Schools Of Buddhism

Answer : Pratityasamutpada or Doctorine of dependent origination has been discussed in the second noble truth as twelve causes of suffering. Right knowledge of these causes can help one to attain Nirvana which has been the most cherished goal of Buddhism. This doctrine forms the basis of Buddha teachings.

Pratityasamutpada holds that suffering is not due to by chance but it is brought about by certain conditions which constitute the foundations of existence itself. If suffering is uncaused ....

Answer : It is a key concept of Vijnanavad or Yogachara school of Buddhism. The Yogachara view is called vijnana- vada or idealism because it admits that there is only one kind of reality which is of the nature of consciousness (vijnana) and objects which appear to be material or external to consciousness are really ideas or states of consciousness. This theory may be described as subjective idealism, because according to it the existence of an object ....

Answer : According to Vaibhasika School, conventional truth or Phenomena (things that actually exist) are conventional truths. Imputed existence (can be broken down), a “whole object” is imputed onto its parts (such as form or consciousness) is equal to conventional truth. Ultimate truth is irreducible phenomena that are recognizable, even if broken down, are ultimate truths. Ultimate truth is an object that is not a collection of substantial parts, but is the actual substance – it is ....

Answer : Nagarjuna, who is regarded as the greatest Buddhist philosopher ever, founded Madhyamika philosophy, the philosophy of the Middle Way. At the heart of the Middle Way is the concept of sunyata, perhaps Nagarjuna’s single most important contribution to Buddhist thought. The whole philosophy, in fact, can be viewed as different aspects of sunyata. As Ramanan says of his book, “the whole of the present work may be said to be an attempt to lay bare ....

Answer : Nagarjuna holds that emptiness (Sunyada) is of course always the emptiness of something, and the something Nagarjuna has in mind here is svabhava. By understanding what empty things are supposed to be we simultaneously gain a more precise understanding of the concept of emptiness.

The concept of sunyata , or “emptiness,” which brings together other key Buddhist doctrines, particularly anatman (no-self) and pratityasamutpada (dependent origination), to refute the metaphysics of sarvastivada and sautrantika(extinct non-Mahayana schools). For ....

Answer : According to Buddhist philosophy the three basic facts of all existence are:

1. Impermanence or Change (anicca)
2. Suffering or Unsatisfactoriness (dukkha)
3. Not-self or Insubstantiality (anattaa).

The first and the third apply to inanimate existence as well, while the second (suffering) is, of course, only an experience of the animate. The inanimate, however, can be, and very often is, a cause of suffering for living beings: for instance, a falling stone may cause injury or loss ....

Answer : Most important contribution of Nagarjuna to the Madhyamika School of Buddhism is ‘Sunyavada’. The credit of organizing the Sunyavada goes to Nagarjuna. He developed and organized the Sunyavada and presented it in a new way.

Sunyavada of Buddhist philosophy is their main theory related to the reality. In Sunyavada the sunya does not mean non-existence of the things, here the meaning of sunya is “indes-cribable”. According to Nagarjuna, the nature of absolute is beyond description. Although ....

Answer : The theory which describes the concept of illusion is known as Khyativada. In Indian philosophy there had been a threadbare analysis of illusion. There are three basic questions regarding the explanation of illusion. First question is that, what is the nature of illusion? Second, what is the nature of knowledge of illusion? Third, what is the cause of illusion?

All the theories related to illusion are classified into two categories i.e. objectivist and idealist. Buddhist conception ....

Answer : Causal theory or Buddhist philosophy is known as Pratityasamutapada. This is an important theory of Buddhism. On the basis of this many theories are developed in Buddhism. Although this principle defines the problem of sorrow but it also defines the religious, moral and metaphysical principles of Buddhism.

Pratityasamutpada defines the cause of sorrow and shows the way of its cessation. In this way it expresses the religious facet of the Buddhist philosophy. A belief in the ....

Answer : In early Buddhism more importance was given to four noble truths than to systematic metaphysics. Subjects of metaphysics like Soul, God, World, rebirth, etc are disputed issues since the time immemorial.

