The content for this paper comprises a focused and in-depth study of a chosen religion. The study provides a foundation for understanding the key beliefs and values of a religion, recognising that ‘belief’ itself does not necessarily have the same role and emphasis in religions or between religions. The study helps students explore how believers attribute authority both to key people in the religious community and to various kinds of traditional, sacred texts. This study also explores various and diverse ways in which religious believers express their sense of identity through, for example, their most sacred rituals and their codes of behaviour. It gives students an opportunity to explore both common ground and diversity in the religious tradition. They will broaden their understanding through familiarity with the views of various contributors, from within and outside the tradition, who have studied this religion in some depth.
Students will deepen and extend their understanding of their chosen religion by studying an aspect of the way in which the religion has changed and developed over time, so that they increase their awareness of diversity within traditions. This aspect of development will reflect the particular focus, concerns, emphases and values of the tradition concerned. Further depth of study is provided by a study of key scholars who have made a significant contribution, either historically or in the present, to an understanding of what it means to be a follower of this religion. Further breadth is added by giving students the opportunity to explore the interface between the religion and contemporary society. Students will explore a passage of text that is influential in the tradition of this religion.
It is compulsory for students to compare the work of two named scholars, including a specific extract of their work. The list of extracts at the end of the paper must be studied by all students and this includes the work of two named scholars for comparison. These are published in the relevant pages of the A Level Religious Studies Anthology, which can be downloaded from our website. The context in which these texts could be studied is indicated by bracketed numbers in the detailed content, (1) for example. These extracts are not exclusive to the topic areas under which they appear; students will need to be able to apply these extracts across any suitable topic. This allows for a range of questions, including text or language specific, as well as thematic.
In this paper, students will be required to study the ideas of key contributors in relation to specific content areas. These are indicated against each relevant sub-topic. Students will be required to use these ideas to support and underpin their knowledge and understanding.
Overall, this study will give students the understanding and skills needed to be able to explore what it means to be a religious believer today, in the context of an increasingly diverse and secular society.
a) The Three Poisons.
b) the Buddha’s teaching on suffering and the cessation of craving/desire in the Four Noble Truths: dukkha, samudaya/tanha, nirodha and magga. Including reference to the nature of Enlightenment and nibbana.
c) The Eightfold Path:
o its summary in the Three-fold Way: ethics, meditation and wisdom
o the ethical principles of the Noble Eightfold Path: right action, right speech, right livelihood
o the qualities of metta, karuna and khanti
o the relationship between these principles and the Four Noble truths.
How these are understood in Theravada and Mahayana, both historically and in the contemporary world.
a) The three marks of existence and how these are reflected throughout existence and also through Buddhist teachings. The importance of this in understanding the nature of reality, the ultimate reality, and the meaning and purpose of life.
b) The Five khandas in Theravada; death and the afterlife: the concept of rebirth, Nibbana, karma and the search for Enlightenment. The importance of this in understanding the nature of reality, the ultimate reality, and the meaning and purpose of life. With reference to the ideas of Buddhaghosa in the Visuddhimagga and T W Rinpoche.
a) The significance of each of these for a place of refuge within Buddhism.
b) The interrelationship between these three refuges.
c) Different interpretations of the role and nature of the sangha and the role and nature of the Buddha.
d) The implications of the refuges for worship and daily life.
How these are understood in Theravada and Mahayana, both historically and in the contemporary world. With reference to the ideas of B Bodhi and T Bhikkhu.
a) The Five Precepts.
b) How these are understood in Theravada and Mahayana both historically and in the contemporary world. With reference to the ideas of P Harvey and B Bodhi.
a) The key events of his life, including birth, childhood, the four sights, life as an ascetic, search for Enlightenment, Enlightenment, founding of the sangha, preaching, his death and parinibbana.
b) Links with a range of religious groupings at this time, including their beliefs and practice.
c) Understanding and assessment of sacrifices, caste systems, social and economic groupings and changes; types of authority and kingship. With reference to the ideas of K Armstrong and N Bhikkhu.
a) The status of the Tipitaka as the teachings of the Buddha and its collection and formation.
