Lessons - Buddhism, Christian and secular life and death philosophies

Lesson Objectives:

To understand concepts within a belief system – Buddhism

To critique Buddhist beliefs about evil, the afterlife and suffering, and purpose and destiny.

To evaluate the relationship between Buddhist beliefs and living.

To compare concepts – afterlife and heaven/hell

Activities:

Read through text pausing for discussion about Buddhist concepts. (pp 233-244)

Design a system that represents the major beliefs of Buddhism including, the three jewels, three marks of existence, four noble truths, eightfold path, meditation, karma and rebirth. Plot interrelationships between the terms within the system diagram.

Use this resource to help: Buddhist Beliefs

Annotate the diagram with implicit meanings of each of the Buddhist beliefs. i.e. First precept – implies that evil resides in individual action rather than a spiritual being? 2^nd noble truth explicitly references desire as the basis of all suffering. What does this imply about human will and origins of evil?

Read one of the readings posted onto the Padlet http://padlet.com/dreamcoat07/a-zbuddhism. 

These are readings produced by Karuna Hospice – a Mahayana Buddhist organisation that delivers palliative care in Brisbane. Summarise one of these readings using problem-solution frame. Then, using an extent barometer strategy to compile relevant evidence for writing, answer one of the following questions:

To what extent do Buddhist teachings about the afterlife affect Buddhist lifestyles? 

To what extent do Buddhist teachings explain the origin of evil or human suffering?

To what extent does the Buddhist rejection of “God” affect their view about living?

Refer to Buddhist doctrine and one or more of the teachings from Karuna. Post your responses onto this page in PEEL format.

Comparison of Buddhist and Christian conceptions of the afterlife

Read the article entitled Christian thinking about Heaven and Hell - located on the PADLET. Summarise three main points about the historical Christian belief in Heaven and Hell. List the main differences between the Buddhist idea of afterlife (Nirvana and rebirth) and historical Christian thinking. What is the relationship between Buddhism and more contemporary Christian views of the afterlife? How do you believe these beliefs have shaped religious life?

Extension questions. Choose one of the following topics and answer the question or task in two paragraphs. Post your response on the page.

Buddhist, Christian and secular perspectives about life - materialism and consumerism

Western society is based on a demand economy. People in Western countries like Australia, the US and Britain must consume products in larger amounts every year to increase the wealth of their countries and subsequently their standard of living. We are assaulted on every side with advertising to influence our purchase choices, and rarely do we keep our purchases for any longer than the current fashion or buying season. 

As a result of our emphasis on materials and products, our lives have become cluttered with an array of things we have purchased; and we are accumulating personal and collective waste at an alarming rate.

Why do we feel to need to purchase above that which will satisfy our most basic human needs? Is our focus on consuming and gathering, redirecting our attention from the things that will really make us fulfilled and happy individuals?

A famous person once said (Jesus):

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans [Western nations] run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Leunig's philosophy on happiness:

Question: To what extent does Christian, Buddhist and secular philosophy provide an antidote for the excesses of materialism and consumerism?

Buddhist, Christian and secular perspectives about life - The self

Today’s society is characterised by putting self ahead of others. We have selfies, Snapchat, Facebook and Instagram that convey, to the delight of others, the minute and seemingly insignificant details of life - from someone brushing their teeth to what they ate for breakfast.

Why are these IT platforms so popular? And why is the emphasis on trivial personal details so engrossing for many people?

With so many indicators, like world poverty, child mortality, conflict, and literacy indicating a distinct need for the world community to focus on the welfare of others – why is the emphasis on self so acute?

Roman politician Cicero (106BCE to 43 BCE) suggests that an over-emphasis on self is at the heart of world problems:

“Six mistakes mankind keeps making century after century:

Believing that personal gain is made by crushing others;

Worrying about things that cannot be changed or corrected;

Insisting that a thing is impossible because we cannot accomplish it;

Refusing to set aside trivial preferences;

Neglecting development and refinement of the mind;

Attempting to compel others to believe and live as we do.”

Consider the following morsel from Jesus:

Matthew 16:24-26: Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?

Question: Evaluate Buddhist, Christian and secular understanding of the self and selfishness. Do these offer guidance to modern society for life?

Buddhist, Christian and secular perspectives about life - Personal Identity

With our focus increasingly centred on ourselves and things, it has been said that we have become a generation that have lost our identity and sense of self-worth – bartered away with intense self-identification with our work and/or possessions. 

Many spiritual teachers across the centuries have called for a return to spirituality. A return to understanding that there is more to life than things; and that preoccupation with either the past or the future is a recipe for disillusionment.

Spiritual teachers such as Buddha and Jesus proposed that we have turned our attention to things and in so doing have missed or failed to recognise our unique spiritual qualities, causing ourselves pain. In addition, Leunig (below) suggests that our conquest for supremacy of self has destroyed ancient understandings about spirituality and the equilibrium of life.

Figures compiled by the Black Dog Institute suggest:

However, if you look at one of the measures of standard of living – per capita GDP (2011) – Australia is one of the wealthiest people groups on the planet.

Why hasn’t our happiness matched our increase in wealth? Why are our depression rates so high when we live longer than our forebears, have larger houses, have more money, work more often in jobs we like compared to our parents and grandparents, and live relatively safe lives?

We identify ourselves too readily with what we own or what we do. We derive an immense sense of self through our accomplishments and our status in life.

With statistics suggesting young women are more prone to depression and older Australians less. Do we have more to learn from our elderly neighbours about our identity than we care to acknowledge?

Education and work in Australia reinforce a false sense of self – a concept that is linked to status and things, rather than as a unique entity that exists apart from these things. Consider the following meditation from Fr Richard Rohr, a Francisan Priest who lives in the US:

Evaluate the following statement by referring to Buddhist, Christian and secular philosophy:

Australians do not know themselves. Self-knowledge, and therefore fulfillment, cannot be achieved by working and having; it is by knowing who we are – separate from things, transcendent and unique.