Buddhism :

Four Noble Truths :

1. First noble truth mentioned by Buddha is suffering. In each and every field of life we feel problem,pain and misery.Even happiness comes accompanied by sorrow.We are always anxious about loosing something.Another anxiety is about fulfilling our ever rising new desires.Even things which appears pleasant,actually give us pain.

2.Second noble truth is,there is cause of suffering.Theory of pratityasamutpada mentions this fact that there is cause of everthing.Nothing can come into existence without cause.Everything is dependent on its cause.Since everything in this world is conditional, there must be some cause of suffering also.This cause of suffering is ignorance.

3.Third noble truth is – suffering can be removed.Since,according to dependent origination everything has cause.To destroy something,its cause must be destroyed.The cause of suffering is ignorance.So,ognorance must be destroyed.Destruction of suffering will naturally happen.Since it originated at one point of time,it must perish also ,sometime .

4.Fourth noble truth is:pathways of cessation of suffering.Eight fold path mentioned by Buddha is the pathways to the cessation of suffering.This ethical as well as spiritual pathway will lead to

 liberation.These eight fold paths are:

1. Right faith

2.Right resolve

3.Right speech

4.Right action

5.Right living

6.Right effort

7.Right thought

8.Right concentration

Ashtangamarga : There is suffering in life and also there is pathways for the removal of suffering.Since,everything has a cause for its existence,removal of the cause will remove the effect also.So Buddha told eight fold path for the removal of suffering,which are these :

1.Right Faith :Right faith is real faith.Due to ignorance,there is wrong faith.And due to this wrong faith,we suffer.We take perishable,temporary,fragile things as if they were eternal,imperishable and constant.To think something momentary as eternal,sorrowfull as

 pleasant and material as consciousness,is wrong faith.Till we wouldn’t know right actions,we wouldn’t be able to perform them.

2.Right Resolve : Well determination is must for performance of right action.Determination has two parts – one is to resolve rightly and the second is to avoid wrong resolve.Right resolves are three:  resolution of detachment,resolution to not to be rebellious and resolution of ahimsa.Wrong determinations are also three.They are – determination of desire,determination of rebelliousness and determination of violence.Feeling of friendliness and compassion for people in general is necessary for right determination.

Right Speech :To avoid wrong speech is necessary to follow right speech.Wrong speech are of four types – false statement,to tell something confidential,to speak harshly,and outspokenness.Everybody should avoid all these wrong speeches and follow the tenet of Buddhism which is ,to speak sweet words,concise and express good wishes to others.

Right Action :Everybody should avoid sinful acts.These sinful acts are three:violence,theft.and non- celibacy.All these are criticized by everybody.Just  opposite to these are – non-violence,non-stealing and celibacy.Compassion is needed for non-violence.Sense of satisfaction is needed for non-stealing and control of sense-organs is needed for celibacy.

Right Living :Right means must be chosen for livelihood and wrong one must be avoided.Wrong means are – to torture others for one’s benefit

Or to indulge in violence.All these are prohibited.Five types of works are prohibited in Buddhism:

1. Business of arms

2. Business of animals

3. Business of flesh

4. Business of wine

5. Business of poison

6. Right Effort :Every body should accept good thoughts and avoid bad ones.There are four steps of this right effort:renounce all previous evil thoughts ,no new bad thought must arise , mind must be engaged in good thoughts,constant effort to retain these good thoughts.

7.Right Remembrance : To remember known things intact,is right remembrance.Anything of which right knowledge has been acquired must be remembered continuously,so that they wouldn’t be forgotten.There are four parts of right remembrance.To consider the real nature of body,pain,chitta and dharma is right  thought.

Right Concentration :This is the last stage  of eight-fold path.There are two stages of Samadhi – concentration of mind and wisdom.There are four steps of Samadhi – first one is concentration of mind on four noble truths.Second is,removal of doubts of the sadhaka and faith in four noble truths.Third is,sense of negligence for bodily pleasure.Fourth stage is stage of total calm, quiet and peace.

Madhyam Pratipad : Buddha mentioned ‘middle path’ as ‘golden path’.It is being between the two extremes of self-indulgence and self-sacrifice.Buddha preached in his first sermon about it,that there are two extremes.One is a life of enjoyment,unspiritual and ignoble.Another is life of self-sacrifice.The perfect one,according to him is that ,which lies between the two, the middle way which ‘enlightens the eyes,enlightens the mind,which leads to rest,to knowledge,to enlightenment,to nirvana.’

