Unit 10

And so we move on to Buddhism. A particular favourite of mine, by the way.

Buddhism is probably the most complicated of the religions you will study this
year. But do not despair! There is plenty of straightforward material in it that one
can just sit down and learn.
First of all, then, the life of the Buddha. Please turn to your Study Guide at this
point. We have a table there that serve to help you distinguish between the
Buddha and the Prophet Muhammad. Please use this table: I am really tired of
reading how the Buddha was chased out of Mecca and Muhammad sat under a
fig tree and became enlightened!
The next two sections describe the basic social organisation and the history of
Buddhism. See, it is not so bad (yet). This is straightforward material that you can
just swot.
For this weeks exercise, we are going to spend a little more time on Buddhism in
South Africa than the book and guide allow. Once again, lets brush off those
search engine skills: fire up a google and tell us:
1. Where can we find the most complete and authoritative bibliography of
Buddhism in South Africa?
2. The Buddhist Retreat centre in Ixopo runs an HIV/AIDS community care and
support programme. What is it called?
3. Where is the only fulltime residential Zen centre in Africa?
4. In what year did the Bronkhorstspruit Town Council donate land for the building
of the Nan Hua temple?
5. There are at least three separate Tibetan Buddhist organisations active in
South Africa. What are they?

1. Where can we find the most complete and authoritative bibliography of Buddhism in South Africa?
See http://www.globalbuddhism.org/Bibliography%20-%20Buddhism%20in%20South%20Africa.htm, and
written by no less an authority than Michel Clasquin!

2. The Buddhist Retreat centre in Ixopo runs an HIV/AIDS community care and
support programme. What is it called?

Woza Moya. See http://www.wozamoya.org.za/story.html

3. Where is the only fulltime residential Zen centre in Africa?

Robertson. See http://www.dharmacentre.org.za/dc/contact.htm

4. In what year did the Bronkhorstspruit Town Council donate land for the building
of the Nan Hua temple?
1992. See http://www.nanhua.co.za/history.htm

5. There are at least three separate Tibetan Buddhist organisations active in

South Africa. What are they?
Gelugpa - http://www.lamrim.org.uk/sa/index.htm
Kagyudpa - http://kagyu.org.za/
New Kadampa - http://www.meditation.org.za/
UNIT 11
Whew! Normally I like to do these things a few weeks ahead and let
MyUnisa schedule them for me, but Ive been sick lately so this is
getting done just in time. But that is enough about me, lets talk about
Buddhism.
Unit 11 is the Unit of Death. Abandon all hope, ye who page to
here. Except for us. Because we are going to work through it bit by bit
and Im going to show you how it fits together. There will be no extra
activities this week. Your activity is reading this announcement. This
very loooong announcement.
First of all, noble truth is not the authors personal opinion. It is a
literal translation of the Pali term arya-sacca. So for those of you who
are not Buddhists, dont worry if it sounds like you are praising
Buddhism when you use the term, it simply is the standard translation.
A less literal translation might have been praiseworthy proposition,
but lets face it, that lacks a certain flair. But there is no reason, apart
from convention, why noble truth has to be written with capital letters.

