LIFE LOLLIPOPS

            Buddhism is based on the historical figure Gautama Sakyamuni who lived in India in the sixth century BCE. He was the prince of small state, but left his life of privilege and power to find spiritual fulfillment. He became enlightened at 35 and became Buddha.

            Of the three schools in China, Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism, Buddhism is the only true religion in that it seeks to provide total set of beliefs and practices based around a deity. Buddhism introduced into China notions of salvation and a much more sophisticated discourse on human nature and existence of suffering. The earliest records of a Buddhist community in China can be traced to 65 CE. The earliest extant translated sutra can be dated to ca. 518, were likely in circulation by 250. The monk Xuanzang (also spelled Hsuan-tsang ca. 596-664) traveled to India to study Buddhist doctrines and bring back an expanded body of scriptures to China. He set out in 629 and returned to China in 645, bringing with him 657 different Buddhist sutras and a wide knowledge of foreign customs and geography. The sutra most closely associated with his name is the Heart Sutra, which appears in chapter 19 of Journey to the West. Xuanzang chanted it when he was suffering from thirst and hallucinations when crossing the deserts along the Silk Road during his four-year journey to India.

Buddhism has many different schools. The forms that became dominant in China differed from the Therevada Buddhism of India which stressed asceticism and individual salvation. Our focus in this class will be Mahayana Buddhism (Great Vehicle). Central to Buddhist thought is the teaching that life a process of suffering and loss. All is impermanent and there is no permanent self or soul. In the words of Buddha the goal of a good life is "Not to commit any evil, to do good, and to purify one's own mind." However, religious Buddhism focuses on the pursuit of enlightenment. The root of all evil is our craving for sensual pleasures and material possessions. The mind is purified of these sensory delusions through physical and mental discipline, especially meditation and the joining of a religious community.

Dharma          法 . Law, truth, teachings, virtue, morality, ultimate reality,

Four Noble Truths:

i)          life is suffering

ii)         the suffering has a cause

iii)        the cause is a craving for existence and sensual pleasures

iv)        we can leave behind the suffering