95-519: Vatica robusta Shorea robusta , the sal tree , sāla , shala , sakhua , or sarai , is a species of tree in the family Dipterocarpaceae . The tree is native to India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Tibet and across the Himalayan regions. Fossil evidence from lignite mines in the Indian states of Rajasthan and Gujarat indicate that sal trees (or at least a closely related Shorea species) have been
190-468: A dominant tree species of forests of the Indian subcontinent since at least the early Eocene (roughly 49 million years ago), at a time when the region otherwise supported a very different biota from the modern day. Evidence comes from the numerous amber nodules in these rocks, which originate from the dammar resin produced by the sal trees. Shorea robusta can grow up to 40 metres (130 feet) tall with
285-481: A finger can point at other things but not at itself, etc.). This means then, that the self could never desire to change itself and could not do so; another reason for this is that, besides Buddhism, in the orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy the unchanging ultimate self ( ātman ) is perfectly blissful and does not suffer. The historical Buddha used this idea to attack the concept of self. This argument could be structured thus: This argument then denies that there
380-593: A form of pragmatism . However, K. N. Jayatilleke argues the Buddha's epistemology can also be taken to be a form of correspondence theory (as per the Apannaka Sutta ) with elements of coherentism , and that for the Buddha it is causally impossible for something which is false to lead to cessation of suffering and evil. Gautama Buddha discouraged his disciples and early followers of Buddhism from indulging in intellectual disputation for its own sake, which
475-474: A major source for the production of leaf plates and bowls called patravali in India and Nepal. The used leaves/plates are readily eaten by goats and cattle. The tree has therefore protected northern India from a flood of styrofoam and plastic plates that would have caused tremendous pollution. In Nepal, its leaves are used to make local plates and vessels called "tapari", "doona" and "bogata" in which rice and curry
570-421: A means to liberation or salvation. It was a tacit assumption with these systems that if their philosophy were correctly understood and assimilated, an unconditioned state free of suffering and limitation could be achieved. [...] If this fact is overlooked, as often happens as a result of the propensity engendered by formal Occidental philosophy to consider the philosophical enterprise as a purely descriptive one,
665-450: A pragmatic point of view, it is best to abstain from these negative actions which bring forth negative results. However, the important word here is intentionally : for the Buddha, karma is nothing else but intention/volition, and hence unintentionally harming someone does not create bad karmic results. Unlike the Jains who believed that karma was a quasi-physical element, for the Buddha karma
760-463: A single religious founder. While the focus of the Buddha's teachings is about attaining the highest good of nirvāṇa , they also contain an analysis of the source of human suffering ( duḥkha ), the nature of personal identity ( ātman ), and the process of acquiring knowledge ( prajña ) about the world. The Buddha defined his teaching as " the Middle Way " ( Pāli : majjhimāpaṭipadā ). In
855-408: A slightly later period that still preceded the final redactions of the various Buddhist canons." According to some scholars, the philosophical outlook of earliest Buddhism was primarily negative, in the sense that it focused on what doctrines to reject and let go of more than on what doctrines to accept . Only knowledge that is useful in attaining liberation is valued. According to this theory,
950-402: A source for plywood . The family name comes from the type genus Dipterocarpus which is derived from Greek words δι di "two", πτερόν pteron "wing", and καρπός karpós "fruit"; the words combined refer to the two-winged fruit available from trees of that genus, other related genera with winged fruits of more than two are included in the family as well. The dipterocarp family
1045-515: A trunk diameter of 2 metres (6.6 feet). The leaves are 10–25 cm long and 5–15 cm broad. In wetter areas, sal is evergreen ; in drier areas, it is dry-season deciduous , shedding most of the leaves from February to April, leafing out again in April and May. The sal tree is known also as sakhua in northern India, including Madhya Pradesh , Odisha and Jharkhand. It is the state tree of two Indian states – Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. This tree
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#17327811469341140-403: A writhing of views, a fetter of views". One explanation for this pragmatic suspension of judgment or epistemic Epoché is that such questions contribute nothing to the practical methods of realizing awakeness during one's lifetime and bring about the danger of substituting the experience of liberation by a conceptual understanding of the doctrine or by religious faith. According to the Buddha,
1235-409: Is a conceptual construction overlaid upon a stream of experiences, just like a chariot is merely a conventional designation for the parts of a chariot and how they are put together. The foundation of this argument is purely empiricist , for it is based on the fact that all we observe is subject to change, especially everything observed when looking inwardly in meditation. Another argument supporting
