Buddhist philosophy

Buddhist philosophy

Buddhist philosophy is a system of beliefs based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, a Nepalese prince later known as the Buddha (Pali for "awakened one").

 

From its inception, Buddhism has had a strong philosophical component. Buddhism is founded on the rejection of certain orthodox Hindu philosophical concepts. The Buddha criticized all concepts of metaphysical being and non-being as misleading views caused by reification, and this critique is inextricable from the founding of Buddhism.

Buddhism shares many philosophical views with other Indian systems, such as belief in karma, a cause-and-effect relationship between all that has been done and all that will be done. Events that occur are held to be the direct result of previous events. A major departure from Hindu and Jain philosophy is the Buddhist rejection of a permanent, self-existent soul (atman) in favour ofanicca or impermanence. However, Jain thinkers rejected this view by opining that, if no continuing soul could be accepted, then even the effort to attain any worldly objective would be useless as the individual acting and the one receiving the consequences would be different. Therefore, the conviction in individuals that the doer is also the reaper of consequences establishes the existence of a continuing soul.

Buddhist philosophy is the elaboration and explanation of the delivered teachings of the Buddha as found in the Tripitaka and Agama. Its main concern is with explicating the dharmas constituting reality. A recurrent theme is the reification of concepts, and the subsequent return to the Buddhist middle way. 

Early Buddhism avoided speculative thought on metaphysics, phenomenology, ethics, and epistemology,  but was based instead on empirical evidence gained by the sense organs (ayatana). 

Nevertheless, Buddhist scholars have addressed ontological and metaphysical issues subsequently. Particular points of Buddhist philosophy have often been the subject of disputes between different schools of Buddhism. These elaborations and disputes gave rise to various schools in early Buddhism of Abhidhamma, and to the Mahayana traditions and schools of the prajnaparamita, Madhyamaka, buddha-nature and Yogacara.

The historical Buddha lived during a time of spiritual and philosophical revival in Northern India when the overly ritualistic practices of the vedas came under rational scrutiny.

As well as the Buddha's own teachings, new ethical and spiritual philosophies such as those of Mahavira became established during this period when alternatives to the mainstream religionarose in an atmosphere of freethought and renewed vitality in spiritual endeavour. This general cultural movement is today known as the Sramanic tradition and the epoch of new thought as theaxial era.

These heterodox groups held widely divergent opinions but were united by a critical attitude towards the established religion whose explanations they found unsatisfactory and whose animal sacrifices increasingly distasteful and irrelevant. In Greece, China and India there was a return to fundamental questions and a new interest in the question of how humans should live.

Biography

According to the traditional accounts, Gautama, the future Buddha,born into a Vedic Kshatriya family,was a prince who grew up in an environment of luxury and opulence. He became convinced that sense-pleasures and wealth did not provide the satisfaction that human beings longed for deep within. He abandoned worldly life to live as a mendicant. He studied under a number of teachers, developing his insight into the problem of suffering.

After his awakening he regarded himself as a physician rather than a philosopher. Whereas philosophers merely had views about things, he taught the Noble Eightfold Path which liberates from suffering.

Philosophy

The Buddha discouraged his followers from indulging in intellectual disputation for its own sake, which is fruitless, and distracting from true awakening. Nevertheless, the delivered sayings of the Buddha contain a philosophical component, in its teachings on the working of the mind, and its criticisms of the philosophies of his contemporaries.

According to the scriptures, during his lifetime the Buddha remained silent when asked several metaphysical questions. These regarded issues such as whether the universe is eternal or non-eternal (or whether it is finite or infinite), the unity or separation of the body and the self, the complete inexistence of a person after Nirvana and death, and others.

Emphasis on awakening

One explanation for this silence is that such questions distract from activity that is practical to realizing enlightenment  and bring about the danger of substituting the experience of liberation by conceptual understanding of the doctrine or by religious faith.

