Theravada Buddhism: An Introduction

Theravada Buddhism Overview

• Topic 7 focuses on understanding the elements of Theravada Buddhism.
• Karma in Hinduism involves the universal law of cause and effect, where every action has an equal reaction.
• Buddhism builds around Siddhartha Gautama's experience of enlightenment around 2,500 years ago.
• Buddha offered a pathway to understand the nature of suffering and overcome it.
• Buddhism stands apart due to its status as a "nontheistic religion".
• Theravada is a school in Buddhism claiming to be the oldest tradition, closely following the teachings and monastic conduct during Buddha's time.

Brief History of Theravada Buddhism

• Siddhartha Gautama is the central figure in Buddhism, known as the Buddha, which means "the Enlightened One".
• He is also known as Buddha Shakyamuni as he came from the Shakyan people of northern India and Nepal.

Theravada

• Pali Canon is the collection of sacred writings in Theravada Buddhism.
• Pali is the language the Buddha spoke written in the Pali Canon.
• Theravada school is widespread in Sri Lanka and predominantly Buddhist countries in Southeast Asia, including Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar (Burma), and Thailand.

Sacred Scripture: Tripitaka

• Earliest Buddhist scriptures were known as Tripitaka.
• "Tripitaka" means "Three Baskets" in Sanskrit.
• The Pali Canon in Theravada Buddhism is the compilation of three collections of early Buddhist texts.
• The "Three Baskets" are known as Vinaya Pitaka, Sutra Pitaka, and Abidharrna Pitaka.
• Tipitaka contains:
  • Sutta Pitaka which includes Buddha's doctrinal discourses and narratives about his previous lives. -Sutta Pitaka also contains teachings delivered by himself on different occasions, divided into 5 collections:
    • Digha Nikaya: collection of long discourses.
    • Majjhima Nikaya: collection of middle-length discourse.
    • Samyutta Nikaya: collection of Kindred Sayings.
    • Anguttara Nikaya: collection of discourses arranged in accordance with the number.
    • Khuddaka Nikaya: smaller collection.
  • Vinaya Pitaka which contains rules of disciplines and stories that illustrate Buddhist moral lessons.
    • Vinaya Pitaka is the disciplinary code required of Buddhist monks (bhikkhus) and nuns (bhikkhunis). The Vinaya Pitaka includes:
      • Parajika Pali addresses major offenses
      • Pacittiya Pali which addresses minor offenses
      • Mahavagga Pali which is the great section
      • Cullavagga Pali which is the smaller section
      • Parivara Pali which is the epitome of the Vinaya
  • Abhidhamma Pitaka which includes moral psychology/ reflective philosophies from Siddhartha Gautama's teachings:
    • Dhamma-Sangani: Enumeration of phenomena
    • Vibhanga: The book of Treatises
    • Katha Vatthu: Point of controversy
    • Puggala Pannatti: Description of Individuals
    • Dhatu Katha: Discussion with reference to elements
    • Yamaka: The book of Pairs
    • Patthana: The book of relations

Core Teaching and Earning Merit

• Most effective action to improve one's karma is to earn merit, with benevolence or generosity gaining merit.
• A male earns merit by entering the sangha as a monk (after twenty) or a novice or living in the wat as a temple servant.
• A female (usually elderly), earns merit by becoming a nun.
• The Buddha established the Sangha, an originally celibate community of monks and nuns who discipline and teach the Dharma to fellow Buddhists.
• Other activities that gain merit include sponsoring a monk/novice, contributing to a wat, feeding sangha members in a public meal, and providing food for the sangha's two daily meals.

Beliefs and Doctrines

• Siddhartha Gautama never intended to start a new religion; his teachings focus on ethics/self-understanding, and people work for salvation on their own without a supreme being.
• Theravada Buddhism has no place for a god or savior; salvation relies within anyone's control.
• Human existence's soul consists of 5 mental and physical aggregates or khandas: Physical form/Corporeality, Feelings/Sensations, Understanding/perception, Will/mental formation, and Consciousness.
• Theravada Buddhists view Gautama as Siddhartha and Buddha and was human and subject to pain and suffering who sought a transcendent state beyond life.
• Nirvana signifies the end of birth, death, and rebirth, marked by pain and suffering.
• The path to nirvana lies in arhat or becoming a perfected being, requiring practice and undertaken by becoming a monk and passing through four stages:
  • Stage 1 - Sotapanna: "one who enters the stream", realizes life under illusion, catches a glimpse of the true path.
  • Stage 2 - Sakadagamin: "one who returns once", shed attachments to worldly things, will only be reborn once more before nirvana.
  • Stage 3 - Anagami: "one who never returns", a person who will not return to the human world after death, but exists among partially enlightened beings.
  • Stage 4 - Arhat: "one who is worthy', a person who will never again be reborn.
• The mastery of the various truths and observances of the path releases you from the eternal cycle of death/rebirth and samsara.
• Achieving nirvana is called arhat, which describes the term as one who is "worthy of honor".

