Course Outline: BP201 Early Buddhism - Basic Doctrines , 2011/2012, Semester 1

This course of lectures is based on the basic doctrinal and ethical concepts presented in the Pāli Canon arranged as follows:

i. Introduction to Early Buddhism

• Early Buddhism and Theravāda Buddhism
• The First Buddhist Council – Schismatic movement
• The Second Buddhist Council – Sectarian Divisions
• The Third Buddhist Council
• The Tipitaka: Written, at Last
• The Authenticity of the Buddha’s teachings.

ii. The attitude of Buddhism toward the concept of God/gods.

• The supernatural in Buddhism
• Attitudes towards theories of creation
• Veneration of the Buddha
• Brahma in the Pāli Canon and other common gods referred to in the Canon
• Ratanattaya-saddhā (the faith in the Triple Gem)

iii. The Views of Six well-known heretical teachers contemporaneous with the Buddha

• Sassadavāda & Ucchedavāda
• Buddhist Concept of Attavāda (Self-identification)
• Buddhist Concept of Kammavāda

iv. Buddhist Epistemology

• Kālāma Sutta / Ten Conditions of the Kālāma Sutta
• Faith as a Ground for Belief
• Reasoning as a Ground for Belief
• The Valid Grounds for Belief
• The Four Solaces
• The Buddhist Analysis of Knowledge: Saññā/Viññāna/Abhiññā/Pariññā & Paññā

v. The Four Noble Truths

• The First Noble Truth (Dukkha-ariyasacca) The Noble Truth of dukkha
• The three aspects of dukkha
• The Three Characteristics of Existence (Ti-lakkhana, Skt.Tri-laksana)
• The Second Noble Truth (Dukkha-samudaya-ariyasacca) The arising or origin of dukkha
• The Third Noble Truth (Dukkha-nirodha-ariyasacca) The (complete) cessation of dukkha
• The Fourth Noble Truth (Dukkhanirodhagāminīpatipadā ariyasacca) the noble truth of the way leading to the cessation of dukkha)

vi. The Noble Eightfold Path (Ariyātthangikamagga) or The Middle Path and its three constituents or the threefold training (tividhā-sikkhā), namely Sīla, Samādhi and Paññā

Vii. Ethical teachings of Early Buddhism: Bodily Action (kāya-kamma), Verbal Action (vacī-kamma) and Mental Action (mano-kamma); the ‘Ten Good Courses of Action’ (kusala- Kammapatha and the ‘Ten Evil Courses of Action’ (akusala- kammapatha)

viii. Sakkāyadiṭṭhi, the Theory of Anatta ‘Personality’ from the Buddhist point of view

• Buddhist analytical description of the individual
• Ahankāra – Bhikkhu Khemaka’s personal experience
• Rebirth in Brahmanism – the transmigration of Soul
• Rebirth in Buddhism – a re-becoming without soul
• Analysis of the Discourse on the Characteristic of No-Soul (Anattalakkhana Sutta)
• Direct Experience of Anatta through the practice of vipassana

ix. The Theory of Paṭicca-samuppāda and its twelve factors.

• Exposition of the sequence of twelve factors in two orders: (i) by ways of origination (Anuloma) and (ii) by way of cessation (Paṭiloma). The whole formula in turn exemplifies an abstract structural principle of conditionality
• The relationship of dependence between three successive lives in the cycle of existence according to the Theravāda tradition. The explanation of becoming in two ways: the Kammabhava (kamma-process or the cause) and the Upapattibhava (Rebirth-process of the effect, Visuddhimagga XVII § 250/Vbh.137)

x. The Buddhist Understanding of the Law of Kamma

• Moral quality of volitional acts determines kamma that brings about rebirth.

xi. Psychological aspect of the Early Buddhism

xii. Nibbāna in Early Buddhism,