Focussed Teachings

Question 1

The Three Refuges recitation

Answer 1

To the Buddha for refuge I go
To the Dhamma for refuge I go
To the Sangha for refuge I go

Question 2

Skandhas

Answer 2

The Five Aggregates

Question 3

The Five Aggregates

Answer 3

Form, sensation, perception, mental formations, consciousness .

Question 4

Six perfections

Answer 4

Generosity, morality, patience, energy, mediation, wisdom.

Question 5

Bodhisattva vow

Answer 5

However innumerable sentient beings are, I vow to save them.

Question 6

Anguttara Nikaya

Answer 6

Describes how the Buddha was ‘delicately nurtured’.

Question 7

Three watches of the night.

Answer 7

• recalled his past lives
• understood nothing is permanent
• discovered the law of dependant arising

Question 8

Nidanas

Answer 8

12 factors which illustrate samsara (found on the Tibetan Wheel of Live).

Question 9

Seven states of suffering.

Answer 9

Physical: birth old age, sickness, death.
Mental: separation from someone you love, contact with someone you dislike.

Question 10

Three types of Dukkha

Answer 10

1) ordinary suffering
2 suffering through change
3) suffering through dissatisfaction or attachment

Question 11

Sunyata

Answer 11

Emptiness; the concept that nothing has a separate independent self or soul.

Question 12

The Pure Land

Answer 12

‘Rich in a great variety of flowers me fruits, adorned with jewel trees… frequented by flocks of birds with sweet voices.’

Question 13

Five practises to reach the pure land.

Answer 13

1) reciting scriptures
2) mediating on Amitabha and his paradise
3) worshipping amitabha
4) chanting amitabha’s name
5) making praises and offerings to Amitabha

Question 14

The Buddha in the Samyutta Nikaya - Tanha (craving)

Answer 14

‘Now this… is the noble truth of the origin of suffering: it is this craving which leaves to renewed existence…’

Question 15

The Buddha in the Samyutta Nikaya - Nirodha

Answer 15

‘… the noble truth of the cessation of suffering… is the remainder less fading away and cessation of that same craving.’

Question 16

Four noble truths.

Answer 16

Dukkha, Samudaya, Nirodha, Magga.

Question 17

Dependant arising; Dalai Lama

Answer 17

A single person in his own cannot even begin to act

Question 18

Dependant arising; Sogyal Rinpoche

Answer 18

Every wave is related to every other wave

Question 19

Dukkha; the Buddha

Answer 19

what I teach is suffering and the cessation of suffering

Question 20

Anicca: Kisa Gotami

Answer 20

My own sorrow is part of the sorrow of all people, the platter of life for everyone

Question 21

Anatta; Shantideva

Answer 21

If all the harm, fear and suffering in the world occur due to the grasping on to the self, what use is that great demon to me?

Question 22

Arhat; Buddha

Answer 22

I have no teacher and no one like me

Question 23

Arhat; Buddha

Answer 23

I am the Teach Supreme I alone am a Fully enlightened one Whose fires are quenched and extinguished.

Question 24

Bodhisattva

Answer 24

Not until the hells are emptied will I become a Buddha

Question 25

Bodhisattva; Mahayana schools of Buddhism

Answer 25

Beings are numberless, I vow to save them, I vow to end them, I vow to enter them, I vow to become it

Question 26

Bodhisattva

Answer 26

May I be a protector to those without protection

Question 27

Four noble truths; visuddhimagga

Answer 27

The truth of sufferings is like a disease…

Question 28

Samatha Mediation; Thich Nhat Hanh

Answer 28

Breath is the bridge which connects like to consciousness, United your body to your thoughts

Question 29

Death and mourning; Thubten Zopa Rinpoche

Answer 29

At the hour of death, the king and the beggar are exactly equal

Question 30

Karuna; Dalai Lama

Answer 30

The key to a happier and more successful society is the growth of compassion

Question 31

Metta; the sutra nipata verses

Answer 31

Loving-kindness to all the world

Question 32

The five moral precepts; the Buddha

Answer 32

That person digs up his own root here in the world