Human life - Buddhist beliefs - Edexcel - GCSE Religious Studies Revision - Edexcel - BBC Bitesize (2024)

FAQs

What do GCSE Buddhists believe in? ›

Buddhists believe that there are guiding principles that help them achieve enlightenment. The teachings of the Buddha are central to Buddhist beliefs and ways of life. Their worship may focus on meditation, chanting and spending time with other Buddhists to incorporate these teachings into daily life.

The precepts are commitments to abstain from killing living beings, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying and intoxication. Within the Buddhist doctrine, they are meant to develop mind and character to make progress on the path to enlightenment.

Theravada Buddhists believe that the human personality is made up of what are called the Five Aggregates (also called skandhas close five Khandas (or skandhas)The five components or aggregates that make an individual self - body, perception, conception, volition, and consciousness., meaning collections or groups).

Theravada Buddhists believe that an Arhat is someone who has reached enlightenment and ended their suffering by following the path taught by the Buddha.

The Seven Factors of Awakening are seven mental capacities so valued as part of Buddhist practice that they are known as “inner wealth.” These factors are mindfulness, investigation, energy, joy, tranquility, concentration, and equanimity.

Buddhism. Observant Buddhists typically avoid consuming alcohol (surāmerayamajja, referring to types of intoxicating fermented beverages), as it violates the 5th of the Five Precepts, the basic Buddhist code of ethics and can disrupt mindfulness and impede one's progress in the Noble Eightfold Path.

Some Buddhists avoid meat consumption because of the first precept in Buddhism: "I undertake the precept to refrain from taking life". Other Buddhists disagree with this conclusion. Many Buddhist vegetarians also oppose meat-eating based on scriptural injunctions against flesh-eating recorded in Mahayana sutras.

Women were encouraged to become Buddhists, but had a longer initiation period to become a nun and had to follow more rules than the men. They were not believed until later to be capable of achieving complete self-enlightenment.

Is it better to be a bodhisattva or an arhat? ›

It depends on what your goal is. If you want to achieve nirvana for yourself, then you should strive to become an arhat. If you want to help others achieve nirvana, then you should strive to become a bodhisattva.

The state of an arhat is considered in the Theravada tradition to be the proper goal of a Buddhist.

Buddhists believe that human life is a cycle of suffering and rebirth, but that if one achieves a state of enlightenment (nirvana), it is possible to escape this cycle forever. Siddhartha Gautama was the first person to reach this state of enlightenment and was, and is still today, known as the Buddha.

We try to live by the principle of 'ahimsa', which means non-violence or non-harming. And Buddhism teaches that life begins at conception. So barrier methods of contraception are accepted, non-barrier methods are generally not.

When a Buddhist meditates, they believe that they can see things as they really are. This allows them to gain realisation and understand the impermanence of things and the nature of reality. It is not just about focusing on breathing - it is also about focusing on exploration.

“It is impossible to be enlightened without following The Eightfold Path.” 2. “There are no enlightened beings, only enlightened actions.” 3. “The Eightfold Path is the most important ethical teaching in Buddhism.” 4. “Moral conduct is essential to know and understand The Ultimate Truth.” 5.