1330-407: Is a standard decorative element of Hindu Indian sculpture which originated in a yakshini grasping the branch of a flowering tree while setting her foot against its roots. This decorative sculptural element was integrated into Indian temple architecture as salabhanjika or "sal tree maiden", although it is not clear either whether it is a sal tree or an asoka tree. The tree is also mentioned in
1425-535: Is also said to be confused with the Ashoka tree ( Saraca asoca ). Sal is one of the most important sources of hardwood timber in India, with hard, coarse-grained wood that is light in colour when freshly cut, but becomes dark brown with exposure. The wood is resinous and durable, and is sought-after for construction, although not well suited to planing and polishing. The wood is especially suitable for constructing frames for doors and windows. The dry leaves of sal are
1520-432: Is always dependent on, and caused by sensations gained by the sense organs ( āyatana ). Sensations are always dependent on contact with our surroundings. Buddha's causal theory is simply descriptive: "This existing, that exists; this arising, that arises; this not existing, that does not exist; this ceasing, that ceases." This understanding of causation as "impersonal lawlike causal ordering" is important because it shows how
1615-524: Is fruitless, and distracts one from the ultimate goals of awakening ( bodhi ) and liberation ( mokṣa ). Only philosophy and discussion which has pragmatic value for liberation from suffering is seen as important. According to the Pāli Canon , during his lifetime the Buddha remained silent when asked several metaphysical questions which he regarded as the basis for "unwise reflection". These "unanswered questions" ( avyākṛta ) regarded issues such as whether
1710-437: Is generally divided into two subfamilies: Anisoptera Cotylelobium Dipterocarpus Stemonoporus Upuna Vateria Vateriopsis Vatica Anthoshorea Doona Dryobalanops Hopea Neobalanocarpus Neohopea Parashorea Pentacme Richetia Rubroshorea Shorea Marquesia Monotes Pseudomonotes A recent genetic study found that
1805-686: Is native to the Indian subcontinent, ranging south of the Himalaya , from Myanmar in the east to Nepal, India and Bangladesh. In India, it extends from Chhattisgarh , Assam , Bengal , Odisha and Jharkhand west to the Shivalik Hills in Haryana , east of the Yamuna . The range also extends through the Eastern Ghats and to the eastern Vindhya and Satpura ranges of central India. It
1900-410: Is not worried about something that does not exist. Furthermore, Gautama Buddha argued that the world can be observed to be a cause of suffering ( Brahman was held to be ultimately blissful in the orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy ) and that since we cannot control the world as we wish, the world cannot be the self. The idea that "this cosmos is the self" is one of the six wrong views rejected by
1995-619: Is often confused with the Couroupita guianensis or cannonball tree, a tree from tropical South America introduced to Asia by the British in the 19th century. The cannonball tree has since then been planted at Buddhist and Hindu religious sites in Asia in the belief that it is the tree of sacred scriptures. In Sri Lanka, Thailand and other Theravada Buddhist countries it has been planted at Buddhist monasteries and other religious sites. In India
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#17327811469342090-515: Is often the dominant tree in the forests where it occurs. In Nepal, it is found mostly in the Terai region from east to west, especially, in the Sivalik Hills (Churia Range) in the subtropical climate zone. There are many protected areas, such as Chitwan National Park , Bardia National Park and Shuklaphanta National Park , where there are dense forests of huge sal trees. It is also found in
2185-570: Is one permanent "controller" in the person. Instead, it views the person as a set of constantly changing processes which include volitional events seeking change and an awareness of that desire for change. According to Mark Siderits: What the Buddhist has in mind is that on one occasion one part of the person might perform the executive function, on another occasion another part might do so. This would make it possible for every part to be subject to control without there being any part that always fills
2280-570: Is served. However, the use of such "natural" tools have sharply declined during the last decade. Sal tree resin is known as sal dammar or Indian dammar, ṛla in Sanskrit. It is used as an astringent in Ayurvedic medicine, burned as incense in Hindu ceremonies, and used to caulk boats and ships. Sal seeds and fruit are a source of lamp oil and vegetable fat. The seed oil is extracted from
2375-539: Is still clear that resisting and even refuting a false or slanted doctrine can be useful to extricate the interlocutor, or oneself, from error; hence, to advance in the way of liberation. Witness the Buddha's confutation of several doctrines by Nigantha Nataputta and other purported sages which sometimes had large followings (e.g., Kula Sutta, Sankha Sutta, Brahmana Sutta). This shows that a virtuous and appropriate use of dialectics can take place. By implication, reasoning and argument shouldn't be disparaged by Buddhists. After
