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Flip to reveal answersName the Three Jewels and what each is.
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All 10 Flashcards — Statements of belief
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Question
Name the Three Jewels and what each is.
Answer
Buddha (the enlightened one), dhamma/dharma (the teachings, and the truth) and sangha (the community — monastic and lay). A Buddhist takes refuge in them.
Question
Why is the third Jewel a community rather than a text?
Answer
Because the teaching is held to need a community to carry it — which is also why the Vinaya stands first in the Pali Canon.
Question
State the Four Noble Truths as a chain.
Answer
Existence is unsatisfactory; its cause is craving; if the cause is removed the effect ceases; and a method for removing it exists — the Noble Eightfold Path.
Question
Why is the Eightfold Path called the Middle Way?
Answer
Because it avoids both indulgence and extreme self-denial.
Question
How do the Three Marks relate to each other?
Answer
Nothing stays (anicca), so clinging sets a person up for loss (dukkha), and there is no unchanging self that the loss happens to (anatta).
Question
What are the skandhas?
Answer
The five aggregates a person is composed of — form, sensation, perception, mental formations and consciousness. Nothing sits behind them.
Question
What is dependent origination for?
Answer
It explains how one state gives rise to the next, so a process can continue across lives without any permanent self travelling — Buddhism's answer to the objection anatta invites.
Question
Name the Three Poisons.
Answer
Ignorance, desire and aversion.
Question
What does Mahayana add to the eschatology?
Answer
The bodhisattva — attainment of nirvana not for oneself but Buddhahood for the sake of others — with Avalokiteshvara, Amitabha, Manjushri and the Taras named, and Buddhas in other realms.
Question
What are the lokas, and why do they matter?
Answer
Thirty-one planes of existence within three realms. All of them are inside samsara, so a heavenly rebirth is a better turn of the wheel rather than an escape from it.
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