Excerpts from a paper on the Buddhist Worldview

A BUDDHIST WORLDVIEW

This paper addresses and briefly explains the basic components of a Theravada Buddhist worldview. A worldview encompasses life’s most pressing questions, such as, “What really is?” “Where did everything come from?” “What is good, what is evil?” “What is the meaning of life?” and “What is the destiny of the human race?” These are questions that make up the bedrock of one’s metaphysical beliefs. For a classic Theravada Buddhist, the answers to these foundational questions are found in the Dharma, the canonical Pali, considered the earliest and most complete collection of scriptures or the sayings of Siddhartha Guatama, also known as the Buddha. From these two sources, metaphysics and epistemology, ethics and sociopraxy arise; that which has to do with the conduct of the individual, and also conduct in the public areas of life.

Metaphysics
The metaphysics of a Theravada Buddhist is found in the Dharma, which is considered the truth about the world and the way things are in reality.  The metaphysical foundation of a worldview begins with ontology, one’s conception of ultimate reality concerning the cosmos, the material and spiritual realms, and existence. Upon this model of “what is” is laid a second layer, a theory of values, or axiology; this has to do with what is valued and what is considered evil. Teleology, or purpose, and eschatology, where it is all going, are also part of this metaphysical foundation.

Ontology
Ontology has to do with the he nature of ultimate reality, what there is and what exists, and where it all came from. The Buddhist world is comprised of 31 realms of existence, with various levels of heavens and hells, and this includes the material universe that is inhabited by human beings.  In Buddhist cosmology, there are thousands and possibly millions of world systems, and these goes through endless cycles of birth, destruction, and rebirth.  Concerning the nature of ultimate reality, the Four Noble Truths teaches that all existence has the characteristics of suffering, impermanence, and insubstantiality.  Impermanence, one of these fundamental concepts of existence, holds that beings of all kinds, humankind, animals, and all spiritual beings are transitory in nature, soulless, and each one temporarily in the realm that their karma put them in.  So in this view, humans and spiritual beings have no eternal soul.  As to the origin of the universe, Buddhists hold there is no first cause, and no Creator God. They believe in causality or dependent-origination, the idea that all phenomena arose in dependence of other phenomena.  There is no linear time, they believe in no beginning and no end.

Axiology
The supreme good in a Buddhist worldview has to do with its final goal, which is attaining Nirvana, or the extinguishing of the self. The specific guidelines given in the Dharma concerning mental and moral disciplines are the modes to this final good. Although there are approved secondary “goods”, they are considered distractions and inferior to the ultimate good, which is the escape from time-space embodiment, existence, or in other words, the snuffing out of the “self”.  Ultimate evil has to do with suffering, and within this concept, it is the idea of the individual soul or selfhood that causes this ultimate evil.  The Dharma teaches there is no soul, this is called annata.  The concept of selfhood is considered illusion, and this evil must be rooted out of oneself by mental, emotional, and moral disciplines. 

Teleology
Teleology has to do with purpose. This purpose of life, for all human beings, guides one’s actions, direction, and goals. Concerning the purpose and meaning of life, from a Buddhist perspective, the end goal is self-annihilation.  Existence is suffering and the cessation of suffering has to do with the cessation of all existence. Garfield explains the Buddhist process concerning their ultimate purpose, “The Dhamma is understood to be a path of practice in conduct, meditation, and understanding leading to the cessation of the fundamental suffering (dukkha) that underlies the human condition as lived in the round of rebirth (sam·sa ̄ra).”  The ultimate goal is the attainment of Nirvana and the complete extinguishment of the self. As to ends or goals designed to fulfill a purpose devised by a mind that transcends nature, in Buddhism, there is no such mind.
Eschatology
Eschatology asks the question, “What is the fate of the universe?” In Buddhist eschatology, according to the Pali Canon, the teachings of the Buddha and knowledge of Dharma will disappear 5,000 years from his passing. The next Buddha, Maitreya, will appear. Before this, there will be degeneration, namely murder, sexual immorality, theft, wrong views, abusive and idle speech, lying, and eventually complete collapse.  The end of the material and lower world realms will be in massive conflagration, and then rebirth.

Epistemology
Epistemology asks the question, “What constitutes knowledge, what is the source of authority and interpreting that authority?” Foremost for a Buddhist worldview is the Pali Canon. During the First Buddhist Council, Ananda, Siddhartha Gautama’s primary disciple, recited the teachings thirty years after his death, this is the Suttapitaka.  These were preserved orally and the Tipitaka was later written down approximately 454 years after the death of Guatama. Aside from the Pali canon, there is logic and reason, empirical knowledge, and there is truth acquired by meditation of the individual adherent. The adherent is to draw from all these sources to form an epistemology that is in harmony with the principle teachings of Theravada Buddhism. Meditation is also considered an important way to verify the truths presented in Buddhism. 

Ethics
The embodiment of the axiological ethics and morals is exemplified by a male monk such as the Buddha himself or his most enlightened followers. King explains what such an embodiment would look like, “one who walks among his fellow men (or lives in a monastery with other liberation-seeking individuals) open-eyed and totally disabused of the illusion that the world about him has anything of worth to offer him, serene and at peace in his detachment.”  For the ordinary or lay Buddhist, ideal characteristics will be gentleness, benevolence, avoiding aggressive behavior and being self-sacrificial. 

Sociopraxy
Sociopraxy is the practical outworking of the Buddhist worldview in society, work and family, in politics, and essentially all interactions with people on every level. Ordinary adherents must do their best to follow the Five Precepts which include avoidance of taking life, taking another's possessions, of speaking falsehoods, of promiscuous sexuality, and use of intoxicants which cause outrageous behavior.  Gentle tolerance is an ideal quality, which is the outflow of the idea that the self is de-emphasized and subjugated under the discipline of losing any claims to the self, especially in regards to property, rights, and place in society.

Conclusion
In the Buddhist worldview, the concept of suffering, or Dukka, stands in prominence when considering life’s most pressing questions. As to the meaning of life, life is suffering. As to the question of where everything came from, the adherent is advised such a question is ignorance Avijja.  What is evil stems from the concept of the self, and the ultimate good has to do with the annihilation of self, Nirvana. All beings are temporary and soulless and there is no Creator God, no Designer or First Cause of the universe.  The destiny of the universe is destruction and rebirth. The destiny of spirits, humans and all creatures is birth, suffering, and death, and rebirth again until the cycle of samsara is broken by the cessation of self, otherwise known as Nirvana. 

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