Buddhism Discussion Questions Flashcards
According to the traditional Buddhist story, what was Siddhartha’s early life like? Why did he decide to go forth to seek the truth?
He was born into the Shakyas tribe, His parents were royalty, he grew up, married, and had a child, until his spiritual experiences led him to go forth at about age twenty-nine to become a wandering ascetic, searching for the truth. He told about previous lives where he was the Buddha. When he was born he stood up and said he was born to be the enlightened one and this was his last birth.
His mother died 7 days after bearing him. His father the kind wanted him to be a might king so he provided him with education and martial training, and surrounded him with luxury and pleasure.
He pursued enlightenment due to the four sights presented by the gods. An old decrepit man, a diseased man, and then a dead man. Finally he was a hermit monk who inspired him to withdrawal and be above the pain and suffering of the world. He then went to the forest and devoted himself to searching for the truth.
Describe Siddhartha’s attaining of enlightenment. What was the role of Mara and of the gods?
For 6 years he wandered begging for food and searching for the truth. He followed two teachers who taught him yogic knowledge and techniques, but found it was not the path to enlightenment. Then practiced extreme self-mortification, but found it was not the way. Then followed the middle path of the two.
He then meditated under a tree until he gained enlightenment, Mara the god of worldly desires tried to entice him with his three daughters. Through his power to resist the forces of Mara he achieved Buddhahood.
What was the content of the Buddha’s first sermon given at Sarnath near Banares?
He said that the two extreme ways of life, living in luxury and practicing total self-mortification, were useless; it is the middle path that leads to enlightenment.
Every wish unfulfilled is sorrow. Sorrow arises through craving which leads to rebirth. Stopping sorrow is the stopping of craving.
Stopping of sorrow through the noble eightfold path: Right views, Right Resolve, Right Speech, Right Conduct, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration.
How did the Buddha go about teaching and gathering disciples? Describe the different orders that make up the sangha.
He spent around 45 years traveling northeastern India, teaching the Dharma and gathering many disciples into the community of the sangha.
Starting with the five hermits who became the first monks, under the Buddha’s guidance some of these disciples reached enlightenment and attained the state of nirvana. The Buddha called these enlightened monks arhats (worthy ones) and they became the leaders of the new community, the sangha.
As the groups grew monks were given permission to ordain more monks, thereby increasing the spread of Buddhism. The sangha has four divisions: monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen.
How, according to tradition, was the Tripitaka compiled? What are its contents?
The First Council of Buddhism assembled the first five hundred arhats (fully enlightened monks) and collected the sayings and teachings of the Buddha so that the Dharma might abide. since Ananda was the one who heard the Buddha speak most often, they asked Ananda to recite the Buddha’s sayings.
Ananda recited the words that the Buddha spoke in his sermons and dialogues (the sutras). Another monk, Upali, recited the various rules that the Buddha had given to regulate the life of the monks and nuns (the vinaya).
Somewhat later, disciples produced a set of scholarly treatises on points of doctrine, the Abhidharma also considered to derive from the word of the Buddha. These three sets of writings are the Tripitaka (the three baskets).
Scholars of today think the formation of the scriptures was a longer and more complicated process than the tradition says. The sayings were passed on orally by different groups, interpreted and added to, and eventually written down in the Pali language centuries later. But the Buddhist story emphasizes that the Dharma of the scriptures derives directly from the teachings of the Buddha. The Tripitaka is the word of the Buddha.
Why is King Ashoka called the second founder of Buddhism? Do you think it is possible to govern a nation with non-violence?
King Ashoka was a primary agent of expansion for Buddhism. Ashoka was the third Maurya king (Maurya was engaged in extending control over much of India) and conquered the last area to be subdued.
Some 5 years after the bloody conquest of Kalinga, Ashoka proclaimed the new policy of peaceful Dharma conquest. He proclaimed that all people are his children and should live by basic Buddhist precepts: do no injury to any living things, be obedient to parents and elders, reverent to teachers and the like. He abolished animal sacrifice and regulated slaughter of animals for food, provided for the welfare of the common people, built thousands of stupas, supported monastic communities, and worked to have the developing sects of Buddhism recognize and tolerate one another. He also made many efforts to convert others to Buddhism.
