This article will be permanently flagged as inappropriate and made unaccessible to everyone. Are you certain this article is inappropriate? Excessive Violence Sexual Content Political / Social
Email Address:
Article Id: WHEBN0036916080 Reproduction Date:
The Buddhist tradition gives a wide variety of descriptions of the Buddhist Path to liberation.[1] The most notable of these descriptions is the Noble Eightfold Path, which was presented in the first discourse of the Buddha and is considered the essence of the Buddhist path (magga). Alongside the eightfold path, Buddhist texts present a number of other "paths" that describe the path in different ways according to different traditions.
The Noble Eightfold Path is presented as the fourth of the Buddha's Four Noble Truths and it is considered to be the essence of Buddhist practice.[1] For example, Bhikkhu Bodhi states:[6]
The Noble Eightfold Path consists of a set of eight interconnected factors or conditions, that when developed together, lead to the cessation of dukkha.[7] These eight factors are: Right View (or Right Understanding), Right Intention (or Right Thought), Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration.
Ajahn Sucitto describes the path as "a mandala of interconnected factors that support and moderate each other."[7] The eight factors of the path are not to be understood as stages, in which each stage is completed before moving on to the next. Rather, they are understood as eight significant dimensions of one's behaviour—mental, spoken, and bodily—that operate in dependence on one another; taken together, they define a complete path, or way of living.[8]
Alongside the eightfold path, Buddhist texts present a number of paths that describe the path in different ways according to different traditions. Generally speaking, these alternative methods of presentation are not considered to be contradictory, but rather as different ways to present the Buddhist path.[2]
The Atthakavagga, one of the oldest books of the Pali canon's Sutta Pitaka, contained in the Sutta Nipata, does not give a clear-cut goal such as nirvana, but describes the ideal person.[11] This ideal person is especially characterized by suddhi (purity) and santi (calmness).[11]
Commentaries on the Atthakavagga, namely the Mahaniddesa and the commentary by Buddhaghosa, show the development of Buddhist ideas over time. Both commentaries place the Atthakavagga in their frame of reference, giving an elaborated system of thought far more complicated than the Atthakavagga itself.[11]
A standard sequence of developments can be found in the Nikayas, for example the Tevijja Sutra verse 40-75 (Dikha Nikaya 13):[web 1]
The path of purification (or the seven stages of purification) provides the framework for a gradual path to liberation.[web 2] The classical outline of this path are the Seven Purifications, as described by Buddhaghosa in the Visuddhimagga. These purifications are:[12]
The "Purification by Knowledge and Vision" is the culmination of the practice, in four stages leading to liberation.
The emphasis in this system is on understanding the three marks of existence, dukkha, anatta, anicca. This emphasis is recognizable in the value that is given to vipassana over samatha, especially in the contemporary vipassana movement.
Mahāyāna Buddhism is based principally upon the path of a bodhisattva. According to Jan Nattier, the term Mahāyāna ("Great Vehicle") was originally even an honorary synonym for Bodhisattvayāna, or the "Bodhisattva Vehicle."[13] The earliest known Mahāyāna definition for a bodhisattva is found in the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra, which states:[14][15][16]
Because he has enlightenment as his aim, a bodhisattva-mahāsattva is so called.
Mahāyāna Buddhism encourages everyone to become bodhisattvas and to take the bodhisattva vows. With these vows, one makes the promise to work for the complete enlightenment of all sentient beings by following the bodhisattva path. The path can be described in terms of the six perfections or in terms of the five paths and ten bhumis.
The six paramitas are the means by which Mahayana practitioners actualize their aspiration to attain complete enlightenment for the benefit of all. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, the Prajñapāramitā Sūtras, the Lotus Sutra (Skt., Saddharma Puṇḍarīka Sūtra), and a large number of other texts, list the six perfections as follows:
The Mahayana commentary the Abhisamayalamkara presents a progressive formula of five paths (pañcamārga, Wylie Tibetan lam lnga).[3] The Five Paths are:[17]
The Five Paths advance through a progression of ten stages, referred to as the "bodhisattva bhūmis" ("enlightenment-being grounds/levels"). The Sanskrit term bhūmi literally means "ground" or "foundation", since each stage represents a level of attainment and serves as a basis for the next one. Each level marks a definite advancement in one's training that is accompanied by progressively greater power and wisdom.
The Avatamsaka Sutra refers to the following ten bhūmis:[18]
Lam Rim describes the stages of the path. Tsong Khapa mentions three essential elements:[19]
In the highest class of tantra, two stages of practice are distinguished, namely generation and completion. In some Buddhist tantras, both stages can be practiced simultaneously, whereas in others, one first actualizes the generation stage before continuing with the completion stage practices.
