Psychology of early Buddhism. Psychological attitude of the philosophy of early Buddhism

Lama Anagarika Govinda

PSYCHOLOGICAL ATTITUDE

PHILOSOPHIES OF EARLY BUDDHISM

(ACCORDING TO THE ABHIDHAMMA TRADITION)

Translation by A.I. Breslavets

The Psychological Attitude of Early Buddhist Philosophy

(according to Abhidhamma Tradition). Patna University, 1937

Psychology early Buddhism

St. Petersburg: Publishing house "Andreev and sons", 1993

Introduction

First part

ORIGIN OF RELIGION

AND THE EARLY STAGES OF INDIAN THINKING

Self-regularity of religious experience

Age of Magic

Anthropomorphic universe and polytheism

God problem

Man's problem

Second part

PSYCHOLOGY AND METAPHYSICS IN THE LIGHT OF ABHIDHAMMA

Two types of psychology

3meaning of abhidhamma

Metaphysics and empiricism

Truth and Method

Three Levels of Cognition

The third part

FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS AS A STARTING POINT

AND THE LOGICAL STRUCTURE OF BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHY

The Axiomatic Truth about Suffering

Cause of suffering

Annihilation of suffering

The path of liberation

Fourth part

FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

BUDDHIST TEACHING ABOUT CONSCIOUSNESS

Objects of consciousness

Structure of consciousness

Classification of consciousness

Four types of "noble personality" and the problem of suffering

Fifth part

FACTORS OF CONSCIOUSNESS (CETASIKA)

Primary or permanently neutral factors

Secondary neutral factors

Moral deciding factors and their relationships

Sixth Part

FUNCTIONS OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE PROCESS OF PERCEPTION

The dynamic nature of consciousness

Functions of consciousness and the problem of matter

Process of perception

Applications

Systematic presentation of the psychology of abhidhamma

Classes, factors and functions of consciousness

Associative, reflexive and intuitive consciousness

Hetu: six root causes

Alambana

Psychocosmic system of Buddhism

Library of the Foundation for the Promotion of Psychic Culture (Kyiv)

Now, if someone asks whether I recognize any point of view at all, the answer will be the following:

The Perfect One is free from any theory, for the Perfect One has comprehended what the body is, how it arises and how it disappears. He understood what feeling is, how it arises and how it disappears. He realized that there are mental structures (samkhara), how they arise and how they disappear. He understood what consciousness is, how it arises and how it disappears. Therefore, I say, the Perfect One has achieved complete liberation through fading, smoothing, disappearing and getting rid of all opinions and assumptions, from all inclinations to the vain concept of “I”, “Mine”.

MAJJHIMANIKAYA, Introduction The question often arises: is Buddhism a religion, a philosophy, a psychological system, or a purely moral teaching? The answer could be formulated approximately like this: as an experience and a way of practical implementation, Buddhism is a religion; as a mental, conceptual formulation of this experience - philosophy; as a result of the system of self-observation - psychology; and from all this follows a standard of behavior, which we call ethics (when viewed from the inside) or morality (when viewed from the outside).

Thus, it becomes clear that morality is not the starting point, but must be a consequence of a worldview or religious experience. Therefore, the Eightfold Path of the Buddha begins not with Right Speech, Right Conduct or Right Livelihood, but with Right Knowledge, with an open-minded view of the nature of being, things and the purpose that results from this. For “correct” (samma)* (we will use this word, unfortunately very worn out, but rooted in Buddhist literature) contains something much more than simple agreement with certain well-known preconceived dogmatic or moral ideas; it means that which goes beyond the duality and opposites of the one-sided point of view conditioned by the idea of "I". In other words, "samma" is that which is perfect, complete (neither dual nor one-sided), and, in this sense, it is that which perfectly corresponds to each stage of consciousness. The meaning of this word is revealed in the expression "sammasambuddha", which means "fully" or "perfectly" enlightened, rather than "properly" (or "truly") enlightened.** * Hereinafter, italics indicate Buddhist terms in simplified transliteration from Pali .

** Here and below, the author uses the outdated English equivalent of enlightenment (enlightenment, illumination) to convey the Buddhist Sanskrit term bodhi (root - budh, cf. Russian - awaken), which, in our opinion, is more appropriate to translate as Awakening, and, accordingly, Buddha - Awakened One, Bodhicitta - Attitude towards Awakening, Will to Awakening (and not “enlightened mind”), Buddhatva - Buddhahood, Awakening (and not “Buddhahood”). Enlightenment (Sanskrit abhasvara) as a private spiritual phenomenon arises already at the level of the second dhyana. Taking this into account, we still leave here the expression “enlightenment” as reflecting the author’s understanding of the term bodhi (Note by A.I. Breslavets).

A person with Right View is one who looks at things from a one-sided, impartial, unprejudiced perspective, who in his intentions, actions and speech is able to see and take into account not only his own point of view, but also the point of view of others.

