Buddhism Test Review Flashcards
Siddhartha’s father is a…
Prince
Time frame of Siddhartha Guatama
563-483 B.C.E.
Priest foretold two possible directions:
1) Follow his father’s footsteps
2) Become a spiritual leader/world teacher
Forced by his father -
- Grew up in luxury
- Married young
- Educated to be a soldier
Siddhartha did what in order to attain true liberation?
- Sat on a straw mat under a Bodhi tree and vowed not to move while fighting temptations for 49 days
What happens to Siddhartha Guatama after sitting under the Bodhi tree for 49 days?
- Becomes The Buddha, or “The Awakened One”
This is when a Siddhartha questioned:
- Why is there suffering? - Why do people have to grow old and die?
- Is there a soul/afterlife? - Are we reborn? - Can we avoid suffering?
- How should we live?
Siddhartha escapes at 29 and leaves his family to attain religious enlightenment
- The Great Going Forth
“Four Passing Sights”
1) Sick person
2) Old person
3) Dead person
4) Wandering Holy Man
Asceticism
- Self-denial - particularly the rejection of worldly pleasures
- Buddha practiced asceticism for a while but realized it doesn’t lead to enlightenment
- Buddhism doesn’t follow or practice asceticism, instead they follow the middle way/path
The Middle Way/Path
- The way between to extremes: “sensual indulgence” (pleasures) and “self-mortification” (asceticism)
- The Eightfold Path
The Buddha
- Traveled in Northeast India teaching his insights and his way of life
(The Middle Path)
Dharma
- The sum total of Buddhist teachings
- How to view the world
- How to live life properly
Sangha
- The community of monks and nuns
“The Three Marks of Reality”
Reality manifests three characteristics
1) Constant Change
2) No Permanent Identity
3) Suffering
“The Three Marks of Reality”
- Change:
- Nothing we experience in life ever remains the same
- Changing daily and gradually
- NEED to ACCEPT CHANGE