Buddhist Beliefs Flashcards
What happened in Queen Maya’s dream?
A white elephant came down from heaven, entered her womb and told her she would give birth to a great holy person who would achieve perfect wisdom.
What is the interpretation of Queen Maya’s dream?
The King’s sages said that white elephants symbolise great souls meaning the child was destined for greatness as a universal leader.
Buddhists interpret grey elephants as symbolising undisciplined minds whereas white elephants symbolise tranquil and obedient minds made through years of meditation.
What is the Buddha’s birth story?
Queen Maya travelled to her parents for the birth but had to stop enroute and give birth in the Lumbini Gardens. The birth was marked with miraculous signs.
What were the miraculous signs of Queen Maya’s labour?
The branch of a tree lowered itself so she could have support during the birth. The Queen felt no pain. Siddhartha immediately walked 7 steps and in each footstep a lotus flower appeared.
What does Siddhartha say right after the birth?
“No further rebirths have I to endure for this is my last body. Now I shall destroy and pluck out by the roots the sorrow that is caused by birth and death.”
What is the Prophecy of Greatness?
Important religious figures recognise signs of Siddhartha’s greatness and predicted he would either be a great king or a religious teacher of world significance.
What happened in The Ploughing Festival?
At the age of seven, Siddhartha attended a festival where he was said to have been struck by the difference between the people enjoying themselves and the suffering animals who were hit with sticks to move carts. He went into a deep meditative state of calmness before being brought around by his servants and father.
What does the story of The Ploughing Festival symbolise?
The story symbolises the inescapable nature of suffering in the world and Siddhartha’s advanced spiritual nature.
What happened in Siddhartha & The Swan?
As a boy, he saw his cousin fire an arrow at a swan seriously injuring it but Siddhartha rescued it, disputing his cousin’s ownership of it and taking care of it.
What does this story of Siddhartha and The Swan symbolise?
The story is taking to symbolise his deeply compassionate nature for all living beings and his rejection of the idea that humans can have ownership of the natural world.
Why did Siddhartha abandon his life of luxury?
The Four sights triggered deep questions and he decided his life of luxury would not provide the answers. He left the palace, renouncing his possessions, status, seeking the peace he had seen in the face of the holy man.
What were the Four Sights?
An old and frail man made him realise that everyone would age of entry.
A sick person made and realise everyone can become ill.
A dead body made him realise everyone will die eventually.
A holy man…Siddhartha was struck by his expression of deep peace despite the rag the man was dressed in and his lack of possessions.
Why did Siddhartha abandon his ascetic life?
After 6 years, he became so thin and weak he couldn’t meditate realising it would not lead to enlightenment and was as extreme as his life of luxury he gave up asceticism. He realised that he had to find a middle path between the two extremes.
What obstacles did he encounter while meditating under the Bodhi tree?
Mara appeared to try prevent him from achieving enlightened.
- He sent his daughters to seduce Siddhartha.
- He sent his army to attack him with arrows.
- He tried to bribe Siddhartha with all the kingdoms of the world.
- He himself tried to attack Siddhartha.
How did Sid respond when Mara said no one would believe his enlightenment?
Siddhartha touch the ground and called upon the Earth to witness it is said that the Earth shook to acknowledge it. The story is believed to demonstrate how a disciplined mind gained through meditation and a life lived in the middle way will enable personal enlightenment.
What was the First Watch?
Siddhartha became able to remember all of his past lives.
What was the Second Watch?
His memories enabled him to understand the repetitive cycle of birth, death and rebirth. He understood how beings were reborn according to their karma and understood that everything changes including the self.
What was the Third Watch?
He gained understanding of our attachments that lead us to suffer and clinging to things which can be overcome through the noble eightfold path.
What is Dependant Arising?
Nothing can come from nothing or cause itself. Everything has a cause outside of itself within a web of interrelating causes. If everything has causes and if those causes cease to exist, then the ‘thing’ ceases to exist, if the causes change the ‘thing’ changes. The ‘thing’ itself is a direct result of those causes- it is transitory and dependant on those causes.
What does the Dalai Lama say in Tenzin Gyatso about Dependent Arising?
“All events and incidents in life are so intimately linked with the fate of others that a single person on his or her own cannot even begin to act.”
