Buddhism 101 Read online

  THE BUDDHIST COSMOS

  The Three Realms

  According to Buddhist cosmology, there are three realms—or types—of existence: the Realm of Desire, the Realm of Form, and the Realm of No-Form. These realms can be understood as the fruits of meditative experiences or the jhanas (the meditative states of right concentration). There are eight jhanas corresponding to the three realms. If you are in the Realm of Desire you have not yet reached the first meditative state. The Realm of Form corresponds to meditative states one to four, and the Realm of No-Form corresponds to the highest meditative states (five through eight).

  The Realm of Desire includes the Wheel of Life and is a potent metaphor for karma, suffering, and the motivation to get beyond the three fires of greed, hatred, and delusion to the liberation of nirvana.

  THE REALMS

  Their Characteristics

  Within the Realm of Desire are six categories into which you can be born in any given moment. These realms compose a circle; one is not “higher” than the other. These represent states, momentary and more permanent, that you may find yourself in any given moment. Each of the six realms depicted in this model can be understood as a state that you will experience at some point, perhaps many points, in your life. In the very center of the wheel, at the hub, are three animals representing the three fires (kleshas):

  • Greed or desire is represented by the rooster

  • Hatred or anger is represented by the snake

  • Delusion or ignorance is represented by the pig

  The six realms are:

  • The god realm

  • The realm of jealous gods (titans)

  • The animal realm

  • The realm of hungry ghosts

  • The hell realm

  • The human realm

  Whether you end up as a god or a hungry ghost largely depends on your karma, your intentions, and actions. Nirvana is beyond these realms.

  The Realm of Desire is named so because it is the realm in which beings perceive objects through their senses and experience desirability or undesirability. Desire is the root of suffering, and there is much suffering in the Realm of Desire. The Realms of Form and No-Form are not subject to the same experiences.

  Bhadra Kalpa

  * * *

  According to John Snelling in The Buddhist Handbook, the most fortunate age to be born in is termed a Bhadra Kalpa. During a Bhadra Kalpa, at least 1,000 Buddhas will be born (over the course of 320,000,000 years). Each Buddha will discover the dharma and teach it for anywhere from 500 to 1,500 years, until a dark age sets in and the teaching is lost. Humanity is currently in a Bhadra Kalpa now.

  * * *

  The God Realm

  According to Mark Epstein, a psychoanalyst and Buddhist practitioner, the god realm is “inhabited by beings with subtle bodies, not prone to illness, who delight in music and dance and exist in extended version of what has come to be called peak experiences, in which the participant dissolves into the experience of pleasure, merging with the beloved and temporarily eradicating the ego boundaries.” In other words, this is a state that feels good but is temporary. There may be twenty-six “mansions” in the god realm, but there is a tendency to become complacent here. If life were pleasure and bliss, where would the motivation for transcendence come from? This realm also tends to be rather self-absorbed (no bodhisattvas here) and suffering persists, albeit in a subtle way.

  Realm of Jealous Gods (Titans)

  According to Dr. Epstein, the jealous gods, “represent the energy needed to overcome a frustration, change a situation, or make contact with a new experience.” This is the realm of ego, mastery, and striving. The jealous gods can overtake your meditation practice in an ego-driven way, and this remains a pitfall. Striving cannot be overcome with striving. In other words, you can get caught in the trap of desiring more and more pleasurable meditation experiences. You may have had a taste of one of the jhanas and now your mind is fixated on having that experience again. Sometimes the jealous gods are portrayed as titans, or warrior demons (asuras), which have taken their human traits and used them in the pursuit of power. They are always in foul temper, always causing trouble for someone or other, and do not symbolize rest or peace.

  Animal Realm

  In the animal realm, you are caught up in desire and instinct, especially sexuality and the pleasures of the senses. It is a realm without awareness and states that are probably all too familiar to you. Animals are trapped in ignorance, and have no way of getting out of their instinct-driven behaviors. The animal realm is pure desire and tinged with the suffering that comes with desire.

  * * *

  “Never forget how swiftly this life will be over, like a flash of summer lightning or the wave of a hand. Now that you have the opportunity to practice dharma, do not waste a single moment on anything else.”

  —Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, scholar, poet, and a leader of Tibetan Buddhism

  * * *

  The traditional Buddhist view is that animals do not have sufficient awareness to generate good karma (due to the lack of conscious intentionality). “Does a dog have a buddha-nature?” is a question that divides Buddhists.

  Realm of Hungry Ghosts

  The fourth realm is restless spirits (pretas). Hungry ghosts are the most interesting form of preta. The hungry ghost has a pinhole mouth and a huge stomach and is therefore never satisfied. Adequate amounts of food can never pass through their small mouths and narrow necks, and when it does, immense pain is experienced. This is a metaphor for greed that takes the form of excessive desire.

