Siddharta’s Dharma

Siddharta’s Dharma

“Does Master Gotama have any position at all?”

“A ‘position,’ Vaccha, is something that a Tathāgata has done away with. What a Tathāgata sees is this: ‘Such is form, such its origination, such its disappearance; such is feeling, such its origination, such its disappearance; such is perception… such are fabrications… such is consciousness, such its origination, such its disappearance.’ Because of this, I say, a Tathāgata—with the ending, fading away, cessation, renunciation, & relinquishment of all suppositions, all excogitations, all I-making & mine-making & obsessions with conceit—is, through lack of clinging/sustenance, released.”

Noble Eightfold Path

• Right View: our actions have consequences, death is not the end, and our actions and beliefs have consequences after death. The Buddha followed and taught a successful path out of this world and the other world (heaven and underworld/hell).
• Right Resolve or Intention: the giving up of home and adopting the life of a religious mendicant in order to follow the path; this concept aims at peaceful renunciation, into an environment of non-sensuality, non-ill-will (to loving kindness), away from cruelty (to compassion). Such an environment aids contemplation of impermanence, suffering, and non-Self.
• Right Speech: no lying, no rude speech, no telling one person what another says about him to cause discord or harm their relationship.
• Right Conduct or Action: no killing or injuring, no taking what is not given, no sexual misconduct, no material desires.
• Right Livelihood: no trading in weapons, living beings, meat, liquor, and poisons.
• Right Effort: preventing the arising of unwholesome states, and generating wholesome states, the bojjhagā (Seven Factors of Awakening). This includes indriya-samvara, “guarding the sense-doors”, restraint of the sense faculties.
• Right Mindfulness (sati; Satipatthana; Sampajañña): a quality that guards or watches over the mind; the stronger it becomes, the weaker unwholesome states of mind become, weakening their power “to take over and dominate thought, word and deed.” In the vipassana movement, sati is interpreted as “bare attention”: never be absent minded, being conscious of what one is doing; this encourages the awareness of the impermanence of body, feeling and mind, as well as to experience the five aggregates (skandhas), the five hindrances, the four True Realities and seven factors of awakening.
• Right samadhi (passaddhi; ekaggata; sampasadana): practicing four stages of dhyāna (“meditation”), which includes samadhi proper in the second stage, and reinforces the development of the bojjhagā, culminating into upekkha (equanimity) and mindfulness. In the Theravada tradition and the vipassana movement, this is interpreted as ekaggata, concentration or one-pointedness of the mind, and supplemented with vipassana meditation, which aims at insight.

Four Noble Truths

• Dukkha (Suffering / Unsatisfactoriness): Life as ordinarily experienced is unstable and incapable of providing lasting satisfaction. Includes pain, loss, aging, death, and even the subtle dissatisfaction of pleasant experiences ending.
• Samudaya (Origin of Suffering): The cause of suffering is craving (taṇhā)—the desire to possess, become, avoid, or hold onto experiences.
• Nirodha (Cessation of Suffering): When craving is extinguished, suffering ceases. This state is called Nibbāna (Nirvāṇa).
• Magga (The Path): The way to end suffering is the Noble Eightfold Path.

Dependent Origination (Twelve Links)

• Avijjā (Ignorance): Not seeing reality as it is; ignorance of the Four Noble Truths and the nature of existence.
• Saṅkhārā (Volitional Formations): Intentional mental activities, habits, and karmic tendencies conditioned by ignorance.
• Viññāṇa (Consciousness): Awareness of an object through one of the senses or the mind.
• Nāma-rūpa (Name-and-Form): The psycho-physical organism; “name” refers to mental factors, while “form” refers to the physical body.
• Saḷāyatana (Six Sense Bases): The six faculties—eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind.
• Phassa (Contact): The meeting of a sense organ, its object, and the corresponding consciousness.
• Vedanā (Feeling): The immediate tone of experience—pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral.
• Taṇhā (Craving): Wanting pleasant experiences, avoiding unpleasant ones, or craving existence and non-existence.
• Upādāna (Clinging): Attachment and identification with desires, views, rituals, and notions of self.
• Bhava (Becoming): The process of forming patterns of existence and identity through continued attachment.
• Jāti (Birth): The arising of a new existence, identity, or mode of being.
• Jarāmaraṇa (Aging-and-Death): The inevitable decay and ending of whatever has arisen, together with sorrow, grief, and despair.

Five Aggregates

• Rūpa (Form): The physical body and all material phenomena.
• Vedanā (Feeling): The pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral tone accompanying experience.
• Saññā (Perception): Recognition and labeling of objects and experiences.
• Saṅkhārā (Mental Formations): Thoughts, intentions, emotions, habits, and volitional activities.
• Viññāṇa (Consciousness): The awareness that arises when a sense faculty encounters an object.

Four Dhyānas

• First Jhāna: Characterized by applied attention, sustained attention, joy, happiness, and one-pointedness. The mind is withdrawn from sensory distractions but still actively engaged with the meditation object.
• Second Jhāna: Characterized by joy, happiness, and one-pointedness. Discursive mental activity subsides and concentration becomes more unified.
• Third Jhāna: Characterized by happiness, equanimity, and mindfulness. Joy fades, leaving a quieter contentment and balance.
• Fourth Jhāna: Characterized by equanimity, purity of mindfulness, and neither pleasure nor pain. A state of profound stillness and mental clarity.

Five hindrances

• Kāmacchanda (Sense Desire): Craving for pleasant sights, sounds, smells, tastes, sensations, or thoughts.
• Byāpāda (Ill Will): Anger, resentment, hostility, or aversion toward people, situations, or experiences.
• Thīna-middha (Sloth and Torpor): Mental dullness, lethargy, sleepiness, and lack of energy.
• Uddhacca-kukkucca (Restlessness and Worry): Agitation, anxiety, remorse, and inability to settle the mind.
• Vicikicchā (Doubt): Paralyzing uncertainty regarding the teachings, practice, teacher, or one’s own capacity to progress.