"How is a Buddhist?"

Sophomore College

Stanford University

2003

Syllabus

Manjushri is the Bodhisattva of Transcendent Wisdom. The youthful prince carries with his right hand the double--edged sword able to cut through illusion and with his left hand a blooming lotus that supports a volume of the Prajna-paramita Sutra. He is depicted as a youth of sixteen years in order to convey the Buddhist insight that wisdom is not a matter of mere experience or years, but results from the cultivation of intellectual genius, which can penetrate directly to the bedrock of reality. Wisdom is the most honored virtue in Buddhism, called the Mother of all Buddhas, since only wisdom makes possible the great bliss of total freedom from all suffering that is the goal of all living beings. Thus, Manjushri is one of the most important of all Buddhist deities, the veritable god of wisdom and herald of emancipation.

I solemnly prostrate to the Lama and the Protector Manjusri whose knowledge, devoid of the clouds of the two obscurations, is very pure and clear as the sun. He holds the book before his mind so that all beings may see exactly all subtle meanings, for those person imprisoned in the darkness of ignorance, confused and troubled in suffering.

From compassion for all, he expounds in sixty kinds of eloquent speech.

His thundering Dharma voice awakens all from sleepiness, releasing them from the iron chains of passion. Holding the sword of wisdom, he clears away the suffering and obscurations. From the first pure, after passing through the ten stages, all become the body of the victorious son clearing away 112 kinds of mental obscurations.

To Manjusri I pay homage.

(repeat this prayer as many

times as you are able)

Om Ah Ra Pa Tsa Na Dhi

(repeat the mantra as many rimes as you are

able, then sit silently; then pray as follows:)

By the rays of your kind, supreme knowledge, clear the darkened ignorance of my mind.

In order to understand the teachings and the commentaries as in traditional canon, I beseech you to grant the luminosity of confident wisdom.

An introduction by way of a forethought

This Sophomore College, "How is a Buddhist?", is not a Buddhist teaching. It is “about Buddhism”. What that means will be up to you to decide. Perhaps it is more like a Chemistry lab than anything else.

However, it is, I think, strongly influenced by Buddhist ideas. It is an experiment in the same sense that the Buddha instructed his disciples not to accept anything on the basis of what he had taught or what they read; they were to accept only what they themselves experienced. Our purpose is to explore how a Buddhist views the universe, understanding the concept 'universe' itself in Buddhist terms. To the extent that we believe that education means not just the acquisition of more information but a real change in the way we think or perceive, this Sophomore College belongs both to Buddhist education and to education about Buddhism.

The Daily Schedule

September 4, 2002

Wednesday

10:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon Introduction

Preliminary questions and basic concepts; preconceptions, conceptions, first questions; “mental culture” and “religion”; cosmology; the problem with different assumptions concerning the nature of the “sentient being”

The problem of the “history of Buddhism” and of “Buddhist History”

5:00 p.m. BBQ

7:00 p.m. Film: “The Little Buddha”

(at Mark Mancall’s house)

September 5, 2002

Thursday

10:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon The Buddhist narrative. The Three Jewels. “The Wheel of Life”

2:30 p.m. Film: “The Harp of Burma”

“Friends in High Places”

7:00 p.m. Film: “The Jew in the Lotus”

September 6, 2002

Friday

9:30 a.m. – 12:00 noon The Theravada Buddhist Tradition and the Thai Experience

Film: “I am a monk”

1:15 p.m. – 3:05 p.m. Sophomore College Workshop:

Passion vs. Pragmatism: Integrating Majors and Careers

September 8, 2002

Sunday

9:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. Visit to Thai Buddhist temple, Fremont

September 9, 2002

Monday

9:30 a.m. – 12:00 noon Buddhist aesthetics and the function of “art” in Buddhism;

tankas,mandalas, and other instruments of mental culture

Film: mandala

1:15 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. Sophomore College Workshop:

Overseas Studies Programs

3:15 p.m – 5:00 Sophomore College Workshop:

Undergraduate Research Opportunities

7:00 p.m. Faculty Night

September 10, 2002

Tuesday

10:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon The concept and practice of practice

2:30 p.m. Film: “Lord of the Dance”

September 11, 2002

Wednesday

10:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon Monastic traditions

12:30 p.m. Departure for the City of 10,000 Buddhas

mid/late afternoon Arrival

6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. Buddha Hall: Worship

7:30 p.m. Dinner

September 12, 2002

Thursday

3:30 a.m. Wake-up

4:00 a.m. – 6:00 a.m. Buddha Hall: Ritual, Meditation

to 10:30 a.m. Breakfast/Discussion, followed by

mid-day ritual

12:00 lunch

2:00 p.m. Discussion/Meditation

4:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. dinner

6:30 p.m. Buddha Hall: ritual

Evening Lecture/Discussion

September 13, 2002

Friday

3:30 a.m. Wake-up

4:00 a.m. – 6:00 a.m. Buddha Hall: Ritual, Meditation

to 10:30 a.m. Breakfast/Discussion, followed by

mid-day ritual

11:30 a.m. Departure for Stanford

September 16, 2002

Monday

10:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon Divine Madness and Enlightenment

2:30 p.m. Film: “King of Masks”

September 17, 2002

Tuesday

10:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon Introduction

2:30 p.m. Film: “Why has Bodhi-Dharma left for the East?”

7:00 p.m. Departure for Kannan Do in

Mountain View

10:00 p.m. (or before) Return to campus

September 18, 2002

Wednesday

9:30 a.m. – 12:00 noon Tibetan Buddhism: The Intellectual Tradition

Film: “”Debate in the Tibetan Tradition”

2:30 p.m.

