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“Lord, I have heard that... ‘When a warrior strives and exerts himself in battle, if others then strike him down and slay him... he is reborn in the company of devas slain in battle.’ What does the Blessed One have to say about that?”“...I will simply answer you. When a warrior strives and exerts himself in battle, his mind is already seized, debased, and misdirected by the thought: ‘May these beings be struck down or slaughtered or annihilated or destroyed. May they not exist.’ If others then strike him down and slay him while he is thus striving and exerting himself in battle, then with the breakup of the body, after death, he is reborn in the hell called the realm of those slain in battle... Now, there are two destinations for a person with wrong view, I tell you: either hell or the animal womb.
(Source: Quote from ‘Yodhjiva Sutta: ‘To Yodhajiva ( The Warrior) ©1998 Thanissaro Bhikkhu.)
3 (a) Clarify the ideas illustrated in this passage about Buddhist teachings about ahimsa with reference to this passage.You must refer to the passage in your response.
3 (b) Analyse the difficulties a Buddhist may face with putting ahimsa into practice.
The bodhisattva is endowed with wisdom of a kind whereby he looks on all beings as though victims going to the slaughter. And immense compassion grips him. His divine eye sees... innumerable beings, and he is filled with great distress at what he sees, for many bear the burden of past deeds which will be punished in purgatory, others will have unfortunate rebirths which will divide them from the Buddha and his teachings, others must soon be slain, others are caught in the net of false doctrine, others cannot find the path [of salvation], while others have gained a favourable rebirth only to lose it again. So he pours out his love and compassion upon all those beings, and attends to them, thinking, “I shall become the saviour of all beings, and set them free from their suffering”.
(Source: adapted from A.L.Basham, ‘The Bodhisattva’ (1969) in The Buddhist Tradition in India, China and Japan, edited by William de Bary, (Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group 2011).
3(a) Clarify Buddhist teachings about the characteristics of bodhisattvas with reference to this passage.
You must refer to the passage in your response.
(b) Analyse the extent to which bodhisattvas are significant for Buddhists.
If there is any truth to the story that Gautama gained Enlightenment at Bodh Gaya in a single night, it could be that he acquired a sudden, absolute certainty that he really had discovered a method that would, if followed energetically, bring an earnest seeker to Nibbana. He had not made this up; it was not a new creation or an invention of his own. On the contrary, he always insisted that he had simply discovered ‘a path of great antiquity, an ancient trail, travelled by human beings in a far-off, distant era.’ The other Buddhas, his predecessors, had taught this path an immeasurably long time ago, but this ancient knowledge had faded over the years and had been entirely forgotten.
(Source: Extract adapted from ‘Lives:Buddha’ - Chapter 3, ‘Enlightenment’, Armstrong, K., Phoenix Press, 2002, Edexcel Anthology)
3 (a) Clarify Buddhist teachings illustrated in this passage about the Enlightenment of the Buddha.You must refer to the passage in your response.
(b) Analyse the extent to which the search for Enlightenment is significant for Buddhists
But who should be first to hear the message? He next recalled the five bhikkhus who had practised the penitential disciplines of tapas with him. They had fled from him in horror when he had taken his first meal, but he could not allow this rejection to cloud his judgment. He remembered how helpful and supportive they had been during their time together, and set out directly to find them. Hearing that they were now living in the Deer Park outside Varanasi (the modern Benares), he began his journey, determined to set the Wheel of the Dhamma in motion and, as he put it, ‘to beat the drum of the deathless Nibbana.’ He did not expect much. The Buddha mistakenly believed that his teaching would only be followed for a few hundred years. But people had to be rescued, and the Buddha was compelled, by the very nature of the Enlightenment that he had achieved, to do what he could for them.
(Source: Extract adapted from ‘Lives: Buddha’ - Chapter 3, ‘Enlightenment’, Armstrong, K., Phoenix Press, 2002, Edexcel Anthology)
3(a) Clarify the events illustrated in this passage surrounding the founding of the sangha.You must refer to the passage in your response. (10)
(b)Analyse the significance of the Buddha’s preaching of the dhamma.