Introduction to Key Concepts in Buddhism for RMPS Teachers Dr Naomi Appleton University of Edinburgh, naomi.appletoned.ac.uk Dr Chris Jones University of Cambridge, cvj20cam.ac.uk Feb-Jun 2021 Programme February 9th Buddha, Dhamma, and
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Presentation Transcript
01
Introduction to Key Concepts in Buddhism
for RMPS Teachers Dr Naomi Appleton
University of Edinburgh, naomi.appleton@ed.ac.uk
Dr Chris Jones
University of Cambridge, cvj20@cam.ac.uk Feb-Jun 2021<br>
02
Programme February 9th Buddha, Dhamma, and Saṅgha (‘The Three Jewels’)
March 9th Dukkha, Anicca, and Anattā (‘Three Marks of Existence’)
April 13th Kamma, Saṃsāra, and Nibbāna
May 11th The Eightfold Path and Five Precepts
June 8th Meditation and Worship (Pūjā) Image Copyright James Hegarty (see notes on slide) Each session will consist of roughly 30 minutes of presentation, and up to 30 minutes of questions and/or discussion.
The presentation (though not the discussion) will be recorded. Please keep cameras off during this part of the event.<br>
03
The Three Marks/Characteristics (tilakkhaṇa) dukkha – suffering; the fact that things are ‘unsatisfactory’
anicca – impermanence
anattā – ‘not-self’ or ‘without self’ Right: the Buddha’s death or parinibbāna, Polonnaruva, Sri Lanka. Image in the public domain.<br>
04
anicca – impermanence dukkha – suffering, unsatisfactory What is dukkha?
birth, aging and death
sorrow, lamentation, distress, etc (i.e., forms of mental suffering)
proximity to what is not dear, separation from what is dear, not getting what you wish Image provided by the Wellcome collection: CC-BY-4.0 (see notes to slide)<br>
05
Three of the Buddha’s teachings on bereavement Kisagotami and the mustard seed
Seeking the hare in the moon
Visakha and the perils of the dear “The various kinds of dukkha in the world,
sorrows and lamentations,
Exist because of what is dear;
when there is nothing dear they do not exist.
Happy and free from sorrow
are those for whom nothing in the world is dear.
Wishing for passionless freedom from sorrow,
one should not make anything dear in the world.”
Udāna 8.8, trans. Naomi Appleton<br>
06
The Three Marks/Characteristics (tilakkhaṇa) dukkha – suffering; the fact that things are ‘unsatisfactory’
anicca – impermanence
anattā – ‘not-self’ or ‘without self’ Right: the Buddha’s death or parinibbāna, Polonnaruva, Sri Lanka. Image in the public domain.<br>
07
From the Milinda-pañha
(‘The questions of the King Milinda’, in dialogue with the monk Nāgasena) The king asked: ‘Venerable Nāgasena, is it the case that one does not transmigrate, and yet one is reborn?
Yes, your majesty, one does not transmigrate and yet one is reborn.
How, venerable Nāgasena, is it that one does not transmigrate and yet one is reborn? Provide an analogy.
Just as, your majesty, if someone kindled one lamp from another, is it indeed the case, majesty, that the lamp would transmigrate from the other lamp?
Certainly not, venerable Sir.
Indeed not, your majesty, one does not transmigrate, and yet one is reborn.<br>
08
Physical form (rūpa)
Sensation (vedanā)
Conceptualizations (saññā)
Volitions (saṅkhāra)
Consciousness (viññāna) Five ‘aggregates’ or ‘heaps’ (khandhas) of experience Amidst which, one might erroneously think there to be something permanent, unchanging, and of existential significance, or one’s ‘self’ (attā)<br>
09
From the Anattalakkhaṇa-sutta
(‘the discourse [sutta] the character [of things], being not the self’) [The Buddha is seated with his first audience of monks, after having taught about the Four Truths, and asks his monks to interrogate the content of their experience…]
Monks, how do you conceive it: is i) physical form […then, each in their turn, ii) sensation, iii) conceptualization, iv) volition and v) consciousness…] permanent or impermanent?
…(The monks respond) Impermanent, venerable Sir.
Now, is what is impermanent unsatisfactory (dukkha) or satisfactory/pleasing (sukha)?
…Unsatisfactory, venerable Sir.
Now, is what is impermanent, what is unsatisfactory, being subject to change, fit to be considered like this: ‘this is mine, this me, this is my self (attā)’?
