Religion Buddies unit 3

Scripture of Mahayana

1. "Besides their own version of the Tripitaka, Mahayana Buddhists have a great number of texts they consider sacred. Most popular is The Lotus of the True Law, more popularly known as the Lotus Sutra" 2. "Mahayana Buddhists believe the Lotus Sutra contains the final teachings of the Buddha, placing the Tripitaka in a secondary yet still-important status." 3. "The other very popular Mahayana sutra is the Perfection of Wisdom, which is a treatise on how to achieve the perfection of wisdom of a bodhisattva. It teaches that to attain perfect wisdom, one must go beyond knowledge of the ordinary and rational"

Buddhism in modern times

1. "Buddhism has attracted interest in Western nations, inspiring writers and thinkers of other religious traditions, including Christianity, with Buddhist approaches to meditation, wisdom, and spirituality" 2. "St. John of Damascus translated a life of Buddha around the beginning of the eighth century, which traveled through Europe during the Middle Ages" 3. "It was not until the British were building their empire and sending people to set up trade routes that there was a sustained interaction between Buddhism and the West"

Celebrating the Buddhist life cycle

1. "Buddhism plays little role in most rites of passage, except for those at the time of death. The Tibetan Book of the Dead characterizes dying as a sacred act. Death rituals are important in Buddhism because of the Buddhists' great interest in life after death and the rebirth of the person. The most important interest is helping a person move from samsara to Nirvana" 2. "Buddhists believe that a newborn had previous existences and that the karma of previous lives could influence the character of the person in this life." 3. "The marriage blessing may take place at a temple, a shrine, or a home. The blessing may include chanting from sacred scripture and perhaps even a sermon on married life."

Meditation

1. "Meditation is central to every branch of Buddhism. The last three paths of the Noble Eightfold Path are categorized as meditation. By following the paths of right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration, Buddhists believe they are well on their way to enlightenment" 2. "Siddhartha Gautama taught his disciples a number of types of meditation. Two of the most common are Mindfulness of Breath and Meditation of Loving-Kindness." 3. "When the mind has been calmed, a person then focuses on the self and says loving things about himself or herself" 4. "After focusing on self, attention is then turned to others: first to one the person loves, then to one whom the person is neutral about, and finally to one whom the person dislikes. In the Meditation of Loving Kindness, each of these three people is wished well over a long period of time."

Buddhist Expansion beyond India

1. "Not long after the death of the Buddha, Buddhism was introduced to Central Asia and eventually into countries with the present day names of Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan as well as Pakistan and parts of Iran. While Buddhism played an important role in Central Asia for centuries, it shared its religious landscape with a number of other religious traditions including Christianity. However, eventually Islam became the dominant religious tradition in Central Asia. 2. "Buddhism found its way to China around the beginning of the Common Era. It took a while to find a home there, but when it did, it became very much part of the religious landscape along with Confucianism and Taoism. To the many schools of Buddhism, China contributed Ch'an and Pure Land Buddhism (discussed in the next chapter). From China, Buddhism moved to Korea where the Tripitaka, early Buddhist scriptures, were very revered. Buddhism then moved from Korea to Japan. To Japan from China came Pure Land Ch'an Buddhism, called Zen Buddhism, as well as two sects of Buddhism that became distinctly Japanese"

Festival

1. "One is centered around the life of the Buddha" 2. Center around the sangha

Sidhartha Gautama

1. "Shakyamuni, meaning "sage of the Shakya clan." Born a Hindu of the warrior caste, his father was king of a small village located in present-day Nepal. " 2. "Immediately her child emerged from her right side without any help and took seven steps" 3. "Seven days later, Queen Maya died"

Scared stories and scared scripture

1. "Siddhartha wrote no texts, nor did his immediate followers." 2. "Like sacred scriptures of other religious traditions, the sacred texts of Buddhism developed over a number of centuries." .

Beliefs and Practices

1. "The center of all Buddhist beliefs is the Four Noble Truths, from Siddhartha Gautama's earliest sermons" 2. "If one is ignorant of the Four Noble Truths, she or he will remain on the endless cycle of samsara." 3. "Oppositely, understanding of the Four Noble Truths leads to the Noble Eightfold Path, the Middle Way, which reminds a person to avoid extremes, to take everything in moderation" 4. "These beliefs and subsequent practices are at the heart of Buddhism."