2470-676: Is that this unease arises out of conditions, mainly craving ( taṇhā ) and ignorance ( avidyā ). The third truth is then the fact that whenever sentient beings let go of craving and remove ignorance through insight and knowledge, suffering ceases ( nirodhā ). The fourth truth is the Noble Eightfold Path , which consists of eight practices that end suffering. They are: right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness , and right samādhi (concentration, mental unification, meditation). The highest good and ultimate goal taught by
2565-418: Is the inherent and eternal unsatisfactoriness of life. This unpleasantness is said to be not just physical pain and psychological distress, but also a kind of existential unease caused by the inevitable facts of our mortality and ultimately by the impermanence of all beings and phenomena . Suffering also arises because of contact with unpleasant events, and due to not getting what one desires. The second truth
2660-635: The Dharma is not an ultimate end in itself or an explanation of all metaphysical reality, but a pragmatic set of teachings. The Buddha used two parables to clarify this point, the 'Parable of the raft' and the Parable of the Poisoned Arrow . The Dharma is like a raft in the sense that it is only a pragmatic tool for attaining nirvana ("for the purpose of crossing over, not for the purpose of holding onto", MN 22); once one has done this, one can discard
2755-474: The Dharmacakrapravartana Sūtra , this is used to refer to the fact that his teachings steer a middle course between the extremes of asceticism and bodily denial (as practiced by the Jains and other Indian ascetic groups) and sensual hedonism or indulgence. Many Śramaṇa ascetics of the Buddha's time placed much emphasis on a denial of the body, using practices such as fasting , to liberate
2850-521: The Kālāma Sutta the Buddha tells a group of confused villagers that the only proper reason for one's beliefs is verification in one's own personal experience (and the experience of the wise) and denies any verification which stems from a personal authority, sacred tradition ( anussava ), or any kind of rationalism which constructs metaphysical theories ( takka ). In the Tevijja Sutta (DN 13),
2945-562: The Ramayana —specifically, where Lord Rama (on request of deposed monkey-king Sugriva for proof he can kill Sugriva's older half-brother Vali) is asked to pierce seven sals in a row with a single arrow (which is later used to kill Vali, and still later to behead Ravana 's brother Kumbhakarna ) In the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal, one can find typical Nepali pagoda temple architectures with very rich wooden carvings, and most of
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3040-589: The parinirvāṇa of Gautama Buddha (c. 5th century BCE), as well as the further developments which followed the spread of Buddhism throughout Asia . Buddhism combines both philosophical reasoning and the practice of meditation . The Buddhist religion presents a multitude of Buddhist paths to liberation ; with the expansion of early Buddhism from ancient India to Sri Lanka and subsequently to East Asia and Southeast Asia , Buddhist thinkers have covered topics as varied as cosmology , ethics , epistemology , logic , metaphysics , ontology , phenomenology ,
3135-674: The Gandhāran Buddhist texts (which are the earliest manuscripts containing discourses attributed to Gautama Buddha), has confirmed that their teachings are "consistent with non-Mahayana Buddhism, which survives today in the Theravada school of Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, but which in ancient times was represented by eighteen separate schools." However, some scholars such as Schmithausen , Vetter , and Bronkhorst argue that critical analysis reveals discrepancies among these various doctrines. They present alternative possibilities for what
3230-769: The Guaianan highlands of South America, is now found to be more closely related the Cistaceae and is placed there in the APG IV (2016) . Some 52-million-year-old amber found in the Gujarat province, India , containing a large amount of fossilized arthropods , was identified as sap from the family Dipterocarpaceae. Dipterocarpaceae species can be either evergreen or deciduous. Species occurring in Thailand grow from sea level to about 1300 m elevation. Environments in which
3325-467: The Mādhyamaka and Sautrāntika schools of Buddhist philosophy in ancient India, Peter Deller Santina writes: Attention must first of all be drawn to the fact that philosophical systems in India were seldom, if ever, purely speculative or descriptive. Virtually all the great philosophical systems of India: Sāṃkhya , Advaita Vedānta , Mādhyamaka and so forth, were preeminently concerned with providing
3420-564: The Vedas as providing access to truth. The historical Buddha denied the authority of the Vedas , though, like his contemporaries, he affirmed the soteriological importance of holding the right view ; that is, having a proper understanding of reality. However, this understanding was not conceived primarily as metaphysical and cosmological knowledge, but as a piece of knowledge into the arising and cessation of suffering in human experience. Therefore,
