levo

Buddhism: Buddhist Beliefs

The Five Khandas, Buddha-nature and the Arahant and Bodhisattva ideals

  • 3 things to know
  • Any of the three papers

Overview

The Khandha Sutta and why the aggregates are taught, sunnata, tathagatagarbha and debates over Buddha-nature, the Arahant and the Bodhisattva, Buddhahood, the Pure Land, and Amitabha's vows.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Key term

Name the Five Khandas.

Key term

What does the Khandha Sutta teach about the aggregates?

Key term

Why do Buddhists teach about the Five Khandas?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Name the Five Khandas.

    Model answer

    The Five Khandas are form (rupa), feeling (vedana), perception (sanna), mental formations (sankhara) and consciousness (vinnana).

  2. 2

    What does the Khandha Sutta teach about the aggregates?

    Model answer

    The Khandha Sutta defines each aggregate, whether past, present or future, inside or outside the person. The sutta separates the aggregates themselves from the aggregates as objects of clinging.

  3. 3

    Why do Buddhists teach about the Five Khandas?

    Model answer

    The khandas show that a person is made of changing parts with no fixed self behind them. Knowledge of the khandas weakens clinging to "me" and "mine".

  4. 4

    How do Theravada and Mahayana Buddhists differ over the khandas?

    Model answer

    Theravada Buddhists analyse the khandas to show that a person lacks a self. Mahayana texts such as the Heart Sutra go further, teaching that the khandas themselves are empty.

  5. 5

    What is sunnata?

    Model answer

    Sunnata means emptiness. All things are empty of any fixed, independent existence because they arise from causes and conditions.

  6. 6

    What is tathagatagarbha?

    Model answer

    Tathagatagarbha, or Buddha-nature, is the teaching that every being has the potential to become a Buddha. The word means the "womb" or "embryo" of a Buddha.

Other ways to work this

The same content, four other ways.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

1Closed book
2Open book
3Closed book

See a huge jump in your memorisation

Answer cold, learn it, then prove it stuck. Levo tracks the jump between your first attempt and your last.

Catholic Christianity: Catholic Beliefs
Catholic Christianity: Living the Catholic Life
Catholic Christianity: Marriage and the Family
Catholic Christianity: Matters of Life and Death

Cram a whole paper in one sitting

Sort every topic into what you know and what you do not, then drill only the weak ones.

The Act also made compulsory.
monogamypolygamydivorce

Blank Blitz consolidates the facts

Rapid timed gap-fills on the terms and numbers you need to recall without thinking.

AOmnipotent means all-powerful.
BBenevolent means all-loving and wholly good.
CEternal means existing without beginning or end.

Build It trains answer structure

Assemble a full-mark answer from its marking points, in the order an examiner wants them.

Miri means worldly or political authority.
TrueFalse

Test It catches misconceptions

Spot the fault in a statement. The traps are the mistakes students actually make.

721941163128510

Brain Breaks between sessions

Short focus games to reset attention, so the next set lands better than the last.

Every question in Buddhism: Buddhist Beliefs, on a schedule.

Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.

Or £46 a year, about £3.83 a month. Cancel anytime.