1. Philosophy 224 The Buddhist Vision of the Human

2. The Dhammapada The Dhammapada is the best known and most widely esteemed text in the Pali Tipitaka, the sacred scriptures of Theravada Buddhism (the version of Buddhism practiced widely across southeast Asia). By tradition, the work consists of a series of responses by the Buddha to events or issues that arose in the monastic community he founded. It is widely considered the most succinct expression of the Buddha's teaching found in the Pali canon.

3. Siddhattha Gotama “Buddha” isn’t a name, it’s a title. It was bestowed on a prince of a small kingdom in what is now Nepal. Following a revelatory experience with profound human suffering, he renounced his inheritance and, after of long period of meditation and asceticism, attained enlightenment. The Buddha was neither a god nor a prophet, but a human being who reached the highest spiritual attainment possible for humans: perfect wisdom, full enlightenment, complete purification of mind.

4. Dhamma and Pada The title of the text from which our selections are drawn is a composite of two Pali words. ◦ “Dhamma” in this context is commonly translated as “doctrine” or “truth” and though “Pada” literally means “foot,” poetically the sense is “path.” ◦ The title of the work, then, is something like “Path of the Truth.” The work consists of a series of snapshots of aspects of the Buddha’s central teachings.

5. Hinduism and Buddhism Though slightly younger than the Vedic and Brahmanic traditions of Hinduism, Buddhism shares a geographical and cultural context with the older belief system. As one would expect, they share a number of beliefs, most prominently a common metaphysics. ◦ As we saw, this metaphysics is expressed as a commitment to a true, universal reality underlying the apparent plurality of experience.

6. Anatman There are important differences, however, one of which becomes clear in the first chapter of the Dhammapada. Buddhism rejects the notion of Atman so central to the Hindu conception of the human. Instead of a self ultimately understood in its unity with Brahman as underlying the transitory states associated with the “I” experience, Buddhism insists that this “I” is the only self (10). Despite this difference, they come to the same conclusion: attachment to these transitory states prevents one from achieving enlightenment. The difference is that Buddhism’s rejection of an underlying ‘true’ self allows them to acknowledge the possibility of a ‘theraputic’ consciousness (10-11).

7. Only Thoughts The apparent advantage offered to the Buddhist by the doctrine of Anatman is also the great challenge that they face. As is revealed in Chapter III, the ‘impermanence’ of the self is commonly experienced as a kind of ‘flightiness’ (12). If there is no true ground of our self, then it is not surprising that many latch on to the ‘prettiest flower’ (13), that which is easiest or most compelling.

8. The Fool What then is the Buddhist diagnosis? Most of us lack what Buddhists call ‘Sati,’ translated here as ‘earnestness,’ but more commonly as ‘mindfulness.’ ◦ It derives from a root meaning 'to remember,' but it’s not memory but presence of mind, attentiveness to the present.  It is a kind of mental fixity. Its function is absence of confusion. Buddhists pursue it through meditation.  A mind lacking Sati flits from one thing to another, never satisfied, never occupied, always needing some more or different stimulation. Consider the descriptions of the mind of the fool on p. 12, and the account of the lives of such people in Chapter V.

9. Enlightenment The goal of Buddhist practice is to become a buddha, an enlightened one. Sati is one of the traditional seven elements of enlightenment (16) (along with reflection upon dhamma, commitment, joy, tranquility, focus, and equanimity/detachment). We see all of them in the characterization of the wise man, the sage, in chapter VI