I. Rise of Buddhism in India and Its Context (sixth-fifth century BCE)

Political and social change

Problem of ritualism of classical Hinduism (Vedic religion)

New trends in religious and philosophical thinking: Upanishads

The movement of the ascetics (sramanas or parivrajakas)

Rejection of the authority of the Vedas
Transmigration and unsatisfactoriness of mundane world (samsara)
Actions (karma) have effects
Search for actions that did not bind one to samsara
Liberation (moksha) from rebirth (samsara) as goal of religious conduct

II. Buddhism

III. Life and Legends of the Buddha (566-486 BCE/448-368 BCE)

Biography vs. hagiography (history vs. myth)

Consistency in the accounts in major textual sources: Lalitavistara, Mahavastu, Buddhavamsa, Vinaya-nidana (introduction to Vinaya); Jataka ("birth-stories")

Major themes in Buddhist art: Examples--Indian sites, Borobudur, Java; Yn-kang and Lun-meng in China

IV. Introduction of Buddhism to China: mid-first century, via Afghanistan and Central Asia ("silk roads")

V. Problems and conditions Indian Buddhism encountered in China

China had well-established indigenous religious traditions

Ancestor worship: importance of family lineage
Affirmation of the mundane world
Confucianism (600 BCE-): sociocentric ethical philosophy and religion
Taoism (400 BCE-): Tao-centric philosophy and religion

Buddhist worldviews and concepts totally alien to the Chinese

Random transmission of all types of teachings/texts to China

VI. Buddhist Soteriology: Three Approaches to salvation

A. Introduction.

Soteriology: the study ("science") of salvation; the process and method of salvation

The primacy of soteriology in Buddhism

Soteriology as 'the path' (marga) in Buddhism

Buddhist worldviews and soteriology

*Causality and conditionality of all existents
*The three characteristics of existence:

Impermanence;
suffering;
non-self (cf. 5 aggregates)

*The four noble truths:

Suffering;
origination;
cessation;
path (marga)

Relationship between soteriology and meditation

Goal of Buddhist practice: freedom from suffering (= nirvana)

B. Three distinct approaches/paths to salvation

1. Introduction.

Chronological development

Different interpretations of human nature and mind

Principle of skillful means (upaya)

2. Analytical approach: the path of purification (Theravada and Mahayana)

Formal path

Based on a negative assessment of human mind as defiled

Three major components: morality, meditation, wisdom

3. Gnoseological approach: the path of "knowledge" (Mahayana)

Gnosis: intuitive, esoteric knowledge of spiritual truth

Positive assessment of human mind as inherently pure: Mahayana premise of universal Buddha nature (tathagatagarbha)

Model: Sakyamuni Buddha's enlightenment experience

Example 1: Meditation school in China/Korea/Japan (Ch'an/Son/Zen)

a. Self-definition of Ch'an Buddhism: verses attributed to Bodhidharma

Separate transmission outside the teachings [of scriptures]
Without depending on letters and words
Directly pointing to the human mind
See its [original] nature and attain Buddhahood

b. Chinese innovation of meditation techniques: kung-an/koan ("public test-case") and no-thought or mind

Example 2: One/Buddha vehicle of the Lotus Sutra

Attainment of Buddhahood through simple, practical methods
Cult of stupa and sutra

4. Salvation through "other power": the path of faith (Mahayana)

The question of human nature and mind irrelevant

New logic of salvation; rebirth in the realm of Buddha Amitabha

Pure Land Buddhism in East Asia

Shinran (1173-1263) and his redefinition of faith

C. Comparison of the three paths

Assessment of human mind and its role in liberation from suffering

Self-power vs. other power

Analogy of reaching "the other shore"