Asian Philosophy Final
Which Gods play a major role in the Rig Veda?
Indra, Vac, and Soma
True or False: In Buddhism, the three lower realms of existence in Samsara are animals, humans, and hell beings, and the three higher realms in Samsara are gods, Arhats, and Buddhas.
False, because in Buddhism, the three lower realms of existence in Samsara are animals, hungry ghosts, and hell beings, and the three higher realms in Samsara are humans, gods, and jealous demigods (asura)
True or False: According to Theraveda buddhism, there is no sense in which Nirvana (Nibbana) can be experienced in this life; it can only be experienced after one has died.
False, because one can experience "Nirvana with remainder of karmic conditioning" in this life
What are the three aspects of Concentration/Mental Discipline in the Eightfold Path?
Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, Right Concentration
The Concentration or Mental Discipline section of the Eightfold Path includes...
Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration
The Morality of Ethical Conduct section of the Eightfold Path contains Right Action as well as...
Right Speech and Right Livelihood
What are the three aspects of Morality/Ethical Conduct in the Eightfold Path?
Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood
The Wisdom section of the Eightfold Path includes Right View/Understanding and...
Right Thought/Intention
What are the two aspects of Wisdom in the Eightfold Path?
Right View/Understanding, Right Thought/Intention
True or False: The Bhagavad Gita's teaching of karma yoga seeks to reconcile the Vedic morality of action according to dharma with the Upanishadic spirituality of liberation by means of renunciation. In effect, it is a teaching of spiritual renunciation and liberation in the midst of dutiful action.
True
True or False: The twelve links of the Wheel of Interdependent Arising are meant to show how life in Samsara is a self-perpetuating cycle of ignorance, craving, and suffering.
True
True or False: Traditions of Mahayana Buddhism such as Zen maintain that the anatman (no-self) doctrine is compatible with a doctrine of the "true self" or "great self," a freely and compassionately acting self that is ungraspable as an object yet awakened to its interconnectedness with the entire universe.
True
True or False: In Chapter 2 of the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna first teaches in terms of Upanishadic spirituality, but then abruptly switches to teaching in terms of Vedic morality. Then, after criticizing the limits of the latter, he first introduces the synthetic teaching of karma yoga.
True
What are the Three Poisons?
Hate (Aversion), Delusion (Ignorance), Greed (Grasping)
At the end of the Bhagavad Gita, what does Arjuna do in response to Krishna's teachings?
He fights
What language are the Theraveda Sutras (Suttas) written in?
Pali
Brahman
Ultimate Reality, the divine "One" underlying the entire universe
What are the "three marks (or characteristics) of existence"?
anatman, duhkha (dukkha), impermanence
What are the Three Marks of Existence?
anitya/anicca, duhkha/dukkha, anatman/anatta
Sat-Chit-Ananda
being, consciousness, and bliss; qualities of Saguna Brahman
How does Shankara argue against asatkaryavada?
by saying that it implies that something could come from nothing
Upanishadic spirituality, with its emphasis on the oneness of life, calls into question...
caste discrimination
ishta devata
chosen deity; the "face of God" that a Hindu person, family, or community chooses to devote themselves to
What are the "four sights (or signs, encounters)" which led Siddartha to leave home and search of spiritual liberation?
corpse, old man, sick man, a recluse (spiritual seeker)
What does the Pali word "Tanya" (Sanskrit: trishna) mean?
craving (literally "thirst")
It is likely that the Pre-Aryan Indus Valley civilization contributed the practice of ____ ____ to the Hindu Tradition
dhyana yoga
What analogies are used by Shankara to argue his view?
differently shaped clay figures are made of the same clay, realizing that what you saw as a snake is really a rope, and waking up from a dream
Madhva argues that selves and things are...
distinct, separate, and eternally different substances
The metaphysics implied in the practice of Bhakti is a...
dualism in which there is a complete identification of Atman and Brahman with distinction
What is the term for Concentration/Mental Discipline?
samadhi
What is Karma in Buddhism?
volitional act
What are the Four Noble Truths?
Dukkha, Samudaya, Nirodha, Magga
True or False: In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna teaches Arjuna to exclusively practice karma yoga, and to reject the paths of dhyana yoga and bhakti yoga?
False
True or False: The Rig veda was written down by the pre-Aryan peoples of the Indus Civilization, and it first developed the idea that all karma binds ones to samsara.
