The Beauty Of Buddhism

The Beauty of Buddhism is a short lecture that discusses the earliest theory of Buddhism before it underwent numerous cultural changes. The beauty of Buddhism lies with this early theory, its simplicity, and in-depth understanding of the human mind.

Transcript

This is a short lecture and not a meditation if you want to look into the Buddhist meditation you can look into the Recording that I did called the foundational guide of Buddhist meditation This is a short lecture on the philosophy and the core aspects of Buddhism Buddhism has evolved much over the last 2500 years This is primarily due to cultural aspects for example when it went to Tibet or when it went to China Or where it went to Japan it started to evolve and change in a way It was as with everything historically it always starts off simple and then over time becomes relatively complex the beauty of Buddhism is actually in the simplicity depth and genius In understanding human mind that makes Buddhism so special in this day and age The one would to actually look a little bit deeper 99% of New Age books a large vast array of so-called new styles of meditation and so much current Psychology techniques used by clinical psychologists all have their origins with Buddhism if we want to try to find the early ideas of Buddhism We can look at their Pali Canon and a suitor called the mahasati patana suitor it is from this suitor which is arguably one of the oldest suitors and Probably the most important suitor in the whole Pali Canon that we begin to grasp and get a feeling for What Buddhism really was before it was culturally changed?

So in this suitor we are told of the four noble truths Which is the core of?

Buddhism and its early origins the problem according to Buddha was suffering This suffering was created By grasping at what he called the five aggregates the five aggregates are basically form feeling perception mental formations and conscious imprint So if I were to eat my favorite food,

Which is form The food itself is form then it gives me a feeling of joy and happiness and then there's a mental Formation that is created kind of like a spiritual Created kind of like a circuit where I go.

Mmm,

That's my favorite food I want to eat that again by which we end up having a conscious imprint the second noble truth was the origin of this suffering the origin of this suffering was craving and Craving was established by agreeable and pleasurable things But what craving really is is craving for the six senses?

So Buddha said the six senses are on fire your eyes are on fire Your ears are on fire your taste is on fire and the sixth sense being the mind.

They're all on fire Wanting more and more and more and more So if we look at these two noble truths again,

The problem is suffering the origin of of craving if we take one further step Buddha says that from your six senses Which are the input senses you then end up getting into the five aggregates?

So you see something and that what you see creates a feeling and a mental formation and then a conscious imprint so it goes from the six senses to the aggregates to a conscious imprint on your mind and What happens to this as every human being wants the same thing.

They want more and agreeable pleasurable things and What are those pleasurable things we want we want pleasurable things for our senses?

So we were warned again and again don't become a slave to your senses So once again to recap this important point the problem is suffering The origin is craving when we look at this on a further deeper level It is that you get input from your six senses because you want to find an agreeable and pleasurable circumstance and then from the six senses That thing ends up creating a conscious imprint So the third noble truth was the cessation of the suffering So how does one treat this problem of?

Suffering how does one treat the origin of it the craving?

The way one treats this problem or disease or illness is to detach and abandon the six senses Because then you're cutting it off at the root So don't be a slave to a six senses So once again,

We end up with the problem,

Which is suffering the origin of that is craving the treatment of that is to detach from the six senses and the method which was called the Noble Eightfold Path Was actually a method of liberation This method we could actually look and group it into three parts So the first part of this method is being an upright moralistic human being on all levels of the way you speak to people of the job that you choose to do on renouncing selfishness So that was the foundation to have good morals because having that good foundation Automatically calms your mind and sets you up to be able to do mindfulness So mindfulness according to Buddha we can group that into three aspects The first aspect of mindfulness is to do one thing at a time So if you're gardening just garden,

But don't think about what you're going to have for dinner We also want to keep this in all aspects such as when we eat or when we're reading Or whatever we may be doing one thing one thought one focus at one time The second aspect of mindfulness was seated meditation with focusing on the breath and Buddha was very serious about this Find a right spot in a quiet area or next to a tree and sit there and observe The coming and going of your breath don't adjust it.

Don't try to make it long Don't try to make it short.

Don't try to focus on it anywhere Focus on your whole breath and your whole body at the same time.

Just the coming and the going of it So the third aspect of mindfulness was That when thoughts do come to the mind you watch them come and you watch them go and you watch them come And you watch them go.

It's a little bit like if you were to greet a guest at a party Once you greet the guests of the party now,

You're engaged in a conversation So it's the same thing with your thoughts.

You might say hello to them But you don't want to engage in a conversation So therefore the best thing is watch them come and watch them go don't engage with them.

Don't attach to them So if we were to recap here first aspect of the method To treat this the problem of suffering is good morals The second aspect is mindfulness which includes doing one thing at a time Seated meditation is a good way to engage in a conversation which includes doing one thing at a time seated meditation on the breath and Thirdly allowing thoughts to come and go and not attaching or talking to them Mindfulness gave one the basis of what Buddha called the enlightenment factors Once one was established in mindfulness Then one could do the third aspect which is called samadhi and this is based on the four jhanas So the four jhanas mean?

The first jhana is when you detached from the senses in your life and in your daily life.

You are no longer Craving to satisfy your senses.

You are no longer a slave to your senses The second jhana was when your mind stopped thinking and pondering which means that your mind was resting in some form of stillness The third jhana was called equanimity and equanimity means that if you have Outside circumstances affect you whether it be a good thing or a bad thing Your mind still stays flat without fluctuating This was a third jhana called equanimity the fourth jhana We could see as pure stillness of the mind This is different to hinduism This is different to yoga practices of the stillness of the mind So what they did was they did an experiment where they got yoga practitioners and Buddha practitioners together and they would get them to meditate and they would click every 30 seconds or so and They would watch the brainwaves of the yoga practitioner the Buddhist practitioner every single time.

