WORLD CYCLES WHEN BUDDHAS APPEAR

WORLD CYCLES WHEN BUDDHAS APPEAR

CONTENTS

1. Buddhist Timescale

2. Great Aeon or World Cycle (Maha-kappa)

3. Incalculable Aeon or Epoch (Asankheyya-kappa)

4. Included Aeon or Era (Antara-kappa)

5. Human Lifespan (Ayu-kappa)

6. World Cycles When Buddhas Appear (Buddha Kappa)

7. Twenty-Four Buddhas Preceding Lord Gotama Buddha

8. Eight Qualifications of a Future Buddha (Bodhisatta)

9. Length of Time to Cultivate the Perfections (Paramis)

10. Reasons for the Differences in Time to Fulfill Paramis

11. Rare is the Appearance of a Buddha

12. Eight Unfortunate Existences in Samsara (Cycle of Births)

13. The Fulfillment of the Perfections by Pacceka Buddhas,

Chief Disciples and Great Disciples

14. The Pre-eminent Disciples of the Buddha

15. References

16. Explanatory Notes

112 • Buddhism Course

1. Buddhist Timescale

In the Buddhist system of timescale, the word “kappa” meaning “cycle or aeon” is used to denote certain time-periods that repeat themselves in cyclical order. Four time-cycles are distinguished; a great aeon (maha-kappa), an incalculable aeon (asankheyya-kappa), an included aeon (antara-kappa) and a lifespan (ayu-kappa).

2. Great Aeon or World Cycle (Maha-kappa)

A maha kappa or aeon is generally taken to mean a world cycle. How long is a world cycle? In Samyutta ii, Chapter XV, the Buddha used the parables of the hill and mustard-seed for comparison:

•          Suppose there was a solid mass, of rock or hill, one yojana (eight miles) wide, one yojana across and one yojana high and every hundred years, a man was to stroke it once with a piece of silk. That mass of rock would be worn away and ended sooner than would an aeon.

•          Suppose there was a city of iron walls, one yojana in length, one yojana in width, one yojana high and filled with mustard-seeds to the brim. There-from a man was to take out every hundred years a mustard-seed. That great pile of mustard-seed would be emptied and ended sooner than would an aeon.

FIVE PRECEPTS (PANCASILA)

FIVE PRECEPTS (PANCASILA)

CONTENTS

1. Five Vices and Five Virtues

2. Self Responsibility in Moral Training

3. Precepts are Indispensable in Moral Training

4. Dhamma Way to Compare Oneself with Another

5. First Precept: Abstention from Killing Living Beings

6. Second Precept: Abstention from Taking What is Not Given

7. Third Precept: Abstention from Sexual Misconduct

8. Fourth Precept: Abstention from False Speech

9. Fifth Precept: Abstention from Partaking of Intoxicants

10. Benefits of ‘Moderate Drinking’: Fact or Fallacy?

11. Factors that Enhance the Keeping of Precepts

12. Consequences of Breaking and Keeping the Five Precepts

13. References

Five Precepts • 145

1. Five Vices and Five Virtues

In many suttas regarding lay practice (Anguttara iii, 203), the Buddha explicitly warned of the five vices, which are dangers and enemies, and lead to hell. What are the five?

(i)                 Killing living beings

(ii)               Taking what is not given

(iii)             Sexual misconduct

(iv)                  Telling lies

(iv)             Partaking of intoxicants

• One who has these five vices lives the home-life without selfconfidence.

• One who has these five vices breeds hatred in this life or breeds hatred in the life

hereafter, feels in his mind pain and grief.

• One who has these five vices is termed 'vicious' and arises in hell.

In the same suttas, the Buddha spoke of the advantages of cultivation of the five virtues, which are the Five Precepts, namely:

(i)                 Abstention from killing living beings

(ii)               Abstention from taking what is not given

(iii)             Abstention from sexual misconduct

(iv)                  Abstention from telling lies

(iv)             Abstention from partaking of intoxicants

• One who has these five virtues lives the home-life with complete self-confidence.