Thus, the basis of Buddhism is knowledge, and this has led many Western scholars to view Buddhism as a purely rational system, which is exhausted by rational epistemological principles. Knowledge in Buddhism is a product of direct experience (starting with the experience of suffering as an all-valuable universal axiom), for only what is experienced, and not thought out, has true value. In this, Buddhism turns out to be a real religion, although it is something more than just a symbol of faith. Buddhism is also something more than pure philosophy, although it does not neglect either reason or logic, but uses them to the extent possible. It goes beyond the ordinary psychological system, since it is not limited to pure analysis and classification of given psychic forces and phenomena, but teaches their application, transformation and the development of their transcendence. Accordingly, Buddhism cannot be reduced to a specific moral code or “guidance for doing good,” for it is necessary to penetrate into the sphere beyond good and evil, rising above any form of dualism, into the sphere of a way of thinking based on the deepest knowledge and inner contemplation.

Philosophy and the “strictly scientific systems” of psychology have never been able to exert a dominant influence on the life of mankind - not because they were unsuitable as systems, and not because they lacked true content, but because their truth has a purely theoretical value born by the mind, not the heart, created by the intellect and not implemented in life.

Obviously, truth alone is not enough to have a strong influence on humanity; For such an impact to be possible, truth must be imbued with the breath of life. The abstract truth is canned, vitamin-free food, which, although it satisfies our taste and temporarily supports our body, is, however, unable to allow us to live long. Living things are given to our spirit only by those religious impulses that arouse in a person the desire for fulfillment and lead to his goal. There can be no doubt (the history of Buddhism proves this) that these impulses are represented in Buddhism as strongly as its philosophical concepts.

(The reason why some are hesitant to call Buddhism a religion is that they confuse religion with dogma, with a certain organized tradition, with belief in divine revelation and similar views, which, of course, cannot be found in Buddhism.) Therefore, when we are talking about Buddhist philosophy, we must be clear that we are dealing only with the theoretical side of Buddhism, and not with Buddhism as a whole. And just as it is impossible to talk about Buddhism without touching on its philosophical system, it is also impossible to understand Buddhist philosophy in isolation from her religious practice. Religion is a path created by practical experience (just as a road is created by constant walking). Philosophy is the orientation of a direction, while psychology is the analysis of the forces and conditions that favor or hinder progress along that path. But before we look at the direction in which this path leads, we look back to where it begins.

>> Library of the Foundation for the Promotion of Psychic Culture (Kyiv) >> He who knows the Dhamma never argues with the world.

What the wise of this world have declared to be non-existent, I also teach about as non-existent.

And what the wise of this world have recognized as existing, I teach about that as existing.

SAMYUTTA NIKAYA, III, First Part THE ORIGIN OF RELIGION AND THE EARLY STAGES OF INDIAN THINKING 1. SELF-LEGALITY OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE Religions are not something that can be created by man. They are the formal expression of a supra-individual inner experience that has crystallized over long periods of time. They have the character of high community, involvement in the broadest consciousness. They find their defining form of expression and fulfillment in the most developed and feeling minds, capable of taking part in the supra-individual life of their fellow human beings (if not of all humanity). Thus, religion is incomparably higher than the usual “collective thinking”, which is inherent in intellectually created and organized mass movements and which therefore does not belong to the supra-individual consciousness, but, on the contrary, belongs to the sub-individual stage of the herd mentality.

Religions cannot be created or made intellectually, they develop, like a plant, according to certain laws of their nature: they are the natural manifestation of the mind in which the individual participates. However, the universality of their laws does not mean the sameness of their impact, because the same law operates in different conditions. Therefore, although we can talk about the parallelism of the religious movement (which we call "development") and perhaps even about the parallelism of religious ideas, but never about their identity. Precisely where words or symbols are similar, the meaning underlying them is often completely different, since the identity of the form does not guarantee the identity of the content, since the meaning of each form depends on the associations associated with it.

Therefore, it is as pointless to strive to bring all religions to the same denominator as to strive to make all the trees of one garden the same or to declare their differences as imperfections. Just as the beauty of a garden lies in the variety and diversity of its trees and flowers, each of which has its own model of perfection, so the garden of the mind contains its beauty and its living meaning in the variety and versatility of the forms of experience and expression inherent in it. And just as all the flowers of one garden grow on the same soil, breathe the same air and reach for the same sun, so all religions grow on the same soil of inner reality and are nourished by the same cosmic forces. This is their commonality. Their character and peculiar beauty (wherein their inherent value is manifested) are based on those points in which they differ from each other and due to which each species has its own perfection.

Those who try to smooth over these differences by calling them misunderstandings or misinterpretations, and strive to approach some abstract agreement or absolute unity that is supposed to be the truly existing reality, are like children plucking the petals of a flower in an unsuccessful attempt to find the “real” flower.

