Buddhist Practices

• Temple


  Main place of worship for a Buddhist
• Stupa


  Representing this Buddha's mind, this building houses the relics of great practitioners of Buddhism
• Gompa


  Tibetan Temple
• Vihara


  The name of a Buddhist monastery where monks or nuns live
• Shrine


  Place where representations of Buddha's body, speech and mind are venerated
• Offerings


  In order to receive blessings Buddhists place offerings on the shrine to the Buddha
• Puja


  Buddhist prayers, chanted in the morning and the evening
• Meditation


  A mental practice aimed at developing the mind in a positive way
• Samatha


  Calm meditation. Buddhists learn to focus their attention on their breath or another object as a way of attaining a state of deep calm
• Vipassana


  Insight or clear seeing. In meditation a Buddhists learns to see the world as it really is once illusions have been calmed
• Visualisation


  Tibetan Buddhists use the powers of the imagination to attain enlightenment. By imagine they become Buddha they being to take on the Buddha's qualities
• Wesak


  Buddhist festival celebrating the three important events in Buddha's life: Birth, nirvana, parinirvana
• Parinirvana Day


  Buddhist festival celebrating Buddha's passing into final nirvana
• Sky burial


  The ritual in Tibet where the body of the deceased is dismembered and fed to vultures
• Tibetan Book of the Dead


  Guidelines for the state between two lives read to the dead shortly after death in Tibet
• Pure Land


  Buddhists of this school point the coffins of the dead in a western direction where Sukhavati is
• Metta


  Loving kindness. Buddhists cultivate a desire for all sentient beings to achieve permanent happiness
• Karuna


  Compassion, Buddhists strive to free all other sentient beings from suffering
• Five Precepts


  • Guidelines on living ethically followed by all Buddhists to support meditation and improve karma
• Six Perfections


  • Six key mental attainments which all Mahayana Buddhists attempt to embody
• Karma


  Means literally action. Suggests that all actions have a mirror like effect in future lives. So if you kill in this life you will be killed in a future life
• Framework for Evaluation questions:

  a. State your opinion

  b. Explain two or more arguments counter to your own.

  c. Explain your view countering these arguments

  d. Conclusion: brief summing up.
• Criteria for questions 3 and 4:

  2 marks for detailed explanation of each point

  1 mark for reference to scripture (Q4 only)