Practices

Question 1

What is a temple?

Answer 1

A place where Buddhists come together to practice

Question 2

What is a gompa?

Answer 2

A hall or building where tibetan Buddhists meditate

Question 3

What is a stupa?

Answer 3

A small building in a monastery that sometimes contains holy relics

Question 4

What is a shrine?

Answer 4

An area with a statue of the Buddha or Bodhisattva, which provides Buddhists with a focal point for meditation and devotion

Question 5

What is a Buddhist Rupa?

Answer 5

A statue of the Buddha, often sitting cross-legged in a meditation pose

Question 6

What is a monastery?

Answer 6

A place where Buddhist monks and nuns live

Question 7

What is the point of candles?

Answer 7

Symbolises wisdom because the candles drive away the darkness of ignorance

Question 8

What is the point of flowers?

Answer 8

Reminds Buddhists that all things are impermanent

Question 9

What is the point of incense?

Answer 9

Symbolises purity

Question 10

What does puja mean?

Answer 10

Puja means worship in pali

Question 11

What is the point of puja?

Answer 11

Puja allows Buddhists to express gratitude and acknowledge how important the Buddha is in their lives

Question 12

What is a mala?

Answer 12

A mala is a chain of beads to count recitation

Question 13

What is a mantra?

Answer 13

A sacred set of syllables

Question 14

What is bowing?

Answer 14

Bending the body three times in front of the shrine to symbolise the three jewel/refugees

Question 15

What are types of offering?

Answer 15

1. Flowers (impermanence)
2. Candles (wisdom)
3. Incense (purity)

Question 16

What is chanting?

Answer 16

Repeating a passage from Buddhist scripture

Question 17

What is meditation?

Answer 17

A spiritual practice of reflecting deeply on the Buddhas teachings and nature of reality

Question 18

How many beads does a mala have?

Answer 18

108

Question 19

What is a mala for?

Answer 19

To invoke the presence of Avalokiteshvara

Question 20

What is a sacred text?

Answer 20

A text containing the Buddhas teachings

Question 21

What are the two types of meditation?

Answer 21

1. Vipassana
2. Samatha

Question 22

What is vipassana meditation often called?

Answer 22

Insight mediation

Question 23

What does the word samatha translate to mean?

Answer 23

Calming

Question 24

What is a kasina?

Answer 24

A set of objects used during meditation

Question 25

What is samatha meditation preperation for?

Answer 25

Vipassana meditation

Question 26

What does Samatha meditation involve?

Answer 26

1. Focusing on breathing or a kasina (red dot to stare at) 2. Focuses on just one thing 3. By focusing on only one thing, the mind will become clear and free from thoughts, feelings and worries 4. Focuses on neutral objects 5. The aim of samatha is to find peacefulness

Question 27

What does Vipassana meditation involve?

Answer 27

1. Thinking about how to apply the Buddhas teachings to your life. 2. Focuses on personal things and experiences and considers your emotional response.

Question 28

What is the purpose of Vipassana meditation?

Answer 28

To understand the nature of reality, the three marks of existence, and to extinguish the three poisons

Question 29

What is the purpose of meditation?

Answer 29

1. Becoming aware of your body 2. Camly foucusing the mind of spiritual truths 3. Devloping a calm and still mind 4. Devleoping a greater understanding of Dhamma and the truth of life (three marks of existence)

Question 30

Impacts of meditation on Buddhists?

Answer 30

1. Identify suffering and craving in their lives 2. Help the develop positive qualities such as compassion and loving-kindness 3. Lead to skilful actions and reduce Dukkha

Question 31

What is visualisation?

Answer 31

1. Visualisation is a part of meditation 2. It requires the meditator to imagine an object in their mind 3. This acts as a point of focus during meditation 4. Some Buddhists belive that visualisaton helps to stimulate their Buddha-nature

Question 32

Who do tibetan Buddhists visualise?

Answer 32

1. Tibetan Buddhists often visualise a deity - someone who has reached nibanna 2. They will focus on its qualities and characteristics, in order to gain those qualities and become more like that deity themselves

Question 33

What is the medicine Buddha?

Answer 33

1. The medicine Buddha is the Buddha related to healing 2. Buddhist believe that visualising the Medicine Buddha will heal them and reduce their suffering, and may even increase their own healing powers 3.

Question 34

What is Wesak?

Answer 34

1. It is celebrated on the full moon during the month of Vesak 2. The festival celebrates the Buddha's birth, his enlightenment and his passing into parinirvana

Question 35

How is Wesak celebrated?

Answer 35

1. Providing offerings to monasteries 2. Singing traditional songs 3. Chanting the 5 moral precepts 4. Releasing caged animals to represent compassion

Question 36

What is parinirvana day?

Answer 36

1. It is a mahayana day of celebration that marks the Buddha's death 2. It is a chance to reflect on ones future death, and the passing of other loved ones 3. Mahayana Buddhists celebrate this day by taking part in a special puja which includes listening to passages from the Nirvana sutra 4. Some Buddhists go on pilgrimages to visit the Buddha's place of death

Question 37

What are the five moral precepts?

Answer 37

1. Do not kill 2. Do not steal 3. Do not comitt sexual midconduct 4. Abstain from wrong speach 5. Abstain from intoxicants that cloud the mind

Question 38

Why are retreats important for Buddhists?

Answer 38

1. Allows them to meditate without destractions - able to focus entirely on the teachings in the pali canon and devote all of their effors into practice 2. Allows Buddhists to escape every day lives - right mindfulness and right effort - 8 fold path