If several artists depict the same object or landscape, then each of them creates a different picture from the others. But if several people photographed the same object at the same exposure, each of them would get the same image. Here this precision is not a sign of superiority, but a sign of a lack of creativity and even life. And on the contrary, the difference in artistic perception is precisely what gives a work of art its special essential value. Uniqueness and originality are signs of genius, genius in all areas of life. Accuracy and standardization are signs of mechanicalness, mediocrity and spiritual stagnation.

Despite the integrity and persuasiveness of the teachings of the Buddha from the Shakya clan, he did not escape the fate that haunts all universal models of the world and moral systems: revaluation, revision, rethinking, destructive criticism, intellectual fantasy and interpretation up to the loss of essence.

As the story goes, before Buddha had time to close his eyes during the transition to paranirvana and take a long exhale of farewell to life on earth, a split had already arisen among his followers. The Brahmin philosopher Subgadra openly rejoiced that the man who constantly said, “Don’t do this, don’t do that,” was finally gone.

The closest disciples and associates of Buddha Kashyapa (Mahakashyapa, Kasiapa) and Ananda decided to assemble a council to resolve the disagreements that had arisen. The first council met under the chairmanship of Mahakasyapa. According to legend, five hundred monks attended it and it lasted seven months.
The second council was assembled a hundred years later.

The third council took place 250 BC, under King Asoka (Ashoka), who first recognized Buddhism as the state ideology of India.

There is reason to think that the Buddhist canon of the Tripitaka, preserved to this day in Ceylon, coincides, in all essentials, with the basic tenets of the theory and practice of Buddhism, which were adopted at the third council.

Buddhists believe that the teaching established at the first council is completely identical with the teaching adopted at the third council.

At the same time, it is difficult to believe that the Buddhist canons could have been written immediately after the death of the Buddha, and oral tradition rarely has the accuracy of transmitting knowledge and experience. Considering that the Pali canon includes about 8 thousand stories, legends, sermons, teachings, aphorisms, and taking into account the comments on each text, more than 15 thousand narratives in prose and verse. This entire huge amount of information was transmitted orally for 500 years, or 20-30 generations, since it takes outstanding monks from 20 to 25 years to memorize all the texts.

Although, in fairness, it should be noted that in Buddhism, unlike many other traditions, there were special and, in my opinion, extremely effective methods for the accurate reproduction of knowledge.

From oral methods we can recall sangiti (common monotonous chanting). Buddhist monks organized special meetings at which canonical texts were restored and corrected from memory.

The most knowledgeable and authoritative members of many Buddhist communities take part in the Sangeethi. There was a whole system of cross-checking the accuracy of storing each word of the teaching. At the councils held in the 1st century BC. e. in the 5th century AD e., monks of 6 categories took part in checking the texts: those who knew ancient texts - poranatheras; those who know one of the sections of the Tipitaka are bhanakatheras; those who remember the comments of their teachers are Pabbachariyatheras; experts in commentaries on canonical texts - atthakathacariyatheras; experts in commentaries on non-canonical texts - achariyavadatheras; those who know Signal commentaries are parasamuddavasitheras.

The Mahayana tradition recognizes four sangitis at which the canons were established:

In Rajagriha, under the leadership of Mahakashyapa and Ananda (three months after the death of the awakened one), at which the Vinaya Pitaka, Sutra Pitaka and Abhidharma Pitaka were canonized;
In Vaishali (100 years later), where the sangha split;
At Pataliputra (200 years later), which was attended by 18 early schools of Buddhism and at which King Ashoka accepted the teachings of the Theravadins as true;
in Kashmir (1st-2nd centuries AD), at which the Sanskrit edition of three baskets of teaching - the Tripitaka of the Sarvastivadin school - was canonized.

The Theravada tradition recognizes six sangeets.
The texts adopted by the first three Sangeets mentioned above are accepted as canonical.
The fourth sangiti, according to Theravada, took place in 29 BC. e. V. Anuradhapura and Aluvihare near Matale (in modern Sri Lanka), where the Tipitaka in Pali and commentaries on it in Sinhala were written on palm leaves.
The fifth sangiti took place in 1871 in Mandalay, where the monks recorded the Tipitaka on 729 stone slabs and built a pagoda over each slab.
The sixth sangiti was dedicated to the 2500th anniversary of the Buddha's parinirvana and took place in several cities in Burma (1954-1956). At this sangiti, all 54 books of the Pali Tipitaka were collated and edited (each book contains 400-500 pages of printed text), and the abbreviated texts of the Tipitaka translations into Burmese, Hindi, and English were canonized.

Three baskets

Tripitaka (tipitaka) (literally - “three baskets”), is the main primary source and complete set of sacred texts of Buddhism in Pali.

The Sanskrit version of the tipitaka survives in much less complete form and is known mainly in translations into Chinese and Tibetan.

The Buddha's teachings were transmitted in Prakrit, local dialects of simplified Sanskrit, which also includes the Pali language.

