Religiões Comparadas da Ásia
terça-feira, 26 de junho de 2012
terça-feira, 19 de junho de 2012
Testes
O primeiro teste realiza-se no dia 19 de Junho (terça-feira) entre as 18h e as 20h na sala 4.
O segundo teste - apenas para alunos externos - realiza-se no día 22 de Junho (sexta-feira) entre as 18h e as 20h, na sala 4.
O exame da época especial de avaliação realiza-se no dia 19 de Julho (quinta-feira) entre as 14h e as 16h.
O segundo teste - apenas para alunos externos - realiza-se no día 22 de Junho (sexta-feira) entre as 18h e as 20h, na sala 4.
O exame da época especial de avaliação realiza-se no dia 19 de Julho (quinta-feira) entre as 14h e as 16h.
sábado, 26 de maio de 2012
quarta-feira, 23 de maio de 2012
Sessão nº23
O primeiro teste de Religiões Comparadas da Ásia realiza-se no dia 19 de Junho/terça-feira (18-20h) [sala a determinar].
quarta-feira, 16 de maio de 2012
Sessão nº22
A. Many aspects of Buddhism seem very familiar.
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For example, Buddhists tell a story about the founder of their
tradition. His name was Siddhartha Gautama. He lived in northern India around 500 B.C.E. and was known to his followers as the Buddha, or the “Awakened One.” Like Jesus and Muhammad, he developed a distinctive response to the religious problems of his day, and he started a religious movement that now spans the globe, from India and Southeast Asia; to China, Tibet, Korea, and Japan; and in the last hundred years, to Europe, North America, and other parts of the world.
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During his life, the Buddha created an order of monks and nuns
who passed on a tradition of Buddhist learning and practice, as
Christian monks and nuns did in Europe during the Middle Ages
and still do in many parts of the Christian world today.
-
Buddhists have familiar patterns of ritual and worship. They go on
pilgrimages to important shrines; they worship images and sites
that are sacred to the Buddha; and they mark the stages of life with
rites of passage, similar to the ritual of a bar mitzvah in Judaism or
baptism in Christianity.
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Buddhists also teach people how to confront and deal with the
deepest questions of human life: What will happen to me when I
die? How can I live my life in a way that will be happy, peaceful,
compassionate, and free from suffering?
II.
B. But some aspects of Buddhism challenge our assumptions about
religion.
-
Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary defines religion as “the
service and adoration of God or a god expressed in forms of
worship.” If you mention the word “religion” to most people, the
first idea that comes to mind is “God.” There are gods in
Buddhism, and Buddhists sometimes attribute special powers to
the Buddha, but the tradition begins simply with a human
beingSiddhartha Gautamawho found a solution to the problem
of human suffering. Buddhists focus on his experience, and they
deny the existence of a single, almighty God.
-
The Buddhist tradition will challenge us to look in new ways at
some basic religious questions: What is ultimate reality? How can I
know it? And does it love me?
-
Many religious traditions emphasize the importance of an immortal
soul. This is not so in Buddhism. Buddhists say that a human
personality is like a river or a raging fire: The personality is
constantly changing, and the idea of an immortal soul is simply an
illusion that human beings impose on a process of constant change.
Buddhist ideas of the self challenge us to think in new ways about
some old questions: Who am I? How can I develop my full
potential as a human being?
- What is true for human beings is also true for Buddhism itself. Like everything else in the world, Buddhism is constantly changing. As we consider the astonishing variety of Buddhism that evolved in India and elsewhere in Asia, we will have to ask ourselves: What actually is Buddhism? Are there any values, practices, or religious commitments that remain constant through this extraordinary process of cultural change? Malcolm D. Eckel
©2003 The Teaching Company Limited Partnership 3
sábado, 12 de maio de 2012
Sessão nº21
"II. In the “Discourse on the Turning of the Wheel of Dharma”
(Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta), the traditional summary of the Buddha’s
first sermon, the Buddha’s teaching is summarized in Four Noble Truths.
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The Four Noble Truths are:
1. The truth of suffering (dukkha).
2. The truth of the arising of suffering.
3. The truth of the cessation of suffering (also known as nirvana or
nibbana).