Experience is   the path most elaborated in early Buddhism. The doctrine on the other hand was kept low. The Buddha avoided doctrinal formulations concerning the final reality as much as possible in order to prevent his followers from resting content with minor achievements on the path in which the absence of the final experience could be substituted by conceptual understanding of the doctrine or by religious faith, a situation which sometimes occurs, in both varieties, in the context of Hindu systems of doctrine. 

Attachments to the skandhas

Another explanation is that both affirmative and negative positions regarding these questions are based on attachment to and misunderstanding of the aggregates and senses. That is, when one sees these things for what they are, the idea of forming positions on such metaphysical questions simply does not occur.

Emptiness

Another closely related explanation is that reality is devoid of sensory mediation and conception, or empty, and therefore language itself is a priori inadequate without direct experience. 

Thus, the Buddha's silence does not indicate misology or disdain for philosophy. Rather, it indicates that he viewed the answers to these questions as not understandable by the unenlightened. Dependent arising provides a framework for analysis of reality that is not based on metaphysical assumptions regarding existence or non-existence, but instead on imagining direct cognition of phenomena as they are presented to the mind. This informs and supports the Buddhist approach to liberation from adventitious distortion and engaging in the Noble Eightfold Path.

The Buddha of the earliest Buddhists texts describes Dharma (in the sense of "truth") as "beyond reasoning" or "transcending logic", in the sense that reasoning is a subjectively introduced aspect of the way unenlightened humans perceive things, and the conceptual framework which underpins their cognitive process, rather than a feature of things as they really are. Going "beyond reasoning" means in this context penetrating the nature of reasoning from the inside, and removing the causes for experiencing any future stress as a result of it, rather than functioning outside of the system as a whole. 

Some Buddhist scholars assert words are inadequate to describe the goal of the Buddhist path, but concerning the usefulness of words in the path itself, schools differ radically

Jain philosophy

Jain philosophy

Jainism came into formal being after Mahavira synthesized philosophies and promulgations of the ancient Sramana philosophy, during the period around 550 BC, in the region that is present dayBihar in northern India. This period marked an ideological renaissance, in which the Vedic dominance was challenged by various groups like Jainism and Buddhism.

 

A Jain is a follower of Jinas, spiritual 'victors' (Jina is Sanskrit for 'victor'), human beings who have rediscovered the dharma, become fully liberated and taught the spiritual path for the benefit of beings. Jains follow the teachings of 24 special Jinas who are known as Tirthankars ('ford-builders'). The 24th and most recent Tirthankar, Lord Mahavira, lived in c.6th century BC, in a period of cultural revolution all over the world. During this period, Socrates was born in Greece, Zoroaster in Iran, Lao‑Tse and Confucious in China and Mahavira and Buddha in India.  The 23rd Thirthankar of Jains, Lord Parsvanatha is recognised now as a historical person, lived during 872 to 772 BC...  Jaina tradition is unanimous in making Rishabha, as the First Tirthankar. 

Jainism is not considered as a part of the Vedic Religion (Hinduism),  even as there is constitutional ambiguity over its status. Jain tirthankars find exclusive mention in the Vedas and the Hindu epics. During the Vedantic age, India had two broad philosophical streams of thought: The Shramana philosophical schools, represented by Buddhism, Jainism, and the long defunct and Ajivika on one hand, and the Brahmana/Vedantic/Puranic schools represented by Vedanta, Vaishnava and other movements on the other. Both streams are known to have mutually influenced each other. 

The Hindu scholar Lokmanya Tilak credited Jainism with influencing Hinduism in the area of the cessation of animal sacrifice in Vedic rituals. Bal Gangadhar Tilak has described Jainism as the originator of Ahimsa and wrote in a letter printed in Bombay Samachar, Mumbai:10 Dec, 1904: "In ancient times, innumerable animals were butchered in sacrifices. Evidence in support of this is found in various poetic compositions such as the Meghaduta. But the credit for the disappearance of this terrible massacre from the Brahminical religion goes to Jainism." Swami Vivekanandaalso credited Jainsim as one of the influencing forces behind the Indian culture. 