• One who has these five virtues breeds no hatred in this life, or in the life hereafter, nor

does he feel pain and grief.

• One who has these five virtues is called virtuous and arises in the happy plane of

existence.

TEN BASES OF MERITORIOUS ACTION HERE DANA

 PART ONE: THE DANA GROUP

CONTENTS

1. Giving (Dana)

2. Factors that Strengthen the Beneficial Results of Dana

3. Volition of the Donor

4. Purity of the Recipient

5. Offering to the Order (Sanghika Dana)

6. Types of Gifts

7. Giving of Money for New Work (ava Kamma)

8. Gifts to Avoid

9. Advantages of Dana

10. Sharing or Transference of Merits (Patti-dana)

11. Transference of Merits to Departed Relatives

12. For Whom Are the Food Offerings in Pattidana Intended?

13. Can Petas partake of food and drink offered to them?

14. What Type of Beings Can Receive the Merits?

15. Chinese custom of burning paper money and paper models

of clothes, houses, etc., as offerings to the Departed

16. Rejoicing in Others' Merits (Pattanumodana)

17. References

(172)  Buddhism Course

1. Giving (Dana)

Dana literally means giving. The practice of dana is universally recognized as one of the most basic virtues. Although not a factor of the Noble Eightfold Path or a requisite of enlightenment, yet it claims a place of special eminence in the Buddha's teaching, being the beginning of the path to liberation. When the Buddha preaches to a newcomer, he starts his graduated teaching with an exposition on the virtues of giving (danakatha). Only after the person has come to appreciate this virtue would he introduce the other aspects of his teaching. Giving is the first of the Ten Paramis perfected by a Buddha. Among the Ten Bases of Meritorious Action, giving also comes first. Therefore, in the march towards enlightenment, one initially has to practise giving. This is because it is the best weapon against greed, the main cause of our suffering. Second, giving accompanied by wholesome volitions will lead to happy rebirth and less suffering in our next life. Third and most important, when giving is accompanied by the intention for the noble state, it acts as a condition for the development of morality, concentration and wisdom, the three stages of the Noble Eightfold Path that lead to the end of suffering.

Dependent Origination

                                        WHERE is the true Man’s Nibbana?

                                             Is it where he by chance is born?

                                             Dot not the yearning spirit scorn

                                             In such scants borders to be spanned?

                                                    O, yes! His Nibbana must be

                                            As the Dependent Origination wide and free!

             Is it alone where freedom is,

                                           Where being is being and Man is Man?

                                           Dot he not claim a broader span

                                           For the Non-Soul’s love of home than this?

                                                     O, yes! His Nibbana must be

                                          As the Dependent Origination wide and free!

Dependent Arising of Life

                     Happy the man, whose wish and care

                                  A few paternal ours bound,

                                  Content to breathe his native air,

                                               In His own Dependent Origination is Ground.

                                 Whose herds with milk, whose fields with bread,

                                 Whose flocks supply him with attire;

                                 Whose trees in summer yield him shade,

                                               In winter fire of dependent Arising.

DEATH AND REBIRTH

DEATH  AND REBIRTH

CONTENTS

1. Difference between Rebirth and Reincarnation

2. How Rebirth Takes Place

3. The Re-linking or Rebirth Consciousness.

4. Modes of Death

5. Objects Presented to the Mind before Death

6. Five Visions of a Dying Person

7. The Dying Consciousness

8. Modes of Birth

9. Four Planes of Existence.

10. References

88 • Buddhism Course

1. Difference between Rebirth and Reincarnation

All religions believe in an after-life. However the Buddhist doctrine of rebirth should be differentiated from the transmigration and reincarnation of other systems, because Buddhism denies the existence of a transmigrating permanent soul, created by a God or emanating from a Paramatma (Supreme or Universal Soul). Buddhism does not believe in any sort of transmigration. There is nothing that comes out of one body and enters another. Events take place according to the Law of Dependent Origination or Paticca Samuppada. Everything comes into existence depending on an instance previous to it and everything must also give rise to an instance, depending on itself.

