Study Guide Buddhism

Study Guide for Buddhism

Terms:

Buddha - is any being that has become fully enlightened, has permanently overcome anger, greed, and ignorance, and has achieved complete liberation from suffering, better known as Nirvana. It is commonly used to refer to Siddhartha Gautama, the historical founder of Buddhism.Buddha literally means awakened or that which has become aware.

Sharmana - wandering philisopher's.

Darshana - to include the viewing of a holy person, or image, as a religious act that brought special blessing. As the final, more philosophical part of the Vedas, the Upanishads, were written and contemplated, darshana went on to refer also to the different ways in which the Vedas could be viewed. The religious and philosophical

world view of the sharmana.

Nirvana - it denotes a condition of being devoid of passions such as lust, anger or craving and is thus a state of great inner peace and contentment. Nirvana is the abiding of a fully enlightened being in a state of pure awareness. state of deathlessness and as the highest spiritual attainment, the reward for one who lives a life of virtuous conduct

Anatta (Samsara) - is an adjective that specifies the absence of a supposedly permanent and unchanging self or soul in any one of the psycho-physical constituents of empirical existence.

Panna - wisdom, right thought, and right understanding.

Sila - the concept deals with the prohibitions against immoral behavior that are practiced by ordained laypeople, monks and nuns in Buddhism, adresses properactions

Samadhi - cconcentration, meditation, mental development. Developing one's mind is the path to wisdom which in turn leads to personal freedom. Mental development also strengthens and controls our mind; this helps us maintain good conduct.

Duhkka - suffering exists, suffering is real and almost universal. Suffering has many causes: loss, sickness, pain, failure, the impermanence of pleasure.

Bodhisattva - is a being who is dedicated to assisting all sentient beings in achieving complete Buddhahood. Conventionally, the term is applied to hypothetical beings with a high degree of enlightenment Those who aspire to Supreme Enlightenment and Buddhahood for themselves and all beings, also for anyone who has developed the aspiration to save oneself and others.

Adibuddha - this refers to a self-emanating, self-originating Buddha, present before anything else existed.

Arahat (Arhat) - strictly speaking, a synonym for Buddha and it is listed in the Pali scriptures as one of the ten epithets of a Buddha. In Theravвda Buddhism it is most commonly used to describe and refer to any completely enlightened disciple of the Buddha Siddhartha Gautama. In early Indian texts such as the Pali Canon, the stage of arhat is described as the final goal of Buddhist practice -- the attainment of complete and unexcelled Nirvвna.

Zen - is a branch of Mahayana Buddhism which strongly emphasizes the practice of meditation.

Satori - is a Zen Buddhist term for enlightenment. The word literally means "to understand refers to deep or lasting enlightenment. Satori can be found in every moment of life, it is wrapped in all daily activities, its goal to unwrap them to see satori.

Haiku - is a mode of Japanese poetry. A traditional haiku consists of a pattern of approximately 5, 7, and 5 morae, phonetic units which only partially correspond to the syllables of languages such as English. Often combine two (or rarely, three) different elements into a unified sensory impression, with a major grammatical break usually at the end of either the first five or second seven morae.

Stupas - The stupa is the earliest Buddhist religious monument and was originally only a simple mound made up of mud or clay, or a cairn in barren areas, to cover supposed relics of the Buddha. After the 'passing away' of the Buddha his remains were cremated and the ashes divided and buried under eight stupas with two further stupas encasing the urn and the embers.

Koan - is a story, dialog, question, or statement in the history and lore of Chan (Zen) Buddhism, generally containing aspects that are inaccessible to rational understanding, yet that may be accessible to intuition. A famous koan is, Two hands clap and there is a sound; what is the sound of one hand?

Zazen - The aim of Zazen is just sitting opening the hand of thought. The posture of zazen is seated, with folded legs and hands, and an erect but settled spine. The legs are folded in one of the standard sitting styles. The hands are folded together into a simple mudra over the belly. In many practices, one breathes from the hara (the center of gravity in the belly) and the eyelids are half-lowered, the eyes being neither fully open nor shut so that the practitioner is not distracted by outside objects but at the same time is kept awake.

1) Buddhist concept of God - that there is no intermediary between mankind and the divine; distant gods are subjected to karma themselves in decaying heavens; and the Buddha is solely a guide and teacher for the sentient beings who must tread the path of Nirvana themselves to attain the spiritual awakening called bodhi and see truth and reality as it is. The Buddhist system of insight, thought, and meditation practice was not revealed divinely,