3515-703: The genera Dryobalanops , Hopea and Shorea ), with the tallest known living specimen ( Shorea faguetiana ) 93.0 m tall. Name Menara, or tower in Malaysian, this specimen is a yellow meranti tree. It grows in Danum Valley in Sabah. The species of this family are of major importance in the timber trade . Some species are now endangered as a result of overcutting, extensive illegal logging , and habitat conversion. They provide valuable woods , aromatic essential oils , balsam, and resins , and are
3610-609: The philosophy of mind , the philosophy of time , and soteriology in their analysis of these paths. Pre-sectarian Buddhism was based on empirical evidence gained by the sense organs (including the mind ), and the Buddha seems to have retained a skeptical distance from certain metaphysical questions , refusing to answer them because they were not conducive to liberation but led instead to further speculation. However he also affirmed theories with metaphysical implications, such as dependent arising , karma , and rebirth . Particular points of Buddhist philosophy have often been
3705-508: The Abhidharma analysis was ultimate truth (paramattha sacca), the way things really are when seen by an enlightened being. The Abhidharmic project has been likened as a form of phenomenology or process philosophy . Abhidharma philosophers not only outlined what they believed to be an exhaustive listing of dharmas (Pali: dhammas), which are the ultimate phenomena, events or processes (and include physical and mental phenomena), but also
3800-712: The Asian dipterocarps share a common ancestor with the Sarcolaenaceae , a tree family endemic to Madagascar. This suggests that ancestor of the dipterocarps originated in the southern supercontinent of Gondwana , and that the common ancestor of the Asian dipterocarps and the Sarcolaenaceae was found in the India-Madagascar-Seychelles land mass millions of years ago, and were carried northward by India, which later collided with Asia and allowed
3895-604: The Blessed One with a large community of monks went to the far shore of the Hiraññavati River and headed for Upavattana, the Mallans' sal-grove near Kusinara. On arrival, he said to Ven. Ananda, "Ananda, please prepare a bed for me between the twin sal-trees, with its head to the north. I am tired, and will lie down." The sal tree is also said to have been the tree under which Koṇḍañña and Vessabhū , respectively
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3990-601: The Brahmanical belief expounded in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad that the unchanging ultimate self ( ātman ) was indeed the whole world, or identical with Brahman . This concept is illustrated in the Alagaddupama Sūtra , where the Buddha argues that an individual cannot experience the suffering of the entire world. He used the example of someone carrying off and burning grass and sticks from
4085-469: The Buddha a belief counts as truth only if it leads to successful Buddhist practice (and hence, to the destruction of craving). In the "Discourse to Prince Abhaya" (MN.I.392–4) the Buddha states this pragmatic maxim by saying that a belief should only be accepted if it leads to wholesome consequences. This tendency of the Buddha to see what is true as what was useful or "what works" has been called by Western scholars such as Mrs Rhys Davids and Vallée-Poussin
4180-645: The Buddha must at least have taught some of these key teachings: According to N. Ross Reat, all of these doctrines are shared by the Pāli Canon of Theravāda Buddhism and the Śālistamba Sūtra belonging to the Mahāsāṃghika school. A recent study by Bhikkhu Analayo concludes that the Theravādin Majjhima Nikāya and the Sarvāstivādin Madhyama Āgama contain mostly the same major Buddhist doctrines. Richard G. Salomon , in his study of
4275-489: The Buddha rejects the personal authority of Brahmins because none of them can prove they have had personal experience of Brahman , nor could any of them prove its existence. The Buddha also stressed that experience is the only criterion for verification of the truth in this passage from the Majjhima Nikāya (MN.I.265): Furthermore, the Buddha's standard for personal verification was a pragmatic and salvific one, for
4370-509: The Buddha's death, some Buddhists such as Dharmakirti went on to use the sayings of the Buddha as sound evidence equal to perception and inference. Another possible reason why the Buddha refused to engage in metaphysics is that he saw ultimate reality and nirvana as devoid of sensory mediation and conception and therefore language itself is a priori inadequate to explain it. Thus, the Buddha's silence does not indicate misology or disdain for philosophy. Rather, it indicates that he viewed
4465-412: The Buddha's epistemic project is different from that of modern philosophy ; it is primarily a solution to the fundamental human spiritual/existential problem. Gautama Buddha 's logico-epistemology has been compared to empiricism , in the sense that it was based on the experience of the world through the senses . The Buddha taught that empirical observation through the six sense fields ( āyatanā )
4560-585: The Buddha's teachings as recorded in the Gandhāran Buddhist texts , we need to train the mind in meditation to be able to truly comprehend the nature of reality, which is said to have the Three marks of existence : suffering, impermanence, and non-self ( anātman ). Understanding and meditation are said to work together to clearly see ( vipassanā ) the nature of human experience and this is said to lead to liberation. Gautama Buddha argued that compounded entities and sentient beings lacked essence, correspondingly