For five centuries, the teachings of the Buddha existed, as we have already indicated above, in the oral tradition.
The Tipitaka consists of 3 parts: Vinaya Pitaka, Sutta Pitaka, Abhidhamma Pitaka.

First basket. Vinaya-Pitaka

The Vinaya Pitaka (disciplinary rules for monks) includes 3 sections: Suttavibhanga, Khandhaka, Parivara.

Suttavibhanga contains 227 rules of conduct for monks (Patimokkha) and over 300 for nuns.
The Khandhaka section consists of two subsections - Mahavagga and Chullavagga.

The Mahavagga lists the rules for entering the Buddhist community, the sequence of the uposatha (confession) ritual and Patimokkha readings, the rules of monastic life during the rainy season, the procedure for distributing clothes among monks at the kathina ceremony, and methods of punishment, including for heresy.

Chullavagga contains a list of offenses against the sangha leading to exclusion from it, as well as conditions for restoration to the status of a monk: rules of ablution, dressing, use of household items; types of heresies and degrees of learning are listed. The history of the 1st council in Rajagriha and the 2nd in Vaishali is also described here.

The Parivar section is a catechism for monks and classifies disciplinary rules.

Second basket. Sutta Pitaka

Sutta Pitaka- sayings and sermons of the Buddha as presented by his beloved disciple Ananda. Therefore, any sutta begins with the words: “So I heard, once...”, then the place where the sutta was pronounced is named, and those present are often listed (arhats, kings, Gods, etc.).

The Sutta Pitaka has five sections (nikaya) - Digha (collection of lengthy teachings), Majdhima (collection of intermediate teachings), Samyutta (collection of related teachings), Anguttara (collection of teachings larger by one member). Khuddaka (collection of small works).

The Digha Nikaya consists of 34 suttas, divided into three sections (vagga): Silakkhandha, Maha, Patika. The Silakkhandha section explains how false speculations about the nature of existence and self are revealed; about the true paths to enlightenment; about the uselessness of knowledge of the Vedas and Brahmanical methods of salvation; about the dangers of demonstrating supernatural abilities; about the essence of morality, samadhi, wisdom.

Mach's section is devoted mainly to meditation as a way of knowledge; it also contains the famous Mahaparinibbana sutra, which tells about the death of the Buddha and his transition to the state of nirvana.

The Pathika section condemns asceticism; the history of the chakravartin (world ruler) is outlined; the origin of faith is discussed; a classification of types of people and norms of behavior for a layman are given; expounds the teachings of the Buddha as understood by his disciple Sariputta.

The Majdhima Nikaya consists of 152 suttas divided into 15 vaggas. In them, the Buddha teaches his disciples, monks, laymen, noble and ignorant, earthly and heavenly beings, how to distinguish good deeds from unworthy ones, how to control their thoughts, words and actions; what anger and hatred lead to; what is dharma, ignorant and enlightened consciousness; explains the essence of the 5 skandhas, dukkha, tathagata, bodhisattva, nirvana. Several suttas are devoted to the disputes between the Buddha and the Jains, the presentation of the teachings of the Buddha in the interpretation of Shariputra, Punna, Moggallana and his other disciples.

The Samyutta Nikaya consists of 2889 sutras, combined into 56 groups (samyutta), which are divided into 5 vaggas: Sagatha, Nidana, Khandha, Salayatana, Maha.

The Sagatha section talks about the difficulties that those who take the eightfold path have to overcome.

The Nidana section explains the essence of the law of dependent origination.

The Khandha section is devoted to expounding the essence of the skandhas that make up a person’s self and ways of liberation from these skandhas that tie the personality to the “wheel of life.”

The Salayatan section explains the nature of the functioning of the six organs (eyes, ears, tongue, nose, body, thought) that generate desires, and how to overcome such desires that cause dissatisfaction and suffering.

The Maha section describes the final steps along the eightfold path, leading to liberation, enlightenment, and nirvana.

The Anguttara Nikaya includes 2308 suttas, divided into 11 groups (nipata), each nipata is divided into vaggas containing 10 or more suttas.

The first group is a description of individual phenomena: thought, love, goodness, Buddha, Sariputra, Mahakassapa, etc.

The second group contains discussions about paired phenomena: two types of karma, trained - untrained, correct - false.

The third is about the triple characteristics of it. etc. etc.

The 11th group sets out 11 types of happiness, paths leading to nirvana and goodness; 11 negative characteristics of a shepherd and a monk.

The Khuddaka Nikaya consists of more than 2,200 stories, teachings, and aphorisms, divided into 15 collections.

The first collection, Khuddaka-patha (“Collection of Brief Propositions”) includes the three-times repeated formula “I seek refuge in the Buddha, I seek refuge in the Dharma, I seek refuge in the Sangha”; five daily Buddhist commandments: “do not kill, do not steal, do not lie, do not commit adultery, do not drink alcohol”; 10 questions for the novice; the famous sutta - blessing (mangala); a poem about the three jewels - Buddha, dharma, sangha; formulas for the transfer of religious merit (punya) to the spirits of deceased relatives; a poem about true friendship, etc.

