Buddhism Worksheet Essay

1. Explain the basic Buddhist teachings including the three marks of reality, the Four Noble Truths, and the Noble Eightfold Path. Answer: The basic teachings of Buddhism are based around what are called the three jewels. The first is Buddha or an ideal human who others should imitate. The second is Dharma which is the Buddhist lessons on how to see things in a worldly manny. Finally, is Sangha which refers to the community of monks and nuns. The Buddha focused on two major things in his teachings how to reduce suffering in ourselves and others and how to attain inner peace. In the Buddhist teachings are cover the three realities which are change, identity, and suffering (Molloy, 2013). . The first which is constant change refers to the fact that the world is constantly changing around us. The second wenches lack of permanent identity refers to the fact that we are constantly changing as we age and go through the world learn new things and experiencing things. And finally of the presence of distress, Buddha states, we will always experience some sort of sorrow or dissatisfaction in our lives part of obtaining pe rsonal peace or inner peace is accepting that. Buddhist teachings also include worker hold four Noble truths. The first of the truths it is called â€Å"to live is to suffer†. The idea that suffering exists from day one being born causes pain and suffering, getting disease causes pain and suffering, the decay of time causes pain and suffering, and ultimately death causes pain and suffering. The point is that there are so many things going on in life that cause suffering and many of them cannot be avoided. The second truths is â€Å"suffering comes from desire†. There are many forms of suffering that comes from wanting something or thinking that something is necessary, suffering can also come from stress, hunger or other outside sources. Lastly, is â€Å"to end suffering, end desire†. The basic idea with this one is that we must shed all of your unnecessary wants and desires. It’s carried out to an  extreme with the monks who give up material possessions personal property personal wealth they go so far as to shave their heads slither completely bald and give up all connection to their lives before becoming monks. In the last of the Noble truths is â€Å"release from suffering is possible and can be obtained by following the eightfold path†. The idea here, I believe is pretty self-explanatory if you follow this path or recommendations on how to live as laid out by Buddha you will attain inner peace and move beyond the suffering of this world. 2. Describe the three major Buddhist traditions—Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana—and how each tradition developed from the early teachings. Answer: The first of the Buddhist traditions is Theravada whose name means the way of the elders. This group takes a very stark approach to Buddhist teachings they’re very conservative group their goal is to commute continue the tradition of passing Buddhist teachings from one generation to the next without changing them. Communities of monks who stress the ideal to reach enlightenment through meditation. Though the monks say that ordinary or sometimes referred to as laypeople can obtain nirvana the life of a monk is a sure path to obtaining it. The second of the three major schools is Mahayana; this name means the big vehicle. They stress that nirvana is obtainable by everyone and also that enlightenment is a call to compassion. Their order maintains that in order to save yourself you must save others. This group is thought to of been mostly Indian in origin and therefore included many of the practices of Indian culture because the attitudes of the early Buddhists did not always fulfill the religious needs of many people. This school of Buddhism is considered the source of some of the most extraordinary creations of the human mind in areas such as art, philosophy, architecture, psychology, and ceremony. The schools also very widespread in eastern Asia it spread in too many areas including China. The third school Buddhism is vajrayana, the name means time and vehicle. When my and Buddhism entered Tibet and blended with their shamanism the result was Tibetan Buddhism. Although vajrayana includes other forms of esoteric Buddhism Tibetan Buddhism is the most well-known. The first form of Buddhism entered Tibet was actually called Tantric Buddhism. This form of Buddhism opposed  the original detachment from the world and its negative attitude towards bodily pleasure they thought that the body and all of its energies can be used to reach enlightenment. References Molloy, M. (2013). Experiencing the world’s religions: Tradition, challenge, and change (6th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.