Year 10 April Mocks Flashcards
Buddhas life of luxury – why he gave it up
- He gave it up because he saw the Four Sights
- He fulfilled the prophecy of Asita by leaving the palace.
Influence of Bodhisattvas on Buddhists:
- Buddhists will want to be compassionate in order to help other beings with their problems in life.
- Buddhists will pray to Bodhisattvas for guidance on their own paths to enlightenment.
- Buddhists will also want to ‘go forth for the welfare of the many’.
- Bodhisattvas can be male or female encouraging Buddhists’ belief in the equality of all.
The Pure Land:
- There is the hope of being reborn in the paradise where Amitābha lives.
- Pure Land Buddhists can simply call on the name of Amitābha to gain rebirth in the heaven, Western Paradise and many more places
- Amitābha created this paradise out of compassion and love for all beings.
- They will therefore have a much better chance of attaining Buddhahood
- Chanting Amitabha’s name
The difficulties of attaining enlightenment:
Enlightenment is a real experience and it takes time, dedication and effort to experience it and only by becoming ordained can a person ‘go within’, an internal path into one’s own consciousness through meditation and contemplation. No one can fully overcome suffering and no one can fully extinguish greed, hatred and delusion which is what enlightenment is all about. It is too abstract a concept for people to understand and it is unrealistic to think that the goal of a religion can be achieved in this present life. Suffering is a fact of life and human nature, we just have to live with it so people will always experience hurt and pain. In the Tibetan Wheel of Life teaches that suffering is constant and so how can enlightenment be the goal? Today, in the Western world, temptation is a part of human nature.
The Buddha did, so others can and the Buddha would not have identified a path to enlightenment if he didn’t think people could reach it. In many branches of Buddhism, it is believed all can achieve enlightenment as they already have Buddha nature in them and Pure Land Buddhists through their chanting might suggest that enlightenment is easy to attain. A Bodhisattva helps in the Mahayana tradition towards enlightenment. This sets up the Four Noble Truths as a profound teaching and establishes the Buddha as a physician for all the ills of the world. Anyone can experience selflessness. Enlightenment is possible for all it is up to the individual and their commitment to the goal of Buddha.
The importance of Jesus’ ascension:
- It happened 40 days after the resurrection
- It marked the end of Jesus’ life on earth.
How the Trinity influences Christians:
- As the Son, God was incarnate so Christians know that God can understand them and can feel pain and misery so they might be influenced to become doctors or nurses.
- As the Spirit, God is a source of spiritual strength so Christians can feel the Spirit at work in their lives and this strengthens and supports them.
- The Trinity is a mystery so Christians can accept that there are things that they cannot know about God.
- Believing that God is Father may influence some to become good fathers.
Causes of sin:
- Some Christians believe the story in the Book of Genesis, when humans disobeyed God and ate the forbidden fruit, thought they could be like God.
- Some think that all humans inherit the ‘original’ sin of Adam & Eve and some understand Jesus’ forgiveness of the sins of the paralysed man in this light.
- Some believe that God causes sin because as the Creator God is responsible for everything that exists, God made humans imperfect, God gave us free will so for these reasons humans sin.
- Sin can be caused by separation from God eg Adam and Eve were punished by being thrown out of the Garden.
- Also, some understand ‘lead us not into temptation’ in the Lord’s Prayer to mean, ‘Do not let us be tempted to sin by others, by ourselves, or by Satan’.
Suffering/Problem of evil and belief in a loving God, are they incompatible:
Christians believe that God is omnibenevolent, a loving God would want to stop all suffering, and has the power to stop suffering, so suffering should not exist. If God is loving God would know that humans are weak and would end suffering. This applies to life after death as well – an all-loving and just God would not allow people to suffer after they die but the Bible teaches that hell is real. Most natural disasters are not caused by anything done by humans and animals so God should take control of disasters. God created humans, so why would a loving God create people to suffer? It is not just that God allows suffering and the extent of suffering is huge, why would a loving God allow so much suffering?
Humans are responsible for what they do to others so a lot of suffering is caused by ourselves, and not by God. Having free will means that humanity must have the power and the choice to reject the moral rules in the Bible and cause other people to suffer. Despite being all-powerful, God himself suffered on the cross, so if God can suffer, so can we. A world without suffering would be a toy world so we have to learn through suffering. Some see suffering as a test of faith, following which God will reward them with eternal life.
