Buddhism Questions

Buddhism Questions

1.     The man who later became the Buddha and founded Buddhism was Siddhartha Gautama.

2.     The Four Passing Sights are a decrepit old man, a disease man, a corpse, and a religious ascetic. These sights showed the reality of suffering and impermanent nature of life’s pleasure.

3.     The Middle Way rejects a lifestyle of sensual indulgences and states that a healthy spiritual life begins with a healthy physical life. Happiness requires a happy body, spirit and mind.

4.     Gautama sat under a fig tree and was tempted by the god Mara. He had three watches. During the First Watch perceived his previous lifetimes. The Second Watch he acquired the divine eye and perceived all livings things deaths and rebirths. Finally during the Third Watch he discovered the Four Noble Truths.

5.     Sangha is the first Buddhist monastic community. It consists of men and women from all walks of life.

6.     The Three Jewels of Buddhism are The Buddha, Dharma, and The Sangha.

7.     Both religions regard time as cyclical and say the universe is eternal with periods of creation and destruction. The also believe in samsara or the wheel of rebirth and liberation from it to reach spiritual perfection.

8.     The Buddha rejected sacrificial rituals of devotion to gods. He also rejected the caste system.

9.     The Three Marks of Existence are anatta, anicca, and dukkha.  They all relate to each other because they all deal with life.

10. Anatta means no self. This means that there is no ultimate reality within you. Atman is different because it states that there is an eternal self.

11.  In Buddhism, rebirth is the transference of energy. Karma choses the state of conception due to what happened in a previous life.

12. Five Precepts: Don’t take life, don’t take what is not given, don’t engage in sensuous misconduct, don’t use false speech, and don’t drink intoxicants. Additional precepts for monks and nuns: don’t eat after noon, don’t watch dancing or shows, don’t use garland perfumes or ornaments, don’t use a high or soft bed, don’t accept gold or silver.

13. Dukkha means suffering, dislocation, or discomfort. Dukkha is the feeling of unhappiness or not satisfied.

14. Tanha is translated as desire, thirst or craving. It is because of tanha that people receive dukkha.

15. The Eight-fold path is right views, right intentions, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right mediation.

16. There is no difference. Everyone can be a Buddha but they look to Gautama the Buddha as a guide.

17. The arhat is the worthy one. They have become awakened and received a foretaste of nirvana.

18. Nirvana means blowing out. When nirvana is reached the life energy is blown out like a candle and is liberated from samsara.

19. The three divisions of Buddhism are Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana.

20. Theravada Buddhism is the way of the elders. It focuses and agrees with the earliest text and original teachings of the Buddha. It also focuses on meditation.

21. The literal meaning is the Great Vehicle and it is called this because it is the largest of the Buddhist sects.

22. Vajrayana Buddhists use the energy of desire to do good things instead of shutting it off.

23. The Dalai Lama is the leader of the hierarchy of clergy in Vajrayana. The successor is chosen through supernatural ways or noting that a child plays with things that the former Dalai Lama possessed.

24. Vajarayana Buddhists are found in Tibet. Theravada Buddhists are found in Cambodia, Burma, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. Mahayana Buddhists are found in China, Japan and Korea.