A Vedanta Hinduism extension {Buddhism} can emphasize compassion and self-denial.
method
Buddhism is a method, a way to heal oneself. People should have pure awareness, have unity, and live in the present. Simple Buddhism has no creed or mythology about this world or the next.
self
People actually have no egos, only body willings, sense qualities, perceptions, and desires.
method
People can control such thoughts, with no need to extinguish them by harsh measures. Through control, people gain freedom from desire and new relation to seemingly outer world. People gain self-composure, serenity, and calmness. Next, outer world disappears, in favor of inner being. People can lose their thoughts and desires and surrender self, to find their inner being. After enlightenment, people no longer need Buddhism.
illusion of the world
The world of things and people is many and transient {illusion of the world}. People are only physical forms, sensations, feelings, judgments, and dispositions. Knowledge categories are only imprecise thing and people groups. In Buddhism, cause ends when effect begins.
mind
Mind is unable to lead people to Truth or express Truth and so is not important. Mind perceives only true-reality projections and so sees world as real and outside self. Mind values things in world. Desires and perceptions lead to ignorance of Truth.
physical relation
Physical objects are all the same in essence. Physical objects can have different relations to other things.
sin
Buddhism has no ideas of sin or guilt.
gods
Esoteric Buddhism has gods.
In Japan, Daibutsu is the Grand Buddha. There is Newborn Buddha. Kangiten Shoten is Sacred Heaven. Jizo is Guardian of the Soul. Kannon is Mercy. Bishamon is Fortune. Fugen is Long Life. Kishimojin is patron of children. Arhan is holy disciple of Buddha. Inary is rice bearer. Oni is Gatekeeper of Hell. Benten is music and arts. Fudo is fire. Emma is Judge of the Dead.
In China, Shou Xing is god of longevity. Guan Yin is goddess of compassion. Duke Guan is god of war and literature. Cai Shen is god of wealth.
holidays
Ashada Purnima is first sermon of Buddha after attaining Mahaparinirvana in Kosi. Full Moon of Vaisakha is birth of Buddha. Vaisakha Purnima honors when Buddha attained bodhi or nirvana.
meditation
Buddhism has meditation styles. Recollection of the Buddha is a method. Vipassana or Insight is about breathing. Loving-kindness is about generalized compassion. Tantric Buddhism Wind mediation is about breath and spirit.
Chag-zôg Tibetan Buddhism meditations include Kargyü-School Great Seal meditations and Nying-ma or Ancient-School Great Perfection meditations. Focused Attention is on object or thought. Open Presence concentrates on object, thought, or image, to get to pure awareness. Non-Referential Compassion is a Loving-kindness meditation, including Sevenfold Causal Instructions, Equanimitous Exchange of Self and Other, and Giving and Taking.
People can have awakening {bodhi, Buddhism}.
In Buddhism, people have connections to, and/or are part of, true reality {Buddha nature}.
People have a conscious state {citta}.
People have belief or false belief {ditthi}.
People have mental pain {domanassa}, including grief.
People can know that no "other" or outside world exists {enlightenment}, only their being. After enlightenment, people no longer need Buddhism. All is void.
Voluntary actions have three causes {seeds of destiny} of destiny {karma, Buddhism}. They depend on former, current, and future acts. Karma can change by choosing different living styles.
Buddhism has three created worlds {lokas}: desires, pure forms with no desires, and no forms. People discover these worlds in sequence by going to deeper consciousness states.
Extinction {nibbana} is the highest goal, to quiet greed, hatred, and ignorance and reach unconditioned state.
World has signs or images {nimitta}.
People can be compassionate, friendly, clear-minded, and calm {nirvana, Buddhism}. Even nirvana itself loses all meaning after it happens. Achieving nirvana is the same as samsara. Nirvana is not a state or heaven.
People can have wisdom or understanding {panna}.
People can have concentration {samadhi, Buddhism}.
In Buddhism, one can achieve serene and mindful mental state {sammapatti, Buddhism} by meditation. It is the highest dhamma.
People can have proper conduct or moral rule {sila}.
People can have mental happiness {somanssa}.
People can have bodily pleasure or happiness {sukha}.
