1. EARLY DHARMA FOOTPRINTS
This Course is under construction
Without a firm foundation, well-prepared, no edifice can be supported
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Information about this course
Academically it could be said that it is the purpose of this course to examine the socio-cultural and religio-philosophical background against which Buddhism arose, in order to understand Buddhist doctrines from a broad historical perspective.
But clearly to talk of a socio-cultural and religio-philosophical background is to talk of the human creature in terms of only his skeleton and flesh. So, no matter how highfalutin and academic that course description might sound, the real aim of the course is to make the reader understand and live for a while in the real life-and-blood culture in which Buddhism rose.
Enquiry by the Indian mind was different in the time of Buddha, its purpose being to realise inwardly the Truth perceived by the mind or the intellect. Is it enough to know that halva is sweet? You must experience its sweetness by eating it. That is how the truth was perceived and that is clearly how we wish to teach it.
What do we know of Napoleon? That he was born and died and that there were certain landmarks in his life of glory and defeat, that he had a romance with Josephine, and that he is an important figure in history.
No matter how much one fills in the details of this framework, we learn nothing about Napoleon. He is an empty shell.
It is our aim here to eliminate the empty shell treatment of the Dharma and Buddha and present the Dependent Origination of his discovery and the setting in which he, the real man, was born, grew and awakened in his lifetime among true flesh-and-blood human creatures with their aspirations, dreams, ideas, hopes, clinging, craving and suffering.
He was born upon a stage, prepared and waiting. What was the true setting? Who really were the actors? How were they and what were their thoughts, sensations and emotions? These are the critical questions.
We will deal with the Vedic religion and its hymns, its development, and the emergence of the beautiful Upanishads, for it was in that culture and from that base that Buddhism was born and nurtured.
Buddha was a part of Brahmic life, with its inherent injustices. Thus if we wish to understand both the limitations and seeds of his original ideas, we must learn about the Brahmic practices and social milieu, with many surprises in store.
The whole base of Buddhism rises and falls on the idea of Dependent Origination, in which there is no one cause which brings about an effect. So we must review the rise of the Sramana movement, the important Six Teachers of the era, materialism and scepticism, and other matters which Buddha dealt with in his confrontations as components of the birth of Buddhism.
Buddha became an ascetic. Why? And what were the reasons behind these ascetic practices as a means to self-purification?
Then there is the generation of Buddha’s revelations by direct experience which make, in retrospect, a logical bridge between the spiritual (sassatavada) and materialist (ucchedavada) ideologies, both paradoxically actually derived by cognitive intellect. We must see that dichotomy as it was before the noble truth was presented which transcends both the spiritual and material.
Thus we build a firm base from which we can build a better understanding and ask in the second course, “Who indeed was Buddha?”
Suggested Study plan Course MI 101 (hours of study 18)
The Indo-Iranian invasion (6) 40
The Vedic religion and its hymns (18) 120
Vedic development (6) 40
The emergence of the beautiful Upanishads (18) 120
Brahmic life and its power and injustices (12) 80
The Sramana movement (6) 40
The important Six Teachers of the era (24) 160
Materialism and Scepticism and other issues of the day (24) 160
Asceticism as a means to self-purification (12) 80
The spiritual (sassatavada) and materialist (ucchedavada) ideologies (24) 160
Deeper understanding in inner awareness (12) 80
This can be taken as an Interactive course