Connection 6
Buddhist Philosophy: Introduction
Ignorance and Illusion
Buddhism is one of the major religions of the world and includes a set of teachings, traditions, beliefs, spiritual practices and philosophy that has developed since the time of the Buddha, born Siddhartha Gautama, sometime in the 5th century BCE.
Buddhism has its origins in India, but over time spread throughout East Asia, resulting in a number of differing traditions and schools of thought, including Theravada Buddhism, Mahayana Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, Chinese Buddhism and Zen.
All schools of thought incorporate the basic teachings of the Buddha, and articulate differing paths to the liberation from suffering. In doing so, they envision an ontology, epistemology and ethics that form the basis for understanding suffering and liberation from suffering.
A comprehensive account of Buddhism is beyond the scope of this series of articles. Here, I would like to focus on Buddhist philosophy only, and explore how a number of key concepts from various Buddhist schools of thought connect with becoming and a process philosophy of difference.
While spiritual liberation is the overall objective of the practice of Buddhism, overcoming ignorance and illusion is a core idea that permeates Buddhist philosophy
It is the articulation of the sources of ignorance and illusion in life, and therefore suffering, that dovetails neatly with Deleuze’s philosophy of difference.
Four Noble Truths
The core teachings of the Buddha are the Four Noble Truths:
1. Suffering is an inherent characteristic of existence;
2. The origin of suffering is craving or attachment;
3. The cessation of suffering can be attained by letting go of attachment;
4. The Eightfold Path is the path that leads to the renouncement of attachment and the cessation of suffering.
Suffering
Suffering, or dukkha, is an existential unease caused by the fact of our inevitable mortality and the impermanence of all phenomena.
Suffering is seen as a process that arises from craving or clinging to things that are inherently impermanent.
This keeps us caught in saṃsara, the endless cycle of repeated rebirth, dukkha and dying again. Saṃsara is driven by karma, acts or deeds of attachment and ignorance.
The way to liberation from this endless cycle to the state of nirvana, a state of enlightenment or the release from suffering, is the Eightfold Path; namely, right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration.
Impermanence
Impermanence, or anicca, is the Buddhist doctrine that asserts that all of existence is transient, evanescent, and inconstant.
All things are temporal, whether material or mental. All things are in a continuous state of change, arise and decline.
Nothing is permanent: all things come into being and dissolve.
The release from suffering, liberation from suffering, then, requires an understanding of the nature of reality, as in a state of flux and impermanence.
The Flow of Becoming
For Buddhists, everything, all of life, is a flow of change, events that arise and are interconnected or interrelated to one another.
All dharmas, or phenomena, arise in relation to other dharmas.
The world is not understood in terms of independent, static things or substances, but instead is expressed in terms of the concept of pratityasamutpada, or “dependent origination,” which is a loose form of causation that permeates all of reality.
It is not direct causality per Newtonian physics. All things arise as a result of multiple causes; there is an interdependence of all things; and all things are temporal.
Dependent origination or arising means that reality cannot be understood in terms of being, a concept inherently linked with permanent substance, which is an illusion.
Reality is understood as in a continual state of becoming, driven by the interconnection and interdependence of all things, an expression of all things; dharmas are events not substances.
Further, there is no transcendent force that drives dependent origination. The becoming of reality is a real process; it is an immanent process.
I hope you enjoyed this article. Thanks for reading!
Tomas
Please join my email list here or email me at tomas@tomasbyrne.com.
Excerpt from my forthcoming book, Becoming: A Life of Pure Difference (Gilles Deleuze and the Philosophy of the New) Copyright © 2023 by Tomas Byrne. Learn more here.