One of the main characteristics of Jain belief is the emphasis on the immediate consequences of one's physical and mental behavior.  Because Jains believe that everything is in some sense alive with many living beings possessing a soul, great care and awareness is required in going about one's business in the world. Jainism is a religious tradition in which all life is considered to be worthy of respect and Jain teaching emphasises this equality of all life advocating the non-harming of even the smallest creatures. Non-violence ( Ahimsa) is the basis of right View, the condition of right Knowledge and the kernel of right Conduct in Jainism.

Jainism encourages spiritual independence (in the sense of relying on and cultivating one's own personal wisdom) and self-control (व्रत, vratae) which is considered vital for one's spiritual development. The goal, as with other Indian religions, is moksha which in Jainism is realization of the soul's true nature, a condition of omniscience (Kevala Jnana). Anekantavada is one of the principles of Jainism positing that reality is perceived differently from different points of view, and that no single point of view is completely true. Jain doctrine states that only Kevalis, those who have infinite knowledge, can know the true answer, and that all others would only know a part of the answer. Anekantavada is related to the Western philosophical doctrine of Subjectivism.

Indian philosophy

India has a rich and diverse philosophical tradition dating back to the composition of the Upanisads in the later Vedic period. According toRadhakrishnan, the oldest of these constitute "...the earliest philosophical compositions of the world." 

Traditionally, schools (Skt: Darshanas) of Indian philosophy are identified as orthodox (Skt: astika) or non-orthodox (Skt: nastika) depending on whether they regard the Veda as an infallible source of knowledge.  There are six schools of orthodox Hindu philosophy and three heterodox schools. The orthodox are Nyaya, Vaisesika, Samkhya, Yoga, Purva mimamsa and Vedanta. The Heterodox are Jain, Buddhist and materialist (Cārvāka). However, Vidyāraṇya classifies Indian philosophy into sixteen schools where he includes schools belonging to Saiva and Raseśvarathought with others. 

The main schools of Indian philosophy were formalized chiefly between 1000 BC to the early centuries AD. Subsequent centuries produced commentaries and reformulations continuing up to as late as the 20th century by Aurobindo and Prabhupada among others. Competition and integration between the various schools was intense during their formative years, especially between 800 BC to 200 AD. Some like the Jain,Buddhist, Shaiva and Advaita schools survived, while others like Samkhya and Ajivika did not, either being assimilated or going extinct. The Sanskritterm for "philosopher" is dārśanika, one who is familiar with the systems of philosophy, or darśanas. 

Common themes

The Indian thinkers of antiquity (very much like those of the post-Socratic Greek philosophical schools) viewed philosophy as a practical necessity that needed to be cultivated in order to understand how life can best be led. It became a custom for Indian writers to explain at the beginning of philosophical works how it serves human ends (puruṣārtha).  Recent scholarship has shown that there was a great deal of intercourse between Greek and Indian philosophy during the era of Hellenistic expansion. 

Indian philosophy is distinctive in its application of analytical rigour to metaphysical problems and goes into very precise detail about the nature of reality, the structure and function of the human psyche and how the relationship between the two have important implications for human salvation (moksha). Rishis centered philosophy on an assumption that there is a unitary underlying order (rta) in the universe  which is all pervasive and omniscient. The efforts by various schools were concentrated on explaining this order and the metaphysical entity at its source (Brahman). The concept of natural law (Dharma) provided a basis for understanding questions of how life on earth should be lived. The sages urged humans to discern this order and to live their lives in accordance with it.

