18/05 Buddism Exam Flashcards
What is samsara?
Samsara describes the Buddhist cycle of life, death and rebirth and takes the form of the Tibetan wheel of life (bhavachakra).
What are two criticisms of samsara and the bhavachakra?
- the diagram is only two dimensional and appears to have an order whereas the wheel is more like an endless web.
- the diagram appears to be stationary when it is really always mobile.
What three things keep the bhavachakra spinning?
- desire/greed (Moha)
- hatred (raga)
- ignorance (dosa)
What is Moha?
Greed (chicken)
What is raga?
Hatred (snake)
What is Dosa?
Ignorance (pig)
What did the Buddha say about past lives?
“If the bones of all the bodies from someone’s past lives piled up it would be higher than vulture park mountain.”
Define samsara?
The churning sea of cyclic existence in which beings are ceaselessly thrown about like tide-wrack.
What did the Buddha compare the probability of being born into the human realm to?
Buddha told the story of a one eyed turtle in an endless ocean. There is a yolk in this ocean and the likelihood of that turtle finding that one tiny yolk and breaking perfectly through it to the surface is how likely it is for souls to be reborn as human.
What does Snelling compare rebirth to?
Snelling compares rebirth to evolution because we come from bacteria, then fish, through animals and finally humans.
What do many modern buddhists believe about our DNA?
Many people believe that we have some kind of genetic memory or importing of past ancestral lives and experiences in our DNA.
What do modern buddhists say about samsara?
They believe that the 6 realms of the bhavachakra are not physical but psychological.
What are Buddhist teachings?
Dhamma.
What did the Buddha proclaim himself?
Tamâgata- the one who has attainted what is really so.
What does Tamâgata mean?
The one who has attained what is really so.
Define Arhat?
English tended beings who reached fulfillment through the help of the Buddha and teach under him.
Define Buddha?
A being enlightened by themselves.
How was the Buddha described?
It’s said that his manner was courteous and calm. However he has strong powers of persuasion and personal charisma.
What was controversial about the Buddha’s death?
He said he needed no replacement because he was not a leader and an equal yet he asked to be cremated and treated like a great kind, asked for offerings and devotion.
Buddha, apparently gained the ability to?
Buddha gained the ability to see his past lives and into the samsara “endless wondering” wheel.
What are the 6 realms of samsara?
God's Demigods Humans Animals Hungry Ghosts Hell
In what order are the realms of samsara?
Devas Asuras Manusya Tiryag Preta Naraka
What is the deva realm?
God realm.
What is the asuras realm?
Demi-Gods.
What is the manusya realm?
Humans
What is the tiryag realm?
Animals.
What is the preta realm?
Hungry Ghosts.
What is the Naraka realm?
Hell.
Why do buddhists believe that the human realm is best?
The human realm is the best realm to reach enlightenment because IS has the middle way between pleasure and suffering.
What are Sañkhâras?
‘Mental formations’ that consist of character traits and dispositions.
What is the metaphor of planting a seed?
The idea of maturation through fruit is that when you plant a seed you must plant it well and good for you to be able to reap the good benefits which will be the seed.
Seed:Vipaka
Fruit: Phala.
What is Vipâka?
Seed.
What is Phala?
Fruit.
What is apunna?
Bad Karma.
What is puñña?
Good karma and spiritual capital.
How does Buddha explain our relative universe?
“Everything in the universe is produced by causes, and those causes must be related to their effects according to the law that LIKE produces like.”
What does Thurman say about Buddhism and science?
The science behind Buddhism relies and depends heavily on the buddha himself.
What proof did Stevenson find for past lives?
A 5 yo remembered the mechanics of machinery in a factor he’d never been to and said he worked there in a past life.
How can birthmarks prove past lives?
Birthmarks have been known to be in the shape of or place of a deadly injury that killed a past life.
What is the impermanence of all things?
Anicca.
What two types of Anicca are there?
- the gross level of change: weather and location
- momentary change: subtle levels of constant flux.
What is suffering?
Dukkha.
What are the three types of dukes?
- ordinary human suffering
- suffering from change
- suffering of controlled existence.
What is no self?
Anatta.
What’s the story of Nagasena and the chariot?
The Buddha told Nagasena that if he took apart his chariot it would no longer be a chariot but just a collection of different pieces.