Context

Question 1

Which country had a lot of religious variety?

Answer 1

India

Question 2

What did this religious variety lead to?

Answer 2

A wider variety of worldviews and perspectives.

Question 3

How did people use their spirituality?

Answer 3

People expected it to influence their daily lives positively.

Question 4

Who was Buddha?

Answer 4

Siddhartha Gautama - He was born into the Hindu culture

Question 5

What did the term Hinduism refer to?

Answer 5

The Indus Valley People

Question 6

What did Hindu culture contain?

Answer 6

Social hierarchies, core religious values and life expectations

Question 7

What did the Buddha become?

Answer 7

A wandering holy man

Question 8

Is a lot known about Buddha?

Answer 8

No, little is known about him apart from later texts etc

Question 9

What was the social revolution that occurred during Buddha’s time?

Answer 9

There was growing opposition to the caste system in India
There was the Aryan Invasion of the Indus Valley

Question 10

What did the west bring?

Answer 10

Vedas - strict religious ruling.

Question 11

What is the caste system?

Answer 11

A social hierarchy comprised of each type of group in India.

Question 12

Who were at the top of the hierarchy?

Answer 12

Brahmins

Question 13

Who were Brahmins?

Answer 13

Priests who controlled the people in terms of traditions and social order

Question 14

Who were the Kshatriya?

Answer 14

They were warriors who had a duty to fight for justice and protect the commoners - They challenged the Brahmins.

Question 15

What was the religious setting during Buddha’s time?

Answer 15

Brahminism was the principle expression based on written rules and complicated rituals

Question 16

What activity shifted from sacrifices to…? Why?

Answer 16

Meditation - There was more of an idea around mental focus.

Question 17

What was also a developing belief?

Answer 17

Karma

Question 18

What did the tensions mean for religious groups?

Answer 18

They rejected religious authority of the Brahmins and formed wandering holy men to find answers to ultimate questions.

Question 19

What were the different types of early Buddhism?

Answer 19

Jainism - the existence of a life essence and the concept of pacifism was developed

Question 20

What was the existence of a life essence called?

Answer 20

Jiva

Question 21

Who rejected the idea of karma and replaced it with destiny?

Answer 21

Gosala

Question 22

Who were the materialists? How were the skeptics different

Answer 22

They were empiricists who focused on celebrating life.

The skeptics weighed things up instead of having particular teachings.

Question 23

What are the 2 branches of Buddhism?

Answer 23

Theravada and Mahayana

Question 24

What is Theravada Buddhism?

Answer 24

The most commonly accepted school of thought of Buddhism - the common vehicle

Question 25

What did they focus on?

Answer 25

Teachings of the elders

Question 26

What is the Pāḷi Canon?

Answer 26

The only complete Buddhist canon in Hindi.

Question 27

What is Mahayana Buddhism?

Answer 27

The great vehicle They focused on Buddhist, traditions, texts, philosophies and practices developed in ancient India.

Question 28

What did the Mahayanas do to the original canon?

Answer 28

Added some discourse towards it which led to small but long term significance historically.

Question 29

What did the Mahayanas teach regarding lifetime?

Answer 29

Enlightenment can be achieved by anyone person regardless.

Question 30

What is the definition of Hagiography?

Answer 30

A religious biography that is not historical fact but an idealised story bringing out the significance of the person representing the religion.

Question 31

Who claimed that the Buddha's story was a hagiography?

Answer 31

Paul Williams

Question 32

What did Williams believe?

Answer 32

It should be how it is read that is more important that specific details.

Question 33

What did the presence of myth make the hagiography?

Answer 33

Added to the validity of a hagiographic story because of the involvement of the supernatural.

Question 34

What did the Buddha say regarding the Dhamma?

Answer 34

"He who sees the Dhamma sees me, and who sees me sees the Dhamma"

Question 35

What is the sasana?

Answer 35

Teachings

Question 36

“The effectiveness of the Dhamma does not itself depend on the discovery by Buddha” Why?

Answer 36

Teachings can be effective regardless of if they were self-discovered or discovered by Buddha and therefore shows that Buddha is helpful to give further context and understanding to the hagiography but not essential.