Read the part in the study guide about the noble truths taking the form
of a traditional medical diagnosis. This already gives us an insight into
the nature of Buddhism. Its single most important statement of
doctrine lays no claim to divine inspiration. Theres no fire, no poetry in
it. It is a dry, factual assessment of the situation, its causes and what
can be done about it. If you are not convinced, read the shahaadah,
the most important doctrinal statement in Islam, on page 346 of the
textbook. Truly, there are more ways than one of being religious!
Do not get caught up with memorising the Eightfold path in the order
you find it on page 120. Yes, there is a good chance of an 8-point
question there. See the remarks in the Guide.
The 3 marks of existence are NOT a separate teaching from the noble
truths. They are a different way of expressing the same essential
Buddhist insight. Please read the guide on this section.
OK, so we have now examined two major Buddhist doctrines and it
seems that Buddhists are obsessed with suffering! The concept
reappears in the noble truths and in the marks of existence. In fact,
Buddhism does not deny that there is such a thing as happiness (the
Pali term is sukha). Of course it exists. But for how long? Buddhism
denies that any pleasure can last forever.
Think about that. If pleasure cannot last forever, then there cannot be
a doctrine of everlasting life after death. That is the bad news. The
good news is that if nothing lasts forever, then suffering can also come
to an end.
In a way, the three marks supply the last missing piece of the puzzle
that helps us to make sense of the four noble truths. In the noble
truths, it is still not quite clear why craving should cause suffering. But
now it becomes clear: We are craving after things that are always
going to slip away into impermanence. Our cravings can never be fully
satisfied.
Lets put that into proper South African terms. I drive a BMW (Johannes
Kerkorrel fans can start humming Ons ry n BMW at this point). I
love that car. I take it to be cleaned every week. I take it for services
even more often than is really necessary.
Then, one day, I arrive home and there is a big dent in my BMW.
Somebody backed into it. I am outraged. I scream and shout and make
threats against this unknown person. And just to show that I cannot be
trifled with, I take the car to a dealer and trade it in on a Mercedes.
At this point, Buddhism would ask Why? Why have you subsumed
your personality into a lifeless piece of metal? Surely you realise that

fifty, a hundred, a thousand years from now that car will be a worthless
pile of rust?
This is not to say, necessarily, that we should not drive nice cars. But
that it is unhealthy to tie our self-image, our sense of self-worth, to
something that is not going to last anyway.
This is the point at which Buddhism breaks away from all other
religions. Other religions will agree up to here, but will then say,
Rather put your trust in something that is permanent. Like God and/or
the human soul.
The uniqueness of Buddhism is that when it says everything is
impermanent it allows NO exceptions. No, there is no permanent
human soul. No, there is no permanent God. Everything changes.
When it has changed enough, the original thing no longer exists.
Everything is impermanent.
The rest of the chapter follows from this central philosophical point.
Human beings are said to consist of five factors. Not a soul to be found
among them. Why? Because of the 3 marks of existence.
Karma. Is there a concept more completely misunderstood by nonAsians? It is not a synonym for fate or destiny. In fact, if anything,
it is the opposite.
The way I think, speak and act can become a habit. If I am muddled in
my thinking, I slowly but surely become a muddle-headed person. If I
often act aggressively, then that agression becomes a feedback loop. I
act aggressively and I become a more aggressive person. Because I am
an aggressive person now, it is easier to act aggressively. This is
karma. There is nothing mysterious about it. Conventionally we speak
of good karma and bad karma. But that is not truly a distinction in
nature. There is only karma. If you cultivate a mind that revels in pain
and suffering, you will be reborn in a hell-world (Buddhism has several
to choose from: hot hells, cold hells, hells of solitude, hells of crowding,
you name it). This is not a punishment. Hell is simply where you fit
best. It is your natural habitat. You will suffer, but you will not object to
being there. The same goes for those whose karma leads them to be
reborn in heavenly worlds. It is not a reward. It is the natural
consequence of who you are.
Lets try another example. A dog is born as a dog, because that is the
kind of existence that best suits the karma of the being that may have
been something else before. A dog does not object to being a dog. He
lives out his doggy life as best he can. And most likely, when he dies,
he will come back as a dog once again.

