Buddhism Questions

1.      Siddhartha Gautama

2.      The four passing sights were that of an old man, a sick man, a corpse, and an ascetic. The first three were important because they taught Gautama about the unavoidable suffering in life and the fourth is important because it gave him hope that there could be an end to despair.

3.      The doctrine of the Middle Way states that a healthy spiritual life depends on a healthy physical life and that you need a balance between the two.

4.      He was meditating under a fig tree and Mara sent every temptation he had at him, even his three daughters Discontent, Delight, and Desire. Gautama did not waver and touched the ground to call upon the earth to be a witness to his resolve.

5.      The Sangha is a Buddhist monastic community. The members are men and women who are called monks and nuns that follow Buddha.

6.      The Three Jewels are the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha.

7.      The features that are shared are that they both regard time as cyclical, they believe in many worlds with many gods and goddesses, both are considered eternal, and the doctrine of samsara.

8.      The Buddha’s reaction was discontent with the speculative philosophy and sacrificial rituals of the Brahmin class and the rejection of the institutional structure.

9.      The Three Marks of Existence are anatta (no-self), anicca (impermanence), and dukkha (suffering). They are interrelated through change.

10.  Anatta is the doctrine of no-self. You have no self because you are constantly changing. It relates to Atman because it says that Atman does not exist.

11.  According to samsara your bundle of energy gets passed into the next life. The role of karma is the transference of personal identity.

12.  The ones that apply to everyone are do not take life, do not take what is not given, do not engage in sensuous misconduct, do not use false speech, and do not drink intoxicants. The ones for monks and nuns are do not eat after noon, do not watch dancing or shows, do not use garlands, perfumes, or ornaments, do not use a high or soft bed, and do not accept gold or silver.

13.  Possible English translations are suffering, frustration, dislocation, or discomfort. I would describe it as all the negative feelings that you have throughout life that you can’t really handle.

14.  Tanha is desire or craving. It is the cause of dukkha.

15.  The steps are right views, right intentions, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right meditation.

16.  The difference is that the Buddha achieved complete nirvana through death but enlightened people have only a foretaste of nirvana.

17.  An arhat is an enlightened person. They are free from suffering and desire, have fully realized no-self, have achieved spiritual perfection, are no longer attached to the affairs of the world, are friendly, joyful, compassionate, and even-minded.

18.  It literally means “blowing out” which helps explain how a person’s life energy is blown out like a candle.

19.  The three divisions are Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana.

20.  The main focus is the teachings of Buddhism.

21.  The literal meaning is Great Vehicle. The implication is that it is better than Theravada Buddhism.

22.  It fights desire with desire by trying to stir up emotions within themselves through mandalas, mudras, and mantras.

23.  The Dalai Lama is the head of a clergy called lamas. They are chosen through rebirth originating with the incarnation of a prominent bodhisattva and it sought through supernatural and mundane ways.

24.  The primary geographical regions are Cambodia, Burma, Sri Lanka, and Thailand for Theravada; China, Japan, and Korea for Mahayana; and Tibet for Vajrayana. 

Compare and Contrast

There are similarities and differences between the experience of Buddhism and Christianity. These two men have greatly been affected by their respective religions and are trying to teach others of their experience. Both religions search for the same things but merely have different approaches. Three things that they have in common that are like this are their experience, their way to happiness, and their reason for loving others.

Both experience their leader in a certain way. The difference lies in the tense that you use. The Buddha was a human being and so is dead and is past tense. Jesus is God so he is present in our everyday lives today and is possible for every person to experience. However, since Buddha became one with the universe he lives in everyone and there is a Buddha in everyone.

Like most religions, through this experience they wish to reach happiness. Buddhism says that if you make others happy, you will be happy because your happiness and theirs are the same. Christians find happiness in the experience of God’s love and in his grace until you reach ultimate happiness in heaven. Buddhists don’t find happiness in nirvana because they become nothing. They also teach that you can’t be happy until you realize that you are nothing.

This leads me into loving others. As religions both Christianity and Buddhism give guides on how we should interact with the people around. They are generally the same but have different explanations. Buddhists believe that you should love everyone because they are all a part of you and you are a part of all of them. Christianity teaches that we should love everyone because they are our neighbor and Jesus is in everyone.