Explain the important new developments in the Mahayana movement: the greater sangha, new sutras, the ideas of the bodhisattva, and the expanded idea of the Buddha. What do you think led to these new ideas?
Pressure for changes that came to fruition in the Mahayana movement came from several sources. In the sangha, the arhats (enlightened monks) tended to form an elite guild and insisted that only they knew the true Dharma, alienating many other monks and laypeople, so in some communities there was a movement to include all, even laypeople, as equals on the path. It also brought devotional and philosophical aspects.
was known as the greater sangha because it was being broadened to lay people. The new writings being composed in Sanskrit by Mahayanists were not just commentaries on the older Pali scriptures; they were claimed to be the secret teaching that the Buddha himself had given to his most advanced disciples (new sutras).
Mahayana is the great course of the bodhisattva (one becoming a Buddha). Taught that the great course leads directly to Buddhahood, whereas the lesser course (Theravada) leads only to arhatship.
Expanded conception of the Buddha: emphasizing that the Buddha is really the eternal power of the Dharma, and this dharma body is transcendent and universal, yet forever active in the world. Dharma body is the only real body of the Buddha; it is ultimate reality. Although manifests in different ways (either heavenly or earthly).
Outline the expansion of Buddhism in Asia and account for its virtual disappearance in India. Would you call Buddhism a missionary religion.
Buddhists considered the Dharma to be the truth for all living things, therefore one of the important duties in following the path is to make it possible for others to share in the benefits of that Dharma.
With the Indianization of Southeast Asia it also became dominant in those lands. Since the Theravada form of Buddhism was strong in India during these expansions, those lands became Theravada countries, with indigenous cults and traditions still in place.
Within India itself, Buddhism remained fairly strong in most regions up to the seventh century, but over the next centuries a slow decline set in. By about the thirteenth century, Buddhism had virtually disappeared from the land of its birth. One element in the demise of Indian Buddhism was perhaps the extent to which monastic Buddhism, with landed estates and royal grants, had grown unresponsive to the needs of the people. The general populace found their needs met more by theistic Hinduism and increasingly turned in that direction, incorporating some Buddhist worship and piety into popular Hinduism. Another factor was the onslaught of outside invaders. Whit hun invasions and Muslims invaders continued to demolish Buddhist temples.
What are some unique characteristics of Tibetan Buddhism?
It focused on many spirits both good and hostile. Shamans communicated with spirits through trance, and people offered imal sacrifices.
Tibetans, with their background in popular shamanistic religion, accepted Vajrayana Buddhism from India but shaped it in their own way, enriching the pantheon with Buddhist saints, Tibetan gods and goddesses, demons, local heroes, and the like.
Three main schools developed, The Nyingma-pa (ancient school) had strong emphasis on Tantric texts and magic rituals, including admixtures of Bon elements. Some promoted celibacy and strict monastic order.
Tibetan Buddhism also established the title of Dalai Lama (ocean of wisdom Teacher), believed that lamas could intentionally be reincarnated in a child who would the become the next lama. The Fifth Dalai Lama established himself as ruler of all Tibet. After the death of a Dalai Lama a search party would go out to find the new Dalai Lama, who would be an infant born 49 days later.
What have been some major problems for Buddhism in the modern period? What are some indications of Buddhism’s revitalization today?
Colonialism and western missionaries starting in the mid-sixteenth century posed challenges to traditional Buddhist societies throughout Asia. Missionaries and Catholics burned down temples, colonial rule and introduction of western medicine, science , and education disrupted traditional functions of monks as doctors and teachers. Some missionaries labeled Buddhists as superstitous.
Nationalistic and ideological movements also created difficulties. Japanese nationalism required the Buddhists participate in the state cult. Westernization and secularization restricting Buddhist lifestyle. Communism stripped Buddhist political leaders of their power. Civil war from communism has made life difficult and has had some resort to violence. Attacks from terrorists, and destruction of sacred monuments has also been a challenge.