But once we realise that this is how we became what we now are, it is
possible, little by little to examine what is going on inside our heads
and change it around. Do you remember Dr Phil on the Oprah show
asking people Well, hows that working out for you? Now you ask that
question of yourself.
This ability to question our existence, according to Buddhism, is unique
to human beings. We stand halfway between the gods and the devils,
both of which are too caught up with their long lives to bother with
spiritual advancement. Human existence is rare and precious, and it is
only in a human life that we start to question the meaning of it all. Only
in a human lifetime is it possible to become enlightened, to become a
Buddha.
Read the paragraph on Buddhism and God on p 124 of the textbook.
Please make sure that you understand it thoroughly. There are a lot of
gods in Buddhism, but compared to the gods of other religions,
Buddhist gods suffer from a serious handicap. They are not immortal.
As a result, nobody in the Buddhist world takes them seriously. Having
a relationship with a god is like having a powerful friend in the
provincial legislature. He is useful for getting your zoning application
approved, and maybe he can fix up your problem with the tax man.
But he does not know anything about the deepest meaning of life.
In fact, if you lead a truly moral, exemplary life, your karma may lead
you to be reborn as a god! It might be fun, living for a billion years and
having mortals down on the planet worship you. But eventually,
according to Buddhism, even a god grows old and dies. Then, all the
good karma having been exhausted, you drop back to a human or
animal life. And it just goes on and on and on.
In the western world, people come across the idea of reincarnation and
regard it as a blessing. Yea, we dont have to die, not completely! In
Asia, where people have been living with the concept a bit longer, they
react like Oh no, not again! And so, the ideal in Buddhism (as in
Hinduism) is to break out of the cycle completely. Nirvana means never
being reborn again.
This may sound to you like a complicated way of committing suicide.
But Buddhists dont see it like that.
Perhaps an analogy will help you understand why Buddhists always
talk about Nirvana in the negative. Let us suppose that we are all little
tadpoles swimming around in a pond. One day, a frog jumps into the
water and tells us about a remarkable place called "land". We ply him
with questions.

"Can you swim in land?"

"No."
"Are there fish in land?"
"No."
"Will there be algae to eat in land?"
"No."
We poor little tadpoles simply don't have the point of reference to ask
meaningful questions about land. We don't even know that you live
"on" land, not "in" it. No amount of asking questions will reveal the
nature of land to us. But what we can do is to grow legs and crawl out
of the water onto the land, that is, we must become frogs ourselves.
Then all will become quite clear.
ACTIVITY
In the above analogy, try to determine what each of the elements in
the story stands for. Yes, I know I said there would be no activity for
this unit. So I changed my mind. So sue me. J
ANSWER 11
Do I really have to spell it out? The water is the world we live in (samsara),
the land is nirvana and the frog is the Buddha. But if no-one will tell us what it
is like, why should we go there? Because it is in the tadpole's nature to
become a frog, and because it is in a human being's nature to reach toward
the Ultimate, the end of suffering, nirvana

UNIT 12
If you understand Unit 11 thoroughly, then Unit 12 should be no
problem. For the most part it is swot-able material.
12.1.1.1 This sounds like a reversal of what we said about Buddhism
and God in the previous unit. But lets examine it a little bit closer:
Anyone who lives an exceptionally virtuous life can end up reborn in a
heavenly world, remember? What Mahayanma did here was to add a
little wrinkle to the existing series of stories of the Buddhas former
lives. They said that in the life immediately before the last one, he was
residing in a heavenly world, then looked down on Earth and was filled
with compassion for the suffering beings on that planet. He then
decided to take his final birth here, where it would be of most use.
This story would have been news to the Theravada Buddhists (and
most likely to the Buddha himself!). But it would not have been out of
character. Remember that the Buddha could have chosen to disappear