4. The truth of the path that leads to the cessation of suffering.
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The terms dukkha and nibbana are cited in Pali, the language of the
earliest Buddhist scriptures. Pali is best understood as a vernacular
form of Sanskrit, the classical language of India.
12
A.
B.
When people come to Buddhism for the first time, this statement often
seems to be a barrier. It seems to mean that the Buddha (and, by
implication, all Buddhists) was pessimistic. The first important
intellectual challenge in the study of Buddhism is to understand how
this simple statement about suffering leads not to pessimism but to a
sense of liberation and peace.
Traditional sources say that “all is suffering” in one of three ways:
1. A car causes dukkha-dukkha if you drive it into the back of a bus. 2. A car causes viparinama-dukkha if you drive it through a New England winter and watch it disintegrate in the snow and salt. 3. A car causes samkhara-dukkha if you think there is something in your sense of self that will be enhanced by attachment to the car.
The significance of these three kinds of suffering can be explained further by relating them to the three “marks” of existence.
Traditional sources say that “all is suffering” in one of three ways:
-
Dukkha-dukkha (suffering that is obviously suffering): Some
things cause obvious physical or mental pain.
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Viparinama-dukkha (suffering due to change): Even the most
pleasurable things cause suffering when they pass away.
-
Samkhara-dukkha (suffering due to conditioned states):
Pleasurable things can cause pain even in the midst of the pleasure, if the pleasure is based on an illusion about the nature of the object or about the nature of the self.
1. A car causes dukkha-dukkha if you drive it into the back of a bus. 2. A car causes viparinama-dukkha if you drive it through a New England winter and watch it disintegrate in the snow and salt. 3. A car causes samkhara-dukkha if you think there is something in your sense of self that will be enhanced by attachment to the car.
The significance of these three kinds of suffering can be explained further by relating them to the three “marks” of existence.
C.
D.
D.
1.
2.
3.
Everything is suffering.
Everything is impermanent.
Nothing has any self, or “all is no self” (anatta).
Everything is impermanent.
Nothing has any self, or “all is no self” (anatta).
IV. What do Buddhists mean when they say that there is “no self”?
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In traditional Buddhism, “no self” means that there is no permanent
identity to continue from one moment to the next.
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If there is no permanent identity, what makes up the human
personality?
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The answer to this question is: five “aggregates,” from material
form (rupa) to consciousness (vinnana).
-
These five aggregates are only momentary, but they group together
to give the illusion of permanence, like the flow of a river or the
flame of a candle.
-
The answer to this question is: five “aggregates,” from material
form (rupa) to consciousness (vinnana).
-
If there is no self, what is reborn?
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The “stream” or “flame” of consciousness
-
Because of the causal continuity between moments in the flame, it
is possible to say that I am the “same” person from one moment to
the next.
-
But when we look closely at the flame, we realize that it changes at
every moment, and the idea that one moment is the same as another is nothing but an illusion.
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The “stream” or “flame” of consciousness
-
The concept of no-self helps us understand why Buddhists do not
consider the doctrine of suffering to be as negative as it seems.
-
From a Buddhist point of view, it is simply realistic to accept that
the human personality and all of reality are constantly changing.
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The cause of suffering is not the change itself, but the human
desire to hold on to things and prevent them from changing.
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From a Buddhist point of view, it is simply realistic to accept that
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When Buddhists look at the world through the lens of no-self, they do
not approach it in a pessimistic way.
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They understand that if everything changes, it is possible for
everything to become new.
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And if they accept the doctrine of suffering, it is possible to
approach even the most difficult situations in life with a sense of lightness and freedom.
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They understand that if everything changes, it is possible for
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This doctrine also helps a person move forward on the path to nirvana.
-
If a Buddhist realizes that there is no permanent self, there is no
longer any reason to be attached to all the things that bring
someone back in the cycle of death and rebirth.
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Just a hint of this realization is enough to start unraveling the chain
of causes that bind people to samsara and get them moving toward nirvana. "
Malcolm D. Eckel
©2003 The Teaching Company Limited Partnership
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If a Buddhist realizes that there is no permanent self, there is no
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