The Pali-Canon Three-Baskets {Tripitka} are for discipline, discourse, and extra doctrine.
Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha {Triple Gem}.
The senses or ways of knowing {Twelve Bases} are internal or external. Internal are eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind. External are objects, sounds, odors, tastes, and mental objects.
People can have clinging or attachment {upadana} to ways of knowing, sense qualities, perspectives, rules/rituals, and self.
Sense qualities {upekkha} can be neither pleasant nor painful.
Feelings or sense qualities {vedana} are sukha, dukkha, somanssa, domanassa, and upekkha.
Ignorance causes karma, which causes knowledge types, which causes body knowledge, which causes the five senses, which cause object knowledge, which causes experiencing, which causes desire, which causes grasping, which causes rebirth, which causes decay, which causes death {Becoming Wheel} {Wheel of Becoming}.
Buddhism has devotions {bhakti}.
Path to enlightenment {Eightfold Path} includes right belief or view, resolve, speech, conduct, occupation, effort, contemplation or mindfulness, and concentration or ecstasy. In Buddhism, following Eightfold Path eliminates desire and suffering and breaks the reincarnation chain. Eightfold Path is middle way between materialism and ascetism.
Do not kill, steal, have sexual misconduct, use false speech, or use intoxicants nor become heedless {Five Precepts}.
Contemplate body, feelings, perceptions/thoughts, and consciousness as themselves {Four Foundations of Mindfulness}.
In Buddhism, wheels {prayer wheel} with many rolled-up mantras can spin during meditation.
Mahayana Buddhism has a liberation-from-self method {soteriology}.
In Buddhism, meditation exercises {Insight Meditation} are to develop insight or tranquility and concentration to achieve pure insight and tranquility {vipassana}.
Five causal or conditioned existence parts {Five Aggregates} form being: matter, feelings, perceptions, mental states or thoughts, and consciousness.
Mind {nama} is one of the Five Aggregates.
Matter {rupa} is one of the Five Aggregates.
Buddhism has four statements {Four Noble Truths} {Four Truths}. Existence is constant suffering and sorrow. Ignorance/illusion and desire cause suffering, by grasping existing world. People can suppress suffering by ending desire, ego, illusion, and ignorance. People can reach nirvana.
The middle way {marga, Buddhism} {middle path} is the Eightfold Path that ends dissatisfaction and suffering and liberates. It is one of the Four Noble Truths. According to Buddhism, people should follow the middle path, between worldly desires and harsh asceticism and discipline, and avoid both skepticism and dogma.
People can end {nirodha} dissatisfaction and suffering. It is one of the Four Noble Truths.
Desire/grasping {samudaya} causes dissatisfaction and suffering. It is one of the Four Noble Truths.
Life is dissatisfactory {dukkha} or has suffering. It is one of the Four Noble Truths. All life is dissatisfactory always. Dukkha is one of three truths or marks of existence.
Self is a name only, not reality {anatman} {anatta} {annatta} {no-self}. Self has no permanence and no substance. Anatman is one of three truths or marks of existence.
Material things and all existence are not permanent {anitya}. Anitya is one of three truths or marks of existence.
People can have transformation, enjoyment, and void {Triple Body}. Transformation is all things, events, and forms.
Doctrine {dharma, Buddhism} can mean reality, truth, physical law, physical nature, proper conduct, duty, justice, impartiality, mental state, or cause.
Enjoyment is physical-world compassion or knowledge {karuna, Buddhism}.
Void or Suchness is wisdom, intuition, and knowledge {prajna, Buddhism}.
Buddhist monks {arhat} can have obtained enlightenment.
Thai for Buddhist monk {bhikku}.
Living in the forest {forest-dweller} can remove suffering and defilement.
Older and respected monk {Luang Poh} is Venerable Father.
Thai title for Buddhist monk {Phra}.
Beginning monks {samanera} can take the Three Refuges and observe the Ten Precepts.
Buddhist community or Thailand monk {sangha}.
Buddhist temple {Ambhavan} is in Singhburi, north of Bangkok.
Thai county {Nai Amphur} {Amphur} of province has a sheriff.
