87 - Ten Basic Buddhism Concepts (Buddhism in 10 Steps)

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Welcome to the series of companion videos to the book, Buddhism in 10 Steps.

My name is Alan Pito, I'm the co-author of the book, along with Buddhist Muck Sinati Pihari Biku.

Buddhism in 10 Steps is designed for that beginner or westerner who is exploring Buddhism and is a quick and easy introduction to the religion.

So these videos series will introduce you to those 10 different steps that we've introduced inside the book, along with some other information.

So we hope you enjoyed this and find it a nice companion to the book.

What is Buddhism?

Buddhism is a worldwide religion that can be summed up like this.

It is the liberating path towards freedom.

This is the freedom from what we call duke in Buddhism, which is unsatisfactoriness, sometimes translated as suffering.

This suffering, this unsatisfactoriness, this duke is a result of our intentional volitional actions, which we call karma.

Karma is important in Buddhism because it is what keeps us trapped in something called the cycle of rebirth or samsara in Buddhism.

Because we are trapped in a cycle of rebirths samsara due to our intentional volitional actions, karma, we experience duke, this suffering, this unsatisfactoriness, from this forced rebirth inside this cycle.

The Buddha said that we can stop that cycle.

We can experience this peace, this perfect existence, this mental state, which he called nirvana.

But we do that by following his teachings, the Dharma.

So why are we creating this conditions in our life?

Why are we creating this karma?

It's due to something called the three fires or three poisons.

And I realize that's a lot of terminology I'm throwing out at you right now, but this three fires, three poisons is really important.

It is ignorance of the Buddha's teachings, the Dharma, which tells us the true reality of our world and our existence.

Because we don't understand that, we are sort of in this delusional, illusionary world based upon our perceptions.

And because of that, we are constantly seeking out pleasurable things, we are greedy, we are attached to those things.

But they are impermanent, they are ever changing, but we don't fundamentally understand that.

So when they are taken away from us, we have this hatred, this anger, this aversion due to that.

So this three fires, three poisons, we are constantly fueling it.

Whether it is similar to ingesting poison or being burned by the three fires, they are not your true state.

That's not how you should actually live.

So the removal of these three fires, three poisons, whichever terminology you like to use, is nirvana.

Nirvana in Buddhism is the extinguishing of those three fires.

It's removing the ignorance of the Buddhist teachings.

It is no longer clinging, craving towards pleasurable things that are just giving rise in our mind, that are impermanent and changing, ever changing, but we don't believe that.

So when we lose that, we get this angered hatred aversion, which all happens very seamlessly and makes us create karma, those intentional volitional actions.

And that is important because the three fires, three poisons, which we're fueling, which is helping us create these karmic actions, is keeping us trapped in a cycle of rebirth.

The Buddha said, this cycle of rebirth itself is not necessarily suffering or a satisfactoryness.

It's a forced rebecoming. It's in these new existences, not the same as reincarnation.

We call it rebirth in Buddhism because there's nothing permanent or unchanging that continues on. It's only your karmic actions.

So this constant rebecoming, this constant rebecoming of the karma in new existences, temporary conditioned states, is unsatisfactory.

And when we fundamentally understand that, the way the Buddha taught, and we are able to extinguish the three fires, we are no longer creating the karma that creates the conditions of forced rebirth.

And thus, we are able to reside in this pure, natural, true state of Nirvana.

So a Buddhist goal is to achieve enlightenment, sometimes called awakening, to the truth of the Buddhist teachings, so that they see the three fires, three poisons for what they really are, and how it's creating karma, so we can extinguish now.

We can stop that and live as we truly should in our state of Nirvana.

Who and what is the Buddha? So Buddha is a name and a term for an enlightened being that teaches others.

There is only one Buddha of an era that reveals this hidden truth to teachings that have been lost.

So in our current era, our Buddha is known as either Shakyamuni Buddha or Gautama Buddha, who was born 2600 years ago and was the Buddha at that time.

So there are Buddhas before Shakyamuni and there will be Buddhas after Shakyamuni, and they will come when the teachings are lost to rediscover them and teach other people.

So this liberating teachings are known as the Dharma, or something referred to as the Buddha Dharma.

Now, a Buddha does start off as a human, but they are no longer considered a regular person or a human when they become a Buddha, and that's by the Buddha's own words.

