PHIL 202-3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Bodhisattva Vow, Bodh Gaya, Jataka Tales
PHIL 202
Ch. 8 Buddhist Traditions (pt. 1)
Overview
• The “Three Gems”
1. The Buddha
2. The Dharma (teachings)
3. The Sangha (congregation)
• “Everything that arises also passes away, so strive for what has not arisen”
1. The Buddha on passing into Nirvana
• Main traditions
1. Theravada (also known as Hinayana)
2. Mahayana
3. Vajrayana
The First Gem: The Buddha
Religious Life in Ancient India
• “Ganges Spirituality”
• New prosperity and the growth of asceticism
• Role of the deities
• Karma and reincarnation
The Bodhisattva Vow and Previous Lives
• Degrees of Enlightenment
o Arhats (“worthy ones” or “saints”)
o Bodhisattvas (dedicated to achieving Buddhahood)
The Bodhisattva Vow and Previous Lives, cont’d
• Siddhartha Gautama/Shakyamuni
o Achieved enlightenment after hundreds of previous lives
• Bodhisattva vow
o Solemn promise to work towards Buddhahood
o “Bodhi” (enlightenment)
o “sattva” (human being)
o Jataka tales (“birth stories”)
• Prince Vessantara and vow of generosity
Siddhartha’s Birth and Childhood
• Born to Queen Mahamaya
o Sacred white elephant enters body and becomes the embryo
o Miraculous pregnancy and birth
• Physical signs of greatness
o Long earlobes: great spiritual wisdom
o Golden complexion: inner tranquility
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o Wheel patterns on feet: role as “wheel turner”
The Four Sights and the Great Departure
• Siddhartha is kept away from suffering
• After marriage and fathering a son, Siddhartha sees four sights during a chariot ride
through the park
1. A sick man
2. A suffering old man
3. A dead man
4. An ascetic
• Detachment to overcome suffering
• Flees the palace and becomes a wandering student, learns yoga and becomes an ascetic
Enlightenment
• Becomes convinced that asceticism cannot produce enlightenment, and travels to Bodh
Gaya
• Wakeful meditational trance
o “I thought of a time when my Sakyan father was working and I was sitting in the
cool shade of a rose-apple tree: quite secluded from sensual desires, secluded
from unprofitable things I had entered upon and abided in the first mediation,
which is accompanied by thinking and exploring with happiness and pleasure
born of seclusion. I thought: Might that be the way to enlightenment? Then,
following up that memory there came the recognition that this was the way to
enlightenment. (Majihima Nikaya; Nanamoli 1972:21)
Enlightenment, cont’d
• Chose a spot under a pipal tree (Bodhi tree)
o Meditated until he achieved nirvana
o Mara, lord of the death, tries to thwart attempt
• Sends daughters to tempt
• Sends sons with threats of violence
• Debate
o Bodhisattva calls on the Earth as witness
o Earthquake drives Mara away
• Meditates to become more conscious, more aware, more mindful
o Remembers past lives
o Deeper insight into karma
o Contemplates end of suffering
• Four Noble Truths
Enlightenment, cont’d
• Total insight into nature
• Becomes a Buddha “fully enlightened one”
o “I had direct knowledge. Birth is exhausted, the Holy Life has been lived out,
what was to be done is done, there is no more of this to come” (Majjhima Nikaya;
Nanamoli 1972:25)
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