The earliest Hindu scriptures

They are profoundly different from modern Hinduism.

Incudes the Rg Veda (hymns), Yajur Veda (instructions for sacrifices), Sāma Veda (songs), and Atharva Veda (mantras, prayers, spells)

Priests

The highest caste

They perform rituals

• warrior son
• his charioteer is Krishna
• faces a moral dilemma while at war when he realizes he is fighting his own family
• references an older religion (Vedic)
• Krishna teaches him Hinduism

• an avatar of Visnu/Vishnu
• a manifestation of himself sent to earth
• Arjuna's chariot driver

• individual self or soul
• Buddhism: there is no atman
• Advaita Vedanta: atman = brahman = supreme spirit of the universe

• supreme spirit
• basis of everything
• underlying awareness
• the essence of reality
• sac-cid-ānanda (being-awareness-bliss)
• you don't realize you are Brahman because of ignorance
• everything is a manifestation

• warrior noble caste
• below the Brahmins
• ex. Arjuna

• title of the Buddha
• also the name of the god Krishna
• same as Bhagavad (Bhagavad Gita)

• action
• determines what you will be reborn into
• soteriology of Hinduism

• doctrine of how we will be saved
• Buddhism - seeing the Four Noble Truths
• Hinduism - following the Path (meditation, devotion, etc)

• do your duty regardless of the consequences
• there are moral principles you must follow
• opposite of consequentialism (decisions based on good results)
• ex. Bhagavad Gita - do your duty

• actions are chosen based on the outcome
• opposite of deontology
• no moral obligations

• the most influential Hindu philosopher
• Advaita Vedanta school
• self=God (brahman)

• non-dualistic interpretation of the Upanisads
• self = atman = brahman
• most influential sub-school of Vedanta

• contradiction or negation
• later experience undermines the credibility of the first
• you will have an earth-shattering vision of non-duality that sublates all previous ones
• the variety in this world is just an illusion
• intially think a garden hose is a snake

• sage of the Sakya clan
• another name for the historical Buddha
• Siddhattha Gautama

• Buddhist monks
• literally means "beggar," since monks lived by begging for food from lay people
• Pali term
• must follow Vinaya

• the language of early Theravada Buddhist scriptures (Pali Canon)
• related to Sanskrit
• probably spoken in the low courts of Buddha's father

• monastic code for punishments if you break one of the Five Precepts
• must openly confess what you did wrong
• when it comes to moral discipline, nothing to stop but being dishonest
• only for monks and nuns
• Vinaya is one of the major divisions of the Pali Canon

1. Suffering - there's always some suffering and a sense of unfulfillment
2. Arising - the cause of suffering is craving
3. Cessation - it is possible to stop suffering if you stop craving
4. Path - there is a specific path to end suffering (The Eightfold Path)

• discipline the mind through suffering
• ex. starvation
• Siddathattha Gotama realizes asceticism is ineffective

• another title for the Buddha
• he who has come/gone in that way
• he who has come back from nirvana to teach us or gone on the spiritual path before us
• any Buddha

• the teachings of the Buddha
• necessary to obtain Nirvana
• includes the doctrine of no self

• approximately true
• good enough for practical purposes
• that which satisfies without analysis
• Mahayana = the aggregates are conventional

• the way things actually are
• Theravada: the five aggregates
• Mahayana: emptiness

what is real about your personality vs what you confusedly think is there

1. Form - the stuff your body is made of
2. Feeling - pleasant, unpleasant, neutral
3. Conceptions - the ability to classify things into concepts
4. Conditioning - psychological formations of how you perceive the world; habits, feeling, behaving
5. Consciousness - perceptions coming in through the six senses (includes mental consciousness)

• philosophical inquiry of knowledge
• What is knowledge? Can we have it? If so, then how?
• ex. empiricism - knowledge comes from perception and inference
• ex. skepticism - we don't have any knowledge

• philosophical study of existence
• question: what exists?
• major component: how the existence of some things depend on the existence of other things
  

1. loving kindness - sincere wish for others to be happy, radiant warmth
2. compassion - wish for others to be free from suffering, open to those suffering
3. joy - rejoice and take pleasure in virtures of others, let go sense of inadequacy
4. equanimity - impartiality, extend the first 3 to everyone

basis of Buddhist moral discipline

1. a vow to abstain from taking life
2. taking things not given
3. misconduct done in lust
4. lying
5. intoxicants

• central to understanding the Buddhist tradition
• teacher + teachings = raft
• once you get from one shore (cyclic existence) to the other shore (nirvana), let go of the Dhamma and keep going
• teachings are for crossing over, not for grasping
• don't be so rigid and dogmatic

• "I will not let the surgeon pull out this arrow until I know whether the man who wounded me was a noble or a brahmin or a merchant or a worker."
• do not worry about the 10 speculative views b/c they are not necessary to obtain nirvana
• You are suffering. I'm trying to help you stop suffering. Why are you worried about this?
• In "The Shorter Dicourse to Mālunkyāputta"
• you need to know the Four Noble Truths and nothing else

• state of undisturbed peace
• Bhagavad Gita: brahman nirvana - realize oneness with brahman
• Buddhism: end of suffering/cyclic existence