There was a click the yoga practitioner Did not have any response Every time there was a click the Buddhist practitioner had a response so here we end up with Very very clearly different paths and like Buddha said is he tried the yoga techniques of the time and they didn't work for him So Buddha wanted your mind to be in pure stillness But not in a way where you could not observe and function and see the world So this is one of the core aspects of Buddhist meditation is that when you're sitting in your awareness You are sitting in your awareness.

You're not focusing on something So if you think that you were to focus on something very very strongly,

Which is very commonly done with chanting so in Hinduism and Brahmanism yogic When you first start chanting you start chanting very loudly Then you start chanting under the breath then you start chanting in your mind And of course that is different because that is focusing and focusing and focusing and tightening and focusing and tightening the mind So you can imagine that when you're that focused a click may be difficult to to respond to Buddhism is not like this.

You're sitting in a still awareness But you're still aware of everything that's going on around you So this was the fourth jhana of pure stillness when you reach that jhana That is nirvana or nirvana in Sanskrit and you become an arahant You are what we modern day now call an enlightened being So if we were to recap this entire path again From early buddhism and the way the road and the path of buddhism Number one the problem is suffering Suffering is created by the five aggregates of grasping in other words mental formations and conscious imprints are put on your mind number two The origin of the suffering is craving which is established by seeking enjoyment and pleasure for the six senses the third the treatment of the problem of suffering Is to detach and abandon from the six senses the fourth noble truth Which was the noble eightfold path the method of liberation had three aspects number one good upright moralistic human being Which gives you a foundation to do mindfulness?

Mindfulness had three aspects do one thing at a time seated meditation on the breath and thirdly Allowing thoughts to arise and disappear without attachment that gave one the base To be able to go into samadhi which had four jhanas the first jhana to be detached from the six senses The second jhana to have a mind that doesn't think or ponder Third equanimity so you're not affected by any external Goods or bads and fourth Where you enter into pure stillness of the mind?

Which allowed you to become an arahant and to achieve nirvana now one core aspect here We just need to discuss the four main aspects of suffering Now one core aspect here.

We just need to discuss quickly is this pure stillness So what are we what was buddha talking about here with this idea of pure stillness?

Here we need to use a thought experiment.

So I want you to imagine in your mind A piece of white paper with nothing on it whatsoever Now get that piece of white paper and get a pen and put as many dots on it as you can So those dots on that piece of white paper Is what were created from the six senses?

Which had the five aggregates we went from form feeling perception mental formation and conscious imprints all those dots Are conscious imprints?

They could be good.

They could be bad.

They could be neutral.

It doesn't matter Now buddha said That at the essence of the mind The essence You aren't those dots.

You are actually that blank white piece of paper That's what you are your essence.

So the Theravādans called it no self,

Which is most likely what buddha called it anata in pali later on the mahayana schools most likely to do to some cultural differences called that idea buddha nature And this was also an idea where every single person An animal has buddha nature We all have that blank white piece of paper At our essence,

We are that blank piece of white paper So to say that there is no paul.

There is no mary.

There is no john Is partially correct Because at your essence we are all the same but it is also to correct to say that there is a john And there is a paul and there is a mary because All those black dots make up who you are So as we can see It's the clearing of all those black dots Which do what?

It's the clearing of those black dots which allow you to finally become an arahant and to enter nirvana Now in buddhism,

It is important to realize that there is rebirth and not reincarnation So there is rebirth because of all those black dots on that white piece of paper There is something to be reborn again and again and again When there are no black dots on that white piece of paper,

There is nothing to be reborn Now if we were to look at hinduism and brahmanism That white piece of paper is a bit different That white paper of paper you can draw a big black dot in the middle and color it in and that black dot is called your soul now that black dot Goes from lifetime to lifetime to lifetime the goal was to get that black dot your soul to Merge back with the universal soul This was the goal and the idea of brahmanism and hinduism and and different yoga schools Buddhism was very different to that so now that we understand the basis of buddhism one can also see the beauty of it the simplicity of it and Really the grandeur and brilliance of such a clever system and clever idea I hope now that you can understand the foundation of buddhism Of where it came from the basic ideas of it and what we're aiming to do If you go to the foundational guided meditation I take you through The traditional buddhist meditation and meditation based on pure awareness Not on focusing Which is not what buddha was about Buddhist meditation is not focusing buddhist meditation is about awareness Thank you for listening.

My name is sean ramston And I hope you have a wonderful day

Reviews

Great comparison between yogic and buddha meditation. Fascinating!

Always enjoy your teaching 🙏 What an outstanding summary. You have done a great job with your explainations. Thank you.

Thank you! What a great intro to Buddhism and it’s concepts.

Thank you for recapping as you went along. There’s a reason they call Buddhism the religion of lists 😅

Very helpful in understanding something so simple. Who knew!!!!???? Really good stuff.

I really enjoy that talk. I learned so much. Thank you.

🙏Thank you so much

This was so well laid out and instructive thank you.

Outstanding thank you

Very insightful, thank you!

Thank you, very insightful

Excellent 👌👌👌

Very clear and concise explanation . Bravo!

That was an excellent talk on a very complicated topic. Shaun really covered it very nicely. Well worth a listen. 😁👍❤️

Thank you this was really enlightening for me.

A really good short explaination of Buddhist meditation.
Thank you so much.

Very good simplified explanation

Enlightening and full of wisdom and guidance. I am very grateful. Namaste 🙏🏻

Thank you for sharing this wisdom. Wonderful.