into Nirvana immediately after his enlightenment. Instead, he chose to

teach for forty years, out of compassion for the unenlightened people.
Keep this in mind when you study Mahayana Buddhism. It is an
extension of classical Buddhism, It takes Buddhism into new areas, but
never quite does a 180 degree turn.
DO ACTIVITY 12A
Dont skip this activity it will teach you what we expect from students
at your level.
On the three bodies of the Buddha:
Yogacara documents often speak of the three bodies of the Buddha.
This doctrine developed over several centuries and was eventually
adopted by all Mahayana schools, although they differ in how much
practical attention they pay to it. In its simplest form this doctrine
amounts to the following: Even in early Buddhism, and in Theravada
Buddhism today, it was taken for granted that the Buddha, while a
man, was an extraordinary man. Extraordinary people, it was thought,
tend to have a kind of aura or energy field around them which only
highly developed mystics can see. It was this second body that had
the 32 marks of the superman (like the conical extension on the top
of the head) and that was depicted in Buddha statues and paintings,
not the physical body of Sidhatta Gotama. The Yogacara notion of three
bodies evolved from this.
The first body is known as the dharmakaya (essential body). The
concept Buddha here refers to the ultimate Suchness of things, the
true essence of reality. It is the cosmos, seen in the perspective of its
deepest, most essential dimensions. The implication of this is, of
course, that there is not, cannot be, just one Buddha. There are a large
number of manifestations of the primordial principle of reality. Indeed,
since we are all part of the cosmos, we are all potential Buddhas. But
at any given time, only a few of us realise it.
The second body is the sambhogyakaya (enjoyment body). This refers
to the glorified form of the Buddha, to a transcendent, god-like being,
full of compassion, who appears for the benefit of the seekers after
liberation. This body can be manifested in many ways and in various
places, and it is this body that is the focus of Mahayana devotion.
The third body is the nirmanakaya (transformation body), an earthly,
physical manifestation of the Sambhogyakaya for the benefit of those
people who are unable to attain insight in any other way except
through contact with a human teacher.

Siddharta Gautama was such a transformation body, but in the grand

scheme of things, such earthly teachers are the least important part of
the Buddha. Here we can see the start of major differences between
Mahayana and Theravada thought. In our own time, Tibetan Buddhists
believe that the Dalai Lama, to name just one, is a transformation
body.

This weeks assignment:

During the twentieth century, there were a number of people who
claimed to be the Buddha Maitreya or to have received messages for
humankind from this future Buddha. How many can you track down?
ANSWER 12
During the twentieth century, there were a number of people who
claimed to be the Buddha Maitreya or to have received messages for
humankind from this future Buddha. How many can you track down?
<o:p> </o:p>
Answer:
Bah's believe that Bah'u'llh is the fulfillment of the prophecy of
appearance of Maitreya.[9][10] Bah's believe that the prophecy that
Maitreya will usher in a new society of tolerance and love has been
fulfilled by Bah'u'llh's teachings on world peace - Wikipedia
in 1980 [Benjamin] Creme wrote a book called The Reappearance of
the Christ and the Masters of Wisdom, which is an account of his
telepathic communication with Maitreya and the history of his
involvement with the occult dating back to the 1940's. These
messages received from Maitreya represents the most dominate strain
of the present-day New Age eschatological religion. www.conspiracyarchive.com<o:p></o:p>
A meditation centre in New Zealand features a teacher called Maitreya
Ishwara. It seems more Hindu- than Buddhist-oriented, though www.ishwara.com<o:p></o:p>
A Maitreya claimant from Iran, whose original name is not given, can
be found here: www.maitreya.org/files/Other/becamem.htm<o:p></o:p>
An American-born claimant can be read about here:
http://www.shambhalahealingtools.com/His_Holiness_Jetsun_Gyalwa_Ja
mpa_Gonpo_The_Buddha_Maitreya_s/279.htm<o:p></o:p>

Ral's Maitreya claims center on the content of the Agama Sutra,

supposedly a very ancient text written by Buddha himself, but which
has been deemphasized or forgotten by the majority of Buddhist
cultures. Ral has claimed directly to people attending Asian Ralian
Church seminars, that someone born in France, a country which is
often symbolized by the cock (or rooster), west of the Orient, meets
the criteria of the Maitreya. Rael himself claims to be this individual Wikipedia
A regular channeling from Maitreya is merchandized here:
http://maitreyaseattle-store.com
L. Ron Hubbard, founder of Dianetics and Scientology, suggested he
was "Metteya" (Maitreya) in the 1955 poem Hymn of Asia. - Wikipedia
The musician Terence Trent D'Arby changed his name to Sananda
Maitreya in 2001, but he does not seem to have made any religious
claims to go along with the name change.<o:p></o:p>
<o:p> And that was just in the 20th century! For more on this fascinating
figure and the claimants to his name, see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Maitreya_claimants#Maitreya_claim
ants</o:p>