7:00 p.m. Tibetan Buddhism: The tradition of practice

Film: “The Medicine Buddha”

September 20, 2002

Friday

4:00 p.m. Departure for San Francisco to see “Enlightenment Guaranteed” and attend reception beforehand; perhaps final dinner, perhaps another time

10:00 p.m. Return to campus

Stanford University

Sophomore College 2002

"How is a Buddhist?"

Buddhism: Some Memory Aids

(but not for attachment)

Just as no sweet smell is found in a latrine,

No happiness is found within the five types of being.

Lord Maitrepa

I. Dimensions for the comparison of religions

1. Practical and ritual

2. Experiential and emotional

3. Narrative and mythic

4. Doctrinal and philosophical

5. Ethical and legal

6. Social and institutional

7. Material

See: Smart, Ninian, Dimensions of the Sacred (London: HarperCollins, 1996).

II. Major Buddhisms

1. Theravada (Hinayana): South and Southeast Asia

2. Mahayana: Vietnam, China, Japan, Korea

3. Vajrayana (a sub-set of Mahayana): Himalayas, Tibet, Mongolia,

Buryatia, Tuva, Kalmykia...

III. Buddhist Scriptures

1. The Discourses: Sutra (Sutta)

2. The Monastic Rules: Vinaya

3. The Scholastic Treatises: Abhidharma (Abhidhamma)

IV. The Wheel of Life

V. The Buddhist Universe

Level Meditation

Level (jhana)

31	Neither perception nor non-perception	8	ü Sphere of
30	Nothingness	7	ý formlessness
29	Infinite consciousness		ï
28	Infinite space	5	þ (arupavacara)
27		4	ü
-			ï Sphere of pure
-		3	ï form
-	Higher Gods		ý
-		2	ï
-		1	ï (rupavacara)
12			þ
11			ü
-	Lower Gods		ï Sphere of
6			ï Sense-desires
5	Humans		ï
4	Titans		ý
3	Ghosts		ï (kamavacara)
2	Animals		ï
1	Hell		þ

VI. The Four Noble Truths

1. The Truth of Suffering: Suffering exists

2. The Truth of Arising: Suffering arises from attachment to desires

3. The Truth of Cessation: Suffering ceases when attachment to desire

0ceases

4. The Truth of the Path: Freedom from suffering is possible by practicing

the eightfold path

VII. The Eight-fold Path

1. Right Understanding ü

2. Right Resolve (thought) ý Wisdom

þ

3. Right Speech ü

4. Right Action ý Morality

5. Right Livelihood þ

6. Right Effort ü

7. Right Mindfulness ý Meditation (samadhi)

8. Right Meditation þ

VIII. The Three Characteristics of Existence

1. Transciency

2. Sorrow

3. Selflessness

IX. The Five Hindrances

1. Sensuous lust

2. Aversion and ill will

3. Sloth and torpor

4. Restlessness and worry

5. Skeptical doubt

X. The Seven Factors of Enlightenment

1. Mindfulness

2. Investigation

3. Energy

4. Rapture

5. Tranquility

6. Concentration

7. Equanimity

XI. The Ten Perfections

1. Generosity

2. Morality

3. Renunciation

4. Wisdom

5. Energy

6. Patience

7. Truthfulness

8. Resolution

9. Loving-kindness

10. Equanimity

XII. The Four Boundless States

These are considered 'friends' on the way to Nirvana, i.e., they help in dissolving the idea of a separate self

1. Loving kindness

2. Compassion

3. Sympathetic joy

4. Equanimity

A 'near enemy' is a quality that may masquarade as the original but is not,

while a 'far enemy' is clearly the opposite quality

Quality Description Near Enemy Far Enemy of, or

loving-kindness good-will, friendship, selfish love, hatred

unconditional love self love

for all sentient

beings

compassion empathy; to feel pity cruelty

with, instead of

for, someone

sympathetic joy spontaneous joy hypocrisy envy

in response to the

success of others

equanimity even-mindedness indifference anxiety

based on insight

into the nature of

things

XIII. The Ten Fetter of Existence

1. Self-delusion

2. Doubt

3. Clinging to ritual

4. Sensuous lust

5. Ill-will

6. Greed for fine material existence

7. Greed for immaterial existence

8. Conceit

9. Restlessness

10. Ignorance

XIV. The Five Types of Beings

1. buddhas

2. disciples

3. bodhisattvas

4. the undetermined (who have the potential to become disciples or bodhisattvas

5. those with no potential for enlightenment at all

XV. The Buddha's Three Bodies

1. The Dharmakaya, the 'Dharma Body,' is the Buddha's body that is one with the eternal dharma, the ultimate truth, which lies beyond all dualities and conceptions, the fundamental buddha, the original state of all things.

2. The Sambhogakaya, the 'Bliss Body' or 'Enjoyment Body,' is the body that appears to the bodhisattvas in the celestial realm, where they commune with the truth of the Mahayana. It may also be the body through which we are able to understand and enjoy the bliss of enlightenment.

3. The Nirmanakaya, the 'Transformation Body,' 'Appearance Body,' or 'Manifest Body,' is the body in which the buddha appears in the world for the benefit of suffering beings. It is not a real, physical body but rather something like a phantom appearance assumed by the dharmakaya.

XVI. The Five Aggregates (Skandhas)

1. Form is made up of

earth

water

fire

wind

2. Feeling is

pleasant

unpleasant

neutral

Feelings arise when there is contact between the six internal organs faculties) and the six external objects:

Internal Organs External objects

eye sight

ear sound

nose odor

tongue taste

body touch

mind thought (mental objects)

3. Perception is related to the six external objects

4. Volition is the response of the will to the six external objects

5. Consciousness grasps the characteristics of the six external objects

Visual consciousness

Auditory consciousness

Olfactory consciousness

Gustatory consciousness

Tactile consciousness

Mental consciousness