Buddhism

BUDDHISM
“Salvation lies in liberation from attachment

to things, in release from all vain craving.”
Is Buddhism still important in modern life?
2
Inspiration…
Thich Nhat Hanh
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pd5Ndg0oJA
3
Buddhism = a practical philosophy
4 Attitudes towards others:
1. Metta: loving kindness

2. Karuna: compassion
3. Mudita: sympathetic joy
4. Upekkha: equanimity
Joan Halifax and the true
meaning of empathy
https://www.ted.com/talks/joan_halifax_compassion_and_the_true_
meaning_of_empathy
From 00:00 till 09:00
Compassion
‘If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you

want to be happy, practice compassion.’
Dalai Lama
6
Compassion
• Compassion is defined as deep, genuine sympathy for those who are

suffering, together with the desire to help alleviate this suffering.
• Compassion meditation is a technique we can use to dissolve self-

centeredness and isolation and to cultivate compassion by realizing that we
are not alone in our experience of suffering.
7
Difference in between empathy & compassion
• Empathy is the faculty to resonate with others feelings

(Same area of the brain is activated between the one who suffers and the one
who feels empathy.)
→ It might become a challenge if you constantly resonate
(compassion fatigue)
Is ‘walling yourself’ a good solution? No, because that per example a nurse can
not have contact with a patient.
8
Experiment with Mathieu Ricard and Tania Singer
• Mathieu was two hours in the scanner resonating with suffering (without
compassion meditation)
→ within 2 hours completely burned out
Normally in meditation, you bring compassion right away.
9
Experiment with Mathieu Ricard and Tania Singer
• When he brought in the compassion component, it was like opening a dam.

• Suffering (and the feeling of not knowing how to handle suffering) transformed
into loving kindness (embrace everything)
• No such thing as compassion fatigue. Only empathy fatigue!
→ empathy needs the vast sphere of loving-kindness and compassion = buffer

(Prevents the negative effects of feeling others suffering.)
Studies on meditation an neuroscience have shown that those qualities can be
trained.
10
The Difference Between Empathy and Compassion by
Matthieu Ricard
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebJTV5kTIU0
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What about GUILT?
12
Throw guilt to the wind - Barry Kerzin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uv-Pq0T2TK0
13
The Buddha
• Siddhartha Gautama , The ‘Enlightened One’, ‘Awakened

One’, ‘Sakyamuni’
• His life exemplified the Buddhist way of life (personality)
• Great civilization - social transformation
Lumbini
How to deal with suffering & death?
Unified unchanging self/independent permanent reality?
Or
No solution for problem of suffering and death?
→ Radical break with traditional religion

Radical in addressing all men
‘If you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha’
• Important to remain independent from authority figures.

• He believed that he had woken up to a truth that was inscribed in the deepest
structure of existence.
• Anyone can become enlightened by following the method od Gautama.
• If people started to revere Gautama the man, they would distract themselves
from their task and slow down spiritual progress.
16
The Buddha’s life: Four signs
A virtual prisoner
• Gautama’s pleasure palace is a striking image of a mind in denial.

• As long as we close our minds and hearts to the universal pain, we remain
locked in an undeveloped version of ourselves.
• We will not be able to grow in a spiritual way.
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A shift in the view of the world
Suddenly, the world seemed a place filled with endless suffering for
everybody. No chance to escape from it.
He had the feeling he was in a prison of pain and pointlessness.
He realized himself he would never, ever be able to see the world in the same
way again.
Result: He had to find a new way to cope with this pain.
Gautauma had permitted suffering to invade his life and to tear it apart.
But once he had let suffering in, his quest could begin.
19
The Buddha’s life: His quest
• Yoga was crucial to his enlightment

• Asana = the physical posture that is characteristic of yoga
• Breathing!
20
Yoga
• Our minds are easily distracted.

• We seem to have no or very little control over these unconscious impulses.
• A huge deal of our mental activity is automatic: we’re trapped in a chain of
associations.
• Many sub conscious activities.
• Long before Freud and Jung developed modern psycho analysis, the yogis of
India had discovered the unconscious mind.
21
Asana & breathing
• Sitting crossed legs and straight back in a motionless position

• The stillness of the body reflects the interior tranquility
• Breath more and more slowly

• The way of breathing is connected to the mental state of mind
22
Buddhism
“In a world grown dark I will beat the deathless drum”

Buddha
Reflective meditation
→ redemption by insight
Investigation of:
→ the arising of suffering in life
→ its conditions
→ the way to remove these conditions
Key Insight: Interdependent Arising
→ Nothing exists separately by itself

→ Nothing is permanent
The Truth of what Suffering (duhkha ) is
The 1st Noble Truth:
What is suffering (duhkha)?

The 2nd Noble Truth:
The truth of the conditioned arising of suffering?

The 3rd Noble Truth:
Suffering can be eliminated

The 4th Noble Truth :
The Noble Eightfold path

“The Noble Eightfold Path”
“Let perfect wakefulness accompany all your action & experience”
1. Right views
2. Right aspiration/intention
3. Right speech
4. Right conduct/action
5. Right means of livelihood
6. Right endeavor/effort
7. Right mindfulness
8. Right meditation/concentration
His death
“Strive unremittingly”
“Be a lamp onto yourself. Rely on yourselves.”
"Not so, Ananda. Do not mourn, do not lament. Have I not taught you that it is
in the very nature of all things near and dear to us to pass away? How then,
Ananda, since whatever is brought into being contains within itself the inherent
necessity of dissolution, how can it be that such a being should not be
dissolved?"
Three Questions by Leo Tolstoy
(1828-1910)
• What is the right time for every action?

• Who are the most necessary people?
• What is the most important thing to do?
https://www.plough.com/en/topics/culture/short-stories/the-three-questions
Albert Einstein
(1879 –1955)
"A human being is a part of the whole, called by us, the 'universe,' -- a part
limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as
something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his
consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our
personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must
be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion, to
embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."
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BUDDHISM

“Salvation lies in liberation from attachment

4 Attitudes towards others:

1. Metta: loving kindness

‘If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you

• Compassion is defined as deep, genuine sympathy for those who are

• Compassion meditation is a technique we can use to dissolve self-

• Empathy is the faculty to resonate with others feelings

Normally in meditation, you bring compassion right away.

• When he brought in the compassion component, it was like opening a dam.

• No such thing as compassion fatigue. Only empathy fatigue!

→ empathy needs the vast sphere of loving-kindness and compassion = buffer

• Siddhartha Gautama , The ‘Enlightened One’, ‘Awakened

Unified unchanging self/independent permanent reality?

No solution for problem of suffering and death?

→ Radical break with traditional religion

• Important to remain independent from authority figures.

• Gautama’s pleasure palace is a striking image of a mind in denial.

Result: He had to find a new way to cope with this pain.

• Yoga was crucial to his enlightment

• Our minds are easily distracted.

• Sitting crossed legs and straight back in a motionless position

• Breath more and more slowly

“In a world grown dark I will beat the deathless drum”

→ Nothing exists separately by itself

The 1st Noble Truth:

What is suffering (duhkha)?

The truth of the conditioned arising of suffering?

Suffering can be eliminated

The Noble Eightfold path

“Let perfect wakefulness accompany all your action & experience”

• What is the right time for every action?

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