b) The different sections, along with their context and:
o Vinaya Pitaka and how this aims to produce a cohesive community
o Sutta Pikata and the search for Enlightenment
o Abhidhamma Pitaka and interpretation and understanding of the Buddha’s teachings and a consideration of whether this is the work of the Buddha himself.
c) The significance of the Tipitaka as the source of the Buddha’s teachings and its use, importance and impact as a source of wisdom in Buddhism.
a) Its significance as the only surviving form of Nikaya Buddhism.
b) Rejection of the idea of the Three Vehicles.
c) The centrality of Buddha Gautama, especially in their use of images and stupas.
d) The goal of nibbana and parinibbana as a central teaching alongside an emphasis on renunciation, including the four stages to becoming an arahant.
e) The distinctive teachings of Theravada; their interpretation and application in light of the life and teachings of the Buddha and other traditions of Buddhism and their different emphases.
a) Its development and context in the second century BCE and the first century CE.
b) The extension of the concept of the Buddha to include the Buddha and creation. The specific concept of the Buddha as a cosmic presence that influences the world.
c) The Buddha nature in every person. The centrality of Buddha Gautama, especially in their use of images and stupas. The different schools of Mahayana should be explored in the context of the countries in which they developed and are practised.
a) The different types of meditation in Buddhism.
b) The place and context of meditation as part of the eight-fold path, links to wisdom and morality, including the influence of types of meditation on moral development.
c) The practice and purpose of dhyana, samatha and vipassana as types of meditation, including accounts of meditation techniques, their purposes and context.
d) Understanding of the purposes of meditation in terms of Enlightenment and the relative importance of some aspects of meditation. The practices of chanting, giving and study to understand Buddhism as it is lived by laypeople as well as monastics.
a) Beliefs and practices of Pure Land and Zen, types of tradition, key people and distinctive emphases, including relevant indigenous traditions and Buddhism’s encounter with modernity.
b) Key teachings and practices, including the contributions of key people and significant features of relevant scripture.
c) Significant features that constitute gradual or more radical changes from earlier traditions, including debates about belief and practice in these respective traditions/schools.
a) The beliefs and teachings of Triratna Buddhism (formerly Friends of the Western Buddhist Order) in the context of Western society and wider Buddhist beliefs and teachings, including the importance of the three refuges, the unity of the sangha, the importance of spreading the message of Buddhism and the rejection of specific rules within the context of the sangha.
b) The success of applying Buddhist teaching in a different culture, and the response of other Buddhist traditions to these developments.
a) The significance of Māhapājapatī Gotamī and the development of the role of women in the ordained sangha; the role of men in the sangha.
b) Family life and the role of men and women in Buddhism in the dhamma, history and contemporary society.
c) Feminist approaches in contemporary Buddhism.
b) Mahayana Buddhism: the doctrine as found in the Lotus Sutra, including beliefs about wisdom, liberation, loving-kindness and skilful means.
c) The stages and perfections of the Bodhisattva path, including their place in particular traditions.
d) Debates such as the context of this belief system in Theravada Buddhism, together with issues, including transfer of karmic merit.
a) The First Precept — to refrain from harming a living thing, the interpretation of ahimsa by Buddhists with specific examples of how this may be lived, such as vegetarianism, right livelihood and involvement in the armed forces.
b) The role of other beliefs and considerations in the living of ahimsa, including differences in application and importance within different traditions, and in the example of the Buddha.
a) The significance of teachings that underpin involvement and support in and for liberationist approaches to religion and society, religious freedom, religious tolerance, pluralism and interfaith dialogue for Buddhists in a multicultural society.
b) The ways that Buddhists respond to diversity in different traditions of Buddhism. How different Buddhist traditions view other religious and non-religious world views and their truth claims.
c) The benefits, extent of the involvement and potential barriers from a Buddhist context, including the difference in application and importance of interfaith dialogue in light of different traditions of Buddhism, including the different cultural and country contexts in which Buddhists are found.
d) Buddhist teachings and responses to issues of science. How Buddhism has responded