buddhist beliefs

• buddhism


  a religion founded 2500 years ago by siddartha gautama
• Buddha


  A title given to someone who has achieved enlightenment; usually used to refer to Siddhartha Gautama
• the four sights


  Old age, illness, death and a holy man; these four sights led the Buddha to leave his life of luxury in the palace
• jataka


  The Jataka tales are popular stories about the lives of the Buddha
• ascetic


  living a simple and strict lifestyle with few pleasures or possessions someone who follows ascetic practices
• meditiation


  a practice of calming and focussing the mind and reflecting deeply on the specific teachings to penetrate their true meaning
• enlightenment


  the gaining of true knowledge about your self or the nature of reality usually through meditation and self discipline in buddhists Hindu and Sikh traditions gaining freedom from the cycle of rebirth
• mara


  A demon that represents spiritual obstacles, especially temptation
• the three watches of the night

  The three realisations that the Buddha made in order to achieve enlightenment
• the five ascetics


  The Buddha's first five students; five monks who followed ascetic practices
• dharma


  the teachings of the Buddha
• pali


  the language of the earlier buddhist scriptures
• sanskrit


  The language used in later Indian Buddhist texts
• dependant arising


  the ideas that all things arise in dependence upon conditions
• the tibetan wheel of life


  An image that symbolises samsara, often found in Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and temples
• Nidanas


  12 factors that illustrate the process of birth, death and rebirth
• samsara


  The repeating cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth
• kamma


  A person's actions; the idea that skilful actions result in happiness and unskilful ones in suffering
• nibanna


  a state of complete enlightenment happiness and peace
• dukkha


  the first noble truth there is suffering
• anicca


  impermanence the idea that everything changes
• anatta


  the idea that people don't have a permanent self or soul
• Five Aggregates


  the five aspected that make up a person
• the four noble truths

  what the buddha taught about suffering
• dukkha


  The first noble truth; there is suffering
• Samudaya


  The second noble truth: there are causes of suffering
• Nirodha


  The third noble truth; suffering can be stopped
• magga


  The fourth noble truth; the way to stop suffering; the Eightfold Path
• Theravada Buddhism


  The school of the elders; an ancient Buddhist tradition found in Southern Asia
• Mahayana Buddhism


  An umbrella term to describe some later Buddhist traditions, including Pure Land Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism and Zen Buddhism
• tanha


  craving
• the theee posions


  greed hatred and ignorance
• nibbana


  A state of complete enlightenment, happiness and peace
• Eightfold Path


  eight aspects that Buddhists practise and live by in order to achieve enlightenment
• the threefold way


  The Eightfold Path grouped into the three sections of ethics, meditation and wisdom
• Ethics (sila)


  A section of the threefold way that emphasises the importance of skilful action as the basis for spiritual progress
• meditation samadhi


  A section of the threefold way that emphasises the role of meditation in the process of spiritual development
• Wisdom (panna)


  A section of the threefold way that deals with Buddhist approaches to understanding the nature of reality
• sunyata


  Emptiness; the concept that nothing has a separate independent self or soul
• Buddha Nature


  The idea that everyone has the essence of a Buddha inside them