The next work is the Dhammapada, which contains 423 of the most important sayings from various texts of the Pali canon. According to tradition, the Dhammapada contains the entire teaching and is understood primarily by the heart rather than the mind. Dhammapada is a reference book for Buddhists.

Udana contains 80 important sayings of the Buddha, presented in verse and prose.

Iti-vuttaka includes 112 suttas devoted to explaining the essence of anger, passion, pride, lust and other negative states, which are opposed to friendliness, mercy, modesty, justice, etc. d.

Sutta-nipata, containing 71 teachings, describes episodes from the life of the Buddha, his sermons on overcoming egocentrism, greed, hatred, and delusions leading to the creation of unfavorable karma. The teachings are addressed to monks, laity, kings, and deities. These suttas reflect social and religious life Ancient India, disputes on moral issues between representatives of various religious teachings. There is information about the birth of Prince Gautama, about his departure from worldly life, about King Bimbisara of Magadha, who converted to Buddhism, etc.

Vimana Vatthu and Peta Vatthu are dedicated to describing the 11 levels of existence of Kamaloka.
Vimana Vatthu, containing 85 poems, talks about how the accumulation of religious merits improves karma, which leads to rebirth on the upper celestial levels. Then life on the heavenly levels of existence is described.

Peta-vattha, which includes 51 poems, talks about life on the lower levels, where beings are devoid of intelligence and suffer until the negative effects of karma are exhausted.

Then follow two collections of suttas: Thera-gatha and Theri-gatha, glorifying the feat of monks and nuns who renounced worldly vanity in order to achieve enlightenment.

The Thera Gatha contains 264 poems, The Thera Gatha contains 73 poems. The purpose of these poems is to inspire the laity to religious deeds.

"Jataka" - stories about the 550 lives of Prince Gautama preceding his last birth on earth. Essentially, this is a collection of fairy tales and legends of various Asian peoples, the positive hero of which is identified with the bodhisattva, that is, the Buddha in past incarnations.
Niddesa is a collection of commentaries on some sections of the Sutta-nipata attributed to the Buddha's disciple Sariputta.

The Patisambhidamagga suttas analyze various concepts relating to knowledge, morality, meditation, etc.

Apadana - poetic stories about the various rebirths of famous monks and nuns.
Buddhavansa is a poetic account of the lives of the 24 Buddhas who preceded Shakyamuni Buddha. Tradition attributes them to the Buddha himself. They are connected by the common plot of the Buddha's life: from his previous life under the Buddha Dipankara, life in the sky of stewing to enlightenment under the Bodhi tree.

The Chariya Pitaka (the latest collection of the Khuddaka Nikaya) contains 35 stories from the Jataka. These stories in verse illustrate 7 of the 10 perfections of the Buddha.

Third basket. Abhidhamma Pitaka

Abhidhamma Pitaka(lit. “basket containing Buddhist doctrine”) consists of 7 treatises, which systematize all the teachings set forth in the Sutta Pitaka.

The first treatise of the Dhammasangani contains a classification of the elements of existence (dhammas), defined as ethical factors inherent in the physical body, psychological and mental state, which manifest themselves in the process of meditation.

Vibhanga - an explanation of the nature of khandhas and ways to overcome them.
Kathavattu is a polemical treatise containing criticism of 18 early schools of Buddhism and defending the Theravada point of view.

Puggala-pañyatti - analysis of individuals subject to lust, hatred and delusion, and their classification.

Dhatukatha explains the arrangement of dharmas dependent on the skandhas and the 6 senses (ayatana).
Yamaka establishes binary groups and analyzes the corresponding dhammas from the point of view of the possibility or impossibility of attributing to them this or that property.

The Patthana contains a discussion of the law of dependent origination.

Thus, we have extremely briefly, without delving into the content, described the canon of Buddhism, which is not only the tablet of law and morality of this undoubtedly great teaching, but also at the same time cosmology, philosophy and psychology.

Without a doubt, we can interpret any element of Buddhism in modern psychological language, analyzing the cultural and personal context of phenomena, ranging from skandhas to the universal Buddha Mahavairochana.

But this logic would lead us, on the one hand, to the evil infinity of word creation on Buddhist themes, on the other, to the reproduction of those semantic spaces that did not exist in Buddhism, and which do not relate to Buddhism, but more to the way of our thinking, objectifying various aspects of the Buddhist canon.

On the third hand, basically the Tripitaka canon is a body of texts about what the disciples thought about the Buddha's preaching or how they imagined the Buddha's personality. Often - as a procession of monks presented texts that expressed the understanding of many eminent disciples of the Buddha's teachings of different generations.

That is, we will be faced with texts that are the product of many reflections, understandings of the understanding of Buddhist teachings.