• Greek king (Menander)
• has dialogue over the doctrine of no self with Nagasena
• The Simile of the Chariot
• decides to become a monk, too

• Mahayana Buddhist teacher
• an empiricist: all knowledge fome from perception and inference
• impossible to know the soul exists
• no evidence of the soul's existence

• oldest form of Hindu philosophy
• enumerationist philosophy
• strongly dualistic - there is a distinction between prime matter (prakrti) and spirit (purusa)
• strong influence on Bhagavad Gita

• predominant in Burma, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Laos, and Cambodia
• scriptures - Pali Canon
• achieve liberation for the self
• doctrine of no self

• "Great Way"
• predominant in China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam
• achieve liberation and help others escape cyclic existence, too
• everyone aspires to become a Buddha (major difference)

• a being on the path to becoming a Buddha
• determined to free others from samsara
• must perfect the the 10 bodhisattva stages (the Ten Perfections)

• way to rid oneself of good karma
• contributes to following the path of awakening
• share the good merit you have accumulated
• prevents attachment to good karma
• Mahayana

bodhicitta

seeking enlightenment (and becoming a Buddha) and relieving others of suffering

you are a bodhisattva

• Sanskirt
• story of the Buddha's conversations with his disciples
• ex. The Holy Teaching of Vimilakirti

• archetype of Mahayana layperson
• will do anything to help you become awake
• teaches emptiness
• advocates the bodhisattva path

• Theravada: no self
• Mahayana: emptiness applies to everything, othing has a true essence
• Text about emptiness - Vimalakirti

• the next Buddha
• the one who will rediscover Buddhism
• personifies loving kindness (fat, jolly present bringer)

• sword that cuts through confusion
• supreme expression of wisdom
• only bodhisattva who would go see Vimalakirti and engage in dharma combat

• attain awakening in a flash
• catapulted to a higher awareness
• compare to gradualism - slowly accumulating good karma
• all Zen lineages that still exist are suddenist

• Disciple (sanskrit)
• discples who have not yet attained the selflessness of bodhisattvas
• Dharma sacrifice - focusing the Dharma on freeing others
• what you call someone who is also a Buddhist, but not Mahayana

551-479 BCE

major Chinese philosopher

belief in filial piety, civil service exams, and education

• Yao and his successor
• sage rulers (object of imitation, well-developed virtues)
• semilegendary ancient kings
• Shun appointed the most qualified scholar bureaucrats to restore order to China

• Benevolence - concentric circles (depends on how closely related they are)
• Rightness - duty
• Wisdom - tell how things are
• Observance of the Rites - traditional rituals (form of respect to tradition and others, contributes to stable social order and harmony)
• obtained through moral education

• Confucian ideal
• respect your parents and ancestors
• part of the virtue of benevolence

• act consistently to your social role (ex. king)
• other people are morally required to treat you as a king, if you do your part
• if the king does not protect the people, they are not obligated to treat him as one
• regicide is ok (lose Mandate of Heaven)

• Way
• free spontaneity, harmony
• let go of concepts
• be one with nature
• ineffable

• old master
• older contemporary of Confucius
• wrote the Daodejing (might be a compilation)
• might not have actually existed

370-300 BCE

Daoist

mocks Confucianism in his book

spontaneous order

nonaction (wu wei)

• close friend of Chuang Tzu
• logician
• appears in Chuang Tzu

• symbol for the Dao
• the process by which we develop social refinement
• excess is bad
• freedom from desire
• returning to what is natural

• wu wei
• going with the flow
• not having your own agenda
• come into harmony with what is
• effortless

• God is everything, including you
• Daodejing - God is impersonalist in nature
• Chapter 25 - the Dao is the mother of Heaven and Earth

• all acts of war are wrong
• partial pacifists: Amish, Quakers, Gandhi
• opposite of militarism

• in between pacifism and militarism
• war is always bad but sometimes necessary
• principles when engaging in war is ok:last resort and just cause (prevent genocide)

• advocacy of a minimal state (but does provide protection)
• wrong to redistribute wealth
• resulting income distribution is just

• make the scale of organization small
• village collectives - everyone is nearly equal, live simply and contently, no higher power
• get rid of government to save the environment
• no fancy technology or wealth

• individual: belief is true for you
• cultural: whatever your culture believes is true for you
• there are local truths but no universal ones
• strongly express your beliefs - always right

• doubting/denying something
• we can't have any knowledge
• What is knowledge? Do we have any? Where did we get it from? (epistemology)
• there may be an objective universal truth but we can't know what it is
• Butterfly Dream

• character in Chuang Tzu
• Daoist ideal
• lets natural intuition guide him
• example of how to live in general
• moves spontaneously and intuitively

• indigenous Chinese Buddhism
• no reliance on words or texts
• come into touch with what you are experiencing now
• get rid of all passions
• freedom from thought
• influenced by Daoism and Confucianism
• see the Buddha nature already in you

• The Sutra of Hui-Neng
• suddenism
• Hui-Neng regarded as a Buddha

• extremely popular in East Asia
• communicates Buddhism in vivid, easily understood stories
• ex. Parable of the Burning House
• regarded as the highest expression of Buddhist teaching

the 1st Zen Grand Master

brought Zen from India

might not have actually happened