1. The Dharma
The Buddha’s Enlightenment led to the formation of the Dharma:
Enlightenment was a result of meditation and during his meditation, Sakyamuni saw the following:

2. Previous lives as animals of all kinds
Rebirths in infinite times
Deeds of beings affect their rebirths: Karma
Karma arises from craving and ignorance
Chain of Causation occurs: dependent origination

3. Wheel of Life
What were all types of lives that the Buddha claimed he had seen?
Three Spheres:
Sphere of Formlessness
Sphere of Pure Form
Sphere of Sense-desires
Six Realms or Six Paths
Gods
Asuras (demi-gods,Titans)
Humans
Ghosts
Animals
Hell
Gods
Asuras
Humans
Ghosts
Animals
Hell

4. Buddhist World Systems:
Physical Universe:
formed by the interaction of the 5 elements
earth, water, fire, air, space
world systems emerge and undergo cycles of evolution
Formation: come into being
Growth: endure for a period of time
Decay: slow disintegration
Perishing: destruction and extinction

5. these world cycles are kalpas: small, medium, and large
Small kalpa: 16 million years, kalpa 336 million years, mahakalpa 1.3 billion years
human lives and lives of other beings undergo the same cycles: samsara
Six paths/realms in which beings inhabited and into which beings would be reborn

6. Wheel of Life

8. Good/Bad Karma Good, positive karma Bad, negative karma: Good Deeds:
Based on good intentions, good motivations, and right actions
non-attachment
benevolence
understanding
Bad, negative karma:
Bad deeds
motivated by greed, hatred, and delusion (three poisons)

9. Karma and Rebirth Karma and Rebirth
What is karma?
Moral deeds
what determines circumstance of future rebirth
The sufferings that beset humans
The happiness that humans enjoy, despite its transient nature
Karma is interconnected with rebirth and reincarnation
Good, positive karma leads to good rebirth, enlightenment
Good, positive karma comes from right actions performed with good (right) intentions
Right intentions, right actions are constituent elements of the Four Noble Truths

10. How Karma Functions? Some expositions of how karma functions:
Each act/deed one performs is like planting a karmic seed
Some karmic seeds may bear fruit soon, while others may be preserved prior to bearing fruit (maturation of the karmic act), which may occur for aeons in the future
Some deeds create individual experiences
An individual performs a causative deed (creates a karmic seed) , which bears an effect (fruit) or consequence of the deed
Other deeds create an environment
Some have both a primary effect and a residual effect
A murderer reborn in hell may have a short life when eventually reborn as a human
Good or bad deeds are closely related to centanā (volition or intention)

11. The Four Noble Truths The First: The Truth of Suffering
The Second: The Truth of Arising
The Third: The Truth of Cessation
The Fourth: The Truth of the Path

12. The Truth of Suffering (Duhkha)
birth, sickness, old age, death, pain, grief, sorrow, lamentation, despair—three categories
Suffering due to biological causes (physical)
association with what is unpleasant
Suffering due to change (psychological and emotional)
dissociation from what is pleasant;
Inability to get what one wants; happiness cannot endure
Things are impermanent and constantly changing
Suffering due to aggregation
Everything will fall apart and become component parts of the integral things
the five factors of individuality are suffering

13. Ātman (self) or Anātman (no self)
Five Factors (Five Aggregates)
Body or form (sè)
Feelings (sensation kind) (shòu)
Perceptions or Cognitions (xiăng)
Mental formations (character traits and disposition) (xíng)
Consciousness or sentiency (shì)

14. The Truth of Arising (trşnā)
The thirst or craving gives rise to rebirth, which is bound up with passionate delight and which seeks fresh pleasure in the form of perverted desires (things of an excessive, selfish, or morbid nature):

15. The cause of suffering include the following:
Greed (rāga, Chin. 貪 tān )
Hatred (dvesa, Chin. 嗔 chēn )
Delusion (moha, Chin. 癡 chī )
These are regarded as major components of craving
Other craving includes the thirst as follows:

16. thirst for sensual pleasure (five senses)
desire to experience pleasant tastes, sensations, odors, sights
thirst for existence
desire to possess
desire to have new possessions, new experiences in lives
thirst for non-existence
desire to destroy
desire to negate, deny, and reject the unpleasant and the unwelcome
self-denying, self-negating, self-harming
self-destruction

17. The Truth of Cessation the utter cessation of that craving
the withdrawal from it
the renouncing of it
the rejection of it
liberation from it
non-attachment to it
Remove craving by cultivating positive states of mind and undergoing a spiritual transformation

18. The Truth of the Path (mārga)
Known as “middle way”, the Path leads to the cessation of suffering and the transition from samsara to [final] nirvana
The Eightfold Path:
Wisdom: right view (understanding), right resolve
Morality: right speech, right action, right livelihood
Meditation: right effort, right mindfulness, right meditation

19. Right View and Right Resolve
Believe in karma
Respect parents and religious teachers
Pursue spiritual progress
Right resolve:
Develop right attitudes: cut desires, nurture friendliness and compassion
Know contentment, free from sensual desires, abandon hatred, abstain from harming others

20. Right speech, action, livelihood
Not telling lies, avoid “divisive” and harsh speech, frivolous talk (e.g., gossip, idle chatter)
Right action:
Abstain from wrongful conduct such as killing, stealing, ….
Right livelihood:
Engage in an occupation which causes no harm to others, whether humans or animals (e.g., be honest, no cheating, don’t get involved in trade in weapons. drugs…

21. Right effort and right mindfulness
Develop one’s mind in a wholesome way by practicing mindfulness and meditation
Transform one’s mind by replacing negative thoughts with positive ones
Right mindfulness: develop awareness of
Interconnectedness of body, feelings, mood, and thoughts
Eliminate “five hindrances”
Desire for sensual pleasure, ill-will, sloth and drowsiness, worry and agitation, and nagging doubts

22. Right meditation
Concentrating the mind through meditational exercises to
Develop clarity and mental calm
Reach a state of self-integration
Attain awakening and self-transformation or enlightenment