Scripture of Theravada Buddhism

1. "The early Buddhist scriptures known as Tripitaka, or "Three Baskets," were passed down orally in Sanskrit before they were written down around the first century BCE in the Pali language. 2. Thus, besides being called the Tripitaka, it is called also the Pali Canon" 3. "The Tripitaka is the authoritative scripture for Theravada Buddhists. They believe the Tripitaka contains the words of the historical Buddha." 4. "The Vinaya Pitaka is the code of monastic discipline for monks and nuns. There are 227 rules for monks and 311 rules for nuns. The rules highlight offenses in descending order of serious-ness" 5. "The Sutra Pitaka is primarily made up of discourses attributed to Siddhartha Gautama." 6. "The Abidharma Pitaka examines the Buddha's psychological teachings"

Brief History of Buddhism

1. "The origin of Buddhism begins with the birth of Siddhartha Gautama in approximately 560 BCE" 2. "Buddha's teachings through four succeeding "councils" of his followers. 3. It then fans out in a number of directions across the Asian continent. Though Buddhism began in India, it extended to Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Asia"

Celebrating sangha

1. "The sangha began as a mendicant ("begging") order of monks. They wandered, preaching the Dharma during all but the three months of the monsoon season. The three-month period became known as the "Rains Retreat" 2. "lay Buddhists also consider the Rains Retreat to be a time of great holiness"

Community

1. "Traditionally, sangha referred to a Buddhist community of monks or nuns. 2. Only in the monastic life could one properly practice the teachings of the Buddha. 3. Lay people took care of the material needs of the monastics, gaining merit for a better rebirth." 4. "Though the monastic and lay lifestyles are very different, each is dependent upon the other" 5. "Theravada monks are celibate and provide spiritual nourishment to the laity. The laity provide physical nourishment to monks, who seek their daily food through begging at the households of Buddhist devotees." 6. "To be enlightened and reach Nirvana is an important goal of a Buddhist. For Theravada Buddhists, arhat ("worthy one") is the name that describes such a person." 7. "Mahayana Buddhists likewise accept the status of arhat as an ultimate goal" 8. "However, the exemplar person in Mahayana Buddhism is a bodhisattva who has chosen to defer full enlightenment until all other humans have first reached nirvana. Because of their great compassion for all persons, bodhisattvas, who are not necessarily monks or nuns, will transfer merit they have gained to others so others can reach nirvana." 9. "Mahayana monks abide by the same rules as Theravada monks. However, they add to the rules by witnessing about Siddhartha Gautama, his way of life, and emulating his attitudes of peace and compassion to others"

scripture of vajrayana Buddhism

1. "Vajrayana Buddhists use Mahayana scriptures but add to them their own tantric texts from India and China. As with Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism, Vajrayana Buddhism has scriptures of its own. The Kanjur, or "Teachings," contains the Theravada and Mahayana scriptures, plus scriptures unique to Vajrayana Buddhism." 2. "The second is the Tanjur, or "Translation of the Treatises," which are commentaries on the Kanjur. The Kanjur has a number of sutras or discourses on the Buddha's teachings. Unlike Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism, Vajrayana Buddhism places a great value on the tantric tradition of India. In Hinduism, tantrism is that in which some forms of worship and ritual are employed to appropriate and harness the powerful energies of that which is Ultimate Reality in order to some day be one with Ultimate Reality" 3. "Two examples of Vajrayana tantric techniques are the use of the mandala and the use of the mantra to help focus one's meditation"

Celebrating the Buddha

1. "Visakha, or "Buddha Day," is the most holy day of the year for Theravada Buddhists. It is celebrated on the full moon day of May. For Theravadans, Siddhartha Gautama was born, became enlightened, and died all on the same date. The emphasis for this festival is literally on enlightenment" 2.