4655-518: The Jeta grove and how a monk would not sense or consider themselves harmed by that action. In this example, the Buddha is arguing that we do not have direct experience of the entire world, and hence the self cannot be the whole world. In this Buddhist text, as well as in the Soattā Sūtra , the Buddha outlines six wrong views about self: There are six wrong views: An unwise, untrained person may think of
4750-456: The answers to these questions as not understandable by the unenlightened. Dependent arising provides a framework for analysis of reality that is not based on metaphysical assumptions regarding existence or non-existence, but instead on direct cognition of phenomena as they are presented to the mind in meditation. The Buddha of the earliest Buddhists texts describes Dharma (in the sense of "truth") as "beyond reasoning" or "transcending logic", in
4845-407: The appearance of a permanent self in this world of change is the cause of suffering ( duḥkha ), and the main obstacle to the attainment of spiritual liberation ( mokṣa ). The most widely used argument that the Buddha employed against the idea of an unchanging ego is an empiricist one, based on the observation of the five aggregates of existence ( skandhā ) that constitute a sentient being, and
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#17327811469344940-487: The body, 'This is mine, this is me, this is my self'; he may think that of feelings; of perceptions; of volitions; or of what has been seen, heard, thought, cognized, reached, sought or considered by the mind. The sixth is to identify the world and self, to believe: 'At death, I shall become permanent, eternal, unchanging, and so remain forever the same; and that is mine, that is me, that is my self.' A wise and well-trained person sees that all these positions are wrong, and so he
5035-659: The cannonball tree has been planted at Shiva temples and is called Shiv Kamal or Nagalingam since its flowers are said to resemble the hood of a Nāga (divine cobra) protecting a Shiva lingam. An example of a cannonball tree erroneously named 'sal tree' is at the Pagoda at the Royal Palace of Phnom Penh in Cambodia. In Japan the sal tree of Buddhist scriptures is identified as the deciduous camellia ( Stewartia pseudocamellia ), called shāra, 沙羅, from Sanskrit śāla. The sal tree
5130-536: The cycle of philosophical upheavals that in part drove the diversification of Buddhism into its many schools and sects only began once Buddhists began attempting to make explicit the implicit philosophy of the Buddha and the early texts. The Four Noble Truths or "Truths of the Noble One" are a central feature to the teachings of the historical Buddha and are put forth in the Dharmacakrapravartana Sūtra . The first truth of duḥkha , often translated as "suffering",
5225-460: The desire to find a Middle Way between philosophical views seen as extreme. Edward Conze splits the development of Indian Buddhist philosophy into three phases: Various elements of these three phases are incorporated and/or further developed in the philosophy and worldview of the various sects of Buddhism that then emerged. Philosophy in ancient India was aimed mainly at spiritual liberation and had soteriological goals. In his study of
5320-520: The differentiation of "my" suffering and someone else's. Instead, an enlightened person would just work to end suffering tout court , without thinking of the conventional concept of persons. According to this argument, anyone who is selfish does so out of ignorance of the true nature of personal identity and irrationality. The main Indian Buddhist philosophical schools practiced a form of analysis termed Abhidharma which sought to systematize
5415-593: The dipterocarps to spread across Southeast Asia and Malaysia. Although associated with Southeast Asia in contemporary times, recent studies using fossil pollen and molecular data suggest an African origin in the mid-cretaceous. Prior to this research, the first dipterocarp pollen was found in Myanmar (which at that time was part of the Indian Plate ) and it dates from the upper Oligocene . The sample appears to slowly increase in terms of diversity and abundance across
5510-458: The doctrine of non-self , the "argument from lack of control", is based on the fact that we often seek to change certain parts of ourselves, that the "executive function" of the mind is that which finds certain things unsatisfactory and attempts to alter them. Furthermore, it is also based on the "anti-reflexivity principle" of Indian philosophy , which states an entity cannot operate on or control itself (a knife can cut other things but not itself,
5605-446: The fact that these are always changing. This argument can be put in this way: This argument requires the implied premise that the five aggregates are an exhaustive account of what makes up a person, or else the self could exist outside of these aggregates. This premise is affirmed in other Buddhist texts , such as Saṃyutta Nikāya 22.47, which states: "whatever ascetics and brahmins regard various kinds of things as self, all regard