In the first stage of generation, one engages in deity yoga. One practices oneself in the identification with the meditational Buddha or deity (yidam) by visualisations, until one can meditate single-pointedly on being the deity.[4]
In the generation stage of Deity Yoga, the practitioner visualizes the "Four Purities" (Tibetan: yongs su dag pa bzhi; yongs dag bzhi)[web 3] which define the principal Tantric methodology of Deity Yoga that distinguishes it from the rest of Buddhism:[20]
In the next stage of completion, the practitioner can use either the path of method (thabs lam) or the path of liberation ('grol lam).[21]
At the path of method the practitioner engages in Kundalini yoga practices. These involve the subtle energy system of the body of the chakras and the energy channels. The "wind energy" is directed and dissolved into the heart chakra, where-after the Mahamudra remains,[22] and the practitioner is physically and mentally transformed.
At the path of liberation the practitioner applies mindfulness,[23] a preparatory practice for Mahamudra or Dzogchen, to realize the inherent emptiness of every-'thing' that exists.[24]
Mahāmudrā' literally means "great seal" or "great symbol". The name refers to the way one who has realized mahāmudrā. "Mudra" refers to the fact that each phenomenon appears vividly, and "maha" refers to the fact that it is beyond concept, imagination, and projection.[25]
Mahāmudrā is sometimes divided into four distinct phases known as the four yogas of mahāmudrā. They are as follows:[26]
These stages parallel the four yogas of dzogchen semde. The four yogas of Mahāmudrā have also been correlated with the Mahāyāna five Bhumi paths.
Although the Rinzai Zen-tradition emphasises sudden awakening over the study of scripture, in practice several stages can be distinguished. A well-known example are the Ten Ox-Herding Pictures which detail the steps on the Path.
Once the dichotomy between sudden and gradual was in place, it defined its own logic and rhetorics, which are also recognizable in the distinction between Caodong (Soto) and Lin-ji (Rinzai) chán.[27] But it also lead to a "sometimes bitter and always prolix sectarian controversy between later Chán and Hua-yen exegetes".[28] In the Huayan classification of teachings, the sudden approach was regarded inferior to the Perfect Teaching of Hua-yen. Guifeng Zongmi, fifth patriarch of Hua-yen ànd Chán-master, deviced his own classification to counter this subordination.[29]
Guifeng Zongmi also softened the edge between sudden and gradual. In his analysis, sudden awakening points to seeing into one's true nature, but is to be followed by a gradual cultivation to attain Buddhahood.[29]
Chinul, a 12th-century Korean Seon master, followed Zongmi, and also emphasized that insight into our true nature is sudden, but is to be followed by practice to ripen the insight and attain full Buddhahood. To establish the superiority of the Chán-teachings, Chinul explained the sudden approach as not pointing to mere emptiness, but to suchness or the dharmadhatu.[30]
This is also the standpoint of the contemporary Sanbo Kyodan, according to whom kensho is at the start of the path to full enlightenment.[31]
This gradual cultivation is described by Chan Master Sheng Yen as follows:
Ch'an expressions refer to enlightenment as "seeing your self-nature". But even this is not enough. After seeing your self-nature, you need to deepen your experience even further and bring it into maturation. You should have enlightenment experience again and again and support them with continuous practice. Even though Ch'an says that at the time of enlightenment, your outlook is the same as of the Buddha, you are not yet a full Buddha.[32]
In Rinzai, insight into true nature is to be followed by gradual cultivation. This is described in teachings such as The Three mysterious Gates of Linji, and the Four Ways of Knowing of Hakuin.[33]
Although Sōtō emphasizes shikan-taza, just-sitting, this tradition too had description of development within the practice. This is described by Tozan, who described the Five ranks of enlightenment.[web 5]
Seven Stages of Purification
Lam Rim
Creation and Completion
Mahamudra
Gautama Buddha, Tibetan Buddhism, Sīla, Mahayana, Hinduism
Buddhism, Dāna, Gautama Buddha, Pali, Pāramitā
Buddhism, Vajrayana, Tibetan Buddhism, Gautama Buddha, Śīla
Buddhism, Gautama Buddha, Pali Canon, Nagarjuna, Tibetan Buddhism
Hinduism, Buddhism, Śīla, Yoga, Hindu philosophy
Buddhism, Spirituality, Religion, Neo-Vedanta, Theosophy
Buddhism, Nirvana, Gautama Buddha, Bodhisattva, Śīla
Buddhism, Gautama Buddha, Śīla, Nirvāṇa, Yoga
Buddhism, Gautama Buddha, Śīla, Pali Canon, Mahayana