Scientific and Spiritual Insights on the Essence of the Buddha’s Teaching
Gautama Buddha, 563 BC – 483 BC

Depak Chopra

These principles of The Buddha’s teachings may vary from strict scholastic interpretations. They are meant to address solutions to everyday challenges and, at the same time, be consistent with the understanding of spirituality in a contemporary framework. An attempt has also been made to find the universality in these teachings and how they complement the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and the teachings of Vedanta and also Judaism.

The Four Noble Truths
1. There is suffering
2. The origins, the root cause, the nature and arising of suffering can be identified
3. There is a way out of suffering
4. The path to enlightenment (marga – from suffering to peace, joy and freedom) is the Eight-Fold Path

The Origins of Suffering (Dukkha)

Suffering arising out of pain
Suffering arising out of pleasure
Suffering arising out of impermanence

Suffering arising from the Five Aggregates that constitute the constricted ‘I.’

The Five Aggregates that Constitute the Constricted ‘I’
1. Form: the localization of Being
2. Feeling: the localization of sensation
3. Conception: this is ‘me’ or ‘mine’
4. Disposition: conditioning to seek happiness through a series of behaviors that propagate ignorance
5. Consciousness: of separate Self

The Five Aggregates

1. Form: this includes the body and physical objects. By practicing mindfulness there is insight and recognition of impermanence and the
non-self nature of form (rupa).

2. Feelings (vedna): feelings are formations, impermanent and without substance. They come and go, they are not exclusively me or mine.
3. Perceptions (samjna): perceptions arise, stay for a period and then cease to be. They are transient and impermanent. All perceptions are projections.
Aggregate of perceptions include:
Noticing
Naming
Conceptualizing
Perceiver
Perceived
4. Mental Formations: arise, subside, are impermanent and the result of seeds in ‘store-consciousness’ (bijas).
5. The ground of all our mental formations – collective and individual.

There are two categories of ‘store-consciousness’:
1. Seeds of anger, delusion and fear.
2. Seeds of compassion, understanding and love.

Water the appropriate seeds in yourself and others.

The Three Dharma Seals

1. The relative is impermanent
2. The separate Self does not exist
3. Nirvana is the ultimate reality

The Three Dharma Seals are inter-related:

Impermanence is from the point of view of time.
Non-self is from the point of view of space.
Nirvana is from beyond space and time.

Impermanence: the existence of any single thing is only possible because of the existence of everything else.

From the point of view of time, impermanence is a transient pattern in the behavior of the Universe – an abstract field of pure potentiality.

From the point of view of space, non-self is the universe localized.

The Eight-Fold Path

1. Right view Right perspective

2. Right thinking Spontaneous right thinking:
Icha Shakti

3. Right speech Spontaneous right speech:
Saraswati; para; pashyanti; madhyama; vaikhri

4. Right action Spontaneous right action:
Kriya Shakti

5. Right livelihood Dharma

6. Right effort One-pointed intention

7. Right mindfulness Witnessing

8. Right concentration Attention

Right View (Perspective)

1. All perspective as misleading
2. Seeds in ‘store consciousness’ lead to thoughts, speech, action and behavior
3. Mindfulness (witnessing) allows us to be aware of seeds in ‘store consciousness’ and put attention on wholesome seeds instead of unwholesome seeds
4. All points of view are wrong
5. Right view is absence of all views
6. Right view allows ‘seeing’ instead of perception

Right Speech

1. Speak the truth
2. Don’t speak with a forked tongue (saying one thing to one person and something else to another).
3. Don’t speak cruelly – do not shout, slander, curse, encourage suffering or hatred.
4. Don’t exaggerate or embellish.
5. Create happiness and bliss in the listener.
6. Listen deeply; deep listening is the foundation of right speech. If we cannot listen mindfully, we cannot practice right speech.

The Lotus Sutra states: “Look and listen with the eyes and ears of compassion”.

Right Action

Reverence for life in all actions – do not cause suffering.
Generosity and loving-kindness in all actions.
Mindful eating, drinking and consuming.
Helping others.

Right Livelihood

Earning your living through nurturing the Eco-system – the web of life.
Wrong livelihood:
Earning your living from harming the Eco-system.
Manufacturing weapons
Depriving others in any way or causing them suffering
Destroying the environment
Exploiting nature or other people
Producing toxins

Right Effort (Diligence)

Continuous practice.
Persistence in practice.
Attention to practice.

Mindfulness

“When we have a toothache, we know that not having a toothache is happiness. But later, when we don’t have a toothache, we don’t treasure our non-toothache. Practicing mindfulness, we can treasure our happiness and make it last longer.” Thich Nhat Hanh

“Your joy is your sorrow unmasked” Kahil Gibran

Mindful walking
Mindful breathing
Mindful sitting
Mindful eating (tasting and smelling)
Mindful looking
Mindful listening
Mindfulness of feelings and thoughts

The Seven Miracles of Mindfulness

Mindfulness (smriti) – remembering to come back to the present moment
First Miracle: to be fully present on the moment
Second Miracle: to make the other, the object of awareness (flower, beloved, sky, etc.) also fully present in the moment
Third Miracle: nourish the object of your attention with full awareness
Fourth Miracle: the desire to relieve suffering
Fifth Miracle (vipassana): to look deeply into the nature of the Self and others
Sixth Miracle: understanding and insight
Seventh Miracle: transformation

Right Concentration, Right Attention

Two kinds of concentration or attention:

1. Active Attention - have your attention on what is and see its fullness in every moment, even as the moment changes.

Whatever comes, comes. We just dwell in the present moment with all our Being. When the object of our attention has passed, our mind remains clear like a calm lake.

