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RLGN 1100 > Religion Matters - Stephen Prothero (Buddhism) > Flashcards

Religion Matters - Stephen Prothero (Buddhism) Flashcards

1
Q

Problem (Buddhism)

A

Suffering

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2
Q

Solution (Buddhism)

A

Nirvana
- blowing out suffering; end/release of suffering

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3
Q

Techniques

A

mediation, chanting, visualization, devotion

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4
Q

Exemplars

A
  • arhats (in mainstream Buddhism)
  • bodhisattvas and buddhas (In Mahayana Buddhism)
  • tradition of monks/nuns who are trying to overcome suffering through the path made by Buddha
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5
Q

What do the Four Nobles Truths allow for?

A

Being released from suffering

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6
Q

Four Noble Truths

A

1.The Truth of Suffering (dukkha)
2.Origin of suffering (dukkha)
3. The cessation of suffering
-We can be free from suffering
4.The path leading to the cessation of suffering

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7
Q

The Truth of Suffering (dukkha)

A

ordinary suffering like physical and mental suffering, natural disasters, suffering linked to causes like cravings, suffering caused by conditioning like un-satisfactoriness

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8
Q

Origin of suffering (Samudaya)

A

ignorance of the nature of reality, craving for sense pleasures, craving to be (desirous attachment; aspirations), craving to not be (aversion; “I am not a morning person, but I wish I was”)

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9
Q

How can we know what it means to be a Buddhist?

A

Through the Three Jewels

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10
Q

The Three Jewels

A
  1. I take refuge in the Buddha
    - you accept him as your ultimate guide/leader to enlightenment
  2. I take refuge in the DHARMA (“Buddhist teaching”)
    - you take his teachings as a path
  3. I take refuge in the SANGHA (“Buddhist community”)
    - you accept the community of other Buddhists to rely on this path
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11
Q

Sangha

A

the Buddhist community

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12
Q

Dharma (“teaching”)

A

Teaching or law

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13
Q

The Poisoned Arrow

A
  • Buddha asked by someone “does god exist”
  • Buddha response = tose kinds of questions are irrelevant; we have more pressing issues (suffering in our life)
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14
Q

What Buddha says in The Poisoned Arrow…

A

“Life is short, the Buddha is saying. Don’t spend it in fruitless speculation, especially when that speculation only multiplies your suffering. And don’t expect the Buddha to join in. The purpose of his teaching is neither to affirm nor to deny dogmas. It is to pull out the arrow of suffering. Everything else is commentary.”

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15
Q

Eight-Fold Path

A

“Fourth Noble Truth”
- Path leading to the cessation of suffering

  1. Right View (baseline; framework of the things that mark our existence…permeance & suffering)
  2. Right Thought
  3. Right Speech
  4. Right action
  5. Right Livelihood
  6. Right effort
  7. Right Mindfulness
  8. Right concentration
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16
Q

Original Buddhism

A

No gods; ancient austerities

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17
Q

Is Buddhism the FOURTH largest religion?

A

Yes

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18
Q

Tibetan Monks

A

engage in full-body prostrations, complete with body-length boards and hand cushions that allow them to glide from standing to kneeling to lying out flat (and back again).

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19
Q

Ashoka

A

Indian emperor and Buddhist sympathizer who promoted Buddhism and interreligious understanding

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20
Q

Pipal tree (Ficus religious)

A

not the actual tree that sheltered the Buddha, of course, but according to the faithful, it’s a DIRECT descendent; powerfully evokes a reverence for the original

21
Q

Bodhi Tree

A

Marks the spot in Bodh Gaya in the northeastern Indian state of Bihar where a former prince named Siddhartha Gautama was enlightened and BECAME the Buddha (“Awakened One”)

22
Q

Bodh Gaya

A

the holiest place of Buddhist pilgrimage in the world

23
Q

First Temple (Bodhi Tree)

A

Built by the Mauryan emperor and Buddhist patron Ashoka (250 BCE)
- the original temple is long GONE NOW

24
Q

Existing Mahabodhi Temple

A
  • dates to 5th/6th century
  • named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
25
Q

The Great Tang Dynasty Record of the Western World

A
  • Written by Chinese monk named Xuanzang
  • Related a series of stories about anti-Buddhist kings and queens who hacked the Bodhi Tree from limb to limb only to see it spring miraculously back to life
  • Explained how the stone walls around the site were built to ward off attackers.
26
Q

Diamond Throne

A
  • Carved stone seat marks the place where the Buddha-to-be BECAME the Buddha
  • He vowed not to get up until he had solved the riddle of suffering,

According to XUANZANG: Buddha’s enlightenment was made by this place, which is and always has been the still-point at the center of our shaken and suffering universe.

27
Q

Siddhartha Gautama

A

(563-483 BCE)
- Created the Middle path between 2 extremes of hedonism and asceticism (indulgence vs deprivation)
- Emphasized wisdom tradition orthopraxy than orthodoxy (orthopraxy = right practice; no centralized authority so A LOT of diversity)
- Prophecy: become a materialistic ruler (king) or spiritual figure
- Becomes a sannyasin to understand the experience of suffering but DOES NOT work for him

28
Q

Asceticism (“Sannyasins path”)

A

basically the renouncing path

29
Q

Middle Path

A

Siddhartha advocated this in order to achieve enlightenment and ultimately does under the tree
(indulgence vs deprivation)
(hedonism vs asceticism)

30
Q

What does the Middle Path emphasize?