These two men spoke of many similar things with different approaches. These things included the experience they went through, happiness, and loving others. They have different teachings and methods that try to get to similar results. They both strive for the ultimate though they give it two different names. 

Buddhism

Siddhartha was a prince in India that was shielded from the bad in life like aging and sickness, by his father. After almost thirty years, Siddhartha left the castle to roam and he saw an old man, a sick man, a dead man, and a spiritual seeker. He had a life of pure pleasure but now knew that there was suffering in the world that was inevitable and it troubled him. He left his wife and newborn son and became a spiritual seeker, trying to reach enlightenment. He tried everything all the way down to starving himself to near death for six years before he realized that it wasn’t working. Finally, while meditating under a tree, Siddhartha defeated the god of desire and reached enlightenment or nirvana. He then proceeded to teach others starting with his friends and eventually had many followers and created a community where monks could stay and learn.

Three Jewels:

1.      I take refuge in Buddha

2.      I take refuge in Dharma

3.      I take refuge in Sangha

4 Noble Truths:
       1. All is suffering (dukkha). 
       2. Suffering is caused by desire. 
       3. If one can eliminate desire, they can eliminate suffering. 
       4. The Noble Eight-fold Path can eliminate desire. 

Noble Eight-fold Path:

1. Right Views.

2. Right Intent.

3. Right Speech.

4. Right Conduct.

5. Right livelihood.

6. Right effort.

7. Right mindfulness.

8. Right concentration. 

Hinduism

1.      Moksha is the Sanskrit word for liberation or release. It is the release from the material world and becoming one with Brahman.

2.      This doctrine is monism. An analogy for this is how there are rivers, lakes, and oceans but they are all bodies of water which connects them and makes them one.

3.      Brahman is the eternal essence of reality and the source of the universe. Atman is the eternal self of soul of an individual that gets reincarnated from life to life. They are associated as being the same.

4.      Their function is to provide points of contact with Brahman who is unreachable physically or mentally.

5.      Samsara is the wheel of reincarnation. It is the worldly realm in which rebirth occurs.

6.      It is the Bhagavad-Gita.

7.      The two principles are karma and dharma. Karma is the moral law or cause and effect and determines the nature of each reincarnation based on how good you were in this life. Dharma is the law that karma is based on. It is the ethical duty based on the divine order of reality.

8.      The four classes are Brahmin who are priests, Kshatriya who are warriors and administrators, Vaishya who are producers like farmers and merchants, and Shudra who are servants and laborers.

9.      He encourages him because according to his dharma it is his duty as a warrior to fight in a just cause.

10.  The four stages of life are student, householder, forest dweller, and sannyasin. In the student stage the boy learns and studies the Vedas and other sacred literature. In the householder stage, which is marked my marriage, his goal is to have a career and raise a family. In the forest dweller stage, which is marked by the birth of your first grandchild, the goal is to retreat from worldly bonds in order to fully engage in a spiritual quest. In the sannyasin stage they return to society but remain detached from normal attractions and distractions of social life.

11.  The four goals of life are sensual pleasure (aim to have the utmost pleasure in life), material success (yearning for artha or maerial success and the social power and prestige that comes with it), harmony with dharma (desire to do your duty), and the bliss of moksha (becoming one with Brahman and escaping samsara).

12.  The three paths of liberation are the path of works (Karma Marga) which is for the active in things like raising a family and physical activities, the path of knowledge (Jnana Marga) which is for people with a talent for philosophical reflection, and the path of devotion (Bhakti Marga) which is for those whose emotional attachment comes naturally.

13.  The three most important schools are Vedanta, Sankhya, and Yoga. The task they have in common is the attainment of knowledge over the ignorance that binds the self to samsara.

14.  Three important gods are Vishnu, Shiva, and Kali.

15.  An avatar is an incarnation or living embodiment of a deity. Two popular ones are Krishna and Rama who are both avatars of Vishnu.

16.  That is the Bhagavad-Gita.

17.  Three aspects are household and village rituals, holy places, and cow veneration.

18.  He fueled Hinduism’s tendency to accept all wisdom as lighting the way to the divine.

19.  A significant change was that it was made illegal by the Indian government in 1948.

20.  Sati is the practice of burning a widow. It has been forbidden since 1829 though it does still rarely occur.

21.  A significant development was the separation of Pakistan from India to make a predominantly Muslim country. It turned bloody and a lot of people died on both sides.