Many discussions and debates happened over these subjects. But the problem stands still. The more we try to solve these problems, the more they increased. To find the real solution to these problems is outside human capacity. For finding the solution to these problems, one ....

Answer : Yes, the concept Nirvana, a logical necessity for the Buddhists. The concept or Nirvana is given in the third noble truth. All the four noble truths are linked and are the crux of Buddhist philosophy on which all the prinicples of Buddhist philosophies have evolved.

The four noble truths are-

(i)There is suffering (dukha)- Life is full of misery and pain. Even the so called pleasures are really frought with pain.

(ii)There is cause of suffering (dukha-samudaya) ....

Answer : Some thinkers doubt “Sunyavada” as a philosophical doctrine. But the arguments given by them are weak in nature. In fact i.e. in reality Sunyavada is a philosophical doctrine. The Sunyavada has its own metaphysics and epistemology. Its metaphysics is consistent. A consistent metaphysicsmeans that all the metaphysical theories of a metaphysical system are internally consistent with each other as well as the metaphysics is a logical outcome of its epistemology.

Madhyamika Sunyavada is a very important ....

Answer : Rhys Davids, observes that the doctrine of dependent origination or Pratityasamutpada have double aspect. Firstly, it explains the world secondly it exaplains the origin of suffering. The Buddhist concept of ‘NanaRupa’ is associated with the second aspect and it helps inunderstanding the origin of sufferings.

According to Buddhism man is only a conventional name for a collection of different constitutes, the material body, immaterial mind (manas or citta), the form less consciousness (vijnana). Just like a ....

Answer : Atman

Ans (a): The second noble truth of Buddhism says that there are causes of sufferings. This can be better explained by the causal theory of Buddhism. The doctrine of pratîtyasamutpâda often translated as “dependent arising”, is a cardinal doctrine in Buddhism that refers to the causal relations between the psychophysical phenomena that sustain dukkha (dissatisfaction) in worldly experiences. It is variously rendered into English as “dependent arising”, “conditioned genesis”, “dependent co-arising” and “interdependent arising” and ....

Answer : There are many references to rebirth in the early Buddhist scriptures. Some English-speaking Buddhists prefer the term “rebirth” or “re-becoming” to “reincarnation” as they take the latter to imply a fixed entity that is reborn. It is said to be the “evolving consciousness” or “stream of consciousness” that reincarnates. The early Buddhist texts make it clear that there is no permanent consciousness that moves from life to life. The lack of a fixed self does ....

Answer : Atman, the Sanskrit expression of Soul, Self, or Ego, is a permanent, everlasting and absolute entity, which is the unchanging substance behind the changing phenomenal world. Common beliefs say that soul is owned by each individual, created by God after death, (it) lives eternally either in hell or heaven, its destiny depending on the judgment of its creator. It goes through many lives till it is completely purified and becomes finally united with God or ....

Answer : Whatever their provenance, the Wisdom Sutras focus on shunyata, “emptiness.” Nagarjuna’s principle contribution to Buddhism was his systematization of the sutras’ teachings. Older schools of Buddhism maintained the Buddha’s teaching of anatman. According to this doctrine, there is no “self” in the sense of a permanent, integral, autonomous being within an individual existence. What we think of as our self, our personality and ego, are temporary creations of the skandhas. Shunyata is a deepening of ....

Answer : Buddhism is divided into many philosophical schools and has a vast literature. It is very difficult to say what exactly are the teachings of Buddha himself and what are the interpretations, amplifications and elaborations put upon them by the disciples. But there is a consensus among them on the four noble truths the core of the Buddha’s teachings. The four noble truths (arya satya) are:

Here is a suffering (dukha): Life is full of misery and ....

Answer : The doctrine of pratityasamutpada or dependent origination is the foundation of all the teachings of the Buddha. It is contained in the second noble truth which gives as the cause of suffering and in the Third Noble Truth which shows the cessation of suffering. Suffering is Samsara, cessesion of suffering is Nirvana. Both are only aspects of the same reality. Pratityasamutpada, viewed from the point of view of relativity is Samsara; while viewed from the ....

