Introduction of philosophy

Introduction of philosophy Religion philosophy

Buddhism • Buddhist philosophy is the elaboration and explanation of the delivered teachings of the Buddha as found in the Tripitaka. • Buddhist philosophy immerged due to unsatisfactory hindu activities on that time. • Buddhism is a philosophy, a moral code, and, for some a religious faith which originated 2,500 years ago. • It offers a diagnosis of the suffering of mankind and provides a formula for individuals to resolve that suffering. • It offers a moral code based on compassion and non-violence, and through meditation a way to achieve spiritual insight. • Buddhism philosophy avoided speculative thought on metaphysics, ethics and epistemology but was based instead on empirical evidence gained by the sense organs.

The Four Noble Truths • Life means suffering (Dhukha) • Causes of suffering (Samudaya) • The cessation of suffering attainable (Nirodha) • The path of the cessation of suffering (Margha)

First noble truth: Identification of suffering • Life means suffering, life in its totality is imperfect and incomplete, we can only find temporary happiness and pleasure in life. • Suffering comes in many forms through desires and cravings, but even when we are able to satisfy these desires, that is only temporary • Three types of suffering: Suffering of suffering: this refers to the most obvious aspects like pain, fear and mental distress. Suffering of change: refers to the problems that change brings, like joy disappears, nothing stays, decay and death. All- pervasive suffering: this is the most difficult to understand aspect, it refers to the fact that we always have the potential to suffer or can get into problematic situations. • Even death is not a solution in Buddhist philosophy, as we will simply find ourselves being reborn in a different body, which will also experience problems. • Some people who encounter this teaching may find it pessimistic. Buddhists find it neither optimistic nor pessimistic, but realistic. Fortunately the Buddha's teachings do not end with suffering; rather, they go on to tell us what we can do about it and how to end it.

Second noble truth: Causes of suffering • The origin of suffering is attachment:craving and clinging. • The Buddha taught that the root of all suffering is desire, This comes in three forms, which he described as the Three Roots of Evil, or the Three Fires, or the Three Poisons. Greed and desire, represented by a rooster, Ignorance or delusion, represented by a pig, Hatred and destructive urges, represented by a snake • How can attachment bring us suffering? We just have to think of delicious food and there is the temptation of eating more than is good for us. Ultimately, the Buddha explains that our attachment to life keeps us in cyclic existence or samsara, which does not bring us continuous happiness. • How can anger bring us suffering? Doing harm to others will return to us as being harmed. Anger is one of the main reasons we create harm to others, so logically it is often the cause of suffering to ourselves. • How can ignorance bring us suffering? The conventional explanation is that because we are not omniscient, we regularly get ourselves into trouble. To put it very simple: reality is not what it seems to us. As reality is different from our opinions about it, we get ourselves into trouble.

Third noble truth: Realization of cure about suffering • The cessation of suffering is attainable, the third noble truth expresses the idea that suffering can be ended by attaining dispassion. • Nirodha extinguishes all forms of clinging and attachment. • This is the most positive message of Buddhism: although suffering is always present in cyclic existence, we can end this cycle of problems and pain, and enter Nirvana, which is a state beyond all suffering. • The reasoning behind this Third Noble Truth is the fact that suffering and the causes of suffering are dependent on the state of our own mind, so if we can change our own mind, we can also eliminate suffering.

Fourth noble truth: Ways of removing suffering • There is a path to the end of suffering - a gradual path of self-improvement, • The final Noble Truth is the Buddha's prescription for the end of suffering. This is a set of principles called the Eightfold Path. • The Eightfold Path is also called the Middle Way: it avoids both indulgence and severe asceticism, neither of which the Buddha had found helpful in his search for enlightenment.