For this reason, we are obliged to extremely narrow the subject of our discussions to direct sermons, which according to tradition belong to the Buddha. Moreover, true Buddhism belongs to him. At the same time, we will consider from Buddhist teaching only those categories that directly relate to the subject of psychology, if not as a science, then as a method of theoretical and practical thinking.

In terms of content, “simple” Theravada Buddhism is closest to us. The name itself is translated from Pali as “preaching from the words of the elders.” If we translate this phrase into something similar in content to Christian tradition, then it will be “preaching from the words of the apostles.” Let us remember that only they were credited with the knowledge of Buddhism by the awakened Buddha himself. Before his death, he delegated the direct transmission of the teaching to them, the 12 elders, the apostles of the new teaching.

This is the oldest of the 18 schools, which has preserved in its tradition the elements of the Buddha’s teachings that are closest to the original source.

We have a fairly good idea that according to the Pali canon, Theravada arose as a result of the great schism of the sangha around 350 BC. e. But in our opinion, Theravada arose during the lifetime of the Buddha. She accompanied him in understanding the sermons that Buddha read with his

closest students. In a sense, Theravada is the first level and the first response of understanding of Buddhism in the immediate social environment.

That is why in this tradition the Buddha appears to be a real person, endowed with both weak and strong, and at other times, superhuman qualities.

The Buddha called for abstaining from all types of evil, accumulating only goodness in oneself and purifying one’s thoughts from harmful desires. In Theravada there is an understanding of the Buddha's 4 noble truths, octal noble path and the law of dependent origin.

All life phenomena in Theravada are explained indirectly, through the relationship of past and future actions, karma and vipaka, and worldly phenomena are understood as subjects of three categories: anitya, dukkha and anatman (Trilakshana).

In classical Theravada Buddhism, the vipaka of sadhana is the opportunity to become a Buddha in this birth in this body. The possibility of a person achieving Buddhahood in this life was justified by the example of the Tathagata himself and the position that in every being there is the “nature” of a Buddha.

In this case, it seems, why study the psychology of Buddhism, if it is much more effective to simply join the sanghya (Sanskrit - “society”), the Buddhist community.

By becoming a monk (bikkhu, bhiksu) or nun (bikkhuni, bhigshuni), each of my readers can demonstrate their “Buddhahood” without any psychology, simply living according to the uniform rules of the Vinaya Pitaka.

But several problems arise here.

Firstly, the Buddhist monastic path for women is either impossible or difficult. There are very few women's Buddhist communities. Even in Sri Lanka, where there are about 7,000 monasteries, there are only 20 monasteries. And to be completely honest, during the three weeks of living in Sri Lanka, the author of this book did not meet a single Buddhist nun.

Secondly, it is difficult for a modern person to become a bikkhu, a mendicant monk in the original understanding of a monk in the Buddhist tradition, and live on the alms of the laity. The associations that arise are not the most promising or rosy. Modern man sees and is familiar with beggars, but they belong to the social bottom. And, most importantly, even if a man wears yellow or orange clothes, and a woman wears white clothes, the picture does not change its main content, but only becomes more theatrical and fake.

Thirdly, even if you become a bikhu monk in a monastery and do not get involved in alms, when ordaining a monk you are obliged to follow the 227 rules set out in Pratimoksha.

These instructions are divided into 7 groups.

The first group is the most serious offenses (there are 4 of them), for which a monk must be immediately expelled from the sanghya: any sex, theft, premeditated murder of a person, a false claim by a monk that he is endowed with supernatural powers.
The second group is 13 serious offenses for which the offender must repent before the community, including contact with a woman for voluptuous purposes, insulting a woman with obscene words, talking with a woman on sexual topics, pimping.
The third group is serious offenses related to property (there are 32 of them).
The fourth group is offenses requiring atonement (there are 92 of them).
The fifth group is offenses requiring repentance.
The sixth group is misconduct during training, leading to false cases: (there are 75 of them).
The seventh group is offenses related to lying.

If you follow all 227 rules of Pratimoksha, then for a European person this means not living, because basically that’s all he does,

that violates these rules, and for many people these violations are either the goal or the meaning of life.
Without a doubt, the genius of the Buddhist monastic path is its accessibility. Any person on earth can become a Buddhist.

But already becoming a novice presupposes compliance with 10 prohibitions: 1) do not kill, 2) do not steal, 3) do not commit adultery, 4) do not lie, 5) do not drink alcohol, 6) do not eat after noon, 7) do not dance, do not sing, do not attend shows, 8) do not wear jewelry, do not use perfumes and cosmetics, 9) do not use high and luxurious seats, 10) do not take gold and silver, study the dharma and Vinaya Pitaka and prepare for the highest initiation (upasampada - initiation to become a monk). As you probably already remember, novitiate for non-believers by order of the Buddha lasts at least 4 months.

Without a doubt, becoming a monk is very democratic and simple even for the average European.
During initiation, one must recite three times several well-known formulas such as “I seek refuge in the Buddha, I seek refuge in the Dharma, I seek refuge in the Sanghya.”