The four councils

1. After his death, the Buddha's followers carried on his practice of teaching, but there was a concern that the purity of the Buddha's teachings and practices be preserved. 2. According to Buddhist tradition, a council of Siddartha's, longtime followers—five hundred monks—gathered about a year after the Buddha's death with the intent to preserve his teachings through the recitation of memories" 3. "This council was held to address questionable practices of some "liberal" monks who sought a relaxation of monastic discipline, including permission to store salt, to eat after noon, to drink palm wine, and to accept silver and gold."

Buddhism in India

1. Buddhism made great strides in India during the first few centuries of the Common Era, especially during the Gupta dynasty. 2. Rulers of this dynasty continued the practice of supporting Buddhism by creating an atmosphere where Buddhism could thrive, helping to build monasteries and funding great stupas for the relics of renowned and holy Buddhists. 3. It was during the Gupta dynasty that the rise in Buddhist universities as part of monastic centers became prominent" 4. "A negative factor of large monasteries and universities was that they tended to make the monks more elitist. Concurrently, the laity began to drift away from Buddhism, and move toward the resurgent bhakti movement in Hinduism. Coupled with the Huns' invasion of India in 470 that destroyed thousands of monasteries, Buddhism was nearly rendered extinct"

Sacred time

1. Buddhists do not have a special day of the week for congregational worship 2. Mahayana Buddhists can do the same and also make offerings to images of other Buddha's and bodhisattvas 3. The scent of incense reminds Buddhists of the influence of good virtue. Flowers , which soon winter , remind people of the impermanence of everything

Four Noble Truths

1. Life of suffering 2.cause of suffering and desire 3. To cease suffering and one must cease desiring 4. The path to end of suffering is the noble eightfold path

The noble eightfold path

1. Right understanding 2. Right thought 3. Right speech 4 right conduct 5. Right livehood 6 right effort 7. Right mindfulness 8 right concentration

Gupta Dynasty

240-550 CE, when the Gupta Empire ruled India with political peace and prosperity

Lotus Sutra

A Mahayana Buddhist text where Enlightenment is made available not only to monastics, but to all because of the great compassion of bodhisattvas

Sangha

At first just the Buddhist monastic community, later it came to describe the entire community of monks, nuns, and lay persons.

ahat

From the Sanskrit for worthy one i is concept of thervada Buddhism which refers to one who has attained nirvana in their present lifetime.

DhRama

From the Sanskrit meaning uphold in Hinduism it is that which is in accordance with laws of the cosmos and of nature such as righteous acts.

Lamas

In Tibetan Buddhism, teachers and often heads of monasteries

Manhayana Buddhism

Literally the great Ox cart. This branch of Buddhism differs from Theravada Buddhism because it accommodates a greater number of people from all walks of life.

Four Sights

Old age, illness, death and a holy man

Anatma

The Buddhist doctrine of "no soul" or "not self" that means a permanent, unchanging, independent self does not exist, though people act as if it does. Ignorance of anatma causes suffering.

Middle way

The Buddhist teaching that liberation from samsura comes neither through severe ascetical practices nor through wild indulgences, but in the middle of the spectrum between those two opposites.

Pali Canon

The authoritative Buddhism scripture of Theravada Buddhists written in the Pali language, and important, but not definitive, for Mahayana Buddhists. Another name for the Tripitaka.

Pala Dynasty

The empire that controlled the Indian subcontinent from the eighth to twelfth centuries. The word pala means "protector."

Dalai Lama

The head lama of Tibetan Buddhism who was the spiritual and political leader of Tibet until its takeover by Chinese communist leaders and a forced exile to India.

Bodhi tree

The large, sacred fig tree at the Mahabodhi Temple at Bodh Gaya where Siddhartha the Buddha arrived at enlightenment.

Vajrayana Buddhism

Vajrayana Buddhism literally diamond vehicle it is the prominent branch of Buddhism in Tibet

Bodhisattva

a being that compassionately refrains from entering nirvana in order to save others and is worshipped as a deity in Mahayana Buddhism

ascetic

a person who renounces material comforts and practices extreme self-denial life.

Relics

items of religious devotion, especially a piece of the body or personal items of an important religious figure

Tripitaka

three baskets