So when we look at our current Buddha of our era, he started off as Siddhartha Gautama.

He was born into this life of luxury and pleasure where his father didn't want him to really see the true realities of our world because he was afraid he would become an aesthetic, he would become like a monk instead of being a ruler like him.

And it wasn't until Siddhartha was able to really see the true nature of reality and the world and existence that he set out to become a monk.

And he tried, under many, many different teachers, never really discovering the truth that he was looking for, although he was very exceptional in all these different teachings that he learned from.

So he set out on his own, almost died, and was able to realize it's not going to extremes on this past towards the truth, which is now what we referred to as the middle way or the middle path, and was able to meditate until he discovered the truth.

So it was a long process for him, but this is where he became the Buddha. He even challenged this deity, this demon, if you will, known as Mara, who tried everything to prevent him from becoming the Buddha who would be teaching others, yet Siddhartha prevailed and became Shakyamuni or Gautama Buddha.

And so he set forth for a career that span 40 years of teaching others, and you'll learn about those teachings in this video series and this book, but he did a remarkable thing because he was able to rediscover the truth that has been known to prior Buddhists and was able to teach others and help them become enlightened as well.

This is why the Buddha is so revered and respected, and we have faith in the Buddha's teachings because he has shown us that yes, it can be done. He has shown us that he has helped others become enlightened as well, and we can also do the same.

So what did a Buddha teach? Well, we refer to his teachings now as the Dharma or the Buddha Dharma, which is the truth or liberating teachings, and if we step back and look really at what the Buddha believed and taught, he did mention something to us called the three Marx of existence, that is all things are marked with impermanence, suffering, and the illusion of self.

And really he was given his teachings, so we would understand our current conditions and how to change that. So impermanence means that nothing is permanent and unchanging, although we believe it does, and is also part of what we call dependent origination in Buddhism, where everything is dependent upon other things to arise and cease.

So these concepts are really important because what the Buddha became awakened and lightened to was the truth of dependent origination and impermanence. When he not intellectually but fundamentally understood that, he saw the true nature of our world, he saw everything as we're currently existing in it is not the real reality, not the true existence we should be in.

Because we have this suffering, which is known as duka in Buddhism, sometimes referred to as unsatisfactoriness or something not quite right, that's due to us fueling the three fires of ignorance, greed and anger, which creates karmic actions, which are intentional, volitional actions, typically unwholesome, because we're creating those actions.

We are continuing the cycle of rebirth, constant rebecoming, which is unsatisfactory. Anything that is conditioned is going to be unsatisfactory, it's going to be suffering, and you may not think about that right now, but yes, that is unsatisfactory because nothing is nothing lasting there.

So even if you're blissfully happy in one moment, it doesn't mean you'll be blissfully happy in the next moment, or even long term because we will all eventually cease in this form.

And that also gives to the third mark of existence, which is the illusion of self. So we sometimes call this not self or non-self in Buddhism, it's not saying that you don't exist or I don't exist right now or have these thoughts.

But what it's saying is we don't have what we believe we have, even if it's a small little morsel or degree, that we believe there's something permanent, unchanging and independent about our nature, about ourself.

The Buddha said that is the illusion. So when we are able to fundamentally understand that we don't have a permanent unchanging, independent self,

that allows us to stop fueling the three fires of greed, anger and ignorance. And thus we are able to become awakened, enlightened to that truth, and then reside in our true natural state of Nirvana.

Nirvana is absent of the three fires, which give rise to karma, which give rise to this constant force rebirth in a cycle of birth and death, samsara, not the same as reincarnation, and thus we are able to exist and live as we truly have without just randomly and unskilfully reacting and consuming things that are giving rise in our minds, which make us create that karma.

So in summary, the Buddha was teaching us this liberating path towards our true self, not the self that's conditioned right now. So this conditioned self is believing all these things, is consuming all these things, is arising all these things, which is making us create actions which are not skillful, not wholesome.

Even if we don't realize that, which is keeping us trapped like prisoners, it's called fetters of Buddhism is chaining us to the cycle of birth and death, unsatisfactory. The Buddha is allowed us to break deals chains, make us free, and be who we really are, residing in our true state of Nirvana.

And that is what he was trying to do and has accomplished with Buddhism. As we have seen throughout his life, he was able to help others become enlightened and realize Nirvana or Nirvana, and that is his true legacy, which continues 2600 years ago to today.