The Noble Eightfold Path • Noble Eightfold Path describes the way to the end of suffering, as it was laid out by Siddhartha Gautama. • It is a practical guideline to ethical and mental development with the goal of freeing the individual from attachments and delusions; and it finally leads to understanding the truth about all things. • Together with the four noble truths it constitutes the gist of Buddhism. • Great emphasis is put on the practical aspect, because it is only through practice that one can attain a higher level of existence and finally reach Nirvana. • The eight aspects of the path are not to be understood as a sequence of single steps, instead they are highly interdependent principles that have to be seen in relationship with each other. Wisdom (Right view and intention ), Ethical conduct (Right speech, action, livelihood, effort), Mental development ( Right mindfulness and concentration) • The Buddha described the Eightfold Path as a means to enlightenment, like a raft for crossing a river. Once one has reached the opposite shore, one no longer needs the raft and can leave it behind. • In Buddhist symbolism, the Noble Eightfold Path is often represented by means of the dharma wheel (dharmachakra), whose eight spokes represent the eight elements of the path

1. Right View • Right view is the beginning and the end of the path, As such, right view is the cognitive aspect of wisdom. • It means to see things through, to grasp the impermanent and imperfect nature of worldly objects and ideas, and to understand the law of karma and karmic conditioning. • It begins with the intuitive insight that all beings are subject to suffering and it ends with complete understanding of the true nature of all things. Since our view of the world forms our thoughts and our actions, right view yields right thoughts and right actions. • Right Understanding leads to Wisdom, Sammāditthi: Accepting Buddhist teachings. (The Buddha never intended his followers to believe his teachings blindly, but to practice them and judge for themselves whether they were true.)

2. Right Intention • While right view refers to the cognitive aspect of wisdom, right intention refers to the volitional aspect, i.e. the kind of mental energy that controls our actions. • Right intention can be described best as commitment to ethical and mental self-improvement. • Buddha distinguishes three types of right intentions: 1. the intention of renunciation, which means resistance to the pull of desire, 2. the intention of good will, meaning resistance to feelings of anger and aversion, and 3. the intention of harmlessness, meaning not to think or act cruelly, violently, or aggressively, and to develop compassion. • Right Intention - Sammāsan̄kappa:A commitment to cultivate the right attitudes.

3. Right Speech • Right speech is the first principle of ethical conduct in the eightfold path. • Ethical conduct is viewed as a guideline to moral discipline, which supports the other principles of the path. This aspect is not self-sufficient, however, essential, because mental purification can only be achieved through the cultivation of ethical conduct. • Buddha explained right speech as follows: 1. to abstain from false speech, especially not to tell deliberate lies and not to speak deceitfully, 2. to abstain from slanderous speech and not to use words maliciously against others, 3. to abstain from harsh words that offend or hurt others, and 4. to abstain from idle chatter that lacks purpose or depth. Positively phrased, this means to tell the truth, to speak friendly, warm, and gently and to talk only when necessary. • Right Speech - Sammāvācā:Speaking truthfully, avoiding slander, gossip and abusive speech.

4. Right Action • The second ethical principle, right action, involves the body as natural means of expression, as it refers to deeds that involve bodily actions. • right action means 1. to abstain from harming sentient beings, especially to abstain from taking life (including suicide) and doing harm intentionally or delinquently, 2. to abstain from taking what is not given, which includes stealing, robbery, fraud, deceitfulness, and dishonesty, and 3. to abstain from sexual misconduct. Positively formulated, right action means to act kindly and compassionately, to be honest, to respect the belongings of others, and to keep sexual relationships harmless to others. • Right Action - Sammākammanta:Behaving peacefully and harmoniously; refraining from stealing, killing and overindulgence in sensual pleasure.

5. Right Livelihood • Right livelihood means that one should earn one's living in a righteous way and that wealth should be gained legally and peacefully. • The Buddha mentions four specific activities that harm other beings and that one should avoid for this reason: 1. dealing in weapons, 2. dealing in living beings (including raising animals for slaughter as well as slave trade and prostitution), 3. working in meat production and butchery, and 4. selling intoxicants and poisons, such as alcohol and drugs. Furthermore any other occupation that would violate the principles of right speech and right action should be avoided. • Right Livelihood - Sammāājīva:Avoiding making a living in ways that cause harm, such as exploiting people or killing animals, or trading in intoxicants or weapons.