A

Emphasizes orthopraxy (right practice) than orthodoxy (how you go about living your life than what you believe)

31
Q

“The Warrior/Samurai and the Monk”

A

Samurai approaches the monk and demands he tells him the difference between heaven and hell.
- The monk says “why should I waste my time telling you?” The samurai is so enraged that he takes out his sword to KILL the monk.
- The monk raises his hand and STOPS him and says this here is HELL.
- The samurai realizes his teaching and bows to the monk. The monk says HERE is HEAVEN.

32
Q

Ways of Practicing Buddhism

A

Mahayana & Theravada

33
Q

Mainstream Buddhism/Theravada

A

“Way of the Elders”
- smaller number = accounts for about 13% of Buddhist
- Arhats
- Believes there is one Buddha per cosmic cycle; other folks can reach enlightenment (and escape nirvana) but has to be done through self-effort (through Buddhist teachings)

34
Q

Arhats (“Sanskrit”)

A
  • exemplars in Mainstream Buddhism
  • beings who had achieved enlightenment and would never be reborn; will reach nirvana at death
35
Q

Reaching Enlightenment (Mainstream Buddhism)

A
  • Becoming involved in the many monastic orders being created at the time; join a monastic possible (not possible for certain people to join this path because you are not born in a better position); devoted their lives to the middle path (not possible as a householder)
  • Wisdom Path
  • 3 Marks of Existence
  • 5 Elements
36
Q

5 Elements

A
  1. matter/physical bodies
  2. feelings
  3. perception/senses
  4. thoughts about things
  5. consciousness/awareness of the elements
37
Q

3 Marks of Existence

A

Mainstream Buddhism = “be wise” through understanding this as a sentient being

1) dukkha (suffering)
2) anicca (impermanence)
3) anatta (no soul)

38
Q

Mahayana

A

“Great vehicle”
- largest kind of category; diversity and variation
- accounts for 87% of Buddhists
- Multiple buddhas and bodhisattvas
- Shunyata (“emptiness”)
- Upaya (“skillful means”)
- Transfer of Merit

39
Q

Upaya (“skillful means”)

A

Buddha is telling people what they needed to hear
- explaining the ways to escape nirvana
- Buddha was using skillful means to distinguish people’s different needs
- he was teaching people the paths that people needed to reach NIRVANA (divergence)
- helped the MOST PEOPLE

40
Q

Transfer of Merit

A

the idea that rather than the emphasis on things that YOU DO through dedication and devotion to the buddhas, bodhisattvas they can TRANSFER the merit they have accumulated to you (other help)

41
Q

Bodhisattvas

A

a person who is able to reach nirvana but delays (holding off) doing so out of compassion in order to save suffering beings (help as many people)

42
Q

Buddhism in the U.S.

A
  • Hart-Cellar Act (Major shift in migration policy; big shift in demographics)
  • Chinese Exclusion Act (limit immigration)
  • Similar to trends of Hinduism
    o Translation of Text
    o Being read from U.S. philosophers
  • Major moments of migration
  • Internment Camp = Manzanar Monument
43
Q

Effects of understanding the text ONLY In Buddhism

A

LIMITS understanding Buddhism since it is an orthopraxy

  • Western folk converting to Buddhism (Protestant Buddhism; Olcott, learned Buddhism from text and did not grow up in it; critical of ordinary Buddhists and how they practice)
44
Q

Buddhism and Violence

A
  • Image of Buddhists as peacemakers is reinforced by Ashoka
  • According to legend = embraced Buddhism after winning a military campaign that claimed more than one hundred thousand lives. Horrified by the violence he had unleashed, and the BAD KARMA, it had brought him, Ashoka allowed Buddhism to flourish.

Not PEACEFUL
- Buddha in a previous life killed a bandit; who killed a Hindu Brahmin who was plotting to destroy Buddhism in India.
- Sri Lanka’s Buddhist majority = engaged in a decades-long civil war against the Tamil Tigers
- 2013 = an American Buddhist killed twelve people in cold blood at the Washington Navy Yard.

45
Q

Violent Monks

A
  • China in 515 = Faqing led fifty thousand soldiers into a war he described as a messianic battle against the temptress Mara on behalf of the “Great Vehicle.”
  • Any soldier who killed an enemy would = BECOME a bodhisattva
  • Anyone who killed ten = would ACHIEVE enlightenment.
  • Warrior Monks
46
Q

Buddism and Hinduism (Similarities)

A
  • BOTH decentralized (in a sense)
  • Similar in a way that BOTH faiths that neither have a central authority (implications with how people approach the practice)
  • Rejection of the role of priest (brahmans) on having a unique role in speaking in spiritual matters in BOTH
  • BOTH driving for enlightenment
    Rejection of the idea of the self
  • Caste System
47
Q

Buddhism and Hinduism (Differences)

A
  • Hinduism (more ethnic); Buddhism (missionary religion)
  • The divine is MORE emphasized in Hinduism (more gods etc.)
  • Buddhism = text is NOT central
  • Hinduism moksha = depends on a certain person; basically, recognition of yourself as divine and a union with the divine
  • Buddhism = NO emphasis on divine
  • Different understanding of dharma
    Hindu = duty; how to go about living your life based on your role in life
    Buddhism = use it to talk about Buddhist teachings, universal laws
48
Q

Military Coup in Myanmar

A

Myanmar = Buddhist majority country
- Was colonized by the British (they moved local populations to different colonies;
- British encouraged migration to Myanmar (Migration Pathways); Buddhist nationalists offended

2017: a small group of Rohingya (Muslims) attacked a military base and organized mobs of Buddhist nationalists who retaliated toward Rohingya communities. Thousands of people died and huge out-migration

  • Coup b/c of Aung San Suu Kyi (leader of the NLD)

RLGN 1100 (2 decks)

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