In the Paticca Samuppada, the Buddha mentioned that Craving gives rise to Clinging, that to Becoming (or the continuity of the life-process actuated by Kamma) and that to Birth. The Craving of the dying man must give rise to Clinging, that to the continuity of the life-process of Becoming through Kamma (Kammabhava), and that to Birth. This is in line with the Second Noble Truth whereby craving gives rise to a new being consisting of the five aggregates of clinging which are suffering.

2. How Rebirth Takes Place

Starting with the conception of a human, the Buddha said that a germ of life is planted only when three conditions are met. Mother and father must unite, it is the mother’s period (ovum is ripe) and “the being to be born " is present. For a being to be born here, a being with craving for Becoming must die somewhere. It should not be taken to mean that “a being to be born or soul is waiting for the egg and sperm to unite and then enter it.” Parents only provide us with the cellular material in the rebirth process. This does not mean that all beings require parents for their birth because there are beings that are reborn spontaneously, depending on their Kamma.

Doctrine of Rebirth • 89

DEPENDENT CO-ORIGINATION (PATICCA SAMUPPADA)

DEPENDENT CO-ORIGINATION

(PATICCA SAMUPPADA)

CONTENTS

1. What is the Law of Dependent Origination?

2. How does the Law of Dependent Origination work?

3. Question of the First Cause

4. Dependent Origination is different from direct causation

5. Dependent Origination to explain the Origin of Suffering

6. Reverse Order of Dependent Origination to explain the

Cessation of Suffering.

7. References

8. Explanatory Notes

64. Buddhism Course

1. What is the Law of Dependent Origination?

According to this law, every phenomenon owes its origin to another phenomenon prior to it. It may simply be expressed as “depending on this, this originates”. An example of Dependent Origination in nature is given below: There being clouds in the sky it rains. It having rained, the road becomes slippery. The road becoming slippery, a man falls down. The man having fallen down becomes injured. Here a shower of rain depends on the clouds in the sky. The road becoming slippery depends on the rain. The fall of the man depends on the road becoming slippery. The injury of the man depends upon his fall:

Conversely:

If there were no clouds in the sky, it would not have rained. Then the road would not have become slippery. Then the man would not have fallen. Then he would not have become injured.

2. How does the Law of Dependent Origination work?

In this chain of events, we see one incident depends on one prior to it and gives rise to one after it. Everything that we find in this world can be brought in a chain of dependence like this. Nothing can originate without depending on something else previous to it, and no originated thing can be conceived of, which does not give rise to something else in its turn. Thus the process goes on. Anything can be traced upwards to where it originated from and everything can also be traced downwards to that which is produced depending on it.

Dependent Origination

3. Question of the First Cause

Here an objection can be raised as to what was the first cause or where does the process of causation end? In primitive times, people saw the wonders of nature and became curious to get some satisfactory explanation of them. Being ignorant of the Law of Dependent Origination and out of fear of the unknown forces of nature, they naturally tried to explain them by superstitious belief in gods or goddesses. The primitive man believed that the wind blows because the Wind God goes in a procession to get married. If science had accepted it and did not trace it according to the Law of Dependent Origination, we would not have known that the movement of wind is due to differences of atmospheric pressure. A theistic or superstitious explanation puts an end to all free inquiry. We cannot ask, who created the God or depending on what the God originates. Here there is an absolute check in the advancement of knowledge. The Law of Dependent Origination does not investigate into the first cause, for the very concept of a ‘first cause’ means a stop to further advancement of knowledge. Regarding the first beginning of beings, the Buddha has said: “Inconceivable, monks, is the beginning of this Samsara (cycle of birth and death), not to be discovered is any first beginning of beings who obstructed by ignorance and ensnared by craving, are running and faring in this round of rebirths”.

4. Dependent Origination is different from direct causation

The Law of Causation as understood by Aristotle and others considers the cause and effect as two distinct events, one producing the other. According to Dependent Origination, two events cannot be considered as quite distinct from one another, for there are links of the same process, which admits of no break. No single event in the world is ever isolated. A cause by itself cannot stand.