6. Right Effort • Right effort can be seen as a prerequisite for the other principles of the path. Without effort, which is in itself an act of will, nothing can be achieved, whereas misguided effort distracts the mind from its task, and confusion will be the consequence. • Mental energy is the force behind right effort; it can occur in either wholesome or unwholesome states. The same type of energy that fuels desire, envy, aggression, and violence can on the other side fuel self-discipline, honesty, benevolence, and kindness. • Right effort is detailed in four types of endeavours that rank in ascending order of perfection: 1. to prevent the arising of unarisen unwholesome states, 2. to abandon unwholesome states that have already arisen, 3. to arouse wholesome states that have not yet arisen, and 4. to maintain and perfect wholesome states already arisen. • Right Effort - Sammāvāyāma:Cultivating positive states of mind; freeing oneself from evil and unwholesome states and preventing them arising in future.

7. Right Mindfulness • Right mindfulness is the controlled and perfected faculty of cognition. • It is the mental ability to see things as they are, with clear consciousness. Usually, the cognitive process begins with an impression induced by perception, or by a thought, but then it does not stay with the mere impression. Instead, we almost always conceptualise sense impressions and thoughts immediately. We interpret them and set them in relation to other thoughts and experiences, which naturally go beyond the facticity of the original impression. The mind then posits concepts, joins concepts into constructs, and weaves those constructs into complex interpretative schemes. All this happens only half consciously, and as a result we often see things obscured. Right mindfulness is anchored in clear perception and it penetrates impressions without getting carried away. • Right mindfulness enables us to be aware of the process of conceptualisation in a way that we actively observe and control the way our thoughts go. Buddha accounted for this as the four foundations of mindfulness: 1. contemplation of the body, 2. contemplation of feeling (repulsive, attractive, or neutral), 3. contemplation of the state of mind, and 4. contemplation of the phenomena. • Right Mindfulness - Sammāsati:Developing awareness of the body, sensations, feelings and states of mind.

8. Right Concentration • The eighth principle of the path, right concentration, refers to the development of a mental force that occurs in natural consciousness, although at a relatively low level of intensity, namely concentration. • Concentration in this context is described as one-pointedness of mind, meaning a state where all mental faculties are unified and directed onto one particular object. • Right concentration for the purpose of the eightfold path means wholesome concentration, i.e. concentration on wholesome thoughts and actions. • The Buddhist method of choice to develop right concentration is through the practice of meditation. The meditating mind focuses on a selected object. It first directs itself onto it, then sustains concentration, and finally intensifies concentration step by step. Through this practice it becomes natural to apply elevated levels concentration also in everyday situations. • Right Concentration - Sammāsamādhi,Developing the mental focus necessary for this awareness.

Nirvana • Nirvana is an Sanskrit term used to describe the profound peace of mind that is acquired with liberation • It refers to release from a state of suffering after an often lengthy period of committed spiritual practice. • The Buddhishm describes as the perfect peace of the state of mind that is free from craving, anger and other afflicting states (kleshas). • Nirvana is the supreme state free from suffering and individual existence. It is a state Buddhists refer to as "Enlightenment". It is the ultimate goal of all Buddhists. The attainment of nirvana breaks the otherwise endless rebirth cycle of reincarnation. Buddhists also consider nirvana as freedom from all worldly concerns such as greed, hate, and ignorance. No one can describe in words what nirvana is. It can only be experienced directly.

