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The Dharma

The Dharma. The Buddha ’ s Enlightenment led to the formation of the Dharma: Enlightenment was as a result of meditation and during his meditation, Sakyamuni saw. Previous lives as animals of all kinds Rebirths in infinite times Deeds of beings affect their rebirths: Karma

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The Dharma

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  1. The Dharma • The Buddha’s Enlightenment led to the formation of the Dharma: • Enlightenment was as a result of meditation and during his meditation, Sakyamuni saw

  2. Previous lives as animals of all kinds • Rebirths in infinite times • Deeds of beings affect their rebirths: Karma • Karma arises from craving and ignorance • Chain of Causation occurs: dependent origination

  3. Wheel of Life • What were all types of lives that the Buddha claimed he had seen? • Three Spheres: • Sphere of Formlessness • Sphere of Pure Form • Sphere of Sense-desires • Sphere of Sense-desires • Six Realms or Six Paths • Gods • Titans • Humans • Ghosts • Animals • Hell Gods Titans Humans Ghosts Animals Hell

  4. Buddhist World Systems: • Physical Universe: • formed by the interaction of the 5 elements • earth, water, fire, air, space • world systems emerge and undergo cycles of evolution • Formation: come into being • Growth: endure for a period of time • Decay: slow disintegration • Perishing: destruction and extinction

  5. these world cycles are kalpas: small, medium, and large • Small kalpa: 16 million years, kalpa 336 million years, mahakalpa 1.3 billion years • human lives and lives of other beings undergo the same cycles: samsara • Six paths/realms in which beings inhabited and into which beings would be reborn

  6. Wheel of Life

  7. Good/Bad Karma • Good, positive karma • Good Deeds: • Based on good intentions, good motivations, and right actions • non-attachment • benevolence • understanding • Bad, negative karma: • Bad deeds • motivated by greed, hatred, and delusion (three poisons)

  8. Karma and Rebirth • Karma and Rebirth • What is karma? • Moral deeds • what determines circumstance of future rebirth • The sufferings that beset humans • The happiness that humans enjoy, despite its transient nature • Karma is interconnected with rebirth and reincarnation • Good, positive karma leads to good rebirth, enlightenment • Good, positive karma comes from right actions performed with good (right) intentions • Right intentions, right actions are constituent elements of the Four Noble Truths

  9. How Karma Functions? • Some expositions of how karma functions: • Each act/deed one performs is like planting a karmic seed • Some karmic seeds may bear fruit soon, while others may be preserved prior to bearing fruit (maturation of the karmic act), which may occur for aeons in the future • Some deeds create individual experiences • An individual performs a causative deed (creates a karmic seed) , which bears an effect (fruit) or consequence of the deed • Other deeds create an environment • Some have both a primary effect and a residual effect • A murderer reborn in hell may have a short life when eventually reborn as a human

  10. The Four Noble Truths • The First: The Truth of Suffering • The Second: The Truth of Arising • The Third: The Truth of Cessation • The Fourth: The Truth of the Path

  11. The Truth of Suffering (Duhkha) • birth, sickness, old age, death, pain, grief, sorrow, lamentation, despair—three categories • Suffering due to biological causes (physical) • association with what is unpleasant • Suffering due to change (psychological and emotional) • dissociation from what is pleasant; • Inability to get what one wants; happiness cannot endure • Things are impermanent and constantly changing • Suffering due to aggregation • Everything will fall apart and become component parts of the integral things • the five factors of individuality are suffering

  12. Ātman (self) or Anātman(no self) • Five Factors (Five Aggregates) • Body or form (sè) • Feelings (sensation kind) (shòu) • Perceptions or Cognitions (xiăng) • Mental formations (character traits and disposition) (xíng) • Consciousness or sentiency (shì)

  13. The Truth of Arising (trsna) • The thirst or craving gives rise to rebirth, which is bound up with passionate delight and which seeks fresh pleasure in the form of perverted desires (things of an excessive, selfish, or morbid nature):

  14. thirst for sensual pleasure (five senses) • desire to experience pleasant tastes, sensations, odors, sights • thirst for existence • desire to possess • desire to have new possessions, new experiences in lives • thirst for non-existence • desire to destroy • desire to negate, deny, and reject the unpleasant and the unwelcome • self-denying, self-negating, self-harming • self-destruction

  15. The cause of suffering is also said to include the follows: • Greed (rāga, Chin. tan) • Hatred (dvesa, Chin. chen) • Delusion (moha, Chin. chi) • These are regarded as major components of craving

  16. The Truth of Cessation • the utter cessation of that craving • the withdrawal from it • the renouncing of it • the rejection of it • liberation from it • non-attachment to it • Remove craving by cultivating positive states of mind and undergoing a spiritual transformation

  17. The Truth of the Path (mārga) • Known as “middle way”, the Path leads to the cessation of suffering and the transition from samsara to [final] nirvana • The Eightfold Path: • Wisdom: right view (understanding), right resolve • Morality: right speech, right action, right livelihood • Meditation: right effort, right mindfulness, right meditation

  18. Right View and Right Resolve • Right view: • Believe in karma • Respect parents and religious teachers • Pursue spiritual progress • Right resolve: • Develop right attitudes: cut desires, nurture friendliness and compassion • Know contentment, free fromsensual desires, abandon hatred, abstain from harming others

  19. Right speech, action, livelihood • Right speech: • Not telling lies, avoid “divisive” and harsh speech, frivolous talk (e.g., gossip, idle chatter) • Right action: • Abstain from wrongful conduct such as killing, stealing, …. • Right livelihood: • Engage in an occupation which causes no harm to others, whether humans or animals (e.g., be honest, no cheating, don’t get involved in trade in weapons. drugs…

  20. Right effort and right mindfulness • Right effort: • Develop one’s mind in a wholesome way by practicing mindfulness and meditation • Transform one’s mind by replacing negative thoughts with positive ones • Right mindfulness: develop awareness of • Interconnectedness of body, feelings, mood, and thoughts • Eliminate “five hindrances” • Desire for sensual pleasure, ill-will, sloth and drowsiness, worry and agitation, and nagging doubts

  21. Right meditation • Concentrating the mind through meditational exercises to • Develop clarity and mental calm • Reach a state of self-integration • Attain awakening and self-transformation or enlightenment

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