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Home , Dalit Buddhist movement, Navayana

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Christianity and other : Week 2 – “The Buddha was a renunciate holy man who stepped outside the mainstream Indian of the Brahman priests. He dispensed with and speculation about , teaching an intensely pragmatic path of mental cultivation, whose goal was the end of suffering. Suffering, Buddha said, is the inevitable result of the way in which the individual instinctively shores up the ego by grasping at what is pleasant and reacting against what is unpleasant. Realistically, pain is unavoidable and, more subtly, because things are always changing, so, too, is the difficulty of experiencing pleasant states slipping away. By fully appreciating the impermanent flow of experience – and the fact that everyone dies - one develops a dispassionate attitude, which is ultimately rooted in the discovery that the ego is itself an insubstantial fiction and that who we really are is beyond all thoughts of the “I.” In this life, , the goal, is literally the “blowing out” of these compulsive tendencies – the three fires of greed, hatred, and delusion – denoting the complete turning around of a person from neurotic egoism to a state of blissful peace and the selfless freedom to be naturally loving toward others. At death, nirvana is the end of all .” (30-Second Religion, Russell Re Manning, ed. Metro Books, 2011, p. 36.)

Buddhism – a blossom of Is Buddhism a religion or a philosophy or a psychology? Is Buddhism atheistic or nontheistic? Buddhism by the numbers: there are more than 520 million Buddhists in the world (7% of the population). 9 million in India. Buddhists in Kalmyia. PROJECT: FAITH

Nepal – Siddhartha Gautama’s Birthplace Buddhist Scriptures – The Canon: he canon is traditionally known as the Tripiṭaka ("three baskets"). What the Buddha didn’t say: do research! Siddhartha’s Buddha’s Great Going Forth The Taking Responsibility for Oneself The of Buddhism 1. No Killing; 2. No stealing; 3. No sexual misbehavior; 4. No lying; 5. No intoxicants. “sama” – right? “Sama” is often translated as “right.” It can also mean: even equal, or balanced. All of Life is dukkha Suffering? Dissatisfaction?

Basic Buddhist Concepts: – no , not atman. The concept of ‘soul’ is dualistic; it keeps its separate identify forever. Transmigration – like a wave, everything is in process, everything changes. Anica – . PROJECT: FAITH

Our skandas (skeins) – desires keep us in the karmic wheel. Buddhism: : (The School of the Elders) Buddhism: (The Great Vehicle) , () & Japanese Buddhism: the way of compassion Modern Popoluar Buddhist Figures : “I would not look upon anger as something foreign to me that I have to fight… I have to deal with my anger with care, with love, with tenderness, with nonviolence.” Pema Chodron: “To be fully alive, fully human and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest. To live fully is to be always in no-man’s land, to experience each moment as completely new and fresh. To live is to be willing to die over and over again.” Martin Luther King and Thích Nhất Hạnh It was during his 1966 stay in the US that Nhất Hạnh met with King and urged him to publicly denounce the Vietnam War. In 1967, Dr. King gave a famous speech at the Riverside Church in New York City, his first to publicly question the U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Later that year, Dr. King nominated Nhất Hạnh for the 1967 Nobel Peace Prize. In his nomination Dr. King said, "I do not personally PROJECT: FAITH know of anyone more worthy of [this prize] than this gentle from Vietnam. His ideas for peace, if applied, would build a monument to ecumenism, to world brotherhood, to humanity.” The Dalai : “Where ignorance is our master, there is no possibility of real peace.” “The way to change others' minds is with affection, and not anger.” “Remember that sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck.” “An open heart is an open mind.” Buddhism: In the Buddhist movement of India, Navayana is considered a new branch of Buddhism, different from the traditionally recognized branches of Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana. It rejects most aspects of Buddhism and focuses on social transformation. Buddhism and : Thomas Merton Buddhism sense of “emptiness” and Christ’s self-emptying. "At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth, a point or spark which belongs entirely to God, which is never at our disposal, from which God disposes of our lives, which is inaccessible to the fantasies of our own mind or the brutalities of our own world."