Karma and Rebirth • Buddhism and Hinduism share a common element called Samsara, the wheel of life. • The Samsara has five segments. It is driven by three main “poisons” aversion, attachment, and delusion. • The principle of karma is also a central part of Buddhism. It is the principle that you are going to be rewarded for your deeds and actions. If you do something it will have a consequence either good or bad. • This means all your actions have an outcome, which is either good or bad. • If you are wise, and intellectual you may be able to easily distinguish between good and bad in any situation. The Buddhists believe it is important to think carefully and to make a distinction between good and bad before acting. • Buddhists believe that karma is the natural law, therefore, there is no god to change things but only karma with its consequences at any given time to steer your future • Buddhists believe karma lasts more than one lifetime. Reincarnation is like walking the wheel of life, but being born over doesn’t have to be in the same state. You can be reborn in different situations. Buddhists believe when you are reborn in different situations you can be born a god, titans (anti-god), human, animal, hungry ghost, or a demon. • Materialized karma will keep accumulating and coming to your next life but once it is set free your new karma will be calmed and you can enter the stream leading to Nirvana where making good karma is not a goal anymore.

The five aggregates (Skandhas) • Material form (Rupa) • Feelings /Sensation(Vedana) • Perceptions (Samjna) • Mental formations (Samskara) • Consciousness (Vijnana)

Material form (Rupa) • External matter (visible form, sound, smell, taste and touch) • Internal matter(eye, ear, nose, tongue and body) • solidity, fluidity, heat or temperature and motion or vibration.

Feelings /Sensation(Vedana) • Pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. • Pleasant feeling is pleasant in remaining and painful in changing. Painful feeling is painful in remaining and pleasant in changing. Neutral feeling is pleasant when conjoined with knowledge and painful when devoid of knowledge.

Perceptions (Samjna) • It is the formulation of a conception of an idea about a particular object of experience. • Samjna is the faculty that recognizes. Most of what we call thinking fits into the aggregate of samjna. • These six bodies of perception — perception of form, perception of sound, perception of smell, perception of taste, perception of tactile sensation, perception of ideas: this is called perception."

Mental formations (Samskara) • Acts of consciousness or sub-consciousness or unconsciousness • all types of mental habits, thoughts, ideas, opinions, prejudices, compulsions, and decisions triggered by an object. • The aggregate of mental formations is associated with karma, because volitional acts create karma. Samskara also contains latent karma that conditions our attitudes and predilections. Biases and prejudices belong to this skandha, as do interests and attractions. • The rationalizing faculty of the mind.

Consciousness (Vijnana) • Mentality; awareness, the mind, the inner vision. These six bodies of consciousness: eye-consciousness, ear-consciousness, nose-consciousness, tongue-consciousness, body-consciousness, intellect-consciousness. Note that there is the sixth sense, the mind. For the mind, the corresponding object is not a physical one, but are ideas - Dharma. The mind consciousness plays an important role in all mental activities.Firstly, the first five consciousness are not related to each other, mind consciousness is their co-ordinator, establishing an entire meaningful idea or impression for a living being. Mind consciousness is the ability to recognise and discriminate in three ways:

Three marks existence • Impermanent (anicca) • Suffering (dhukha) • Non-self (anatta)

DEPENDENT ORIGINATION • On the basis of the Buddha’s own statements, we can see a very close relationship between the Four Noble Truths and dependent origination. Four Noble Truths are divided into two groups. The first two - suffering and the causes of suffering, and the last two - the end of suffering and the path to the end of suffering. Here too in regard to dependent origination, the fundamental principle at work is that of cause and effect. In dependent origination, we have a more detailed description of what actually takes place in the causal process. • Particularly, we are interested in the principle of dependent origination as it applies to the problem of suffering and rebirth. Let me briefly list the twelve components or links that make up dependent origination. They are ignorance, mental formation, consciousness, name and form, the six senses, contact, feeling, craving, clinging, becoming, birth, and old age and death.There are two principal ways in which we can understand these twelve components. One way to understand them is sequentially, over a period of three lifetimes: the past life, the present life and the future life. In this case, ignorance and mental formation belong to the past life. • The teaching of causal interdependence is the most important of Buddhist principles. It describes the law of nature, which exists as the natural course of things. The Buddha was no emissary of heavenly commandments, but the discoverer of this principle of the natural order, and the proclaimer of its truth to the world.

Introduction of philosophy