5700-508: The fifth and twenty-fourth Buddhas preceding Gautama Buddha , attained enlightenment. In Buddhism, the brief flowering of the sal tree is used as a symbol of impermanence and the rapid passing of glory, particularly as an analog of sic transit gloria mundi . In Japanese Buddhism, this is best known through the opening line of The Tale of the Heike – a tale of the rise and fall of a once-powerful clan – whose latter half reads "the color of
5795-526: The five grasping aggregates, or one of them." This argument is famously expounded in the Anātmalakṣaṇa Sūtra . According to this text, the apparently fixed self is merely the result of identification with the temporary aggregates of existence ( skandhā ), the changing processes making up an individual human being. In this view, a 'person' is only a convenient nominal designation on a certain grouping of processes and characteristics, and an 'individual'
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#17327811469345890-466: The gradual training also requires that a disciple "investigate" ( upaparikkhati ) and "scrutinize" ( tuleti ) the teachings. The Buddha also expected his disciples to approach him as a teacher in a critical fashion and scrutinize his actions and words, as shown in the Vīmaṃsaka Sutta . Some Buddhist thinkers even argued that rational reflection and philosophical analysis was a central practice which
5985-419: The highest happiness. This perspective sees immoral acts as unskillful ( akusala ) in our quest for happiness, and hence it is pragmatic to do good. The third meta-ethical consideration takes the view of not-self and our natural desire to end our suffering to its logical conclusion. Since there is no self, there is no reason to prefer our own welfare over that of others because there is no ultimate grounding for
6080-542: The historical Buddha, along with the related monistic Hindu theology which held that "everything is a Oneness" (SN 12.48 Lokayatika Sutta ). The historical Buddha also held that understanding and seeing the truth of non-self led to un-attachment, and hence to the cessation of suffering, while ignorance ( avidyā ) about the true nature of personality ( prajña ) led to further suffering and attachment. All schools of Indian philosophy recognize various sets of valid justifications for knowledge ( pramāṇa ) and many see
6175-408: The historical Buddha, which is the attainment of nirvāṇa , literally means "extinguishing" and signified "the complete extinguishing of greed, hatred, and delusion (i.e. ignorance ), the forces which power saṃsāra ". Nirvāṇa also means that after an enlightened being 's death, there is no further rebirth. In earliest Buddhism , the concept of dependent origination ( pratītya-samutpāda )
6270-468: The impacts of climate change and land cover on the distribution of this important tree family in the Philippines. They used species distribution models (SDMs) for 19 species that were projected onto both current and future climate scenarios, with current land cover incorporated as well. They found that the current land cover alone reduced the species distributions by 67%, and 37% in protected areas. On
6365-605: The lower belt of the Hilly region and Inner Terai . In Hindu tradition, the sal tree is sacred. The tree is also associated with Vishnu . The tree's common name, sal, comes from the word shala , which means 'rampart' in Sanskrit . Jains state that the 24th tirthankara , Mahavira , achieved enlightenment under a sal . Some cultures in Bengal worship Sarna Burhi , a goddess associated with sacred groves of Sal trees. There
6460-513: The middle" ( majjhena dhammaṃ desana ), which claims to be a metaphysical middle path between the extremes of eternalism and annihilationism , as well as the extremes of existence and non-existence. This idea would become central to later Buddhist metaphysics, as all Buddhist philosophies would claim to steer a metaphysical middle course. Apart from the middle way, certain basic teachings appear in many places throughout these early Buddhist texts , so older studies by various scholars conclude that
6555-407: The mind from the body. Gautama Buddha , however, realized that the mind was embodied and causally dependent on the body, and therefore that a malnourished body did not allow the mind to be trained and developed. Thus, Buddhism's main concern is not with luxury or poverty, but instead with the human response to circumstances. Another related teaching of the historical Buddha is "the teaching through
6650-417: The nirvanic life. The Buddha outlined five precepts (no killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, or drinking alcohol) which were to be followed by his disciples, lay and monastic. There are various reasons the Buddha gave as to why someone should be ethical. First, the universe is structured in such a way that if someone intentionally commits a misdeed, a bad karmic fruit will be the result. Hence, from
6745-511: The other hand, climate change reduced species distributions by 16-27% in both protected and unprotected areas. There was also an upward shift in elevation of species distribution as a result of climate change, as habitats changed. They concluded that there was a need to improve protected area planning as refuges for critical species, with SDMs proving to be a useful tool for providing projections that can then be incorporated into this planning process. Another paper by Shishir et al. also investigated