One of the Buddha's most famous teachings is called the Four Noble Truths. It's really a summary of Buddhism, which explains our conditions and how to get out of it. So the very first teaching, the Four Noble Truths, he let people know the effect and then the cause and then the effect and then the cause.

So it's very different that we might assume otherwise, but it's very similar to how like a physician, a medical physician, may tell somebody about the disease and eventually the cure.

So his first step is actually letting the patient us understand why we are sick, because we don't actually understand we are sick in the Buddhist religious sense, not the medical or physical sense.

That we are sick with duke, this suffering, this unsatisfactoriness. And so he's telling us in the first Noble Truth, we are essentially sick with duke, we are marked with this, we are creating these conditions where it's just an unsatisfactory, it's suffering.

But why is it, why am I sick Buddha, right? And so he has to tell us to cause. And the cause is our karmic actions, the actions we are creating, that's trapping us in the cycle of rebirth, constant rebuking. So every new existence has these karma that we're creating now, we'll go on to the future one and we are the recipients of the prior ones.

So he's saying this temporary ever changing condition existence is unsatisfactor, is suffering because we don't know really how to deal with that, right? And we're trapped in a cycle of rebirth.

So because of that, we are creating karmic actions based upon the three fires of ignorance, greed and anger, that is our problem.

If someone's like, if you were ingesting poison or if you were burned, right, well, shouldn't you realize that you've been ingesting poison or were burned? Well, the Buddha is saying that you may not always realize that, could we're still conditioned to maybe sipping that poison of the three poisons or getting burned or smoke inhalation from the three fires, whichever terminology you want to use, where we don't really realize that sometimes we do, sometimes it's very much in our face, but most of the time it's very subtle.

But we are creating karmic actions based upon that. So then he goes into what is your prognosis, basically, with the third noble truth, can I stop this sickness, this sickness of duke?

And he says, absolutely, everyone can stop this suffering, this duke, and you make this fantastic, well, how do I stop this duke?

Because you told me I'm sick with duke, this suffering, this unsatisfactoriness, and you're saying, is due to my actions, my karma, based upon the three fires, three poisons of ignorance, greed and anger, but you told me that I can stop that, I don't have to become sick with duke anymore.

How do I do that? That's the fourth noble truth. If you follow his prescription, which is going to be the noble, a full path, the a full path is deliberating path towards freedom of nirvana and Buddhism.

And that past that nirvana is where you end, you stop the three fires from having fuel or the three poisons from you drinking it, essentially.

And that is what he taught us, so he's going to tell us that we are experiencing duke in this existence, due to our karmic actions, based upon our ignorance of the truth, and our seeking pleasurable things, and losing those we can angry with your hatred.

It's this constant cycle that's keeping us trapped in rebirth, but we can stop rebirths, we can stop this samsara cycle, we can be free from that suffering, that duke, and we do that through his prognosis, his steps, which is the noble, a full path.

The Buddha's noble, a full path is deliberating path that leads us to enlightenment and nirvana or nirvana, and that is our goal as Buddhists.

Now, the a full path is grouped into three categories, or three groupings, or three sections, and that's the most important part, because yes, you have these eight steps, if you will, inside the noble, a full path.

They are meant to be practiced altogether, and ultimately, when you fully practice all parts of the eightfold path, that is where you become enlightened, awakened, and realized nirvana or nirvana.

And the three parts there are what we refer to as the three full training, and the three full training is practiced by basically all the Buddhist traditions, but it may not also be referred to as that, or even a full path itself may not even be all with referred to, but this is what we're using as Buddhists to ensure we have a proper Buddhist practice.

It is a grouping, or a category, the first one, of morality or conduct, which is very important, when we are able to do that, even the Buddha said this is one of the most important parts of the eightfold path, that we are able to live our lives without harming others, and write symbiotic relationship with others.

We are doing it where our morality and our conduct is aligned to how a Buddha, or a bodhisattva, or an araha, should be.

Then we see the wisdom category, so it's not being book smart, it's not being intellectual, but it's about having that fundamental understanding, but we may start from that level, we're going to have this understanding of the Buddhist teachings and concepts that are going to help us as we get towards awakening and enlightenment,

help us make those connections for ourselves, help us understand and break this illusionary idea we have about our world and life, and then we have concentration, sometimes referred to as meditative concentration, grouping, or category.

