CCCH9018: Lecture Two

Professor Guang Xing

1. Introduction
Unlike other religions, Buddhism never considers its teachings
which are called Dharma as a divined revelation but merely as
an instrument for mental training as it shows in the well known
Buddhist simile that the Dharma is similar to a raft for crossing
over the stream of sasra.

1. Introduction
Buddhism has no Dogmas, but encourages critical reflections and analytical
understanding, because it is only through intuitive wisdom, ignorance, the root
of all human bondage and sufferings, can be dispelled. The Buddha said,
The destruction of the cankers, monks, is for one who knows and sees,
I say, not for one who does not know and does not see.
This freedom of thought as Venerable Rahula said, is necessary because,
according to the Buddha, mans emancipation depends on his own realization
of Truth, and not on the benevolent grace of a god or any external power as
a reward for his obedient good behaviour.

Even the Buddha is neither a creator nor a saviour but

only a teacher who guides his disciples and followers to
practice the Dharma he discovered and this Dharma is
nothing but a way to realize truth.

all powerful
mighty being

2. Dependent Arising

The doctrine of dependent arising or origination

(Pai: Paticcasamupada, Skt: Prattyasamutpda) or sometimes called
causality is the central philosophy of Buddhism because all other
philosophical teachings such as the four noble truths, karma and rebirth,
no-soul and impermanence are based on this foundation. Hence it is said,

One who sees dependent origination sees the Dhamma,

and one who sees the Dhamma sees dependent origination.

When this exists, that comes to be;

with the arising of this, that arises.
When this does not exist, that does not come to be;
with the cessation of this, that ceases.

2. Dependent Arising
The doctrine of dependent arising is also called the Middle Teaching
because it rejects the two extreme views of the human condition that have
polarized reflective thought through the centuries: one is the metaphysical
thesis of eternalism and the other extreme is annihilationism.

the Middle Teaching

an extreme form of realism
which asserts that everything
exists absolutely

an extreme form of nihilism,

which asserts that absolutely
nothing exists

1. The first Represents a religious view that everything is reducible to a common

ground, some sort of self-substance, like soul and god.
2. The second the opposite pluralistic view that the whole of existence is resolvable
into a concatenation of discrete entities.

2. Dependent Arising

This theory does not try to explain how the universe started, the
ultimate beginning and it also makes no attempt to solve the riddle of
an absolute origin of life.

What the theory intends to explain:

The theory of dependent arising explains the conditionality,

or dependent nature, of all the manifold mental and physical
phenomena of existence; of everything that happens, be it in the realm
of the physical or the mental as Venerable Nyanaponika put it.
In other words, the theory explains how things work and proceed
rather than how things are formulated and begin. It explains how the
phenomena in the world arise and disappear, particularly the process
of human life.

2. Dependent Arising
The implications of the theory are as follows:

1. Everything in this world is interdependent,

therefore, nothing is permanent.

2. Everything in this world is interrelated,

therefore, nothing is independent.

3. Everything in this world is relative,

therefore, nothing is absolute.

permanent

independent

absolute

Hence, everything in this world is interdependent,

interrelated and relative.

interdependent

interrelated

relative

2. Dependent Arising

single
cause

single
effect

everything
happens by
chance

multiple
causes

multiple
effects

fatalism

single
cause

multiple
effects

determinism

2. Dependent Arising

This theory mainly explains human life.

According to this theory, life is not an identity, it is a becoming. It is a flux of

psychological and physiological changes, a conflux of mind and body.

Just as Bhikkhu Bodhi said, The ultimate purpose of

the teaching on dependent origination is to expose the conditions
that sustain the round of rebirths, samsara, so as to show
what must be done to gain release from the round.

