What is meant by the term anicca and how does it link to suffering?
What is meant by the term dependent arising?
What is anatta and how is this different to other Indian beliefs at the time of the Buddha?
What are the 5 khandas?
Scroll Down for Answers
Explain Buddhagosha’s 5thc doctor analogy Keown quotes to explain the four noble Truths?
What do scholars and sources say about 4 noble truths?
What does Keown say about Dukkha?
What do Dhammapada say about Dukkha?
What do Bodhi say about Dukkha?
Explain the meaning of the Poison arrow?
What are the 10 questions the Buddha remained silent on?
What is the Middle way
What did the Buddha say about the Middle way?
What does Ajohn Chah say about the middle path
What is the deer park sermon (Turning of the Wheel of Dharma)
Explain Dukkha -First Noble Truth?
What are the three types of Dukkha?
Define Samudaya?
Name the three types of Tanha?
What do Keown say about Samudaya?
What do Bodhi say about Samudaya?
Explain Nirodha Third Noble Truth?
What do Theravada scholars and sources say about Samudaya?
What do Mahayana scholars and sources say about Samudaya?
Define Magga?
What do scholars and sources say about Magga?
Explain what Dependent origination means?
Name the 5 skandhas?
What are the fetters?
Give the meaning of the Mustard seed Story?
When you reach nibanna what happens?
Explain Noble Eightfold Path step of Right view?
What does Right resolve mean?
Explain Right speech?
Explain Right action?
Explain Right livelihood?
State what Right effort is?
Give the meaning of Right mindfulness?
Explain what Right meditation is?
What is the threefold way?
What have scholars and sources said about Sila?
What have scholars and sources said about Right action,
What have scholars and sources said about right speech
What have scholars and sources said about - Right livelihood?
What have scholars and sources said about Prajna -Right view and intention?
What have the sources said about Samadhi?
What has Keown said about Right effort?
What has Keown said about Right mindfulness?
What has Keown said about Right concentration?
What is the root of unskilful action – akusla?
Explain Metta, Karuna and Khanti?
Explain Buddhagosha’s 5thc doctor analogy Keown quotes to explain the four noble Truths? Condition, diagnosis, identification, prescription-
Keown: "First he diagnoses the problem, second explains its cause, third determines that a cure exists and 4th sets out the treatment"
What do scholars and sources say about 4 noble truths? Dalai Lama: "The very foundation of the Buddhist teaching."
Bodhi: 4NT as a "single unifying force."
What does Keown say about Dukkha? Keown "Cornerstone of Buddhist teaching"; "Suffering is an intrinsic part of life"; "beyond the obvious examples of suffering, the truth of suffering refers to a more subtle kind of suffering which might be termed existential"; "human nature cannot provide a foundation for permanent happiness" "Just as an automobile will eventually wear out and break down"
What do Dhammapada say about Dukkha? Dhammapada: "The ending of craving ends all suffering" "all conditioned experience is unsatisfying"
The Buddha in the Satta Sutta? "the world is afflicted by death and decay”
Mahayana view = Heart Sutra: "There is no suffering."
What do Bodhi say about Dukkha? Bodhi: "The inherent unsatisfactoriness of existence"; "revealed in impermanence, pain and perpetual incompleteness"
Explain the meaning of the Poison arrow?
We would die before all unimportant questions answered and thus not achieve enlightenment.
What are the 10 questions the Buddha remained silent on?
The Buddha began teaching by talking about everyday reality rather than the grand philosophical questions that we usually associate with religion e.g. 1 Is the universe eternal? 5 Is the soul the same as the body' 8 Does the Buddha no longer exist after death'; 10 Is the Buddha both non-existent and not non-existent after death'
What is the Middle way
How the Buddha characterised his approach to the religious life, as set out in the Four Noble Truths, It sets a way of life designed to bring one to enlightenment it steers course between a life of indulgence and one of harsh austerity.
What did the Buddha say about the Middle way?
The Buddha said said of his luxury in the palace ‘is 'devotion to the indulgence of sense pleasures, which is low, common, the way of ordinary people, unworthy and unprofitable' and of the austerities of asceticism and self-mortification as 'painful, unworthy and unprofitable' but a middle path, which 'gives vision, gives knowledge, and leads to' calm, to' insight, to' enlightenment, to' nibbana (nirvana)'
What does Ajohn Chah say about the middle path
Thai master Ajohn Chah explains haw we pass from knowledge to' action: “The authentic Dharma of the Buddha is not something pointing far away. It teaches self.” Ajahn Chah, Being Dhamza
What is the deer park sermon (Turning of the Wheel of Dharma)
First talk the Buddha Gave to 5 ascetics, he gave only just weeks after he was enlightened after understanding 4 noble truths
Explain Dukkha -First Noble Truth?
The truth of suffering - Suffering in life for all beings Existence is suffering
What are the three types of Dukkha?
• Dukkha-Dukkha Ordinary: physical pain.
• Impermanence: e.g. divorce.
• Conditioned state: butterfly effect.
Define Samudaya? The Second Noble Truth -
The truth of the origin of suffering- The Cause of all suffering is attachment, desire and craving. Akusla actions lead to Tanha.
Name the three types of Tanha?
Tanha means Craving – Ordinary kāma-taṇhā is the strong desire to please and stimulate senses. bhava-taṇhā (craving for existence), and vibhava-taṇhā (craving for non-existence).
What do Keown say about Samudaya?
Keown: "Craving or excessive or inappropriate desire"
Keown: "Having positive goals for oneself and others... are all examples of positive and wholesome desires."
