Practices Flashcards
What is a temple?
A place where Buddhists come together to practice
What is a gompa?
A hall or building where tibetan Buddhists meditate
What is a stupa?
A small building in a monastery that sometimes contains holy relics
What is a shrine?
An area with a statue of the Buddha or Bodhisattva, which provides Buddhists with a focal point for meditation and devotion
What is a Buddhist Rupa?
A statue of the Buddha, often sitting cross-legged in a meditation pose
What is a monastery?
A place where Buddhist monks and nuns live
What is the point of candles?
Symbolises wisdom because the candles drive away the darkness of ignorance
What is the point of flowers?
Reminds Buddhists that all things are impermanent
What is the point of incense?
Symbolises purity
What does puja mean?
Puja means worship in pali
What is the point of puja?
Puja allows Buddhists to express gratitude and acknowledge how important the Buddha is in their lives
What is a mala?
A mala is a chain of beads to count recitation
What is a mantra?
A sacred set of syllables
What is bowing?
Bending the body three times in front of the shrine to symbolise the three jewel/refugees
What are types of offering?
- Flowers (impermanence)
- Candles (wisdom)
- Incense (purity)
What is chanting?
Repeating a passage from Buddhist scripture
What is meditation?
A spiritual practice of reflecting deeply on the Buddhas teachings and nature of reality
How many beads does a mala have?
108
What is a mala for?
To invoke the presence of Avalokiteshvara
What is a sacred text?
A text containing the Buddhas teachings
What are the two types of meditation?
- Vipassana
- Samatha
What is vipassana meditation often called?
Insight mediation
What does the word samatha translate to mean?
Calming
What is a kasina?
A set of objects used during meditation
What is samatha meditation preperation for?
Vipassana meditation
What does Samatha meditation involve?
- Focusing on breathing or a kasina (red dot to stare at)
- Focuses on just one thing
- By focusing on only one thing, the mind will become clear and free from thoughts, feelings and worries
- Focuses on neutral objects
- The aim of samatha is to find peacefulness
What does Vipassana meditation involve?
- Thinking about how to apply the Buddhas teachings to your life.
- Focuses on personal things and experiences and considers your emotional response.
What is the purpose of Vipassana meditation?
To understand the nature of reality, the three marks of existence, and to extinguish the three poisons
What is the purpose of meditation?
- Becoming aware of your body
- Camly foucusing the mind of spiritual truths
- Devloping a calm and still mind
- Devleoping a greater understanding of Dhamma and the truth of life (three marks of existence)
Impacts of meditation on Buddhists?
- Identify suffering and craving in their lives
- Help the develop positive qualities such as compassion and loving-kindness
- Lead to skilful actions and reduce Dukkha
What is visualisation?
- Visualisation is a part of meditation
- It requires the meditator to imagine an object in their mind
- This acts as a point of focus during meditation
- Some Buddhists belive that visualisaton helps to stimulate their Buddha-nature
Who do tibetan Buddhists visualise?
- Tibetan Buddhists often visualise a deity - someone who has reached nibanna
- They will focus on its qualities and characteristics, in order to gain those qualities and become more like that deity themselves
What is the medicine Buddha?
- The medicine Buddha is the Buddha related to healing
- Buddhist believe that visualising the Medicine Buddha will heal them and reduce their suffering, and may even increase their own healing powers
3.
What is Wesak?
- It is celebrated on the full moon during the month of Vesak
- The festival celebrates the Buddha’s birth, his enlightenment and his passing into parinirvana
How is Wesak celebrated?
- Providing offerings to monasteries
- Singing traditional songs
- Chanting the 5 moral precepts
- Releasing caged animals to represent compassion
What is parinirvana day?
- It is a mahayana day of celebration that marks the Buddha’s death
- It is a chance to reflect on ones future death, and the passing of other loved ones
- Mahayana Buddhists celebrate this day by taking part in a special puja which includes listening to passages from the Nirvana sutra
- Some Buddhists go on pilgrimages to visit the Buddha’s place of death
What are the five moral precepts?
- Do not kill
- Do not steal
- Do not comitt sexual midconduct
- Abstain from wrong speach
- Abstain from intoxicants that cloud the mind