The Buddha further explains the process of human life into twelve factors
with an aim to illustrate the human bondage and his freedom. It is expounded
in two orders by way of origination to explain the arising of suffering and by
way of cessation to explain the ending of suffering.

samsara

2. Dependent Arising
repeat cycle of suffering
Ignorance

contact

feeling

decay, death,
sorrow,
lamentation,
pain, grief &
despair

moral &
immoral
conditioning
activities

(relinking)
consciousness

six spheres
of sense

craving

birth

mind and
matter

Grasping

becoming

2. Dependent Arising

However, one should not misunderstand or take ignorance as the Buddhist

explanation of ultimate beginning or the first cause which is NOT discussed in
the Buddhist literature as discussed above. In fact, the dependent arising with its
twelve factors forms a circle. There is no beginning and no end to it.

This method of dividing up the factors should not be

misconstrued to mean that the factors are mutually exclusive,
but they may rise together. So whenever there is ignorance,
then craving and clinging invariably come along; and whenever
there is craving and clinging, then ignorance stands behind them.
It is the arising of ever changing conditions dependent on similar evanescent
conditions. Here there is neither absolute non-existence nor absolute existence,
only bare phenomena roll on.

3. Four Noble Truths

The four noble truths are the fundamental teaching of Buddhism

and it is the Buddhist philosophy of life. According to the Book of
Discipline, the Buddha himself discovered and realized the four
Noble Truths by his own intuitive knowledge at the foot of the
Bodhi tree.

Whether the Buddhas arise or not in this world these truths exist and
it is a Buddha who reveals them to the deluded world. So the four
noble truths are the Buddhist analysis of life and its problems as
well as the solutions to these problems.

3. Four Noble Truths

The Four Noble Truths are:

(1) Dukkha, suffering or unsatisfactoriness,
(2) the arising or origin of dukkha,
(3) the cessation of dukkha,
(4) the way leading to the cessation of dukkha.

The Buddha taught the four noble truths to his five disciples in the
first sermon, This, monks, is the noble truth that is suffering.
Birth is suffering; old age is suffering; illness is suffering;
death is suffering; sorrow and grief, physical and mental suffering,
and disturbance are suffering. Association with things not liked
is suffering, separation from desired things is suffering;
not getting what one wants is suffering; in short, the five
aggregates of grasping are suffering.

3. Four Noble Truths

Why and how the five aggregates of grasping are said to be suffering? According
to the Buddhist analysis of the empiric individuality, a person consists of five
aggregates which are a combination of the ever-changing physical and mental
forces or energies. They are the aggregate of matter, the aggregate of sensations
or feelings, the aggregate of apperceptions, the aggregate of mental formations,
and the aggregate of consciousness. The first one is physical which serves as the
basis for the rest four which are psychological. It is called a sentient being or
a human being when the five aggregates work together. In other words, the human
personality can therefore be defined as their sum total.
consciousness

sensations
or feelings

apperceptions

matter

mental
formations

3. Four Noble Truths

The five aggregates are interrelated, interdependent and interconnected to
one another working according to the laws of dependent arising. Thus they
have the three distinctive characteristics of impermanence, no-self and
suffering.

These The five aggregates are all impermanent, all are constantly changing.
(1) Each of the five such as matter or consciousness is impermanent and
(2) the combination of the five together is also impermanent.
They are not the same for two consecutive moments as they are in a flux of
momentary arising and disappearing.

Hence there is nothing that can be called

a permanent self or soul

or individuality, or anything that can in reality be called I.

3. Four Noble Truths

According to the Buddhist teaching, whatever is impermanent is suffering,
dukkha. For the impermanent nature of everything can but lead to one
inescapable conclusion: suffering. This is the true meaning of the Buddhas
words: In brief the five Aggregates of Attachment are dukkha.
As everything is impermanent, they cannot be made the basis of permanent
happiness.

The five aggregates of grasping takes place in our mind, because it is our
mind that appreciates and grasps the five aggregates. In short, dukkha can
be explained as the problems in our lives. As long as we grasp the five
aggregates as ourselves so we have problems.

3. Four Noble Truths

This process of grasping manifests itself in three ways:
-

this is mine: due to craving

this I am: due to conceit

this is myself: due to the mistaken belief in a self-entity

It is through this process of three-fold self-identification that the idea

of 'mine', 'I am' and 'my self' arises.

