Vocab

Question 1

Budda

Answer 1

enlightened or awakened one; Siddhartha Gautama

Question 2

Dharma

Answer 2

The orthodox belief of Buddhism which must be known in order to be enlightened. It is the sublime religious truth

Question 3

Ascetic

Answer 3

A person, who, for religious reason, practices rigorous self-discipline by leading a life of meditation and self-denial

Question 4

Bodhi Tree

Answer 4

Siddhartha Gautama meditated under this tree for seven days until he achieved enlightenment and became the Buddha

Question 5

Nirvana

Answer 5

The ultimate state of freedom for the cycle of birth and rebirth by achieving selflessness through the understanding that all reality ss one

Question 6

Samsara

Answer 6

The cycle of birth and rebirth based upon one’s karma; also known as reincarnation or transmigration of souls. (In Hinduism, the nearly endless cycles of death and rebirth that an atman goes through on its way to moksha

Question 7

Four Noble Truths

Answer 7

Achieved through meditation, these are the four main tenants of Buddhism: (1) life brings suffering, (2) the desire for pleasure, (3) power and immortality are the roots of suffering and (4) desire ends via the Noble Eight Fold Path of right views, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, awareness and concentration

Question 8

Sangha

Answer 8

The Original monastic community established by the Buddha after he achieved enlightenment. Today, it is the term for any Buddhist monastery

Question 9

Karma

Answer 9

The cosmic principle of cause and effect, which rewards human goodness and punishes human evil through the transmigration of souls into better or lesser situations of rebirth

Question 10

Selflessness

Answer 10

Achieved through Buddhist meditation, it allows people to serve others and concentrate on the true perception of reality, an understanding that there are no boundaries between one’s self and the reality of the universe

Question 11

Zen

Answer 11

From the Sanskrit word “Dhyana” meaning meditation. That sect of Buddhism mainly found in Japan where mediation is used to achieve enlightenment

Question 12

Mendicant

Answer 12

A holy man who travels and teaches while relying on the generosity of others for clothing, shelter and food

Question 13

Mahayana

Answer 13

A major sect of Buddhism founded by Nagarjuna and means the great or universal path of salvation. It used a new body of scriptures called Sutras (Lotus, Heart and Diamond). Open to all, one can achieve enlightenment at any stage in the cycle of birth and rebirth

Question 14

Bodhisattva

Answer 14

An enlightened human being is the Mahayanist sect who spreads insights to help others and refuses to enter Nirvana until everyone has done so

Question 15

Lama

Answer 15

Tibetan for high priest

Question 16

Theravada

Answer 16

Primarily practiced in South East Asia, Theraveda Buddhism is a more conservative interpretation of Buddha’s teachings than Mahayana Buddhism

Question 17

Dhammapada

Answer 17

Summary account of Buddha’s teachings on meditation and moral issues in the Theravadic scriptures

Question 18

Tantric

Answer 18

The sect of Buddhism that focuses on yoga with ritual chants to discipline the mind and body to go beyond desires to achieve enlightenment

Question 19

Mantra

Answer 19

In Sanskrit, the “sacred utterance,” which is a sound or group of sounds used to focus the mind in meditation on the inner realities

Question 20

Bardo Thodol

Answer 20

The Tibbetan Buddhist Book of the Dead

Question 21

Zazen

Answer 21

the Zen sitting form of meditation

Question 22

Koans

Answer 22

Riddles used by some Zen practitioners to help students break through perceptions into the true reality in an act of sudden enlightenment.

Question 23

Three Refuges/Jewels

Answer 23

Buddha, Dharma and Sangha

Question 24

Shunyata/sunyata

Answer 24

emptiness or nothingness; ultimate reality in Buddhist Philosophy, conceived in seemingly negative terms in order to (1) capture a new sense of its utter mysteriousness, (2) underscore its total dissimilarity to existent beings and nonbeings, (3) convey its role as the infinitely potential Source of all actualities (existing entities)

Question 25

Nirvana

Answer 25

in Buddhism, the blissful realization of one’s anatman and its own identity in shunyata; roughly equivalent to Hinduism’s moksha

Question 26

Anatman

Answer 26

the Buddhist doctring of the “no soul” or “no self” that holds that individuals at their spiritual core are empty, and thus manifest the utter but potent Emptiness of all things, the experiential realization of which is nirvana

Question 27

Parinirvana

Answer 27

the ultimate experience of nirvana associated with death