False
True or False: In the "theophany" (God-showing) in Chapter 11 of the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna realizes that Brahman is his own Atman, and so Ishvara is nothing to be feared.
False, because Arjuna shrinks back in terror from the overwhelming majesty of Krishna
Easwaran and Gandhi think the war in the Bhagavad Gita should be understood...
metaphorically as an inner struggle within oneself between good and evil or between the higher and lower aspects of the self
Shankara argues that, analogous to the manner in which we wake up from dreams, we could...
wake up to turiya, the fourth and ultimate state of consciousness
Martha
wealth and worldly success; one of the four aims of life (along with kama, dharma, and moksha)
What are the terms that belong primarily to the early Vedic worldview?
yajna, dharma, rita
What are the three kinds of craving?
for sense pleasures (Kama), for existence [of the ego], for non-existence (self-annihalation)
According to Rahula, Buddhism is unique among religions in that it rejects...
the ideas of God and an eternal soul
What are the two schools of Mahayana Buddhism?
Pure Land and Zen
What is anitya/anicca?
impermanence or incessant change
What is the term for Morality/Ethical Conduct?
shila
Ishvara
"Lord," used to address Ultimate Reality in terms of a Personal God
What is Vajrayana called?
"diamond vehicle"; Tantric Buddhism
What does Nirvana mean?
"extinction" or literally "blowing out" the flame of craving
What is Mahayana called?
"great vehicle"
The quest to _____ ______ is central to any philosophical and religious traditions around the world
"know thyself"
Vishishtadvaita
"qualified non dualism"; Ramanuja's school of Vedanta philosophy
tat-tvam-asi
"that you are" (or "that thou art"), meaning that your true Self (Atman) is identical with Brahman, and thus that at the core of your being you are essentially at one with everything and everyone in the universe
When and where is Mahayana found?
100 BCE, based on new Sutras; East Asia
When and where is Theravada found?
380 BCE as "Hinayana" ("small vehicle"); Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, and other Southeast Asian countries
Roughly when did Siddartha Gautama live?
500 BCE
When and where is Vajrayana found?
500 CE, based on new Sutras; found in Tibetan Buddhism in India and Nepal; an extension of Mahayana
Approximately when were the main Upanishads written?
800-400 BCE
How is Henotheism in Hinduism understood?
As the idea that there are many "faces" of the one God
What are the names of the three faces of the Trimurti?
Brahma Vishnu Shiva
What are the three qualities attributed to Saguna Brahman in Advaita Vedanta?
Sat Chit Ananda (or Saccidananda)
Who is the "paradoxical God," the cosmic dancer and the immobile yogi, the "great ascetic" who is also symbolized by the lingam?
Shiva
What is Theravada called?
Sthaviravada; "way of the elders"
What is the often-repeated phrase in the Chandogya Upanishad that literally translates to "That thou art" or "You are That," and that means that Atman is brahman?
Tat tvam asi
Which tradition of Buddhism does Walpola Rahula represent?
Theravada Buddhism
What are the three main traditions of Buddhism?
Theravada, Mahayana, Vajrayana
What are the Three Threads of the Hindu tradition?
Vedic Ritualism/Morality, Upanishadic Spirituality, Puranic Devotionalism
The concept of "interdependent arising" implies...
an "ontological middle way" between the extremes of eternalize/substantialism and nihilism/annihilationism
Krishna
an avatar of Vishnu, who comes to reestablish dharma in the world; in the Bhagavad Gita, he reveals himself to Arjuna as the Lord and as "the Self in the heart of every creature"
What is the basic formula for suffering (duhkha) according to Buddhism?
craving for a permanent and independent self (atman) + really of impermanence and lack of a permanent and independent self (anatman) = suffering (dukkha)
The anatman doctrine ____ the real existence of an independent and permanent ego, and ____ to annihilate this (nonexistent) ego is one of the types of craving that...
denies; craving; binds us to Samsara
What is Ramanuja's "white haired teacher" argument meant to demonstrate?
how everything I ultimately a quality of the one underlying substance of reality
What does Shankara think is the ultimate means to moksha?
jnana
What are the Four Life Aims in Hinduism?