Also, a person who is ordained as a monk is always asked whether he has leprosy, scabies, boils, asthma, epilepsy, whether he is a human being, a man, whether he is free, whether he has no debts, whether he is freed from military service, whether he has parental consent, whether he is 20 years old, whether he has a begging bowl and a set of monastic robes, what is his name and, finally, the name of his mentor.

As can be seen from the procedure, the majority of Europeans and Russians could easily become Buddhist monks.

But monastic life is a special way of life, which is weakly associated with the usual worldly feelings, relationships, and behavior of a secular person.

The daily routine of the Buddhist community is determined by the rules of the Vinaya Pitaka: rising at sunrise, going to bed at nightfall. You can eat food only in the first half of the day; Usually monks eat twice: early in the morning and from 11 to 12 noon.

All free time monks should study, read sacred texts, practice Buddhist psychotechnics, which vary in different monasteries and schools. In addition, the monks take part in numerous ceremonies, talk with believers, and perform household work in some monasteries.

I think that many will not like the logic of promotion in the spiritual hierarchy.
Monks study Sanskrit and Pali and memorize sacred texts verbatim. The monk tries to memorize as many texts as possible, since the degree of his knowledge and competence in the teachings of the Buddha is determined by the sum of the memorized texts and commentaries on them.

What is highly criticized in modern pedagogical systems, automatic memorization or “cramming,” is a priority in the Buddhist tradition.

A diligent monk, after 10 years of stay in the sanghya and acquiring a certain amount of knowledge, receives the appropriate degree, which different countries Buddhist world has different names. After another 10 years of study, they are awarded the next degree.

According to tradition, monks do not have the right to participate in the social, economic and political life of society.

This installation has been leading for over 2500 years. Unlike other religious systems, where power and religion, politicians and clergy are often integrated into a single whole, and sometimes spiritual power is more decisive and powerful (think of the Christian Middle Ages), in Buddhism the main duty of a monk is spiritual life and practice.

And, in my opinion, this is absolutely fair, because... paramita (Sanskrit “crossing”, “means of salvation”), is completely impossible in real social life. Achieving the state of arhat involves climbing many stages of perfection. These are the 10 elements of paramita: alms (dana), vows (sila), patience (kshanti), effort (virya), meditation (dhyana), wisdom (prajna), helping others (upaya), deep desire to give enlightenment to others (pranidhana), improvement of the ten forces (bala), application of transcendental knowledge (jnana).

Thus, studying Buddhism using traditional methods of immersion in the sociocultural environment (Sanghya) is either impossible due to organizational difficulties (especially for women), or problems with fulfilling monastic regulations, including in the way of life. Cognitive and motivational difficulties are especially difficult.

The incomprehensibility of the meaning of studying Pali and Sanskrit, when everything has already been translated into world languages, the incomprehensibility of the purpose of memorizing a huge number of texts, when there are many other ways of recording and transmitting knowledge, make monastic service in many ways absurd.

And the most difficult thing in this sense is the need to completely sacrifice the Ego, your unique personality and life with the usual methods of adaptation and self-realization, to completely limit your personality to 227 rules, for the sake of a rather ephemeral state of samadhi or nirvana.

This whole situation offers us another choice.

Unfortunately, due to many specific and important circumstances, modern man cannot use the “weak ego” strategy. The strategy of the “weak ego” is to “surrender” to tradition, to delegate one’s will, way of thinking, freedom, choice, values, existential meanings to the provision of tradition.

In this strategy, in order to acquire understanding, it is necessary to lie down in the bosom of tradition and completely doom yourself, to surrender to tradition:

so that meanings introjected from tradition arise,
to take advantage of the values and worldview of the tradition,
to ultimately gain strength through community.

If we are not ready to give our will, awareness and unique way.

feeling, understanding reality and interacting with life in the Procrustean bed of tradition, then we must make a different choice.

The choice to understand tradition in your own way and live in it with your own understanding, but from your own strength, from your own decisions and ideas.

In this situation, without wearing white or yellow clothes, we allow ourselves to understand Buddhism, just as Nagarjuna, Ananda, Mahakashyap, Padmasamphava, Asanga, Bodhidharma or the modern Dalai Lama understood with our minds - from a point of critical and independent reflection:
- What did Buddha think when he said...
Thus, in the future we will proceed from the fact that we have been given the freedom to think about Buddhism and the text that will be presented further should reveal this thinking based on the modern level of development of psychology.

And, in the end, in my opinion, the entire history of Buddhism and all of modern Buddhism is an attempt to understand what the Buddha was talking about. And we also want to understand what the Awakened One was silent about. Why was he silent?