2. Selective Attention – on a particular object to the exclusion of everything else.

Right attention reveals the impermanent, non-self and inter-being nature of the phenomenal world. Earth, water, air, fire, space, time, nothingness and perceptions inter-are. Nothing can be, by itself alone.

Concentration Practices:

1. Concentration on impermanence – every time you look at your beloved or an object, see him/her/it as impermanent and do your best to make him/her/it happy.

2. Concentration on non-self – touch the nature of inner being in everything you contact. For example, a table is a forest, iron ore, earth, rain, sunshine, the void of space, the dust of stars, a carpenter, the trials and tribulations, the life and loves, hopes and dreams of the carpenter and all his/her relationships. In other words, a table is the whole universe.

Right Concentration leads to appreciation of two truths – relative truth and absolute truth.

Relative Truth: a flower is a flower and I am a person.

Absolute Truth: a flower is the universe and I am the absolute Being.

The Eight Limbs of Raja Yoga

Standard Interpretation My Interpretation

1. Yama Shakti Rules of social conduct Spontaneous right action (Kriya

a. Ahimsa Nonviolence Peace
b. Satya Truthfulness Love/truth
c. Brahmachary Celibacy Mastery of the creative energy of the universe
d. Asteya Non-stealing Absence of grasping and clinging
e. Anabhinivesha Non-clinging Absence of aversion

2. Niyama Rules of personal behavior Qualities of the evolutionary personality

a. Santosha Contentment Absence of addiction to power sensation and
security
b. Shaucha Purity State of awareness that does not allow
emotional or physical toxicity
c. Svadhyaya Self-study Self-referral. Who am I? What do I
want? What is my purpose?
d. Tapas Discipline Transformation
e. Ishvara pranidhana Religion Surrender to the wisdom of uncertainty

3. Asana Physical postures Mind body integration

4. Pranayama Breath control Neurorespiratory integration

5. Pratyahara Control of the senses Directing the senses inward to awaken
the tanmatras (subtle senses)
6. Dharana Mind control Mastery of attention and intention

7. Dhyana Meditation Meditation

8. Samadhi Absorption Settled in pure awareness – the Gap

Buddhist, Judaic and Vedic Cognition - Some parallels

Realm of reality
Universal Domain – Pure Potentiality
Dharmakaya Ein Sof Brahman/Theosphere

Causal Body – realm of archetypes, angels, higher beings
Sambhogakaya Atzilut Ananda Maya Kosha Atman/
Theosphere
Subtle Body – realm of intellect, seeds of personal identity
Sambhogakaya Beriya Gyan Maya Kosha Noosphere
Subtle Body – realm of emotions
Sambhogakaya Yetzira Mano Maya Kosha Noosphere
Physical Domain – realm of time, space and causality
Nirmanakaya Assiya Anna Maya Kosha Biosphere

Nirvana

Nirvana: freedom that arises from dwelling in the ground of Being. It is therefore, freedom from fear, delusion, separation and freedom into love, understanding, and compassion.

A wave on the ocean has a beginning and an end. It is a pattern of behavior of the water. The water is the ground of Being of the wave. Similarly, the individual is the pattern of behavior of the ground of Being. The individual’s pattern arises and subsides, the ground of Being remains.

The wave does not have to attain wateriness, it is water. Similarly, the individual doesn’t have to attain the Nirvana of Being, it dwells in Nirvana or Being.

Inter-dependent Co-arising

Cause and effect co-arise – everything is a result of multiple cause and effect conditions. The whole universe conspires to create every effect.

Everything that is of the nature to arise, is of the nature to cease.

Inter-dependent co-arising, inter-Being, inter-penetration and impermanence are the same phenomenon.

They are transient patterns in the behavior of a field of pure potentiality that displays acausal non-local quantum mechanical interrelatedness. When we experience our inter-beingness, we spontaneously feel compassion and practice loving kindness.

Acknowledgment:
My first exposure to the vocabulary of inter-beingness was through the writings of Thich Nhat Hahn to whom I remain enormously grateful.

Deepak Chopra

 

DEEPAK CHOPRA, M.D. Director of Educational Programs, CEO and Founder

Acknowledged as one of the world's greatest leaders in the field of mind body medicine, Deepak Chopra, M.D. continues to transform our understanding of the meaning of health. Through his creation of The Chopra Center for Well Being in California in 1995, Chopra established a formal vehicle for the expansion of his healing approach using the integration of the best of western medicine with natural healing traditions. Dr. Chopra serves as the Director of Education at The Chopra Center, which offers training programs in mind body medicine (Journey into Healing). The University of California, San Diego School of Medicine has granted continuing medical education credits for this program, which satisfies requirements for the American Medical Association Physician? Recognition Award. Through his partnership with David Simon, M.D. and numerous health care professionals in both conventional and complementary healing arts, Chopra's work is changing the way the world-views physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and social wellness.

What prompted Deepak Chopra to expand his view of conventional medicine to embrace complementary treatments from around the world?. He began to envision a medical system based upon the premise that health is a lively state of balance and integration of body, mind and spirit. He is widely credited with melding modern theories of quantum physics with the timeless wisdom of ancient cultures. In 1992, he served on the National Institutes of Health Ad Hoc Panel on Alternative Medicine.

Through The Chopra Center, Dr. Chopra is revolutionizing common wisdom about the crucial connection between body, mind, spirit, and healing. His mission of "bridging the technological miracles of the west with the wisdom of the east" remains his thrust as he and his colleagues conduct public seminars and workshops and provide training for health care professionals around the world. Dr. Chopra is a fellow of the American College of Physicians and a member of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists.