Buddhism Research Paper

4b) According to the Diamond Sutra teaching on the practice of mindfulness, explain the reasoning behind the necessary tie made between non- attachment and

In The Heart of Understanding, Thich Nhat Hanh’s uses simple but powerful words and real world examples to illustrate the profound Buddhist philosophy from the Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra, an important representative of Mahayana Buddhist literature. The Mahayana school of Buddhist teachings emphasizes the doctrine of Sunyata- emptiness. The doctrine of emptiness, one of the most important Mahayana innovations, focuses on the relational aspect of existence. Thich Nhat Hanh coins and introduces a new word- interbeing to explain the state of emptiness. This idea of interbeing not only illustrates emptiness well but also provides understanding of other fundamental Buddhist ideas such as No-Self, impermanence and non-duality.

Buddhism began in the fourth and fifth centuries before Christ by Siddhartha Gautama. The teachings of Buddha, also known as Siddhartha Gautama, are the major beliefs of Buddhism. Buddhism is a belief and religion based on an assortment of customs, principles, and practices. The name Buddha means the awakened one. Buddha’s teachings were of the termination of suffering, attaining nirvana, and absconding from the cycle of suffering and rebirth. Buddhism has spread all across Asia and throughout the world, now with between two hundred thirty million and five hundred million followers. Buddhism is largely based around the belief of Karma. Karma is the “action, seen as bringing upon oneself inevitable results, good or bad, either in this life or in a reincarnation” (Dictionary.com) or “the cosmic principle according to which each person is rewarded or punished in one incarnation according to that person’s deeds in the previous incarnation.” (Dictionary.com) In simpler words, how you live your life now determines how you will come back when your current soul expires. Buddhists live their lives in hopes of achieving to be placed in the highest state known as Heaven. The after-life stems from Karma and leads into Rebirth. Rebirth is a course of action where humans proceed within multiple lifetimes in one or more of the six states of after-life. Each lifetime begins with birth and ends with death. Buddhists believe that we should not fear death because

Buddhism is Non-theistic, and does not address God, or “a God”, nor do Buddhist believe that there is “no God”. Buddhism believes in reincarnation and karma, and their reality consists of spiritual and material worlds. Furthermore, Buddhist believes that humans have no soul, and their primary problem is dealing with suffering, which is ultimately caused by desire. However, the afterlife of a Buddhist is a cycle of rebirth, and reincarnation, and Buddhist will continue to be reborn until they attain nirvana (WorldviewU, n.d.).

Since the Chinese culture was the first to introduce the ways of Buddhism to the Japanese culture there are many similarities in their belief system. The concept and affluent beliefs of Buddhism is evidently demonstrated in the arts of both the Chinese and Japanese culture. Both cultures demonstrate great Buddhism influences within their arts, meanwhile they still keep up their own cultural identities. Similarities within cultures not so long after the development of Buddhism did the missionaries from India begin to spread the religion into North China. Buddhism was introduced to China from India along the Silk Road ads many Buddhist monks were on the path spreading the newfound knowledge of enlightenment.

It is through this practice, that the original Buddha came about in India 2500 years ago (According to Zen Buddhism). Zen Buddhism doesn’t fall far from the Chinese Buddhism, in that they originate from the same country, teachings of the original Buddha. In the Zen Buddhism through the Samsara teachings, you learn that there isn’t no permanent self, there’s no soul, and unlike other teachings that originated from India, once a person dies, no soul gets transferred to the next life only our karma. Now with that being said, when it comes to the fundamental of the self, in Zen Buddhism, nothing on this planet and that includes humans can be independent, so there can’t be such a thing as “the self” Everything is nature dependent, so there is no such thing as a permanent self. In this teaching of emptiness, the teaching does not deny that persons and things exist, but clearly distinguishes between permanence and self-existence between a person and an object.

The three Universal truths said everything in life is impermanent and always changing, Because nothing is permanent, a life based on possessing things or persons doesn't make you happy, and There is no eternal, unchanging soul and "self" is just a collection of changing characteristics or attributes. Buddha also created the wheel of life, which they believed represented what their after life was going to

A want is something that a single individual believes a want is something that a single individual believes is an object that they cannot survive without it, while a need is what you have to have in life in order to survive. For example, a need is a food for you in order to survive until the next day then repeating this step in order to survive life. A want is going to a restaurant instead of eating at home. The conflict that will be written about is where the desire of having a family dog finally exceeded the need for a dog. The thought process went from ‘I need a dog over I would like to have a dog,’ which lead to the events of my family getting their second family dog, only ten years later.

The Buddhist idea of no self, while contradictory in nature, mainly derives from the original teachings of Buddha. Sumyuta-Kikaya, text dealing directly with the concept, enlists the use of several Buddhist arguments in order to substantiate the theory, which is more professionally referred to as Anatman. As the idea of interdependence is extremely prevalent in the world of Buddhism, it stands to reason why there is little in the way of self, or to further the objective, none at all.

Buddhism stands as a philosophy and a religion founding itself on the theory of a possible eternal soul. Until awakening is achieved, this eternal soul is locked in the vicious cycle of rebirth (Samsara). According to the Four Noble Truths preached by the Buddha, life is a perpetual suffering caused by desire and attachment, and freedom from suffering is only possible by practicing the Eightfold Path. The World is suffering in a succession of temptations and negative experiences from birth to death. Therefore Buddhism advises on searching to go beyond suffering, and only aspire to rest, nothingness, and liberation, into a final state called Nirvana. Happiness or Nirvana can eventually be achieved in a hereafter, another life, if man abandons any desire or perspective of action within his present life, in order to go past suffering.

The writings of Buddha’s have many interpretations and doctrines of Self and Body. ‘Name’, is defined as the three groups of sensation, and ‘Form’ described by the four elements-.‘(153,4) The Buddhaghosa explains how Name is sensation, perception and predisposition, while Form is the four elements; earthly, watery, fiery and wind, teaching us namarumpa. Namarumpa can be explained as the way we identify things, and the way we identify with them. Karma and Samsara, define the nature of self through dependent origination, “Origination in a Sequential Series.’ These two examples teach us the nature of people, their primary problems and their quest for salvation.

This story comes from Zen Buddhism in the form of a koan which according to Merriam-Webster dictionary means “A paradox to be meditated upon that is used to train Zen Buddhist monks to abandon ultimate dependence on reason and to force them into gaining sudden intuitive enlightenment.” In other words; “to help us become more comfortable with the reality of mystery, that not everything has an answer”; as mentioned in class. There were a number of questions that came to mind when I read this simple story; was this a case of the younger monk trying to follow absolute moral principles and forgetting that rules are meant to guide our actions. Or, was this to make me aware of one of my own faults which is the unwillingness to let go of the things from the past?

Zen Buddhism was introduced to Japan in the 12th century, although it became really prevalent during the 14th century. It accentuated enlightenment through instinct and meditation and as Zen teachings grew through Japan its influences could also be seen in their culture. Zen principles could be seen in Japanese art through their themes and method of illustration, and other cultural customs like the Japanese tea ceremony. The ceremony first started in humbler forms in Zen temples as a symbol of leaving the world to nurture the mind and spirit.

Zen Buddhism is a combination of Taoism and Indian Mahayana Buddhism. This religion or philosophy began in China and then spread to Korea and Japan. The core object of Zen is to understand the meaning of life. Many Japanese art forms were greatly influenced by the Zen philosophy including chado, ikebana, shodo and martial arts. These art forms were transformed into spiritual disciplines and they focused on self-growth. Zen Buddhism puts a lot of emphasis on simplicity and focuses on the importance of the natural world. Zen has generated a very distinctive aesthetic and is used to express loneliness, naturalness, age, rusticity and melancholy. This aesthetic concept is called Wabi-sabi. It teaches us that the most imperfect and incomplete things

I had no previous knowledge about this religion other than it existed. The most important concept I feel that I learned from Buddhism is part of the three marks of reality. These are made up of, change, no permanent identity and suffering. In no permanent identity each person and each thing is changing and made up of parts that are also constantly changing. It means that people have no permanent soul or no self. (Molloy133). In suffering it is the fact of life that when life is lived conventionally it can never be fully satisfying because of change. (Molloy pg 134) The mark of reality I found the most interesting is change. The concept of change in Buddhism has us look at life as it really is. Things change gradually and we notice the changes over time. We don’t expect change but nothing ever remains the same. (Molloy132) When I learned this I looked over my life and have to admit, that much has changed over time. No matter how we try and keep things the same it is impossible. Children grow up, our body ages, our relationships change. Even things in the world things are constantly changing, landscapes change naturally from things like the tide or erosion, and seasons come and go. In Buddhism the belief is that we are responsible for accepting this and not trying to change the outside world but we need to change ourselves and the way we experience the world. (Molloy 134)