Common themes

The Indian thinkers of antiquity (very much like those of the post-Socratic Greek philosophical schools) viewed philosophy as a practical necessity that needed to be cultivated in order to understand how life can best be led. It became a custom for Indian writers to explain at the beginning of philosophical works how it serves human ends (puruṣārtha).  Recent scholarship has shown that there was a great deal of intercourse between Greek and Indian philosophy during the era of Hellenistic expansion. 

Indian philosophy is distinctive in its application of analytical rigour to metaphysical problems and goes into very precise detail about the nature of reality, the structure and function of the human psyche and how the relationship between the two have important implications for human salvation (moksha). Rishis centered philosophy on an assumption that there is a unitary underlying order (rta) in the universe which is all pervasive and omniscient. The efforts by various schools were concentrated on explaining this order and the metaphysical entity at its source (Brahman). The concept of natural law (Dharma) provided a basis for understanding questions of how life on earth should be lived. The sages urged humans to discern this order and to live their lives in accordance with it.

Schools

Hindu philosophy
 

Many Hindu intellectual traditions were classified during the medieval period of Brahmanic-Sanskritic scholasticism into a standard list of six orthodox (astika) schools (darshanas), the "Six Philosophies" (ṣad-darśana), all of which accept the testimony of the Vedas: 

• Nyaya, the school of logic
• Vaisheshika, the atomist school
• Samkhya, the enumeration school
• Yoga, the school of Patanjali (which provisionally asserts the metaphysics of Samkhya)
• Purva Mimamsa (or simply Mimamsa), the tradition of Vedic exegesis, with emphasis on Vedic ritual, and
• Vedanta (also called Uttara Mimamsa), the Upanishadic tradition, with emphasis on Vedic philosophy.

These are often coupled into three groups for both historical and conceptual reasons: Nyaya-Vaishesika, Samkhya-Yoga, and Mimamsa-Vedanta. The Vedanta school is further divided into six sub-schools: Advaita (monism/nondualism), also includes the concept of Ajativada, Visishtadvaita (monism of the qualified whole), Dvaita (dualism), Dvaitadvaita (dualism-nondualism), Suddhadvaita, and Achintya Bheda Abheda schools.

Besides these schools Mādhava Vidyāraṇya also includes the following: 

• Pasupata, school of Shaivism by Nakulisa
• Saiva, the theistic Sankhya school
• Pratyabhijña, the recognitive school
• Raseśvara, the mercurial school
• Pāṇini Darśana, the grammarian school (which clarifies the theory of Sphoṭa) 

The systems mentioned here are not the only orthodox systems, they are the chief ones, and there are other orthodox schools. These systems, accept the authority of Vedas and are regarded as "orthodox" (astika) schools of Hindu philosophy; besides these, schools that do not accept the authority of the Vedas are categorized by Brahmins as unorthodox (nastika) systems.  Chief among the latter category are Buddhism, Jainism and Cārvāka.

Pashupati &Pashupata Shaivism

Pashupati   "Lord of all animals", is an epithet of the Hindu god Shiva.  In Vedic times it was used as an epithet of Rudra.  The Rigveda has the related pashupa"protector of animals" as a name of Pushan. The name was also applied by John Marshall to a figure, probably a deity depicted as sitting among animals, on a seal discovered in the context of the Indus Valley Civilization The main temple of Nepal is Pashupatinath at Katmandu.

Pashupati seal

A seal discovered during excavation of the Mohenjodaro archaeological site in the Indus Valley (2900BC-1900BC) has drawn attention as a possible representation of a "yogi" or "proto-Shiva" figure.  This "Pashupati" (Lord of Animals, Sanskrit paśupati)  seal shows a seated figure, possiblyithyphallic, surrounded by animals. Some observers describe the figure as sitting in a traditional cross-legged yoga pose with its hands resting on its knees.
The discoverer of the seal, Sir John Marshall, and others have claimed that this figure is a prototype of Shiva.
Imagery

Archaeologist Jonathan Mark Kenoyer, current Co-director of the Harappa Archaeological Research Project in Pakistan and Indologist Heinrich Zimmeragree that the 'Pashupati' figure shows a figure in a yoga posture. 

