.