Nirvana :

Nirvana in Buddhism is cessation of miseries,elimination of all desires and passions.The word ‘nirvana’ means ‘blowing out’ or ‘extinguish’ the flame,according to Digha Nikaya.According to Dr Radhakrishanan, ‘nirvana is an eternal condition of being,for it is not a sanskara or what is made or put together which is impermanent.It continues while its expressions change.This is what lies behind the skandhas which are subject to birth and decay.The illusion of becoming is founded on the reality of nirvana.”

According to Buddhism nirvana is a state of utter peace and bliss.Dissolution of five skandhas,cessation of all the vrittis of mind and also the cessation of the cyclic process of birth and death are the natural outcome of the blowing out of the flame of passions and desires.S P N Sharma writes that, “Buddha compares the    of nirvana with deep sleep when the soul loses its individuality and merges into the objective whole.”According to Mahayana,nirvana is a state of pure being,a stream of timeless existence.

Dr S Radhakrishnan remarks that “ nirvana is getting back into the stream of being and resuming the uninterrupted flow of cosmic consciousness.Nirvana is neither annihilation nor existence as we conceive it but is becoming one with the eternal reality,which Buddha does not explicitly admits.”

Pratityasamutpada : Pratityasamutpada,viewed from the point of view of relativity is samsara;while viewed from the point of view of reality,it is nirvana.

                                                                                   Madhyamika Karika 

From the above statement it is clear that pratityasamutpada is the phenomenal aspect of the noumenal reality.Impermanence is the main characteristic of this phenomenal reality.Everything,here is relative and conditional.Every effect is dependent on the cause.This phenomenal world is the manifestation of the various aspects of the same reality.Since it is manifestation of partial reality,it is relative one.It is neither nothingness nor reality but between the two i.e. relative or dependent.According to Buddhism this pratityasamutpada is the dharma,the law.Since we cannot understand this everchanging aspect of reality,we suffer.Knowledge of this law of pratityasamutpada will lead to end all suffering.Ignorance is the root cause of suffering.Out of ignorance we act and the impressions of these actions lead to rebirth.Due to sense-impressions there is will to be.We want to enjoy the object of this world.Buddhism has given twelve links of the pratityasamutpada,which are followings:

1. Ignorence

2. Impressions of karmic forces

3. Initial consciousness of the embryo

4. Psycho-physical organism

5. Six sense-organs

6.Sense-object contact

7.Sense-experience

8.Thirst for sense-enjoyment

9.Clinging to this enjoyment

10.Will to be born

11.Birth or rebirth

12.Old age and death

Ignorance and impressions come from the past life while birth and old age and death are related to the future life.All the other are linked with the present life.In Buddhism it is called Bhava-chakra.To stop this cyclic process of Bhava-chakra,we have to remove ignorance.Only by knowledge this ignorance can be removed and by knowledge only nirvana will be possible.

Ksanabhangavada : The theory of pratityasamutpada of Buddhism is based on the theory of causation.It is something hypothetical.If something like A exists then the thing like B also exists.In the absence of A,B is also absent.This theory of causation proves the perishability and momentariness of things.When there is cause,then only there is

effect.In the absence of cause,effect also remains absent.All things come into existence due to the existence of some other thing,which is called cause.Since they come into existence,it is definite that they will cease to be at a moment of time because everything which originates is sure to perish.Nothing is imperishable in this world.

Momentariness means nothing is eternal in this world.One thing perishes after giving birth to another thing.This is a continuous process.Though nothing is constant,this process of dependent origination is constant.This flux is constant.By mistake we people take this constant flux of things as if the thing itself were constant.In fact nothing is eternal in this world.It exists only for a moment.Just like the flow of the current of river which changes continuously,nothing is constant.

According to Buddhism,real is momentary.There is relation of invariable concomitance between the real and momentariness.Whatever is real is momentary.Present is dependent on past and future is dependent on the present.

Anatmavada :Momentariness is just opposite to eternality theory of Vedic philosophy.In Buddhism even soul is also considered as momentary.This theory of momentariness of soul is the most controversial issue of Buddhist philosophy.All the astik philosophers raise their objection against this theory as it will lead to violate the law of karma.According to law of karma  any right or wrong deed wouldn’t exhaust without giving the result and not even a single fruit can be earned without doing anything for that.So,if everything is momentary then the work done by the doer will perish within moment without giving him the fruit.And in the next moment we will be able to get the fruit of the karma not done by ourselves.So,this will lead to disorder this whole cosmic process which is according to Vedic philosophy universal law of morality.

Further,if there isn’t any constant soul who will receive the fruits.Again,it will create problem regarding description of memory.Everchanging soul cannot retain memory.Next problem is this that without any eternal soul it will be very difficult to define bondage and liberation.