Critiques

Gavin Flood characterizes these views as "speculative", saying that while it is not clear from the seal that the figure has three faces, is seated in a yoga posture, or even that the shape is intended to represent a human figure, it is nevertheless possible that there are echoes of Shaiva iconographic themes, such as half-moon shapes resembling the horns of a bull. ^] Historian John Keay is more specifically dismissive, saying:

..there is little evidence for the currency of this myth. Rudra, a Vedic deity later identified with Shiva, is indeed referred to as pasupati because of his association with cattle; but asceticism and meditation were not Rudra's specialties, nor is he usually credited with an empathy for animals other than kine. More plausibly, it has been suggested that the Harappan figure's heavily horned headgear bespeaks a bull cult, to which numerous other representations of bulls lend substance.

Archaeologist Gregory Possehl also disagrees with the Proto-Shiva theory,  but contends that "the posture of the deity...is a form of ritual discipline, suggesting a precursor of yoga." Possehl also states that this view:

...is supported by several other yogi images in the corpus of Mature Harappan materials....These diverse images suggest that the Indus pose of ritual discipline was used in more than one way and that their buffalo god did not have exclusive access to it. Taken as a whole, it appears that the pose may have been used by deities and humans alike....This presents an interesting possibility: Some of the Harrapans were devoted to ritual discipline and concentration, and this was one of the preoccupations of at least one of their gods."

Pashupatas

The devotees of Pashupati Siva are called Pashupatas. Their religious sect is also called Pashupata or Pasupata (Pashupata Shaivism). The Mahabharata's Narayaniya section mentions thePasupata School among five systems (namely Sankhya, Yoga, Pancharatra, Veda and Pashupata). It was propagated by Lakulisa in 2nd century A.D.. Lakulisa was described in Puranas as 28th or last incarnation of Siva. Lakulisa composed the work Pancharthavidya, which says "A Pasupata must bathe thrice a day,must lie on the dust or ashes". This Pasupata Vow is described in Atharvasiras Upanishad, a sectatian work devoted to Rudra's glory.

Potnia Theron   is a term first used (once) by Homer (Iliad 21. 470) and often used to describe female divinities associated with animals.  The word Potnia, meaning mistress or lady, was a Mycenaean word inherited by Classical Greek, with the same meaning, which has an exact parallel in Sanskrit patnī.  

Homer's mention of potnia theron is thought to refer to Artemis and Walter Burkert describes this mention as "a well established formula".  An Artemis type deity, a 'Mistress of the Animals', is often assumed to have existed in prehistorical religion and often referred to as Potnia Theron, with some scholars positing a relationship between Artemis and goddesses depicted in Minoan art and "Potnia Theron has become a generic term for any female associated with animals.

Pashupata Shaivism  is the oldest of the major Shaivite schools.  The philosophy of Pashupata sect was systematized byLakulish (also called Nakuliśa ) in the 2nd century A.D. The main texts of the school are Gaṇakārikā, Pañchārtha bhāshyadipikā and Rāśikara-bhāshya.
Date

The date of foundation of the school is uncertain. However, the Pashupatas may have existed from the 1st century AD.  Gavin Flood dates them to around the 2nd century AD.  They are also referred to in the epic Mahabharata which is thought to have reached a final form by 4th century CE.  The Pashupata movement was influential in South India in the period between the 7th and 14th century, but it no longer exists. 

Overview

Pashupata Shaivism was a devotional (bhakti) and ascetic movement.  Pashu in Pashupati refers to the effect (or created world), the word designates that which is dependent on something ulterior. Whereas, Pati means the cause (or prinripium), the word designates the Lord, who is the cause of the universe, the pati, or the ruler.  To free themselves from worldy fetters Pashupatas are instructed to do a pashupata vrata. Atharvasiras Upanishsad describes the pashupata vrata as that which consists of besmearing one's own body with ashes and at the same time muttering mantra — "Agni is ashes, Vayu is ashes, Sky is ashes, all this is ashes, the mind, these eyes are ashes. 