  Hell Realm

  Fear, even to the point of paranoia, can characterize the hell realm. It’s not the place you want to be. Early Buddhists, just like everyone else, had vivid imaginations when it came to suffering and torture. Metaphorically, you could be endlessly cut up, burned, frozen, eaten, beaten, or tortured in any number of ways, only to die and wake up and do it all over again. Some areas of hell contain abominable nightmares, unbearable sensory experiences, and horrible visions. The denizens of hell symbolize hatred, and the pervasive self-inflicted anxiety of dukkha. There are as many as ten hells in the Realm of Desire and the inhabitants must make their way through all of them to escape the anguish and suffering. There are realms where you may be hot (eight of those) or cold (also eight of those), or where you may be lacerated or eaten alive.

  The third realm is the demon (asura) and is a state dominated by anger. In Asia, however, these demons may not be regarded metaphorically. Evil spirits can wreak havoc or cause mischief.

  Human Realm

  The human realm, on the other hand, is a very desirable realm to inhabit. It could be said to be the center of everything in the Buddhist cosmos. It is within the human realm that you have your only chance for enlightenment and escape from samsara. In any given moment you can be in any of the realms, depending upon your actions and intentions. One way to think about samsara is the endless cycling between these realms of experience. The human realm contains the seed of its own awakening.

  Although humans still have some very negative traits, they are free from the extreme negativities of life as a hungry ghost, animal, or hell-being. Humans have the capacity to do right and wrong; it is therefore in the human realm that positive or negative actions are performed. This is a state where your karma gets played out. Buddhists who take rebirth literally see the human realm as the only realm that can influence their future rebirths.

  THE REALM OF FORM

  The Realm of Form (rupa) and its corresponding meditative states can be understood through the metaphor of the “higher gods.” These meditative states correspond to contact with the form of the body and are the basis for vipassana meditation. They can also refer to forms of meditation that involve visualization.

  The Realm of Form jhanas are:

  • Rapture and pleasure born of seclusion

  • Rapture and pleasure born of concentration

  • Equanimity and mindfulness with
pleasant abiding

  • Equanimity and mindfulness, neither pleasure nor pain

  The Buddha said, “Then quiet secluded from sensuality, secluded from unskillful mental quality, he enters and remains in the first jhana: rapture and pleasure born of seclusion, accompanied by directed thought and evaluation.” The first jhana provides the foundation for the next. The Buddha said, “Rapture and pleasure born of concentration, unification of awareness free from directed thought and evaluation—internal assurance.” The second jhana gives way to the third, “Then with the fading of rapture, he remains equanimous, mindful, and alert, and senses pleasure within the body. Equanimous and mindful, he has a pleasant abiding.” He goes on to describe the fourth jhana, “Then with the abandoning of pleasure and pain, he enters and remains in purity of equanimity and mindfulness, neither pleasure nor pain. He sits permeating the body with a pure, bright awareness.”

  THE REALM OF NO-FORM

  To reach into the highest jhanas is to reach the Realm of No-Form (arupa). Siddhartha attained the highest jhanas while meditating with his teachers Alara Kalama and Udraka Ramaputra. Once he came out of these rarified and sublime states he found himself right back into samsara. So even though these states are delightful, they do not represent liberation. Nirvana is not a state of meditation, but a release from all conditioned and constructed existence.

  These meditative states are based on profound concentration. The Buddha described these states as “the complete transcending of perceptions of form, with the disappearance of perceptions of resistance.” The practitioner will experience “infinite space” and will then transcend infinite space into “infinite consciousness.” From infinite consciousness the practitioner will transcend into the “dimension of nothingness.” This dimension of nothingness itself is transcended, and the practitioner will experience the dimension of “neither perception or non-perception.” These states correspond to the jhanas five through eight.

  The Realm of No-Form jhanas are:

  • Infinite space

  • Infinite consciousness

  • Nothingness

  • Neither perception nor non-perception

  DEPENDENT ORIGINATION

  The Causal Chain of Becoming

  Dependent origination is the most original and radical of the Buddha’s teachings. It describes the process that perpetuates the suffering and pervasive dissatisfaction of dukkha. Noah Levine provides an example of the process of dependent origination in his book Against the Stream. The twelve steps of the process include: (1) ignorance that leads to (2) mental formations (that is, thoughts, emotions, images) that lead to (3) consciousness that requires (4) material form (that is, something to be conscious of) that has (5) six senses (the basic five plus another sense of mind) that create stimuli that generate (6) contact that gives rise to sense impressions that generate (7) feelings (that are either pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral) that generate (8) craving (that seeks to either keep or push away the feeling) that leads to (9) grasping (or pushing away) that produces (10) becoming (which means to identify with the experience; to take it personally) that leads to (11) birth (taking form around the grasping) that leads to (12) suffering or pervasive dissatisfaction.

