Aspects of Human Life

• Sunyata, Buddha-nature, and Buddhahood are key elements of Buddhist life
• Sunyata refers to 'emptiness'

  • Theravada Buddhists use it to refer to the non-self and also the meditative state/experience of an individual
  • Mahayana Buddhists use it to refer to the idea that 'all things are empty of intrinsic existence'


  intrinsic meaning belonging to real nature
• Buddha-nature is the belief that we all have the potential to become a Buddha
• Arhat - Theravada Buddhism - someone who is already enlightened and has achieved nibbana/nirvana

  • They are known as a 'perfected person'
  • Other schools may use the term to refer to people who are advanced along the path of Enlightenment but not yet achieved Buddhahood
• Bodhisattva - term for any individual who has the wish to reach Buddhahood
• Buddhahood - Mahayana Buddhism - the status of being a Buddha, an 'awakened one'
• Pure Land - branch of Buddhism common in Japan - focuses on the Amitabha Buddha, a celestial Buddha who is the principal Buddha of Pure Land Buddhism
• What is Buddhahood?

  The status of being a Buddha or 'awakened one'