 Today, we are going to talk about Buddhist ethics, that what is the ethical claim of Buddhism and what is Buddhism all about. It is going to be more in the form of a story, when we find the, what is it that led into Buddhism as both the philosophy and the religion and the code of conduct and the ethics that it brings about. So, many of us may be familiar with the story of Buddha, but for those who are not, let me briefly recapitulate, what is the story of Gautam Buddha or Siddharth. Now, Siddharth was a prince born in a, in the foothills of the Himalayas in 563 B.C. Now Prince Siddharth was of royal descent, he was the son of a king and legend had it at that time, that when the king was blessed with a son, that the son would be either a great ruler or a great saint. So, the king naturally being interested in wanting his son to be his successor, did not want the son or Siddharth to become a saint and wanted him to become a rather a great ruler. So, the king insulated the young prince from any visions or any visions or any aspects of society, which would perhaps trigger a saintly pursuit. So, he kept him comfortably in the palace and with a lot of comforts insulated from the world out there. Well, Siddharth on one of his serjants saw human societies and one might call it destiny or one might not choose to call it destiny, but well Siddharth did take a look at human life as it is being lived in the world out there outside his palace. And that is where that started to set him to think that well, what is the, he saw the sides of a aged man of a old man sick and a dead body, a person being born. Now this caused him disillusionment. Now this is what perhaps is the most popular notion of Buddhism that well, which claims that well life is full of suffering, that life is full of suffering. And this is perhaps one of the crucial comments or crucial claims that is popular about the Buddhist ethics, but let us look at it this way that what does Buddha mean that well life is suffering. But anyway, let me continue his story. Now this young prince Siddharth as he was known then, saw these sides of old age disease, sickness and birth and death. So and then he thought that well, why is there so much of suffering and what he could see all around was a lot of suffering that people were suffering that even happiness and joy that we see is only intermediary between sufferings. So that made Gautam Buddha, made Prince Siddharth go out in search of what is it that can give one escape from suffering. So he left his palace and a father whose heart was broken and he went out into the forest as it was the practice then to dwell on what could be the reason for this suffering and what could be and how could a liberation for the same be attained. After six years of rigorous hard penance and an ascetic life, Prince Siddharth was still nowhere close to finding a solution. So then he wanted he discarded the ascetic life and took the middle path of leading an ascetic life, but not with the rigor that he was living up to them. Then he had this what is regarded as the as enlightenment in the Buddhist history is that when sitting below a tree Prince Siddharth had an enlightenment and could form his philosophy about life and since then he was known as the Buddha or the Gautam Buddha. And since then he is propagated or he is counseled the people around there and what then there of what came to know came to be known as Buddhism both as a religion and philosophy. It is both a religion and philosophy because it also talks about the fundamental questions. It debates, delves and reasons into giving its justifications, it is also religion because it provides a code of conduct, a way of living, a way of conducting one's life, a set of guidelines. So Buddhism is both the philosophy and the religion just like Jainism and Hinduism. So now Buddhism we see that well this is briefly the history of the journey of Prince Siddharth from an opulent princely childhood to an ascetic middle age to a enlightened soul. Now let us also know the historical background that well Buddhism was at a time five centuries before Christ and it is then when Hinduism was very popular but it had become very ritualistic. The caste system was present and that Buddhism arose as a perhaps many scholar seat as a reaction to the hardcore Hinduism prevailing there and it became wildly popular and Buddhism even spread to various far East Asian countries including Burma, Japan, Tibet and other nations around and it was quite popular. So this having the his projected having placed the trajectory of Buddhism now let us come back to what Buddha talks about. Now whether this fundamental claim that we have written that life is full of suffering. Now this is where we need to spend some time that whether life is full of suffering and is it a pessimistic reading life is full of suffering now is this a pessimistic reading but before we go into analyzing this let us try to understand why Buddhists or Buddha made such a claim. Now Buddha made such a claim because well he observed that well whatever and however we lead life through whichever stages the only thing inevitable is suffering because even the moments of happiness or pleasure that we have is because of is placed between periods of suffering that we have disease that we have death that we have old age that we have decay that we have impermanence that we have things changing that is what makes something that is what makes life so full of suffering according to Buddhist it will perhaps not be a pessimistic reading as much as he would like to call it a factual statement of affair that well the entire futility of human existence or human predicament as it is said that we labor hard and we achieve and we toil and we relish it but then it is all transitory it gets away. So imagine what is happening in Prince Siddharth's mind well he is born in a very comfortable situation said to rule and he could have a life full of pleasures or happiness and morally justified happiness not a life of rampant pleasure yet what is it that disturbs him that disturbs him is that well that we are even the Prince is not immune to disease not immune to decay not immune to death not immune to having things go away in short not immune to impermanence. So wherever we find that let us transpose it to today's life like if we are tending we tend to believe that well perhaps that was true on that time well it is