3. Four Noble Truths

Causes of Suffering

One of the major causes of suffering is the self-centred desire which

manifests itself in many forms. The Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta says,
It is the craving that produces renewal of being accompanied by
enjoyment and lust, and enjoying this and that; in other words,
craving for sensual desires, craving for being, craving for non-being.

The technical term for craving is tah in Pli language. The Buddha said
in the Fire Sermon that all is burning, the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body,
and mind are burning, burning with craving.

The image of fire connotes all-consuming movement within the mind of

a person, something hot, dangerous, destructive, and potentially out of
control. The implication is that craving in the form of lust and hatred is
a fire that inflames every aspect of a person all the aggregates and
thus brings suffering in its wake.

3. Four Noble Truths

However, craving is not the only cause in the Buddhist analysis of the causes of
suffering, but one of the causes as discussed in the dependent arising because
Buddhism always thinks of multiple causes leading to multiple effects.
The twelvefold formula of dependent arising is a chain of causes and effects and
this is the origin of this whole mass of suffering. But in this chain ignorance is
the key factor in consideration and it is ignorance that leads to craving and hatred
which in turn lead to more grasping and becoming.
Sometimes, the Buddha also gave three causes
of suffering: craving, hatred and delusion which
are all psychological. Here delusion is equal to
ignorance which is the root cause for craving
and hatred. But craving and hatred lead to
more ignorance as they defile the mind.

hatred

ignorance
craving

3. Four Noble Truths

According to the Buddhist philosophy, ignorance means the lack of
understanding of the four noble truths and dependent arising. Hence, the
ignorant person regards the impermanent as permanent, the painful as pleasant,
the soulless as soul, the impure as pure, and the unreal as real.

Thus he entertains wrong views and does wrong deeds which lead him to
further suffering. Therefore in the Buddhist analysis, the causes of suffering are
found within us, not outside, and in the same way, the solutions to suffering are
also found within us.

4. The Concept of Nirva

Nirva or nibbna

is the third of the four noble truths, so it is the

complete elimination and cessation of the main causes of dukkha, which are
craving, hatred and ignorance. Therefore nirva is also known by the term
Extinction of Craving, Extinction of Hatred, and Extinction of Ignorance.
If craving is compared to a fire as in the Fire Sermon quoted above, then
nirva is compared to a fire gone out when the fuel is finished and no more
fuel is added so it cannot be kindled again.

4. The Concept of Nirva

Five ways to understand nirva
1) From the moral point of view, nirva is the highest level of moral perfection,
because it is the highest form of cultivation of morality.

- For one who has attained nirva, all unwholesome motivational roots such as
greed, hatred, and delusion have been fully eradicated with no possibility of their
ever becoming active again.

- The first and most important way to reach nirva is by means of the eightfold
Path, and all expressions which deal with the realization of emancipation from
lust, hatred and delusion apply to practical habits and not to speculative thought.

do the
work
yourself
building habit

ethical state

4. The Concept of Nirva

2) From the experiential point of view, nirva is the highest level of
happiness, because all kinds of suffering are eliminated as a corollary in the
formula of four noble truths. The Buddha taught Mgandiya,
The greatest of all gains is health,
Nibbna is the greatest happiness,
The eightfold path is the best of paths,
For it leads safely to the Deathless.

According to Buddhism, happiness is the peace of mind or tranquillity of

mind in ordinary sense, free from all worries and troubles. The Buddha said,
Monks, I know not of any other single thing that brings such happiness as
the mind that is tamed, controlled, guarded and restrained. Such a mind
indeed brings great happiness.

4. The Concept of Nirva

3) From the point of knowledge, nirva is the highest level of wisdom.
This is because the fourth of the four noble truths is the
Noble Eightfold Path which leads to the attainment of
wisdom. According to the Buddhist teaching, the ultimate
cause of dukkha or suffering is ignorance and in order to
destroy ignorance, one has to attain wisdom, to see things as they really are.
Thus this knowledge is the final awakening to the true nature of the world of
our own sensory experience, but not the knowledge of a higher reality.
According to Buddhism, when one attains the highest knowledge he sees the
same phenomenal reality, our own world of experience, but the difference is
this: he sees it in the true sense, he sees things as they truly are. So what
takes place when Nibbna is attained is not a change in the nature of reality,
but a change in our perspective of the nature of reality.

