Hello everyone today I'll talk about Buddhist philosophy. this course is Introduction of the classics of Chinese Philosophy and is taught by the way of monographic study. Buddhist philosophy is just one section of this course, and the only one section for this course. so here there exists a problem that in this class, I shoule make you clear about Buddhist philophy. what shall I tale about? so first I should clarify several questions for you . First, I'll make clear what buddhism is and the positioin of buddhist philosophy in chinese culture. We all know that there are three major religions in the world, They are christianism, islam and buddhism, and buddihism is one of them. There are also three religions in china, often called the three religions and the nine schools of thought. The three religions are Confucianism, Taoism and buddhism. so buddhism possesses the charateristics of both the word and china. Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism are the important components of traditional chinese culture. For this reason, buddhism has many unique features. For example, it is a foreign religion. As it is a foreign religion, so heree there exists a problem in this course. most of these classics originated from foreign versions, so they are notthe original works of our own. even so, buddhism has a far-reaching influence on our traditional chinese culture. So it is necessary for us to make a in-depth study of buddhism and buddisht philosophy. Buddhism is different from generalreligions in that it especilly focuses on critical thinking. Buddhism itself is a religion with the feature of critical thingking, so it is closly related to phylosophy so we talk about buddhism without considering phylosophy and talk about phylosophy without considering buddhism We should investigate them by puting them together but here comes anther problem. we should make it clear what Buddhism is in such a short time what kind of work should we choose? which work is comprehensive and systematic or covering the main thought of buddhism so that the buddhism can be completely understood by us? we have found that among the works of buddhism, some of them are too long to explain in a few words others only cover one of the aspect of buddhism and they cannot inlustrate all the philosophy of buddhism so we have made a careful selection among the works and find one that is highly summarized the philosophy of buddhism that is Heart Sutra its full name is "Prajnaparamitas Sutra" it is a very important work, and there are many different translation versions in china. The Kumarajiva version is the earliset one, but for the Heart Sutra with which we are familiar is Xuan Zang's version. we all know that he often read the "Heart Sutra". It is often seen in TV series "Pilgrimage to the West ". Whenver Xuan Zang met with demons and ghosts, he might mumble some words. so what did he mumble? it is the Heart Sutra Heart Sutra indeed embodies some of the most basic thoughts of the buddhist phylosophy. It is veay ver short. As it is too short, it is necessary for us to make a overall quotation of it. the whole text is as follows: Avalokita, the Holy Lord and Bodhisattva was moving in the deep course of the Wisdom which has gone beyond. He looked down from on high, He beheld but five heaps, and he saw that in their own-being they were empty.Here, Sariputra form is emptiness and the very emptiness is form; emptiness does not differ from form, form does not differ from emptiness; whatever is form, that is emptiness, whatever is emptiness, that is form the same is true of feelings, perceptions, impulses and consciousness. Here, Sariputra, all dharmas are marked with emptiness they are not produced or stopped, not defiled or immaculate, not deficient or complete Therefore, Sariputra, in emptiness there is no form, nor feeling, nor perception, nor impulse, nor consciousness No eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind No forms, sounds, smells, tastes, touchables or objects of mind No sight-organ element, and so forth, until we come to: No mind-consciousness element.There is no ignorance no extinction of ignorance, and so forth, until we come to: there is no decay and death, no extinction of decay and death There is no suffering, no origination, no stopping, no path. There is no cognition, no attainment and non-attainment Therefore, Sariputra, it is because of his non-attainmentness that a Bodhisattva through having relied on the Perfection of Wisdom, dwells without thought-coverings In the absence of thought-coverings he has not been made to tremble, he has overcome what can upset and in the end he attains to Nirvana, All those who appear as Buddhas in the three periods of time fully awake to the utmost right and perfect Enlightenment because they have relied on the Perfection of Wisdom. Therefore one should know the prajnaparamita as the great spell the spell of great knowledge, the utmost spell, the unequalled spell allayer of all suffering, in truth - for what could go wrong? By the prajnaparamita has this spell been delivered. It runs like this: Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone altogether beyond, O what an awakening, all-hail! Though Heart Sutra is very short, it hightly summarizes not only the doctrines and thoughts of Buddhism but also many basic thoughts of Buddhist philosophy. It can been seen from these thoughts that many concepts and thoughts are reflectec in the Heart Sutra. if we want to totally understand "Heart Sutra", we should at first grasp these concepts and thoughts, and then we can really understand it. If we want to grasp these concepts and thoughts, such as some important concepts mentioned in it, like Skandha,Avidya, Rupadhatu, Outlook and Manovibbana-dhatu and so on, so is it possible that there is one concept or just one thought that can summary all these concepts and thoughts? or can we extract these concepts and thoughts? actually,some of these important concepts which I mentioned before That is,they are suffering,wealth, salvation and nircana they are usually called The Four Noble Truths, which in fact hightly summarizes the doctrines and thoughts. Here many concepts and thoughts are actually regarded as a certain aspect of The Four Noble Truths or a extension of a certain aspect. So if we want to have a systematic grasp some concepts mentioned here we should start from the The Four Noble Truths. As to The Four Noble Truths, which refer to suffering,wealth, salvation and nircana. It is what Sakyamuni preached after he had become a buddha. What he preached to common people is The Four Noble Truths which have four concepts. They are suffering, origination , cessation and path which contribute the most important ideological system of buddhism. The Four Noble Truths from four aspects interprete the basic doctrines and thouhghts of buddhism.