Thailand capital {Ayudhya} [1350 to 1767] and province north of Bangkok.
Thai province {changwat}.
Thai ward or province district {amphur} {Tambon}.
ceremonial hall or monastery building {uposatha}.
Thai for Buddhist temple {wat}.
Sects {Buddhist sect} are Lamaism, Mahayana Buddhism, Hinayana Buddhism, Tantric Buddhism, Vajrayana Buddhism, and Zen Buddhism.
Buddhism is a vehicle or ferry {yana} to liberate oneself from desire, through enlightenment.
types
Hinayana Buddhism is the small boat or stricter way. Sri Lanka, Burma, and south India are Hinayana Buddhist or Theravada Buddhist. Mahayana Buddhism is the large boat or more varied way and includes Zen Buddhism, Pure Land Buddhism, and Lotus Buddhism. North India, China, Korea, Vietnam, and Japan are Mahayana Buddhist. Mahayana Buddhism strengthened as Sakas and Yueh-Chi peoples moved into India. Vajrayana Buddhism is the diamond way or boat. Tibet and Mongolia are Vajrayana Buddhist.
Mahayana Buddhism features an infinite number of buddhas {Buddhology}, some related to heaven and some representing ideals. It has no solitary buddhas {pratyeka-buddha}. Monks do not become enlightened like buddhas, so it has no arhats. People should strive to become buddhas.
Buddhism {Esoteric Buddhism}, derived from Hinduism, can have deities.
Tibet has a Buddhist tradition {Dzogchen}.
Tibet has a Buddhism form {Lamaism} [700] similar to Mahayana Buddhism. Dalai Lama has been divine ruler of Tibet since 1640.
Buddhism {Vajrayana Buddhism} can be the diamond way, boat, or vehicle. Tibet and Mongolia are Vajrayana Buddhist.
The first formal Buddhism {Hinayana Buddhism} was stricter.
monk
Hinayana Buddhism requires a strict program of self-control and effort. Hinayana Buddhism believes that enlightenment requires becoming a monk and following strict law.
self
Buddha said, "All things are without self". Hinayana Buddhists expanded this idea to say that all things and ego are only infinitesimal moments and transient particles. Moment chains and particle aggregations appear as individuals. Nirvana ends delusion that momentary things are real.
Nothing is permanent {doctrine of momentariness} {momentariness doctrine} {Sautranika}, because effects differ. Reality is causes. People's thoughts are separate chains of reality. Outside events can affect thoughts, but thoughts are separate from exterior physical world. Suffering is part of the thought chain, and external physical world does not cause it. Sautrantika School purported to use secret meaning of Buddha's sermons and dialogues.
School {Sarvastivadin} {Realists} was last of early Hinayana schools and believes in 75 dharmas or substances.
Later formal Buddhism {Mahayana Buddhism} is less strict than Hinayana Buddhism.
physical world
The physical world is an illusion or magic show. The physical world always changes and is endless. All physical-world things depend on all others. Physical world is unreal Void.
essence of reality
The quintessence or real in things has attributes and activities. Attributes and activities can change, but quintessence does not change. All things are only such as they are in essence: "thus being thus". Essence has no description, because nothing else can describe it. Essence only describes itself. To people, the essence is the Void, because people cannot know fundamental reality.
knowledge
Real knowledge is not about language, concepts, perceptions, thinking, or world. True reality has no description. People can only experience it or have awareness of it.
schools
Madhyamika School is about the void. Sautrantika School is about realism through representation and causation. Vaibhasika School is about realism by direct experience. Yogacara School is about idealism and subjectivity.
behavior
All things in reality are Buddha things, so all people have Buddha nature in them and should try for Buddhahood. Bodhisattva worship is good.
behavior: method
People must strip away world from one's nature, to reveal Self. The first step toward true reality is to realize the unreality of all that one sees or knows and to resolutely set out to reach true reality. The next steps involve removing these influences from one's life: ending desire, building concentration, and quieting mind's active criticism and attention to detail. Finally, one can enter various states of insight {cosmic consciousness, Buddhism}, in which one feels at one with the universe in mystical state. Mahayana Buddhism allows yoga, Buddhism, Hindu rituals, and asceticism.