Psychological attitude of the philosophy of early Buddhism. Lama Anagarika Govinda. The question often arises: is Buddhism a religion, a philosophy, a psychological system, or a purely moral teaching? The answer could be formulated approximately like this: as an experience and a way of practical implementation, Buddhism is a religion; as a mental, conceptual formulation of this experience - philosophy; as a result of the system of introspection - psychology; and from all this follows a standard of behavior, which we call ethics (when viewed from the inside) or morality (when viewed from the outside).

Read the book Psychological Attitude of the Philosophy of Early Buddhism online

NAMO TASSA
BHAGAVATO
ARAHATO
SAMMA-
SAMBUDDHASSA

Now, if someone asks whether I recognize any point of view at all, the answer will be the following:

MAJJHIMA-NIKAYA, 72

Introduction

The question often arises: is Buddhism a religion, a philosophy, a psychological system, or a purely moral teaching? The answer could be formulated approximately like this: as an experience and a way of practical implementation, Buddhism is a religion; as a mental, conceptual formulation of this experience - philosophy; as a result of the system of self-observation - psychology; and from all this follows a standard of behavior, which we call ethics (when viewed from the inside) or morality (when viewed from the outside).

Thus, it becomes clear that morality is not the starting point, but must be a consequence of a worldview or religious experience. Therefore, the Eightfold Path of the Buddha begins not with Right Speech, Right Conduct or Right Livelihood, but with Right Knowledge, with an open-minded view of the nature of being, things and the purpose that results from this. For “correct” (samma)* (we will use this word, unfortunately very worn out, but rooted in Buddhist literature) contains something much more than simple agreement with certain well-known preconceived dogmatic or moral ideas; it means that which goes beyond the duality and opposites of the one-sided point of view conditioned by the idea of "I". In other words, "samma" is that which is perfect, complete (neither dual nor one-sided), and, in this sense, it is that which perfectly corresponds to each stage of consciousness. The meaning of this word is revealed in the expression "samma-sambuddha", which means "fully" or "perfectly" enlightened, and not "properly" (or "truly") enlightened.** * Hereinafter, Buddhist terms in italics are in simplified transliteration from Pali.

Philosophy and the “strictly scientific systems” of psychology have never been able to exert a dominant influence on the life of mankind - not because they were unsuitable as systems, and not because they lacked true content, but because their truth is purely theoretical. a value born of the mind, not the heart, created by the intellect and not realized in life.

Therefore, when we talk about Buddhist philosophy, we must be clear that we are dealing only with the theoretical side of Buddhism, and not with Buddhism as a whole. And just as it is impossible to talk about Buddhism without touching on its philosophical system, it is also impossible to understand Buddhist philosophy in isolation from its religious practice. Religion is a path created by practical experience (just as a road is created by constant walking). Philosophy is the orientation of a direction, while psychology is the analysis of the forces and conditions that favor or hinder progress along that path. But before we look at the direction in which this path leads, we look back to where it begins.

He who knows the Dhamma never argues with the world.

What the wise of this world declared non-existent,

I teach about this as if it does not exist.

And what the wise of this world recognized as existing,

I teach about this as if it exists.

SAMYUTTA NIKAYA, III, 238

First part

ORIGIN OF RELIGION

AND THE EARLY STAGES OF INDIAN THINKING

1. SELF-REGULARITY OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE

Religions are not something that can be created by man. They are the formal expression of a supra-individual inner experience that has crystallized over long periods of time. They have the character of high community, involvement in the broadest consciousness. They find their defining form of expression and fulfillment in the most developed and feeling minds, capable of taking part in the supra-individual life of their fellow human beings (if not of all humanity). Thus, religion is incomparably higher than the usual “collective thinking”, which is inherent in intellectually created and organized mass movements and which therefore does not belong to the supra-individual consciousness, but, on the contrary, belongs to the sub-individual stage of the herd mentality.

Series: "World of the East"

The book "The Psychological Position of the Philosophy of Early Buddhism" was written by one of the greatest spiritual sages representing the tradition Tibetan Buddhism, a deep expert in Eastern and Western philosophy, traveler and public figure, artist and poet, Lama Anagarika Govinda. As a popularizer of the teachings of Gautama Buddha in the West, Govinda sought to reveal the most hidden aspects of the Buddhist tradition. The book “The Psychological Position of the Philosophy of Early Buddhism” is considered a brilliant example of spiritual literature, which combines the depth of presentation and accessibility of study. The book shows what human nature, the general picture of the world, the purpose of man, spiritual practices that bring the student closer to the heights of achievement are from the point of view of early Buddhism, traces the connection between the teachings of Buddha Gautamys and other religious and mystical systems and traditions, and also recreates the historical stages of religious quest. In this book, Anagarika Govinda tried to recreate the fundamental...

Publisher: "Belovodye" (2007)

Format: 70x90/16, 224 pages.

ISBN: 978-5-93454-077-7

On Ozone

Three baskets

First basket. Vinaya-Pitaka

Second basket. Sutta Pitaka

Third basket. Abhidhamma Pitaka

Read the book Psychological Attitude of the Philosophy of Early Buddhism online

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