  Consider an example. You are walking down the street on automatic pilot, lost in some story about the future or the past (ignorance). You see a bar and think to yourself, “I’d really enjoy a beer” (mental formation). You decide to go into the bar and plan to order a beer (consciousness). You walk into the bar. Inside the bar your senses contact a visual array of bottles at the bar, the smells, and the sounds (material form). You think of the touch of the bottle and the taste of the beer, and then you imagine which of the many beers you will order (six senses). The beers look good and you also notice the whiskey selection (contact). This contact gives rise to a pleasant feeling of expectation (feelings). You decide to order a boot-sized beer with a whiskey chaser (craving). You drink that one and then another despite knowing that you’ve probably had enough (grasping). You regret having drunk so much and wish you hadn’t gone into the bar at all (becoming). You castigate yourself for your weakness; you call yourself a “loser” (birth). You feel sick to your stomach (suffering).

  It’s the process of karma in action. One mind moment leads to the next. Behavior, thoughts, and feelings all affect each other in a ceaseless process. And if you are not mindful, the process will lead to suffering. Being mindful gives you the opportunity to break the cycle of becoming, break out of samsara, and avoid suffering.

  MAKING SENSE OF THE COSMOS

  Whether the devas are to be considered real or metaphorical they provide a colorful element to Buddhism.

  To contrast Buddhism in its more secularized form, consider this quote from Professor Kevin Trainor describing worship of the god Kataragama in Sri Lanka: “Worshippers seek the god’s favor by engaging in various austere physical practices, including rolling in scorching sand, piercing their cheeks, tongue, and other body parts with skewers or hooks, and walking across burning coals.” This type of worship that has emerged more recently might be explained by the growing population’s need for immediate emotional gratification from a god-like figure, rather than “the ideals of sensual and emotional restraint that have traditionally characterized Sri Lankan Buddhism.”

  Nothing stays the same.

  BODHISATTVAS

  The Enlightened Ones

  Much as the Theravada student strives to become an arhat—a spiritually enlightened individual—so the Mahayana student strives to become a bodhisattva. A bodhisattva is a person who has already attained enlightenment, or who is ready to attain enlightenment but puts off his or her own final enlightenment to reenter the cycle of samsara to save all sentient beings. A bodhisattva is the ultimate in compassion, and Mahayana Buddhists believe that enlightenment can be attained not only by striving individually but also by helping others to achieve enlightenment.

  Every bodhisattva resolves to realize the Four Great Vows:

  1. Sentient beings are numberless: I vow to save them.

  2. Desires are inexhaustible: I vow to put an end to them.

  3. The dharmas are boundless: I vow to master them.

  4. The Buddha way is unattainable: I vow to attain it.

  Bodhisattvas willingly seek to be reborn into the endless cycle of samsara so that they can constantly help others toward their own enlightened state. They need wisdom so that they can discern how to help others toward nirvana. Bodhisattvas employ compassion and love for all beings. They use upaya (skillful means) to accomplish their aim of benefitting all sentient beings.

  Inherent within skillful means is wisdom—the ability to discern how to help each sentient being toward enlightenment. Wisdom heart is referred to as bodhicitta—the quality that allows them to be open to the suffering of others. Therefore, someone who desires to become a bodhisattva will develop and then generate bodhicitta. As you can see from the concept of the bodhisattva, Mahayana traditions rely more explicitly on concepts of rebirth, whether taken literally or metaphorically.

  In addition to generating bodhicitta, the bodhisattva also strives for the Six Perfections. These Six Perfections are:

  1. Concentration (meditation)

  2. Giving

  3. Morality

  4. Patience

  5. Persistence

  6. Wisdom

  Without the explicit commitment to rebirth for the benefit of all sentient beings, Mahayanists looked down upon Theravada practitioners and called them shravakas (“listeners”). According to them, being an arhat (an enlightened one) is not enough; one must strive to become a Buddha. Without that commitment, Theravada appears to honor the letter of practice versus the spirit of the practice—a wish to benefit everyone. If one does not believe in rebirth, this distinction becomes moot, but in the Buddha’s day these were very much living arguments.

  Since there haven’t been any more Buddhas in the past 2,500 years, the argument likewise seems moot. A bodhisattva ca
n also be understood as a future Buddha. If you take the bodhisattva vows, you undertake the arduous journey toward not just enlightenment but buddhahood. Good luck! The bodhisattva trucks in compassion and wisdom, and these virtues are more explicitly pursued and codified in the Mahayana traditions.

  BUDDHISM AFTER BUDDHA

  The Spread of the Sangha

  The Buddha traveled all around India spreading the teachings and showing his followers how they could awaken. The sangha grew until thousands were practicing the Four Noble Truths. This chapter looks at the end of Buddha’s life, and how the sangha grew and spread throughout India and beyond. These beginnings, supported by great kings, helped to establish what is now called Buddhism.

  THE BUDDHA’S FINAL DAYS

  The Buddha lived to be eighty years old. It was a time of unrest in India and the king of Magadha, Ajatasattu, had planned an offensive against the republics to the east of his kingdom, determined to wipe them out. The Buddha had decided to avoid the carnage and headed north to the margins of the Ganges basin. As death approached and the Buddha prepared to leave this world, he lived a life of increasing solitude, searching out places of quiet and peace. He was ill and was intent on making sure the sangha knew everything they needed to know before he departed this world.