Buddha bodies
Buddha has three bodies. Gautama's historical body {nirmanakaya} existed on Earth. Transfigured body {sambhogakaya} exists in paradise. Transcendent cosmic-buddha body {dharmakaya} is identical with ultimate reality.
People have inner being or Self {atman, Buddhism}, which is independent, is imperishable, is unchanging, is not part of physical world, is not a created thing, cannot appear to senses, and cannot appear to will or by willing. Knowledge of this self must guide life.
Obtaining true awareness of inner self completely changes one's life and is the way to transcend the physical world. Such awareness is realizing that the physical world is an illusion, is purely material, and is fleeting and contradictory. People should show no interest but strive for true reality. Even mind, personality, and subconscious are part of physical world.
In Mahayana Buddhism, people who are about to enter nirvana can stay at pre-nirvana stage {bodhisattva}, out of compassion, to comfort and save other beings. They are completely indifferent and without ego but lead others to Buddhahood. They can resolve time as samsara and eternity as nirvana into one Void or suchness. Virtue causes power. Their potential perfection is still in world and yet is inexhaustible. They take delight, because suffering has ended. They can never relapse to ego state, because they have reached perfection. They value nothing of world and so give away all, without holding back or thought of consequences. They completely devote themselves to others' benefit.
They stay in world to represent compassion of the Void and universe. They are part of the Void and yet themselves. They can move about in the Void timelessly. They have boundless energy and are able to play as the Void does.
Bodhisattva shows the idea that the Buddha has renounced nirvana until all creatures have also attained it. Bodhisattvas embody compassion of all Buddhas.
famous ones
Buddhism has Four Great Bodhisattva. In Mahayana Buddhism, Lotus Sutra and Heart Sutra are about Avalokitesvara, Avalokiteshvara, Guan Yin, or Kannon. Vajrayana Buddhism has Padmapani, Holder of the Lotus. Theravada Buddhism has Lokesvara. Tibetan Buddhism has Chenrezig, Shadakshari, or Lord of the Six Syllables. The Dalai Lama manifests Avalokitesvara.
Ksitigarbha in India, Ti-tsang in China, Jizo Bosatsu in Japan, Earth Store Bodhisattva, or Di Zang in China founded everything. In Ksitigarbha Sutra or Earth Store Sutra, Buddha named Earth Store Bodhisattva the leading Buddhist until time of the next Buddha {Maitreya}. Enma or Yama, King of Hell, is an incarnation and is master of the Six Paths of Hell, Ghost, Animal, Man, Asura, and Deva.
method
Destined bodhisattva gains knowledge by action, to see consequences. He gains knowledge by role-playing. He sacrifices himself. He performs virtuous deeds. He suppresses display and pride. He performs acts that attract good karma and leave no room for bad karma. He acts as if he were bodhisattva already. He transcends and thereafter behaves perfectly by instinct alone. He sees the potential Buddhahood of all things clearly.
The physical world is an illusion {maya, Buddhism}, is purely material, and is fleeting and contradictory.
Bases of both true reality and physical world are unknowable and are void itself {sunya} {sunyata, Buddhism}.
Buddha has Three Bodies {Trikaya Doctrine}. The nirmana-kaya, apparent body, or created body is in time and space. The body {sambhoga-kaya} of mutual bliss or enjoyment is an archetype. Dharma-kaya or Reality body is enlightenment.
A Mahayana-Buddhism school {Avatamsaka}, based on Avatamsaka Sutra, stresses unity and interrelations [1 to 100]. It affected Zen.
Sukhavati {Pure Land School} of Mahayana Buddhism states that faith in the Buddha of Boundless Light or Amitabha can achieve nirvana [1 to 100]. The Buddha of Limitless Light or Life developed and spread in China, Vietnam, Korea, and Japan and is largest sect in Buddhism. The Five Wisdom Buddhas are Amitabha, Vairocana, Akshobhya, Ratnasambhava, and Amogasiddhi.
Schools {School of the Great Delight} can emphasize love and compassion [800]. School of the Great Delight uses sexual symbolism to show opposing universe properties, such as male and female and Void and Universe. Yab-Yum is the united couple.