It's everything from having the right effort and determination, the right meditative concentration, all that's important for really taking it to that final level, but we are practicing all of these together holistically when we can.

The truth that the Buddha was awakened or enlightened to was the truth of dependent origination, or the law of dependent origination.

And this is important because you, me, everything around us is due to dependent origination.

And this is something to refer to as cause and effect, or the law of cause and effect, but as simple and high level as the terminology is, really does it give justice to this teaching we have called dependent origination.

As simple in some ways as this teaching is, it is so challenging to fundamentally understand, we see people like the Buddha that when he was so hard to got to, but it took him a long period of time and effort to ultimately understand at a fundamental level.

So it's okay if we don't fundamentally understand it right away, but dependent origination is interconnected with all the other different Buddhist teachings and concepts.

Karma, rebirth, everything else is really related to that.

So for anything to exist, it doesn't come out of nowhere, it must have the right causes and conditions to come together.

For example, as a human being, I am a grouping of five things, five scanners or five aggregates.

And but as a temporary, and it is a ever changing grouping of things, but eventually it will no longer have the right conditions to continue on.

And that's important. So this is just a temporary existence of mine, the karma I'm creating, that's what continues on.

Now, why is this important? Well, this idea that we have of a permanent unchanging independent self is due to our ignorance of the truth, but is due to some very clever and seamless process that our body and our existence is going through.

You'll hear this term called Namarupa. So basically, it's going to be name and form.

And as we are looking at things, it's giving rise in our minds, and we're giving our perceptions to that and our ideas about it, this is all happening so seamlessly.

That yes, I can see this room and this world that I'm in, I can see you, I can see me, but it's all our perceptions and our assumptions about it.

It's not the true reality, but you may go, well, I can feel the door or I can feel the car or myself, I can touch myself and I can see that I have flesh and bones and I can see this, right?

But it's our perceptions and our assumptions about it that are giving rise and our mind, our body doesn't want us to really break free, experienced Nirvana as we are talking about.

So it is giving rise to different thoughts and ideas, which are not really true reality, but we believe they're true reality.

And as very hard to understand as that is, what the Buddha is talking about, what's dependent origination is, all things are conditioned.

All things are impermanent and ever changing and interdependent upon other things, and they will cease when those conditions no longer give rise to them.

But it doesn't mean they go away into nothing, they will, these different things will give rise to something else in the future.

But they don't have a permanent essence to them, which is unchanging and impermanent and independent of other things, you didn't say that.

So this is a really important concept, it can be a lot to understand is why Buddha's practice as well to fundamentally understand that as best they can.

You have likely heard of the word karma, it's used so much in our world, but what is it in the Buddhist context?

Karma is actually something that Buddhists don't want to generate, and that might be very shocking to you, because you might have heard it terms like good karma and bad karma.

And we don't use that terminology in Buddhism, there's wholesome and unwholesome karma and also neutral karma.

Now, when karma is used in the Buddhist context, we're talking about the intentional volitional actions, these are things that we are doing based upon typically the three fires, three poisons of anger is greed and anger.

So thus, there's something we don't want to have happened because they trap us in this cycle of forced rebirth, which is, as Buddha said, duke unsatisfactory suffering.

So, we create these actions through our mind, our thoughts, our speech, our actions, so we got three major ways that we create karma, but we are doing this all the time, all the time, our mind, speech, actions, right?

We're doing this all the time, but they're usually not in a court in a line with the Buddhist teachings towards the past, towards liberation, that's the wholesome karma we want.

So yes, even wholesome karma keeps us trapped in a cycle of rebirth, but it's creating the right conditions so that we will eventually be in enlightened and waking being like a Buddha bodhisattva, our hut, which are able to create neutral karma.

They're not creating karma that forces them to stick inside rebirth.

It is something we ultimately don't want, but one thing we want to do right now is lay practitioners is create wholesome karma that's aligned with the Buddhist path is not trapping us in a way that's permanent because it's leading us towards liberation.

What is not self or not self in Buddhism?

So, the Buddha said that we are conditioned beings, that's the teaching of dependent origination, that we are impermanent, we are ever changing, and we are independent upon other things, but we don't believe that.

We believe we are unchanging, we are permanent or something about it is permanent, and we are not dependent upon other things to exist, but it's not true.