Haradattacharya, in Gaṇakārikā, explains that a spiritual teacher is one who knows the eight pentads and the three functions. The eight pentads of Acquisition(result of expedience), Impurity(evil in soul), Expedient(means of purification), Locality(aids to increase knowledge), Perseverance(endurance in pentads), Purification(putting away impurities), Initiation and Powers are 

Acquisition	knowledge	penance	permanence of the body	constancy	purity
Impurity	false conception	demerit	attachment	interestedness	falling
Expedient	use of habitation	pious muttering	meditation	constant recollection of Rudra	apprehension
Locality	spiritual teachers	a cavern	a special place	the burning ground	Rudra
Perseverance	the differenced	the undifferenced	muttering	acceptance	devotion
Purification	loss of ignorance	loss of demerit	loss of attachment	loss of interestedness	loss of falling
Initiations	the material	proper time	the rite	the image	the spiritual guide
Powers	devotion to the spiritual guide	clearness of intellect	conquest of pleasure and pain	merit	carefulness

The three functions correspond to the means of earning daily food — mendicancy, living upon alms, and living upon what chance supplies. 

Philosophy

Pashupatas disapprove of the Vaishnava theology, known for its doctrine servitude of souls to the Supreme Being, on the grounds that dependence upon anything cannot be the means of cessation of pain and other desired ends. They recognize that those depending upon another and longing for independence will not be emancipated because they still depend upon something other than themselves. According to Pashupatas, spirits possess the attributes of the Supreme Deity when they become liberated from the 'germ of every pain'.  In this system the cessation of pain is of two kinds, impersonal and personal. Impersonal consists of the absolute cessation of all pains, whereas the personal consists of development of visual and active powers like swiftness of thought, assuming forms at will etc. The Lord is held to be the possessor of infinite, visual, and active powers. 

Pañchārtha bhāshyadipikā divides the created world into the insentient and the sentient. The insentient is unconscious and thus dependent on the conscious. The insentient is further divided into effects and causes. The effects are of ten kinds, the earth, four elements and their qualities, colour etc . The causes are of thirteen kinds, the five organs of cognition, the five organs of action, the three internal organs, intellect, the ego principle and the cognising principle. These insentient causes are held responsible for the illusive identification of Self with non-Self. The sentient spirit, which is subject to transmigration is of two kinds, the appetent and nonappetent. The appetent is the spirit associated with an organism and sense organs, whereas the non-appetent is the spirit without them. 

Union in the Pashupata system is a conjunction of the soul with God through the intellect. It is achieved in two ways, action and cessation of action. Union through action consists of pious muttering, meditation etc and union through cessation of action occurs through consciousness. 

Differences with other schools of Indian philosophy

Cessation of suffering in other systems like Sankhya occurs through the mere termination of miseries, but in Pashupata school it is the attainment of supremacy or of divine perfections. In other philosophies, the created world is that which has come into existence, but in this system it is eternal. In other schools of thought, birth in paradise involves a return to cycle of rebirth, but in this system it results in nearness to the Supreme Being. 

Rituals

Rituals and spiritual practices were done to acquire merit or puṇya. They were divided into primary and secondary rituals, where primary rituals were the direct means of acquiring merit. Primary rituals included acts of piety and various postures. The acts of piety were bathing thrice a day, lying upon sand and worship with oblations of laughter, song, dance, sacred muttering etc. Postures involved absurd actions such as, snoring or showing signs of being asleep while awake, limping, wooing or gestures of a inamorato on seeing a young and pretty woman, talking nonsensically etc. Secondary rituals involved bearing marks of purity after bathing.