Feeling is the language of the soul.
Feeling is the language of the soul.
Tag: Buddhism
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Conversations with God Book 1 | Book Review | Quotes
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(3) How to start learning about Buddhism? | Three Turnings of the Wheel of Dharma
(Credit: George Dagerotip) The Three Turnings of the Wheel of Dharma could be regarded as a framework in Mahāyāna Buddhism for classifying in to stages and understanding the teachings of Buddha Śākyamuni.
- The First Turning of the Wheel of Dharma
The first turning of the wheel of dharma refers to the earliest stage of the Buddha’s teachings, during which the Buddha taught the fundamental concepts, building blocks or the cornerstones of Buddhism like the ones below. The first turning of dharma wheel is also known as the Hīnayāna Buddhism stage, which is a relative concept compared with Mahāyāna Buddhism.
- Four Noble Truths
- Dependently Arising
- Five Aggregate
2. The Second Turning of the Wheel of Dharma
The second turning refers to the development of Buddhism, where the Buddha further elaborated and developed concepts regarding the world, based on the fundamentals above, which are more applied on personal prospective. In the second phase, the Buddha talked about the Emptiness nature, which is similar to the concept of dependently arising, while specially pinpoint that nothing in our world consists of a true self nature or independent existence.
Compared with the first turning of wheel, here the Buddha introduced the Bodhisattva path, which might be briefly concluded as the cultivation of Compassion and Wisdom towards all sentient beings as a practice for enlightenment and liberation, thus nirvana. For wisdom, it refers to the understanding and experience of emptiness.
3. The Third Turning of the Wheel of Dharma
The last turning of Dharma wheel refers to the teaching of Buddha nature, which means that all beings have a Buddha nature potential, while it only manifest after stains are removed, which include the unwholesome roots like Greed, Hatred and Ignorance.
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(2) How to start learning about Buddhism? | How scientific is Buddhism?
Credit: Liza Matthews & Zephyr (Science Photo Library) Buddhism in Contemporary Society
Based on the discussion in the previous article, Buddhism is often regarded as either a religion or a cultural tradition. Recently, there has been more scientific research on Buddhism, especially from psychological and neuroscientific perspectives.
Practices like yoga, meditation, mindfulness, and how Buddhist teachings could help improve our well-being have come into the spotlight amid the surging need and growing awareness in society in mental health areas like stress management and reduction.
Challenges of Scientific Research on Buddhism
In an article titled “The Science of the Mind and the Science of the Brain” in the “Lion’s Roar” magazine, His Holiness the Dalai Lama discussed the challenges in studying and researching Buddhism scientifically.
Modern science and research relies on objective methodologies of observation and experiment, while Buddhism deals with the subjectivity of human mind, consciousness and reality. Thus, it is complex and difficult to bridge these two approaches. In other words, by modern science, we are by far no able to logicize and formulize Buddhism, a study of mind and consciousness, like classical Physics formulas to explain causal effects in our experiential world.
Stages of Development in Buddhism – Psychology, Philosophy, Yoga
Three Stages of Buddhism Development From the Buddha Shakyamuni’s enlightenment commonly agreed in around 500 BCE, there had been many changes and stages of development in the content and way of teachings by the Buddha,
Let’s explore more about the 3 stages of Buddha’s teaching i.e. the Three Turnings of the Wheel of Dharma in the next article.
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(1) How to start learning about Buddhism? | Is it a Religion or Science?
Buddha Statue (Credit: Mattia Faloretti) First of all, I would like to congratulate you for your step here searching for Buddhism, be it out of coincidence, curiosity or suffering of yours or someone. I sincerely hope that you would be able to explore and learn something from the ancient wisdom, which might help change your life from all prospectives.
Q1. Is Buddhism a religion or science? I’m not a Buddhist…
When talking about Buddhism, the first question that one might ask or concern is regarding whether Buddhism is a religion or science. The short answer is “Both, yes and no”. (Yes a very non-duality or Middle Way style of Buddhist argumentation.)
Buddhism is often regarded a religion as it is commonly understood and accepted in the contemporary society. As a lay person, we could meet Buddhism from many occasions in our life, while many of us likely come across Buddhism for the first time when we visit a temple when travelling somewhere in the world, especially countries like China, Japan and Thailand, where Buddhism is common and countries with Buddhism as their state religion like Bhutan.
Ninnaji Template, Kyoto, Japan (Credit: Manuel Cosentino) In its usual form or impression to society, Buddhism or Buddhist culture is known for its rituals, monks, Buddha statues in temples and profound sutras written in Sanskrit or Tibetan. One might also relate Buddhism to its archaeological or mystical side, or even literature like the popular novel “Journey to the West”.
Journey to the West Drama (Credit: TVB) After all, Buddhism is “firstly” a religion from its origin to current status, and from its historical development to its recent application. So why shall we ask whether Buddhism is a form science, or how shall we explore and understand its non-religious angle?
To be continue…