perhaps not so if you just look at around us that whatever our pursuits are we are still a part of the simple yet profound observation that there is a birth or growth middle stage of equilibrium and then there is a decay and death that death is a part of life that death is an inevitable part of life is too obvious for us to perhaps strike us in our day to day living but no matter what whatever we wish we desire we achieve our loves our triumphs our achievements are still susceptible to our the death of the agent to the decay of the agent to change. So at a more deeper and more fundamental level what is an happiness and happiness looking for a happiness that lasts forever now many religious texts talk about eternality that eternal happiness eternal bliss what is it that when we are looking for eternal why eternal why eternity is revered in so many texts because eternity is a liberation from impermanence from change from unhappiness from suffering. So when we say when the Buddhists say that well life is full of suffering well Buddha is trying to say that no matter for what our achievements are we still have suffering as a part of it because our achievements are just an intermediary between phases of suffering. So is this a pessimistic reading I would leave that on to the audience to decide leave it open-ended let me look to explore another perspective the second perspective that I would like to explore is what is the nature of happiness or satisfaction now for many of us who would like to argue there is a one could explore this angle that well when the Buddha says that life is full of suffering perhaps he has not got his understanding of the notion of happiness and human life as right why do I say so now this claim would claim that well happiness exists only because unhappiness exists sorrow is necessary for joy. So this school of philosophy which could be regarded as the existentialists or those who believe that life has to be lived that the human predicament is in oscillating between the two extremes between joy and sorrow and this is what makes life meaningful. Now what is this point now we have a very popular understanding of the human spirit or the human predicament of existence that well we have happiness only because we have unhappiness we have sorrow so we need the darker shades to realize the lighter shades so there is nothing to worry or gloom about suffering but rather look at it as a necessary condition for us to experience joy now Buddha is against would call this also suffering. So a life of activity a life of defeats and triumphs of overcoming odds where the human spirit so to say vibrates energetically as a part of a meaningful life is also not what convinces Buddha as the good life because as a ruler what is regarded in Indian philosophy as a Rajasic life a ruler would have a very Rajasic life and would have all the pleasures or all the triumphs tribulations and achievements that human existence presents. So it is a life where one has to struggle fight win lose and that is what makes a game worth playing. So yes the existentialist would claim that well thank God we have sorrow because we have sorrow so we can struggle to alleviate it and then we have happiness but this would be the existentialist reading of sorrow that sorrow as a necessary darker shade to bring about bring into focus the lighter shade. So sorrow is a necessary part of human existence and how we can get rid of it should not matter to us rather we should try to maximize our happiness possible. Well the Buddha is still not convinced the Buddha's claim or Siddharth looks for eternity looks for permanence looks for happiness or satisfaction that is eternal looks for this escape from what he regards as the cycle of ignorance pain suffering pleasure and again binding. So throughout Indian philosophy and Indian ethics an esoteric strain is seen which many have critiqued as an escapist strain but for many could also see it as a desire to see something which is liberating which is liberating from mundane human existence as an metaphysical or ontological news state but anyway. So we see that well when Buddha claims that life is full of suffering well he has his justification he is making a claim that well no matter what we do where we are placed human life essentially has suffering and that because we may love gives us happiness but we lose and we inevitably have to lose gives us sadness. So it is perhaps part of human nature to be a part of human nature to suffer and that is what gives us meaning but Buddha does not agree with that he wants an escape from suffering that well life is full of suffering and what is the way out he refuses to reconcile with the claim that well suffering is what makes life meaningful he thinks that life has to have something more which makes it eternal which gives him a liberation from impermanence. We will talk about impermanence in some time well that there is suffering now this comes out to be the first of the four noble truths as popularly regarded. So the first noble truth is that life is full of suffering or existence is dukkha as it is regarded. Now what is the meaning of dukkha? Dukkha would mean well sorrow in the psychological sense but at a deeper sense it would mean impermanence and this impermanence is the cause of all suffering well look at it this way now when Buddha puts his points out to suffering he is making a claim that well what is suffering what claim is he making well there is suffering and where the suffering come he does not discount the pleasures and the joys we receive but what he calls as suffering because on the larger scale he sees that these pleasures and these joys are just a facade or a transitory a temporary benefit it is like this if I may be permitted to make a naive analogy we are sitting in a train or a plane which is about to crash and in that but it is about to crash in say a long time and we have no escape from the train but right in the train we have a lot of goodies we have good books to read we have good people to interact with we have good food to eat and we have a comfortable life to lead. So inevitably the train is going to crash now there are various ways of how people would make peace in such a situation that well when death becomes imminent people have different philosophies but in such a situation there could be a person who would say that well death is imminent and the crash is imminent but I can