Answer : Shunyavada is one of he most important schools of Buddhism. Nagarjuna is the first systematic expounder of Shunyavada. Shunyavadins call themselves madhyamikas or the follower of the Middle Path realized by Buddha during his Enlightment, which path, avoiding the errors of existence and non-existence, affirmation and negation, externalism and nihilism, also at once transcends both the extremes. Unfortunately the word ‘Shunya’ has been gravely misunderstood. The literal meaning of the much talked about word which ....

Answer : Hinayana denies out rightly the existence of God whose place is taken by the Buddha and the theory of Karma. The so called soul is reduced to a series of fleeting ideas. The so called matter is nothing more than a series of momentary atoms of earth, water, fire and air. Everything is momentary. Change is the rule of the universe. Liberation is the extinction of all desires and passions. The most important doctrine of ....

Answer : The idea of liberation in Buddhist philosophy is called Nirvana. Nirvana is said to be a negative cessation or suffering. It is often composed with the extinction of the flame of a lamp. Just as a lamp when it becomes extinguished goes neither hither nor thither, neither to the earth nor to the sky, neither to this direction nor to that, it has been utterly blown out on account of the oil being consumed; similarly ....

Answer : Kashanikavada, the theory of Momentariness is the mort important doctrine of Hinayaran. According to this fleeting idea the so called matter is nothing more than a series of momentary atoms of earth, water, fire and air. Everything is momentary. Change is the rule of the universe. Liberation is the extinction of all desires and passions. Therefore the theory of Momentousness is also called Sanatanvada or the theory of Flux or Ceaseless flow. It is applicable ....

Answer : The doctrine of pratityasamutpada or dependent origination is the foundation of all the teachings of the Buddha. It is contained in the second noble truth which gives as the cause of suffering and in the Third Noble Truth which shows the cessation of suffering. Suffering is Samsara, cessesion of suffering is Nirvana. Both are only aspects of the same reality. Pratityasamutpada, viewed from the point of view of relativity is Samsara; while viewed from the ....

Answer : Nagarjuna is the first systematic expounder of Shunyavada. The world ‘Shunya’ has been gravely misunderstood. The literal meaning of the word which is negation or void has been the cause of much misunderstanding. The word is used by Madhyanmikas in a different philosophical sense. Ignoring the real philosophical meaning of the word ‘shunya’ and taking it only in its literal sense many thinkers, eastern and western have unfortunately committed the blunder. Shunya, according o the ....

Answer : Shunyavada is one of he most important schools of Buddhism. Nagarjuna is the first systematic expounder of Shunyavada. Shunyavadins call themselves madhyamikas or the follower of the Middle Path realized by Buddha during his Enlightment, which path, avoiding the errors of existence and non-existence, affirmation and negation, externalism and nihilism, also at once transcends both the extremes. Unfortunately the word ‘Shunya’ has been gravely misunderstood. The literal meaning of the much talked about word which ....

Answer : Madhyamika admits the empirical reality of everything. It is only from the absolute standpoint that he declares the phenomenal to be unreal. Thus his doctrine transcends affirmation as well as negation. Reality (Paramartha Satya) according to Madhyamika motion is non-dual, blissful, beyond plurality and finite thought. It can only be directly realized. But it cannot be realized by denying the phenomenal which must be accepted as a practical necessity. Just as a person who decides ....

Answer : It is generally believed that Asanga is the founder of Vijnanavada. He has given the following ten essential features of the Yogachera School.

• The Alayavijanana is immanent in all beings.
• There are three kinds of knowledge illusory, relative and absolute.
• The objective world and the subjective ego are only manifestations of the Universal consciousness (Alaya).
• Six perfections are emphasized.
• In order to realize Buddhahood we have to pass through the ten stages of Buddhisattvahood.
• Mahayan is far superior to Hinayana which ....

Answer : Pratityasamatapada is the crux of all the teachings of the Buddha. Pratityasamtapada refers to dependent origination. This doctrine is the second Noble truth which gives emphasis on the cause of sufferings, and in the third Noble truth which shows the cessation of suffering. Basically both are only the aspect of the same reality. Pratityasamatapada tells us that in the empirical world dominated by the intellect everything is relative, conditional, dependent, subject to birth and death ....