Buddhism: Key Religious Concepts

What Buddhism: Key Religious Concepts covers

Buddhism: Key Religious Concepts is examined in AS Unit 1, An Introduction to the Study of Religion — the Buddhism option, studied instead of the other five. It covers the three lakshanas: dukkha, anicca and anatta, pratityasamutpada, karma and rebirth, arhat and bodhisattva and Debating the marks of existence, rebirth and the goals of the path.

The 4 subtopics

Each one has its own page. WJEC AS Religious Studies students sit this topic in the first year.

• The three lakshanas: dukkha, anicca and anattaThree lakshanas, connection the tradition draws between anicca and dukkha and what anatta denies and what it does not deny.Open →
• Pratityasamutpada, karma and rebirthDepicted at the hub of the bhavachakra, six realms shown in the bhavachakra and shown outside the wheel.Open →
• Arhat and bodhisattvaFour stages of Awakening recognised in the Theravada tradition, title arhat and bodhisattva as the Mahayana tradition uses the term.Open →
• Debating the marks of existence, rebirth and the goals of the pathRecall questions on whether the three lakshanas describe reality, the difficulty of anatta, karma and rebirth, dependent origination, silence about God, and the arhat and bodhisattva ideals.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Buddhism: Key Religious Concepts further

The same content, four other ways.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What are the three lakshanas?

   Model answer

   They are the three marks said to characterise all conditioned existence: dukkha, anicca and anatta.

2. 2

   Give the range of meaning covered by the term dukkha.

   Model answer

   It covers physical pain and grief, but also the frustration and unsatisfactoriness of experiences that cannot last or fully satisfy.

3. 3

   Why is dukkha often left untranslated rather than rendered as suffering?

   Model answer

   Suffering suggests only pain, whereas dukkha includes pleasant experiences that disappoint because they change and cannot be kept.

4. 4

   Which discourse contains the Buddha's first statement of dukkha, and where was it given?

   Model answer

   It is the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, delivered to the five former companions in the deer park at Isipatana.

5. 5

   According to that first discourse, what instances of dukkha does the Buddha list?

   Model answer

   He names birth, ageing, sickness, death, union with what is disliked, separation from what is loved, and not getting what one wants.

6. 6

   How does the first discourse sum up dukkha in a single phrase?

   Model answer

   It states that in brief the five aggregates of clinging are dukkha.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Buddhism: Key Religious Concepts revision questions

Is Buddhism: Key Religious Concepts examined at AS in WJEC Religious Studies?

Yes. It sits in AS Unit 1, which you take in the first year, so it is on the AS paper as well as counting towards the full A level.

What does Buddhism: Key Religious Concepts cover in WJEC AS-Level Religious Studies?

4 subtopics: the three lakshanas: dukkha, anicca and anatta, pratityasamutpada, karma and rebirth, arhat and bodhisattva and debating the marks of existence, rebirth and the goals of the path. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Buddhism: Key Religious Concepts organised?

By the WJEC 603-0277-X specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.