So, not self or non-self is not saying that you or me don't exist or other conditioned phenomena don't exist, they absolutely do, but we believe there's just something about them that has a permanent, unchanging, independent, characteristic, and for all of us, that's true.

Whether you have this intellectual like why I know we're going to die and all this other stuff, there's something inside you, maybe it's ego or self or an idea or belief, that is what we're clinging or craving on to, when we are able to transcend that, I fundamentally understanding dependent origination under Buddhist teachings, that's where we are able to break this idea of self in Buddhism.

And the self we're talking about is the belief in a permanent, unchanging, independent self, which the Buddha says does not exist, because we are constantly interacting with sense objects, and there are sense organs like our eyes, I can see things, and nose, I can smell things, and this is giving rise to things in our mind, and I talked about previously, about Nama Rupa, name and form, and so we're constantly have this seamless process inside us, where it's giving rise to this world that we believe we're living in.

Believe we're living in, in so far as our perceptions and our assumptions about it, and that is giving rise to this belief in a self, and because we have this belief in a permanent, unchanging, independent, self, we want to cling to that, we want to crave to that, that gives fuel to the three fires, ignorance, greed, anger, which creates, you guessed it, karma, and karma keeps us trapped at reapers.

So the teaching and concept of not self in Buddhism is important, because we want to get to that level where we are no longer clean, craving, loving, the idea of a permanent, unchanging, independent, self, that's what we're trying to get rid of, not the idea that we don't exist, or do exist, not that, we're talking about that particular idea.

What is rebirth in Buddhism? It's actually very important because it's the reason why Buddhists actually practice, Buddhists don't practice just to become enlightened into getting some type of it.

A waking state is actually so they are no longer trapped in the cycle of rebirth, samsara, and rebirth is not the same as reincarnation, reincarnation is where there's some type of essence or piece of it that is permanent, it is unchanging,

and it's independent of other things which continue on to a new existence, the Buddha flatly rejected that, he says, we are ever changing, we are impermanent, and we are dependent upon other things to exist and to not exist.

And so that's a key characteristics of Buddhism, but what is being reborn, and then if we don't have reincarnation, we have rebirth, what's going on?

Well, in what we call samsara, the cycle of birth and death in sight, Buddhism, we are a temporary, ever changing, interdependent existence right now.

And it's got five aggregates, five scan hubs, and it works so seamlessly together with that number Rupa I was talking about earlier, where we believe in this idea of self, and that gives rise to us creating karmic actions.

And so that karmic actions with karma, you can think of them like seas being planted into your consciousness, so there's something called the stream of consciousness inside Buddhism.

Of all the five aggregates, five scan hubs, we do have the mind of consciousness, but of one layer there, the stream consciousness, that's what connects all the prior existences to all the future existences.

And it's not the same as the soul or self, what continues on are karma.

So the results of karma and future potential of karma hasn't come to fruition yet are all there.

Right now, you, me, we are all the recipients of past karma from that stream of consciousness, good or bad, wholesome or unwholesome.

So that's why we try to create wholesome karma for the next existence, which is not going to be the same as me, but it's going to have the karma that I'm continuing forward with, which I've received when it hasn't come to fruition.

And the ones that I'm creating haven't come to fruition, but also will contain your vows.

So vows could be, for example, in Mahayana, maybe a bodhisattva vow to become a buddha in the future, so those can continue as well.

But the important part is the karma continues on, not some permanent unchanging independent self inside Buddhism.

What is Nirvana? Also called Nirvana. This is in the most basic term, putting out extinguishing, extinguishing what?

The three fires of ignorance, greed and anger, as I've said many times, is what causes those karmic actions typically unwholesome karmic actions in our life.

So we don't want karma because it traps us to rebirth.

So Nirvana, or Nirvana, is where we extinguish the three fires of greed, anger, and anger, which is not our true natural state.

Just like if there was a fire burning you right now, or smoke inhalation, or if we use the term, the three poisons, like if you were ingesting poison, either a lot or small, none of that, the fire or poison analogies for these terms, is going to be your true existence.

That's not how you should live. So when we put them out through awakening and enlightenment, that is where we reside in our true natural state of Nirvana.

That is without that, and without us creating those karmic actions anymore, true liberation.

Now we may still have remainders of those three fires where it's still warm, still cooling down, we can still be burned by that.

But we are no longer few, and we're no longer creating it, thus keeping us trapped.