Schools of Buddhism :

Vaibhasika :Vaibhasikas accept all things as real.That’s why they are called ‘sarvastivadi’.Vaibhasikas believe in both the internal and external objects.They believe in the existence of external objects.That’s why they are called ‘bahya-pratyakshavadi.’This is the basic difference between Vaibhasikas and Sautantrikas.Sautantrikas don’t believe in the perception of external objects.Vaibhasikas say that external objects create their ideas in our chitta.If we wouldn’t accept their existence then their knowledge wouldn’t be possible.Sautantrikas are ‘bahyanumeyavadi’.They believe in the inference of the existence of external object.

Vaibhasikas believe in the reality of nirvana.Cessation of all impressions is nirvana,according to them.The flux of five skandhas ceases to be and their reproductive power ends.This state is state of the end of all sorrows.Nirvana is of two types for them.One is categorical another is absolute.First one is the state of end of all sorrows and cycle of birth and death.This is state of happiness.Second one is related to cosmic stage.Here all types of experience ,whether positive or negative,end and a state of peace,calm and tranquilities persist.Though Vaibhasikas accept the reality of all things yet they believe in their mementariness.Things are eternal from the point of view of substance but momentary from the point of their transformation.

From the point of view of ethics both Sautantrikas and Vaibhasikas believe in the ideal state of ‘Arhat’. ‘Arhat’ is that ideal person who has stopped the flux of his desires and attained ‘Buddhattva’.

Sautantrika :Like Vaibhasika,Sautantrika is also a branch of ‘Sarvastivada’.But Sautantrikas don’t believe that all things are real.They don’t believe in the existence of ‘asanskrit dharmas’.These are merely absence of dharmas.These asanskrit dharmas are three,according to Sautantrikas.These are akashas,pratisankhyanirodha and apratisankhyanirodha.There is absence of form in akasha.Pratisankhyanirodha is absence of experience of wisdom and being.Apratisankhyanirodha is the absence of production of ideas.Also past and future cannot be accepted, as really existing.

According to Sautantrikas the word ‘sarvam asti’ means the twelve links of being exist.And these twelve links are momentary.According to Sautantrikas nirvana is in the form of absence only.This absence is absence of the flux of cause and effect.Again this is absence of suffering.They call nirvana as detachment or absence of attachment.

Sautantrikas believe in the five skandhas.These are – rupa,vedana,sanjna,sanskara and vijnana.

From the point of view of epistemology they are ‘bahyanumeyavadi’.They believe in the existence of external objects but believe in inference of their knowledge.We know only ideas and infer the existence of external objects.

Yogachara : This school of Buddhism is called ‘yogachara’ because it gives much emphasis on yoga.According to these philosophers, ‘to

 attain enlightenment,yoga is necessary.It is called ‘vijnanavada’ because,according to this school,only ideas are ultimately real,that is the substance.They have mentioned ten stages of Boddhisattvahood ,to become Buddha.

According to Vijnanavadins only ideas are real and only ideas exist.External world of object is only in the form of ideas.Epistemologically this whole world can be divided into two forms – knowledge and the object of knowledge.Due to illusion this world appears as without us,though it is identical with us.Things don’t have their independent existence.To believe in the existence of external world is ,illusion.As due to optical illusion we see things differently,same is the case with the persons who suffer from ognorance.External world appears to exist to them due to ognorance.So according to Yogachara only ideas exist and external objects are illusory.Objects exist in the form of mental ideas.

Madhyamika : “ Shunyavadins call themselves Madhyamikas or the followers of the middle path realized by Buddha during his enlightenment,which path,avoiding the errors of existence and non-existence,affirmation and negation,eternalism and nihilism also at once transcends both the extremes.”                                    C D Sharma

He further maintains that ,Shunya,according to the Madhyamikas,we emphatically maintain,does not mean a ‘nothing’ or an ‘empty void’ or

a ‘negative abyss’.Shunya essentially means indescribable,as it is beyond the four categories of intellect.It is Reality which ultimately transcends existence,non-existence,both and neither.It is neither ffirmation noar negation nor both nor neither. The same Reality from the point of view of phenomena is relative while from the point of view of Reality,it is absolute.Its indescribability is due to its nature which is beyond the approach of reason and logic.

Phenomenal reality is svabhava-shunya because it doesn’t have any constant nature, while ultimate Reality is prapancha shunya due to Its immutable nature.Reality includes in itself both samsara and nirvana.From the point of view of samsara it is relative while from the point of view of nirvana,it is absolute.Madhyamikas call Reality as Tathata and it transcends all the categories of reason.They say that it is neither shunya nor ashunya nor both nor neither.