What do Bodhi say about Samudaya?
Bodhi: "The Buddha dismisses [Hindu Karma and deism] as fanciful products of belief and imagination."; “trace the problem to its cause, its root"; "aims at showing the cause of suffering".
Explain Nirodha Third Noble Truth?
The truth of the cessation of suffering-There is a way out of suffering - eliminate craving
What do Theravada scholars and sources say about Samudaya?
Fire 3rd Sermon: "The holy life has been accomplished."
Theravada: Arhat has achieved this, but in many lives. Achieved insight into 4NT.
Bodhi: "When all craving has been extirpated, one attains Nibbāna."
Nagasena to King Milanda says enlightenment is like the wind.
You can't see it but it is there - Turtle and the fish.
4 stages: Sotapanna: Right understanding, Sakadagami: Once returner. Anagami: No-returner, Arhat: Enlightened.
What do Mahayana scholars and sources say about Samudaya?
Greater vehicle, Boddhisattva goal, Doctrine of original enlightenment.
Bodhidharma: "Your mind is nirvana."
Define Magga? Literally the way or path.
The Fourth Noble Truth -The truth of the path to the cessation of suffering - Path out of suffering - eightfold path
What do scholars and sources say about Magga?
Buddha teachings in Dhamma- "He who sees the dhamma sees me" Vakkali Sutta –pali Cannon
Explain what Dependent origination means?
The Principle of cause and effect - the doctrine of origination-in-dependence. It has implications of which were developed in a profound way later in Buddhism. We must break one of the 12 links to escape samsara, 1st link= ignorance, 2nd link = karmic formation follows 10th birth, 11th Old age 12th link = Death.
Name the 5 skandhas?
Body, Sensations, Perceptions, Mental formations, consciousness
What are the fetters?
Shackles keeping you trapped in samsara- Lobha: greed, Dvesha: hate, Moha: ignorance (to 4NT.)
Give the meaning of the Mustard seed Story?
Kisi Gautama asking the Buddha for help with her Dead son. The Buddha asked her to collect mustard Seed from anyone who had not had a death in the family. Kisi Gautama realised the truth of Dukkha (we all suffer) and Samudaya (craving permanence is a fetter).
When you reach nibanna what happens?
Extinguished is the triple fire (greed, hatred, and delusion) → leads to rebirth
Explain Noble Eightfold Path step of Right view?
The acceptance of Buddhist teachings and later their experiential confirmation
What does Right resolve mean?
Making a serious commitment to developing right attitudes
Explain Right speech?
Telling the truth and speaking in a thoughtful and sensitive way
Explain Right action?
Abstaining from wrongful bodily behaviour such as killing stealing or behaving wrongfully with respect to sensual pleasures, such as sex lies and intoxication
Explain Right livelihood?
Not engaging in an occupation which causes harm to others Earn honest money, avoid soldiery and meat/intoxicant industry "our vocation can nourish our understanding compassion, or erode them"- Hanh
State what Right effort is? Gaining control of one's thoughts and cultivating positive states of mind
Dhammapada: "What we are today comes from our thoughts yesterday."
Give the meaning of Right mindfulness?
Cultivating constant awareness
Leading to 4 Jhanas: Passions, Tranquillity, Equanimity, Pure experience.
Explain what Right meditation is?
Developing deep levels of mental calm through various techniques which concentrate the mind and integrate the personality.
What is the threefold way?
The steps of 8fold path are grouped into steps of Morality, Meditation, Wisdom
What have scholars and sources said about Sila?
Thanossaro Bhikkhu on living an ethical life: "freedom from danger."
Bodhi: "The interior quality the regular observance of these principles is intended to produce"
Keown ‘The purpose of sila is to guide behaviour and cultivate virtue. The precepts are not commandments and are not enforced by any religious authority.’
What have scholars and sources said about Right action,
Keown: ‘Right Action means keeping the precepts, such as the Five Precepts (panca-slla)….a set of five moral rules, dating to the origins of Buddhism and common to almost all schools…the cornerstones of Buddhist morality, particularly for the laity.’
What have scholars and sources said about right speech
Keown - Right Speech (samyag-vac), means using speech in positive and productive ways instead of negative ones such as lying or speaking harshly;
What have scholars and sources said about - Right livelihood?
Keown – Engaged Buddhists see right livelihood (samyag-ajiva) as a 'back to basics' approach which emphasizes the early Buddhist teachings on right livelihood as the best way to resolve the problems of the modern world.
What have scholars and sources said about Prajna -Right view and intention?
Keown: "The ultimate foundation of Buddhist ethics."
Keown – Important concept in Buddhist epistemology, often translated as 'wisdom' but closer in meaning to insight, discriminating knowledge, or intuitive apprehension.
What have the sources said about Samadhi?
Dhammapada: "What we are today comes from our thoughts yesterday."
What has Keown said about Right effort?
Keown – Right Effort means directing the mind towards religious goals and the production and fostering of wholesome states of mind
What has Keown said about Right mindfulness?
Keown – Right Mindfulness means being at all times mindful and aware of what one is doing, thinking, and feeling;
What has Keown said about Right concentration?
Keown – Right Meditation means training the mind to achieve the state of focused attention necessary to enter the meditational trances (*dhyana).
What is the root of unskilful action – akusla? Samsara.
Explain Metta, Karuna and Khanti?
• Karuna: compassion.;
• Metta: loving kindness;
• Khanti: patience.
FOR THE ANSWERS TO THE QUESTIONS, SCROLL DOWN TO THE END.
1.Whic