Why do you think Westerners are attracted to Buddhism?
Buddhist immigrants have passed on Buddhist practice to the west.
The ideas have spread through many western teachers as well.
Particularly popular is “socially engaged Buddhism:, promotes Buddhist principles and actions to work for peace, social and economic justice, equality for women, and other such transformations of society.
It may be especially be popular in the West because it confronts issues such as capitalism, inequality, and other western issues.
Discuss the Buddhist sense of the ultimate as unconditioned truth. What is signified by “dependent co-arising”? What happens to God in this view?
Dharma as the truth of reality and nirvana as the unconditioned state of knowing the truth.
Dharma is the eternal truth that transcends this world age, taught by all the Buddhas and known directly by those attaining enlightenment. Dharma means ultimate truth in Buddhism. Brings liberation from the bondage of samsara.
Dependent co-arising is essentially a doctrine of causality, showing the interconnectedness of everything. There is no god who causes everything, but it is also false to assert that everything happens randomly by chance. Every condition contributed to the next, but it is itself conditioned by countless other determining conditions. Dependent co-arising is the most real knowledge about the world, and it is often simply equated with the Dharma - whoever sees one sees the other, and understanding it is tantamount to enlightenment.
The Dharma is a central aspect of ultimate reality to Buddhists. It is not a supernatural being or god. But, as an unconditioned truth, the Dharma takes on a character of awesomeness, protection, and deliverance. It should not only be respected, but worshipped and sought as a refuge.
What is nirvana? Should one desire to reach nirvana?
Nirvana is freedom from samsara and, therefore, is a permanent, unconditioned state.
Nirvana is the supreme goal. It is not in any sense like God, for it is not a sacred power outside oneself, operating in the world. Nirvana is a reality experienced within, as it were, a state of unconditioned freedom. Nirvana is real, it is eternal, absolute, unconditioned, and ultimate. Therefore, it is highly desired and looked to by every Buddhist as the supreme goal of human existence, even though it may be thousands of lifetimes away.
Describe the Mahayana notion of emptiness (shun-yata). How can “emptiness” be a positive basis of reality?
emptiness (shunyata) is the common predicate of all dharmas, whether conditioned or unconditioned. Emptiness means the absence of (own-being) where own-being means something existing through its own power and having an immutable essence.
Emptiness is really the same as the truth of dependent co-arising. But Mahayanists show that all conditioned dharmas (samsara) is empty, but all unconditioned reality of nirvana is empty, therefore it it the same.
Therefore, nirvana is not a state found by fleeing the world, but is experienced within the world. Nirvana is awakening to the world and seeing it as it really is.
So among Mahayanists especially, emptiness is considered a positive and powerful basis of reality. It is the silence that surrounds and supports every sound, the stillness that is the foundation of all movement, the pure consciousness that is the ground of all thought.
What is the Mahayana teaching about the Three Bodies of the Buddha? Compare this with the Theravadin notion of the Buddha.
The doctrine of the three bodies formulates dimensions of ultimate reality in terms of Buddha: the Dharma Body, the Bliss Body, and the Transformation Body. The Buddha is really the eternal power of the Dharma. The Dharma Body of the Buddha encompasses all aspects of ultimate reality. The Dharma Body is the fundamental Buddha-essence, which permeates and supports all things. The human form of Buddha (transformation body) is seen as a kind of magical-appearance body by which the eternal Dharma Body appeared in our age to lead humans on the path to enlightenment. The universe is filled with heavenly Buddhas (Bliss Body of the Buddha) who use all kinds of means to lead all living beings to enlightenment and salvation, functioning like gods or saviors.
The Theravadins see Buddha as a human being who has reached enlightenment and is the embodiment of dharma. Both Theravada and Mahayana acknowledge that because truth is experienced at different levels, Buddhism can include the worship of heavenly Buddhas and much more, including bodhisattvas, gods, goddesses, and a variety of local spirits.