People know things either through senses or by inference. Both ways have causal sequences {Vaibhasika} {everything exists school}. Suffering comes from outside world, but it is not enduring, because all events and objects are momentary. Some reality, such as space and nirvana, is permanent. Past, present, and future are real.
Mahayana-Buddhism schools {Yogacara School} {mind-only school} can be monistic.
reality
All things are mental, with no external objects. Things do not grow, extend, have duration, or have succession. Such properties are thought-manifestations. Experience cannot separate from awareness content. The world's creating principle is thought or ideation {vijnana, Yogacara}, not material substance. Thoughts and ego depend on vijnana. Mind contains the potential and the material for all possible thoughts. Thought material is not a thing and has no attributes but is sunya void itself and has suchness.
consciousness
The Void is pure consciousness, thought, reason, and prajna wisdom, as stated in Vedanta.
The eight consciousness types are the five senses, sense consciousness, classifier/discriminator, and stored consciousness of potential forms.
compassion
Compassion is pure reflex of Void. Universe itself is compassion, because its parts manifest the Void.
Individuals surrender ego through love and passion for the principle or God that caused their existence, to become part of the whole and gain happiness {Tantra} {Tantric Buddhism}. Tantra is to ensure happy life on Earth, to ensure one is in heaven after life, and eventually to reach liberation. Tantra uses pleasures of the world to progress higher. People rise through participation, not rejection.
reality
Tantra is return to Vedas. Tantra and popular Hinduism use sacred-word repetition and emphasize the positive side of maya, manifestations in the world. All things are real, holy, and pure. Universe changes are also real. The Void is consciousness, being, and bliss, all together and at once. People are always part of universe as real beings and consciousnesses.
classes
In Tantra, there are no castes, and women can participate.
goddess
Tantric initiates usually devote themselves to the goddess Maya-Sakti, consort of all gods. She is also Mahamaya, the World Illusion, because her power is what sustains physical world.
Initiates worship the goddess in different ways, depending on state. They worship her as bride, if they have rajas. They worship her as mother, if they have tamas. They worship her as servant, if they have sattva.
Initiates repeat mantras: prayers, incantations, and holy words. They make offerings. They envision the goddess in love and devotion. Initiates typically have images of the goddess. Ritual summons the goddess, from deep within. Self-surrender and service to the goddess lead to realization that inner self is the goddess.
unity
In Tantric Buddhism, individuals are not important, only whole. People should do their duty or role in the world, as ritual and service.
Tantric yoga has enjoyment {bhoga} of both joy and suffering.
Tantric rituals often use the five forbidden things {Five M's}: wine, meat, fish, parched grain, and sexual intercourse.
Tantra says release {moksa, Buddhism} is not the highest goal. Moksa is meaningless, because all is Void.
Tantra depends on the idea, "Who seeks nirvana" {nirvana, Tantra}.
Tantric initiates {sadhaka} enjoy bliss in knowledge of goddess.
Acts are religious rituals {yajna}. Tantric rituals often use the Five M's. Sex has a highly symbolic role. All things are divine and pure in Tantrism, even forbidden things. In Tantrism, overcoming seeming darkness of forbidden things releases from guilt and provides full realization.
Zen Buddhism {dhyana} {zen} says that there are many different yogas.
meditation
People can learn to suspend physical and mental responses, such as judgment and analysis, to stimuli. Zazen open meditation is consciousness without response.
no dogma
In Japan, Buddhism has no dogma but emphasizes realizing inner being through meditation and discipline.
school
Buddhism in Japan has Rinzai School.
Zen arts
Zen arts are tea ceremony, flute playing, archery, fencing, ju-jitsu, and brush drawing.
In yoga of pure Self-contemplation {dhyana, Zen}, mind concentrates on one thing.
Understanding or enlightenment can come in altered consciousness states {kensho}.
Philosophical puzzles {koan} about life can have no solution, show that truth changes depending on perspective, or show that there is no truth. "That which can be taken away from you is not worth keeping, and that which cannot be taken away from you, why should you be afraid of its being taken away?" Osho Zen Tarot. "Who am I?" "What is this?"
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Date Modified: 2022.0225