Essential Concepts
What Does the Word Buddha Mean?
The word buddha comes from Sanskrit, an ancient Indian language. It means enlightened or awakened: awakened not just oneself but also awakening others; awakening to the knowledge and truth of all things at all times. Thus, a Buddha is sometimes called an omniscient human being or a “fully enlightened one.”
What is the fundamental doctrine of Buddhism?
That there are a vast number of Buddhist scriptures is well known. So no one can say definitively which sūtra or sūtras are representative of Buddhism. Largely for this reason many schools of Buddhism emerged in China, each based on the perspective of particular sūtras or treatises.
What is taking Refuge in the Three Jewels?
Taking refuge means returning, taking shelter, relying on, trusting. Any action that involves returning, depending, taking shelter, and trusting is considered taking refuge. This word is not exclusive to Buddhism.
Orthodox Buddhist Practices
What Methods of Spiritual Practice Do Buddhists Carry Out?
This is certainly a very important question. If one believes in Buddhism without practicing it in daily life, the only benefit one will acquire is the planting of a seed for future Buddhahood.
How does one become a Buddhist?
All Christian denominations, new or old, emphasize the importance of baptism. It is only after baptism that one formally becomes a Christian. For many Christian sects, the beliefs behind this ritual are similar to those of some Indian religions that superstitiously claim that bathing in a sacred river can cleanse one’s sins.
How Many Kinds of Buddhist Practitioners Are There?
according to the type of precepts they take, Buddhists are classified into the following nine ranks: upāsaka (Buddhist laymandisciple; C. jinshinan), upāsikā (Buddhist laywoman disciple; C. jinshinü), layman upholding the upavāsa precepts (jinzhunan), laywoman upholding the upavāsa precepts (jinzhunü), śrāmanera (novice monk; C.shami), śrāmanerikā (novice nun; C. shamini), śiksamānā (probationer; C. shichamona), bhiksu (monk; C. biqiu), and bhiksunī (nun; C. biqiuni).
Orthodox Buddhist Beliefs
Do Buddhists Believe That Merit Can Be Transferred to Other People?
Buddhists certainly believe that one can transfer merit accumulated by oneself to another person. Transference (S. parin āmana; C. huixiang) means to take something from oneself and direct it toward another or others. This operates through sympathetic resonance, which was mentioned in the previous entry.
Do Buddhists Believe in the Existence of the Soul?
Someone who believes in the reality of an eternal soul is not truly a Buddhist, but rather an outer-path adherent maintaining the existence of the self (shenwo waidao). Most people except materialists believe that everyone has an eternal, immutable soul.
Do Buddhists Believe That Repentance Is Effective?
While completed acts of killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, and major deception (falsely claiming that one is a noble one) will definitely bring about retribution for the perpetrator, other misdeeds, such as attempted offences, unintentional breaking of the precepts, and failures to follow the rules of dignified conduct [for monastics] can all be repented with all retribution dissolved in accordance with the methods prescribed by the Buddha.
Buddhist Philosophy and Terminology
Is Consciousness-Only the Same as Idealism?
In fact, philosophical idealism can be interpreted to encompass almost everything except materialism. For example, George Berkeley (1685–1753) can be considered a subjective idealist. Georg Hegel (1770–1831) may be regarded as an objective idealist, and Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) a volitional idealist. William James (1842–1910) may be considered an empirical idealist, and Henri-Louis Bergson (1859–1941) an intuitive idealist. And Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) can be classified as a skeptical idealist.
What Do Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna Refer To?
During the Buddha’s time, there was no distinction between the Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna. The Dharma is of one flavor; it’s just that different listeners understand it differently and attain different levels of realization. To listeners with shallow karmic capacity, the Buddha taught basic human ethics such as keeping the five precepts and practicing the ten good deeds, the so-called human and heavenly vehicles.
What does Pusa (Bodhisattva) Mean?
The Chinese word pusa is an abbreviated transliteration of the Sanskrit word bodhisattva. The complete transliteration should be putisadou. “Bodhi” means “awakened” or “enlightened” and “sattva “ means “sentient being refers to any form of life that can feel love and other emotions, mainly animals.