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Flip to reveal answersHow does the guide describe religious experience in each branch?
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All 8 Flashcards — Religious experience
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Question
How does the guide describe religious experience in each branch?
Answer
Theravada: all boys spend some time in a monastery, and monastic life is the ideal. Mahayana: daily puja and service to monks. Vajrayana: learning from lamas.
Question
What does the guide say about meditation among ordinary Buddhists?
Answer
That the monks meditate but most Buddhists do not — they venerate the Buddha.
Question
What is bhavana?
Answer
Mental discipline, or meditation as formal training. One of the guide's key Buddhist concepts, and chiefly monastic.
Question
How does the guide define conversion in Buddhism?
Answer
As realising that all is maya, practising non-attachment, and moving towards nirvana — a turn within a life rather than a change of membership.
Question
Name the female bodhisattvas the guide mentions.
Answer
The Taras. The guide also names Avalokiteshvara, Amitabha and Manjushri among prominent bodhisattvas.
Question
What does the guide say about the Buddha and gender?
Answer
That in Theravada tradition the Buddha is described as male in previous lives, and that women are sometimes presented negatively in scripture — with reproduction linked to samsara and sexuality to desire.
Question
What does the guide say has changed?
Answer
That change is occurring in contemporary modern society — full bhikkhuni ordination has been restored by some Theravada communities and contested by others.
Question
Give the sharpest internal contrast on meditation within Mahayana.
Answer
Ch'an and Zen centre meditation over textual study; Pure Land centres devotion to Amitabha. Two offshoots of one branch at opposite ends.
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