The 4 Noble Truths

• The Pali term for unsatification or suffering is dukkha.
• Dukkha may be manifested misery, distress, agony, emptiness, or conflict.
• The Four Noble Truths include:
  • Dukkha represents The Nature of Suffering.
  • Suffering is caused by desire.
  • Suffering's Origin (tanha) is caused by desire.
  • Suffering can be overcome.
  • The Noble Eightfold Path is the solution to suffering
• The 4 Noble Truths: The truth of suffering, finding the cause of suffering, the solution for suffering, and right action.

The Noble Eightfold Path

• The Noble Eightfold Path is composed of: Right View, Right Mindfulness, Right Concentration, Right Effort, Right Livelihood, Right Intention, Right Speech and Right Action.
• Here is what one must do in order to fulfill the Eightfold Path:
  • Right view: Understand the "four noble truth".
  • Right intention: Free one's self from ill-will, cruelty, and untruthfulness.
  • Right speech: Abstain from untruthfulness, harsh language, and vain talk
  • Right action: Abstain from killing, stealing and sexual misconduct
  • Right livelihood: Earn a living in a way that is not harmful to any living thing.
  • Right effort: Avoid evil thoughts and overcome them, arouse good thoughts and maintain them.
  • Right mindfulness: Pay vigilant attention to every state of the body, feeling, and mind.
  • Right concentration: Concentrate on a single object to induce certain special states of consciousness in deep meditation.

Impermanence and the Sangha

• Nothing in this world is fixed or permanent, and everything is subject to change and alteration. Impermanence is an unavoidable fact of human existence, including old age, sickness, dying decay and death.
• Everyone can attain nirvana in life, just as the saint of Buddhism did.
• Being released from samsara, beings escape all phenomena. When one achieves nirvana, a person's mind is at perfect piece.
• The Pali word Sangha means "sharer” referring to monks who share of general funds of alms provided by a community.
• Layman and Laywoman are people who are not ordained as any position within the church.
• Lay people supply food, medicine, and cloth for robes, and monks give spiritual support, blessings, and teachings.

Monks

• Monks do the things in the communities like mass, prayer, reflection, and service.
• They also perform exercise, collecting, composing, cooking.
• Buddhists choose not to marry and remain celibate while living in the monastic community.
• Monks do not have to spend the rest of their life in the monastery - they are completely free to re-enter mainstream society and some only spend a year as a monk.
• Monks and nuns, called bhikkhu and bhikkhuni, are responsible for the preservation/dissemination of Buddha's teaching/the guidance of Buddhist lay people.
• Most Theravada monks live as part of monastic communities, and one can join at any age even.
• Novices are known as samanera while full monks are known as bhikkhu.

Worship and Observances in Theravada Buddhism

• Siddhartha and the sangha guide followers during worship and observances.
• Stupas are commemorative monuments in Buddhism and contain sacred relics associated with Siddhartha and the monks and nuns.
• Stupas became pilgrimage sites as they are covered in earth and decorated with Siddhartha's life.
• Holy shrines: Most Buddhist aspire to visit holy many shrines as possible during their lifetime.
• Siddhartha pronounced 4 shrines that every Buddhist must high regard:
  • Birthplace: Lumbini Province, Nepal -Place of Enlightenment: Bodh Gaya (enlightenment place), he sat and meditated all night beneath a pipal tree(sacred fig). After defeating the forces of the demon Mara, Siddhartha reached enlightenment and became a Buddha at thirty-five.
  • Place of his First Sermon: deer park when the Buddha preached his First Sermon Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta to his companions.
  • Place of Parinirvana: Kushinagar, India, where Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, died.
• Vesakha/Vesak commemorates the birth, enlightenment, and death of the Buddha, also known as "Buddha Purmina" and "Buddha Day."
• Celebrations include dances, poems, parades, processions, deep meditation, theatrical performances, and puppet shows.