still make good of my whatever time I have on this train someone could say that well if death is imminent then all these things all these goodies and all these comforts that we have around ourselves does not matter that is what Buddhism talks about that when death is imminent where decay is imminent and where loss is imminent it does not matter that we have whatever highs of joy and pleasure. So what is this death or what is this change not necessarily the human death it is the whole abstracted notion of impermanence that we do not have permanence impermanence is a fact of life but to begin with any philosophical thinking one does not have to regard facts and absolute it is the liberation from the factual domain that is the beginning of philosophical thinking that you are no more enamored or captured with how things are but how things could be so from that necessarily requires you to be liberated from how things are. So coming back now I see that Buddha making this claim like the person sitting in the train that well when the crash is imminent I would like to seek something that would make whatever happiness I can enjoy as eternal and if whatever happiness I can enjoy is not eternal then it is really not happiness it is suffering in the guise of happiness. So impermanence is what is known as dukkha impermanence is what is known as suffering. So as long as things are impermanent it is a final calculation is that it is a part of dukkha. So the first noble truth that Buddha proposed was that life is full of suffering that existence human existence is dukkha and dukkha is to be understood as anitya or impermanence impermanence is the source of all suffering. Now the Buddhist ethics is first stage put forth as the four noble truths that Buddha realized which were which are profound by themselves although they may appear symbol by itself at the first glance. Now what is the second thing that second noble truth that Buddha talks about is the doctrine of dependent origination or which is known as prattitya samut pad vad. Now what does this mean it means well it is the doctrine of dependent origination at well what it simply means is that suffering is not an accident it is caused. So suffering has a cause now contrast Buddhism as a reaction to Hinduism of that time which greatly perhaps propagated theory of fatalism or that many of the incidents in life were a part of one's desert and therefore unalterable. Now Buddha makes a change over here he regards suffering as an event which is caused. So there is a cause to suffering and if the cause is removed suffering is removed. So the second noble truth is breaking down in four sequences now the four noble truths break down in sequence the understanding of dukkha and its elimination. So suffering is not an accident it is rather caused. So what is this suffering about well suffering is not as a result of chance now coming to what exactly are these what is suffering. So we say that well there are the Buddhists claim that there are 12 links of suffering and what are these links well let me first put them down for you to go through and then we will talk about in detail. Ignorance or avidya karmic impressions or sanskar initial embryonic consciousness or vijnan embryonic psychophysical organism nama rupa six sense organs mind included sharyatana and then there is sense object contact or sparsha there is sense experience or vedana thirst for sense objects trishna then we have clinging which is upadana then we have will to be born or bhava birth or rebirth is known as jati and finally we have suffering sickness old age and death it is jara mara ok. Now these are 12 classifications that you would perhaps find in any of the text book dealing with Buddhists ethics what is it trying to point out it is called the 12 links a part of the second noble truth in a part of diagnosis that when first it makes a claim that well suffering effort existing suffering is a part of existence and because existence has this necessary need in nature of impermanence and therefore suffering is a part of existence and therefore impermanence is a part of existence and therefore impermanence called as suffering. So suffering is inevitably to it up with existence and if suffer and this suffering or this impermanence is caused, it is not an accidental or unnatural import, there is a cause for it, there is a reason why it is there. And the reason is analyzed into these 12 links, that well, which is what we have seen here, that well if you look at it, now the first two are to do with past life, so ignorance and avidya and sanskar, these are part of our past life, and they come from our past life, what we do, we are born because we have initial embryonic consciousness, now this is also putting forth the metaphysical claims of Buddhism, that well we have initial embryonic consciousness, and therefore we are born, we have this nama rupa or then we become a psychophysical organism, and the part of the psychophysical organism, we have six sense organs, which is the sharyatana, and these sense organs have contact with objects out there, and the moment we have this sense object contact, this parsh, we have sense experience or vedana, now this vedana is what calls, which causes thirst for sense objects or trishna, and this trishna causes us to be cling to these sense objects, and this clinging causes our will to be born, and this causes again our birth, and then we have suffering, sickness, old age and death, so this adheres to future life, and this adheres to present life, so what in a sense is the claim, if we look at it as a whole, is that well we are born, and born because we have that fundamental embryonic consciousness, and then because of that we feel ourselves as a psychophysical organism, we have sense organs, the sense organs get in touch with the world out there, and that causes experience, sense experience, that is a sense experience breeds desire, and desire, and attachment, and this attachment causes us to be reborn, and this again puts us through a cycle of birth, death, birth, decay, disease, suffering and death, so liberation from this is our, is a way to get away from this cycle of dependent origination, now these 12 fold chain of causation is often referred to as dharma chakra, or the wheel of becoming, it is referred to as bhava chakra, or dvadasa nidhana, so this is the nature of suffering, now let us come to the third noble truth.