4. The Concept of Nirva

4) From the psychological point of view, nirva is the highest level of mental
emancipation, the freedom of our mind, because all the
polluting factors that restrict and restrain the mind such as
selfish desire, hatred, ignorance, conceit, pride, so on and
so forth are eliminated, so the mind is pure and healthy.
It is full of universal love, compassion, kindness, sympathy,
understanding and tolerance.

Negative emotions restrict an individual's psychological freedom; therefore greed,

hatred, and ignorance are described as poisons in the Buddhist literature because
they circumscribe an individual's freedom. Greed, hatred, and ignorance are
roots of unwholesome mental states which fetter the individual within sasra.
So when all these bad mental elements are removed, our mind becomes truly free.

4. The Concept of Nirva

5) From the point of ultimate reality, nirva is the highest truth.
The Dhtu-vibhaga Sutta of the Majjhimanikya says:
His deliverance, being founded upon truth, is unshakable.
For that is false, monks, which has a deceptive nature, and that is
true which has an undeceptive nature Nibbna.
Therefore, a monk possessing [this truth] possesses the supreme
foundation of truth. For this, monk, is the supreme noble truth,
namely Nibbna, which has an undeceptive nature.

When one attains nibbna, one realizes the truth

of life, one understand things as they truly are,
the three characteristics of life: impermanence,
suffering and no-self.

4. The Concept of Nirva

According to the Buddhist teaching, this kind of nirva is
realizable in this world and in this life if it is mature.

The Dhammakathika Sutta of the Sayuttanikya says:

If through revulsion towards aging-and-death, through its fading
away and cessation, one is liberated by nonclinging, one is fit to
be called a bhikkhu who has attained nibbna in this very life.

If through revulsion towards ignorance, through its fading away

and cessation, one is liberated by nonclinging, one is fit to be
called a bhikkhu who has attained nibbna in this very life.

5. Noble Eightfold Path

The fourth of the four noble truths is the noble eightfold path
which is also called the middle path because it is not
a compromise but transcends the two extremes in practice,
two misguided attempts to gain release from suffering.
indulgence in sense pleasures

the middle path

practice of
self-mortification

5. Noble Eightfold Path

One extreme is the indulgence in sense pleasures by gratifying desires which

gives enjoyment but not happiness because enjoyment or pleasure is gross,
transitory, and devoid of deep contentment.
The noble eightfold path avoids the extreme of sensual indulgence by
its recognition of the futility of desire and its stress on renunciation.
Desire and sensuality, far from being means to happiness, are springs
of suffering to be abandoned as the requisite of deliverance.

The other extreme is the practice of self-mortification,

the attempt to gain liberation by afflicting the body.
This practice may be motivated by genuine aspiration
for deliverance, but it is guided by a wrong view that
the body is the cause of bondage, when the real
source of trouble lies in the mind the mind
obsessed by greed, aversion, and delusion.

5. Noble Eightfold Path

The Buddhist renunciation does not mean physical renunciation,
but psychological one. Because the causes of human suffering is within
the human mind not outside.

What the Buddha wanted to convey is that the manifold objects in the
external world do not constitute our craving.
What constitute our craving is the lustful intention,
lustful desire within us, not things themselves,
but lustful desire towards them.

The true renunciation is not completely withdrawn from the world

physically, but the cultivation of particular attitude of mind within us.
So mental culture is not based on the suppression of senses, but to
develop the senses to see the phenomena as they truly are.

5. Noble Eightfold Path

The Noble Eightfold Path gives rise to vision, gives rise to knowledge,
and leads to peace, to direct knowledge, to enlightenment, to Nibbna.
The noble eightfold path is the whole of Buddhist training leading one
to perfection both mentally and morally. This training can be
summarized as:

To abstain from all evil,

to cultivate the good,

and to purify one's mind

this is the teaching of the Buddhas.
(Dhammapada 183)

5. Noble Eightfold Path

The Noble Eightfold Path consists of eight factors as follows:
Division
praj (sanskrit)
pa (pli)

Eightfold Path factors

1. Right understanding or view

Wisdom
2. Right intention or thought
3. Right speech

Ethical conduct

4. Right action
5. Right livelihood
6. Right effort

Meditation

7. Right mindfulness
8. Right concentration

5. Noble Eightfold Path

The eight factors are not step by step training but they are components of
training and thus should be practiced simultaneously as they are interdependent
and interrelated.

The moral discipline which is based on the universal love and compassion
for all living beings is training in verbal and physical behaviors and it aims at
promoting a happy and harmonious life both for the individual and for society.

Thus meditation will lead finally to enlightenment, the attainment of highest

wisdom which sees the nature of things as they are. It is in this sense that the
Buddhist training aims at the perfection of man in two qualities that should be
developed equally: compassion and intelligence. In other words, the noble
eightfold path leads one to the attainment of wisdom that dispels ignorance,
the root of human lifes problem. As the Buddha says: The element of
ignorance is indeed a powerful element.

5. Noble Eightfold Path

Significance of the Noble Eightfold Path
1) In the Noble Eightfold Path, you do not find
faith, any prayer, ritual formalism or worship,
ceremony. So it can be accepted and practiced
by all people without changing their life style
and belief.
2) The noble eightfold path lies its emphasis
on human effort for liberation, not on the
power of an outside supernatural agent
because it is a practice of self-discipline
in body, speech and mind,
self-development and self-purification.

self-discipline:
body, speech,
mind

5. Noble Eightfold Path

3) The Noble Eightfold Path is to be followed by all those who
work for their happiness, it is a way of life to be followed,
practiced, and developed by each and every individual.
4) The Noble Eightfold Path is both a means as well as an end
as it starts with moral training and ends up with moral
perfection. Two factors are achieved when one follows
the path: right knowledge and right liberation.

5) The Noble Eightfold Path begins with right view because,

according to the Buddha, nothing is more dangerous than
wrong view.

right
view

5. Noble Eightfold Path

What is the right view? Sariputta explains in the Sammaditthi Sutta:
When, friends, a noble disciple understands the unwholesome,
the root of the unwholesome, the wholesome, and the root of the wholesome,
in that way he is one of right view, whose view is straight, who has perfect
confidence in the Dhamma, and has arrived at this true Dhamma.
unwholesome

wholesome

opposite to
the ten virtues

Ten Kusala Dhamma

(the ten virtues)

greed
hatred
delusion

root

non-greed
non-hatred
non-delusion

5. Noble Eightfold Path

6) Dogmatic attachment to any view is wrong. Although right view is
good, but attachment to right view is also condemned by the Buddha,
because dogmatic attachment to any view may lead one to suffering.

Because a view is only a guideline to action,

even the Buddhist teaching is only like a raft.
Thats why the Buddha says that he does not hold any view.
The Buddha says in the Sallekha Sutta, we shall not misapprehend
according to individual views nor hold on to them tenaciously, but shall
discard them with ease thus effacement can be done.

6. Karma and Rebirth

First let us look at the definition of karma given in the early Buddhist literature.
In the Anguttaranikya, one of the five collections of Buddhist teachings,
we find this saying of the Buddha:

I declare, O Monks, that volition is Kamma. Having willed one acts

through body, speech and thought.

body

mind

will

speech

6. Karma and Rebirth

1) The word karma or kamma literally means action or
doing, but in the Buddhist theory of karma it does not
mean any action, it is only the volitional action. Karma or
action is performed in three ways, by the mind, speech and body.
2) The Buddhist theory of karma is the theory of cause and effect,
action and reaction.
- The nature of karma is determined by its motives. According to the
Buddhism, any action motivated by desire or attachment, hate or
aversion and ignorance or confusion is morally bad and
unwholesome. On the other hand, any action is motivated
by the absence of greed, hatred and ignorance is
morally good and wholesome.

6. Karma and Rebirth

3) Karma is a law in itself which operates according to the principle of
dependent arising. There is no intervention of any external,
independent ruling agency or power. Even the Buddha is neither
a creator nor the controller of karma.

4) The Buddhist doctrine of kamma thus places ultimate responsibility

for human destiny in our own hands. It reveals to us how our ethical
choices and actions can become either a cause of pain and bondage
or a means to spiritual freedom.

6. Karma and Rebirth

5) Karma is NOT tit for tat, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
Therefore, karma is similar to the natural law, but not exactly the
same, so karma cannot be interpreted as a tooth for a tooth.

The Buddha said, Monks, for anyone who says, 'In whatever way
a person makes kamma, that is how it is experienced,' there is
no living of the religious life, there is no opportunity for the right
ending of suffering. But for anyone who says, 'When a person
makes kamma to be felt in such & such a way, that is how its
result is experienced,' there is the living of the religious life,
there is the opportunity for the right ending of suffering.

6. Karma and Rebirth

6) Karma does not necessarily mean only past actions,
it embraces both past and present deeds. In the Buddhist scriptures,
the present action (karma) is more emphasized because past actions
are already done and we cannot change them. It is the present actions
that contribute to build our future life. It is in this sense that every
moment we are creating our future. Each and every moment we
must be careful.
7) Many people misunderstand karma as an occult power or as
an inescapable fate. If karma is fate then it is like determinism or
fatalism. However, karma is neither, because the future of
our life is not determined as we are now still creating
our future.

6. Karma and Rebirth

8) In the working of karma its most important factor is
the mind. All our words and deeds are colored by
the mind or consciousness we experience at such
particular moments.
cultivating
good
mental
qualities

That is why, as discussed above,

the Buddhist training aims at the
cleansing the mind of impurities
on one hand and cultivating good
mental qualities on the other.

cleansing
the mind
of
impurities

6. Karma and Rebirth

Vipka

The correlated consequences of action (karma) are called vipka which means
fruit in Buddhism.

As karma is action so vipka is its consequence or result. Karma may be

ethically good or bad, so Vipka, fruit, is also ethically good or bad. Karma is
mental, so Vipka too is mental; it is experienced as happiness or bliss,
unhappiness or misery according to the nature of the karma seed.
The Samyuttanikya states:
Whatever sort of seed is sown,
That is the sort of fruit one reaps:
The doer of good reaps good;
The doer of evil reaps evil.
By you, dear, has the seed been sown;
Thus you will experience the fruit.

6. Karma and Rebirth

The fruits or consequences of karma are many different kinds dependent

on the nature of karma and rebirth is the most important fruit of karma.
At the moment just preceding death, the death-proximate kamma may
take the form of a reflex of some good or bad deeds performed during
the dying persons life.

This determines the nature of the linking consciousness that serves as

a condition to next birth. Thus, the accumulation of good karma in life
ensures one a good rebirth.

6. Karma and Rebirth

King Milinda questioned the Venerable Ngasena,
Where, Venerable Sir, is Kamma?

Ngasena said, Kamma is not said to be stored

somewhere in this fleeting consciousness or in
any other part of the body. But dependent on
mind and matter it rests manifesting itself at the
opportune moment, just as mangoes are not said
to be stored somewhere in the mango tree,
but dependent on the mango tree they lie,
springing up in due season.

Conclusion
The basic Buddhist teachings concentrate on the analysis of life, how
life goes on from one birth to another, how our ethical behaviors affect
our life, our lifes problems and their causes and solutions. The
practical aim of this teaching is to lead one to attain happiness through
a practice called three trainings: morality, concentration and wisdom.
with which ignorance, the root cause of our lifes problems can be
eradicated. So Nirvana is nothing but happiness that we can experience
here and now.