6840-486: The potential effects of climate change on a threatened Dipterocarp tree in Purbachal, Bangladesh. Using a model that incorporated nine different environmental variables such as climate, geography, and soil conditions, they looked at two climate scenarios. They found that precipitation and soil nitrogen were the largest determinants of distribution, and that suitable habitat for this species will decline by 21-28% relative to
6935-570: The present land area as a result of climate change. In Borneo, nearly all species of the Dipterocarp family are imperiled . Buddhist philosophy [REDACTED] Religion portal Buddhist philosophy is the ancient Indian philosophical system that developed within the religio-philosophical tradition of Buddhism . It comprises all the philosophical investigations and systems of rational inquiry that developed among various schools of Buddhism in ancient India following
7030-492: The processes that give rise to suffering work, and also how they can be reversed. The removal of suffering that stemmed from ignorance ( avidyā ), then, requires a deep understanding of the nature of reality ( prajña ). While philosophical analysis of arguments and concepts is clearly necessary to develop this understanding, it is not enough to remove our unskillful mental habits and deeply ingrained prejudices, which require meditation , paired with understanding. According to
7125-429: The raft. It is also like medicine, in that the particulars of how one was injured by a poisoned arrow (i.e. metaphysics, etc.) do not matter in the act of removing and curing the arrow wound itself (removing suffering). In this sense, the Buddha was often called "the great physician" because his goal was to cure the human condition of suffering first and foremost, not to speculate about metaphysics. Having said this, it
7220-408: The real significance of Indian and Buddhist philosophy will be missed. For the Indian Buddhist philosophers, the teachings of Gautama Buddha were not meant to be taken on faith alone, but to be confirmed by logical analysis and inquiry ( pramāṇa ) of the world. The early Buddhist texts mention that a person becomes a follower of the Buddha's teachings after having pondered them over with wisdom and
7315-452: The region into the mid- Miocene . Chemical traces of dipterocarp resins have been found dating back to the Eocene of India. The oldest fossil of the family are from the latest Cretaceous ( Maastrichtian ) aged Intertrappean Beds of India, assignable to the extant genus Dipterocarpus . Subfamily Pakaraimoideae containing the sole genus Pakaraimaea , formerly placed here and native to
7410-422: The role of the controller (and so is the self). On some occasions, a given part might fall on the controller side, while on other occasions it might fall on the side of the controlled. This would explain how it's possible for us to seek to change any of the skandhas while there is nothing more to us than just those skandhas. As noted by K.R. Norman and Richard Gombrich, the Buddha extended his non-self critique to
7505-803: The seeds and used as cooking oil after refining. Dipterocarpaceae Dipterocarpaceae is a family of flowering plants with 22 genera and about 695 known species of mainly lowland tropical forest trees . Their distribution is pantropical , from northern South America to Africa , the Seychelles , India , Indochina , Indonesia , Malaysia and Philippines . The greatest diversity of Dipterocarpaceae occurs in Borneo . The largest genera are Shorea (196 species), Hopea (104 species), Dipterocarpus (70 species), and Vatica (65 species). Many are large forest-emergent species, typically reaching heights of 40–70 m, some even over 80 m (in
7600-475: The self is without essence ( anātman ). This means there is no part of a person which is unchanging and essential for continuity, and it means that there is no individual "part of the person that accounts for the identity of that person over time". This is in opposition to the Upanishadic concept of an unchanging ultimate self ( ātman ) and any view of an eternal soul . The Buddha held that attachment to
7695-441: The sense that reasoning is a subjectively introduced aspect of the way unenlightened humans perceive things, and the conceptual framework which underpins their cognitive process, rather than a feature of things as they really are. Going "beyond reasoning" means in this context penetrating the nature of reasoning from the inside, and removing the causes for experiencing any future stress as a result of it, rather than functioning outside
7790-576: The species of the family occur in Thailand include lowland dipterocarp forest 0–350 m, riparian fringe, limestone hills, and coastal hills. The dipterocarps has dominated the Borneo lowland rain forests for millions of years. As the dominant tree in Southeast Asia, the Dipterocarp family has seen extensive study relating to its conservation status. They are a keystone species of the native forests of this region, and are essential to their function and structure. One study by Pang et al. examined
7885-539: The subject of disputes between different schools of Buddhism, as well as between representative thinkers of Buddhist schools and Hindu or Jaina philosophers. These elaborations and disputes gave rise to various early Buddhist schools of Abhidharma , the Mahāyāna movement , and scholastic traditions such as Prajñāpāramitā , Sarvāstivāda , Mādhyamaka , Sautrāntika , Vaibhāṣika , Buddha-nature , Yogācāra , and more. One recurrent theme in Buddhist philosophy has been