kama, artha, dharma, moksha
Trimurti
literally "three forms," this term indicates the "Hindu Trinity" of Brahma (creator), Vishnu (preserver), and Shiva (destroyer/regenerator)
According to the orthodox interpretation, the war in the Bhagavad Gita should be understood _____, and it is the ____ of a member of the _____ caste to fight in a just war
literally; dharma; kshatriya
What are the Five Aggregates (Skandhas)?
material forms, sensations, perceptions, volitions, consciousness
What are the terms that belong primarily to the Upanishadic worldview?
maya, moksha, yoga
In Upanishadic spirituality, which phrase corresponds to the via negative of Christian negative theology?
neti, neti
What is anatman/anatta?
no-self or egolessness
dharma
one's personal ethical duty in maintaining or "upholding" the moral order
"You, oh Agni, are Indra" is a quote from...
the Rig Veda
What does Madhva say that all knowledge is based upon?
perception
What is the term for Wisdom?
prajna
What Sanskrit phrase gets variously translated as "interdependent arising," "interdependent origination," and "conditioned genesis"?
pratitya-samutpada
Purusha
pure spirit or consciousness; the eternal and unchanging "witness" of the transient manifold of mental and physical phenomena
Which guna refers to the quality of passionate energy, conscious but uncontrolled and egocentric activity?
rajas
The Buddha _____ the authority of the Vedas, including the Upanishads.
rejected
The Middle Way ____ both extreme hedonism and extreme asceticism
rejects
yajna
sacrifice or ritual; in the early vedas, refers to literal rituals of sacrifice; in the Upanishads, the notion of sacrifice is "interiorized" such that worldly attachments of the ego are sacrificed for the sake of Self-realization
In the Chandogya Upanishad, what metaphors does Uddalaka use to teach Shvetaketu about Brahman?
salt in water, clay and things made out of clay, and rivers and the sea
karma
self-determining action; the web of actions and their effects; especially those actions which enmesh living beings in the cycle of birth and death
Where does one find panentheism in the Hindu tradition?
the Sacrifice of Primal Man cosmogony in the Rig Veda, Ramanuja's Vishishtadvaita Vedanta, and Chapter 11 of the Bhagavad Gita
yoga
spiritual discipline(s) leading to Moksha
What are the four life stages in Hinduism in order?
student, householder, forest, dweller, renouncer
What is dukhka/dukkha?
suffering or unsatisfactoriness
What are the three pramanas?
testimony, perception, reasoning (inference)
Maya
the "dream of waking life"; the creative ("magic") power that makes the primal Oneness of Ultimate Reality appear as the multiplicity of separate beings
turiya
the "fourth" state of consciousness; the pure awareness that both transcends and underlies waking, dreaming, and deep sleep
kshatriya
the "guardian" (warriors, rulers) caste/class
What are the Three Jewels?
the Buddha, the Dharma, the Sangha
In his first sermon, what did the Buddha teach?
the Middle Way (Middle Path) and the Four Noble Truths
Samsara
the cycle of birth and death; the transitory and ultimately unsatisfactory world of the birth, decay, death, and rebirth of the finite ego
asatkaryavada
the doctrine that "the effect does not preexist in the cause"; one of the theories of causality that Shankara criticizes
sattva
the guna of harmony, equilibrium, self-control, detachment, light, purity, goodness
tamas
the guna of inertia, ignorance, unconscious instinct, darkness
rajas
the guna of passionate energy, conscious but uncontrolled and egocentric activity
The Sacrifice of Primal Man cosmogony in the Rig Veda supports...
the idea of dividing society up into different castes
Prakriti
the mind/energy/matter continuum of the psycho-physical world, as distinct from the "witness" (pure spirit or consciousness) of this world
brahmin
the priestly caste/class who are in charge of performing the Vedic rituals
Whereas Greek philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle thought that philosophy begins in wonder and with the desire for knowledge, Asian philosophers have tended to be motivated primarily by...
the problem of suffering
In Sankhya philosophy, Prakriti refers to...
the psycho-physical world of made up of the gunas
karma yoga
the spiritual discipline of action (selfless service)
jnana yoga
the spiritual discipline of knowledge or mystical insight
dhyana yoga
the spiritual discipline of meditation
Moksha
the spiritual liberation that is life's supreme goal; releasement from the cycle of birth and death, and union with Brahman
gunas
the three "qualities" (or "strands") that make up the fabric of prakriti (the psycho-physical world); every state of mind or matter is a combination of these three qualities
Atman
the true Self, which, according to many Upanishads, is identical with Brahman