7980-575: The system as a whole. The Buddha's ethics are based on the soteriological need to eliminate suffering and on the premise of the law of karma . Buddhist ethics have been termed eudaimonic (with their goal being well-being) and also compared to virtue ethics (this approach began with Damien Keown). Keown writes that Buddhist Nirvana is analogous to the Aristotelian Eudaimonia , and that Buddhist moral acts and virtues derive their value from how they lead us to or act as an aspect of
8075-477: The sāla flowers reveals the truth that the prosperous must decline." ( 沙羅雙樹の花の色、盛者必衰の理を顯す , sharasōju no hana no iro, jōshahissui no kotowari wo arawasu ) , quoting the four-character idiom jōsha hissui ( 盛者必衰 ) from a passage in the Humane King Sutra , "The prosperous inevitably decline, the full inevitably empty" ( 盛者必衰、実者必虚 , jōsha hissui, jissha hikkyo? ) . In Asia, the sal tree
8170-441: The teachings of the early Buddhist discourses (sutras). Abhidharma analysis broke down human experience into momentary phenomenal events or occurrences called " dharmas ". Dharmas are impermanent and dependent on other causal factors, they arise and pass as part of a web of other interconnected dharmas, and are never found alone. The Abhidharma schools held that the teachings of the Buddha in the sutras were merely conventional, while
8265-476: The temples, such as Nyatapola Temple , are made of bricks and sal tree wood. Buddhist tradition holds that Queen Māyā of Sakya , while en route to her grandfather's kingdom, gave birth to Gautama Buddha while grasping the branch of a sal tree or an Ashoka tree in a garden in Lumbini in south Nepal. Also according to Buddhist tradition, the Buddha was lying between a pair of sal trees when he died: Then
8360-475: The universe is eternal or non-eternal (or whether it is finite or infinite), the unity or separation of the body and the self ( ātman ), the complete inexistence of a person after death and nirvāṇa , and others. In the Aggi-Vacchagotta Sutta , the historical Buddha stated that thinking about these imponderable issues led to "a thicket of views, a wilderness of views, a contortion of views,
8455-482: Was a later addition. according to Vetter and Bronkhorst, dhyāna constituted the original "liberating practice", while discriminating insight into transiency as a separate path to liberation was a later development. Scholars such as Bronkhorst and Carol Anderson also think that the Four Noble Truths may not have been formulated in earliest Buddhism but as Anderson writes "emerged as a central teaching in
8550-514: Was a volitional mental event, what Richard Gombrich calls "an ethicised consciousness". This idea leads into the second moral justification of the Buddha: intentionally performing negative actions reinforces and propagates mental defilements which keep persons bound to the cycle of rebirth and interfere with the process of liberation, and hence intentionally performing good karmic actions is participating in mental purification which leads to nirvana ,
8645-471: Was engaged in philosophical inquiry. Siddartha Gautama (c. 5th century BCE) was a north Indian Śramaṇa (wandering ascetic), whose teachings are preserved in the Pāli Nikayas and in the Āgamas as well as in other surviving fragmentary textual collections, collectively known as the early Buddhist texts . Dating these texts is difficult, and there is disagreement on how much of this material goes back to
8740-424: Was most likely limited to processes of mental conditioning and not to all physical phenomena. Gautama Buddha understood the world in procedural terms, not in terms of things or substances. His theory posits a flux of events arising under certain conditions which are interconnected and dependent, such that the processes in question at no time are considered to be static or independent. Craving ( taṇhā ), for example,
8835-498: Was necessary for the attainment of insight in meditation. Thus, Mahayana philosophers like Prajñakaragupta argue that one is not a yogi "merely because of meditation ", rather, one must meditate, listen to the teachings and understand them by "reflecting through rational inquiry" (yukti-cintāmaya). Only through this method which combined rational reflection and meditation will the wisdom that leads to enlightenment arise. Scholarly opinion varies as to whether Gautama Buddha himself
8930-429: Was taught in earliest Buddhism and question the authenticity of certain teachings and doctrines. For example, some scholars think that the doctrine of karma was not central to the teachings of the historical Buddha, while others disagree with this position. Likewise, there is scholarly disagreement on whether insight into the true nature of reality ( prajña ) was seen as liberating in earliest Buddhism or whether it
9025-518: Was the proper way of verifying any knowledge claims. Some Buddhist texts go further, stating that "the All", or everything that exists ( sabbam ), are these six sense spheres (SN 35.23, Sabba Sutta ) and that anyone who attempts to describe another "All" will be unable to do so because "it lies beyond range". This text seems to indicate that for the Buddha, things in themselves or noumena are beyond our epistemological reach ( avisaya ). Furthermore, in
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