World Religions Buddhism, Sikhism, Daoism, Confucianism Discuss the birth story of the Buddha as it is told today, including symbolic elements and the meaning of the symbols. Discuss the “Four Passing...

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World Religions
Buddhism, Sikhism, Daoism, Confucianism

  1. Discuss the birth story of the Buddha as it is told today, including symbolic elements and the meaning of the symbols.

  2. Discuss the “Four Passing Sights” and why they convinced Siddhartha that he needed to leave his family and embark on a spiritual journey. What did he learn about impermanence and suffering from the Four Passing Sights? Discuss the experiences in Siddhartha’s life that brought him to reject extremes and come to a belief in the “Middle Way.”

  3. List and discuss Buddha’s “Four Noble Truths,” including the Noble Eight-fold path. You do not need to list all eight elements of the Eight-fold path, but indicate the three main topics that it covers and what is taught in each section. What is meant by “suffering”?To what extent do you find this an adequate description of the causes and cure for suffering? Explain.

  4. Compare Theravada and Mahayana forms of Buddhism. What are differences in understanding the God and the interpretation of the Buddha? What is the role of a Bodhisattva in Mahayana Buddhism? Discuss the primary focus of Pure Land Buddhism. What is the role of a koan in Zen Buddhism? What is the color of the wind?

  5. How might one’s approach to work, material wealth, and natural resources be focused differently if one were to use a Buddhist lens?

  6. Discuss Thich Nhat Hanh’s approach to meditation (mindful breathing, mouth yoga and telephone meditation) and to conflict resolution. What is the role of compassionate listening? How might a cell phone or some other technology remind you to, “Stop your thinking, stop your talking, and come back to the island of self”? Discuss what he means by “Buddha nature” and how that relates to you.

  7. Relate the story of Guru Nanak and the origins of Sikhism. Discuss Hindu and Muslim elements that are part of Sikhism today, and ways that Sikhism differs from Hinduism and Islam.

  8. What is the relative size of Sikhism as a world religion today?

  9. What four changes did Guru Gobind Singh introduce into Sikhism? What are the 5 K’s? (You may use the English names.)

  10. What are the three complementary traditions that are found in China, and what is the distinct importance/function of each tradition?

  11. Discuss the meaning of yin/yang. Explain what it might mean to say that Daoism and Confucianism are like yin and yang to each other.

  12. How would you describe the Dao? Explain several of the common images of the Dao found in the Dao de Jing. Discuss the principle of wu wei and how one might apply it. To what extent do you think Daoist principles are compatible with or in contrast to the primary culture of the United States?

  13. Relate a summary of Confucius’s life story, explaining some of the major defining events of his life. In what ways does he exemplify the “Perfect Person”?

  14. What was the problem that Confucius identified in his society, and how did he propose to address it? What do you see as the ultimate goal of Confucius’ teachings?

  15. Discuss four virtues that are taught in Confucian ethics, including the Five Constant Relationships. How might the culture of the United States be changed if these four virtues would be given primary focus in society?



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Answered Same DayDec 31, 2021

Answer To: World Religions Buddhism, Sikhism, Daoism, Confucianism Discuss the birth story of the Buddha as it...

David answered on Dec 31 2021
115 Votes
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1. Discuss the birth story of the Buddha as it is told today, including symbolic elements
and the meaning of the symbols.
The birth story of Buddha is enveloped with symbolic and mysterious elements. It has been
conveyed that before the birth of Lord Buddha his mother Queen Maya had a dream of four
angels carrying her high up into snowcapped mountain peaks and she herself is being clothed by
them in flowers and these angels were accompanied by a white bull elephant bearing a white
louts in its trunk approaching Queen Maya and walking around
her for three times (O’Brien,
n.d.). The Queen was mesmerized in her dream to found that the elephant vanished within her.
Moreover, it has also been said that after birth Lord Buddha took seven steps and proclaimed his
divinity. All these aspects presented through the story of the dream actually are symbolic. The
white elephant represented fertility and wisdom, the lotus represented enlightenment and the
white lotus specifically represented spiritual purity, whereas, the seven steps taken by Buddha
denoted the spread of his message in seven directions including north, south, east, west, up,
down, and here (O’Brien, n.d.).
2. Discuss the “Four Passing Sights” and why they convinced Siddhartha that he needed to
leave his family and embark on a spiritual journey. What did he learn about
impermanence and suffering from the Four Passing Sights? Discuss the experiences in
Siddhartha’s life that brought him to reject extremes and come to a belief in the
“Middle Way.”
Out of curiosity Prince Siddhartha (the real name of Lord Buddha) asked a charioteer to take him
on a visit through the countryside. But it was during this ride that the Prince was shocked by four
passing sights including the sight of an aged man, a sick man, and a corpse and finally the sight
of a wandering sage (O’Brien, n.d.). And from these four passing sights he learnt that nothing is
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permanent in life including his own youth as it is a universal truth for each and every human
being to grow into old age, suffer from disease and die ultimately and that only way to escape the
fear of death and suffering is to renounce the mundane desires and attachments and transform
into a sage.
In his quest to find the truth of life Siddhartha seek help to Hindu masters and took up the life of
an ascetic in the form of a poor beggar. He studied the Hindu scriptures under Brahmin hermit
priests get into the company of five monks but eventually was disillusioned with some
inappropriate teachings of Hinduism (“Background of Gautama and Buddhism”, n.d.).
Dissatisfied with this discovery Siddhartha embraced the life of extreme asceticism within a
forest which ultimately reducing his body to a skeleton (“Background of Gautama and
Buddhism”, n.d.), and this made him understand that extreme asceticism was also not a way to
attain enlightenment. Hence, he realized that to attain salvation one should follow the Middle
Path which is neither too luxurious nor too much agonizing. His life of a prince was devoid of
the ultimate truths of life and his life of an extreme ascetic also showed the same void and so he
took up to a Middle Path.
3. List and discuss Buddha’s “Four Noble Truths,” including the Noble Eight-fold path.
You do not need to list all eight elements of the Eight-fold path, but indicate the three
main topics that it covers and what is taught in each section. What is meant by
“suffering”?To what extent do you find this an adequate description of the causes and
cure for suffering? Explain.
The four noble truths of Buddha conveys that a) life is full of sufferings, b) the origin of
suffering is attachment to mundane desires, c) the cessation of suffering is attainable, and d)
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there is a path to end sufferings and this objective can be accomplished by following the Eight
Fold Path.
It is by following the Eight Fold Path that an individual can escape the sufferings of the mundane
life forever and can attain Nirvana. There are eight specific principles following which a
man/woman can attain Nirvana and all these eight principles actually teach an individual to gain
wisdom, to adapt to appropriate ethical conduct, and to develop mentally (“The Noble Eightfold
Path”, n.d.).
4. Compare Theravada and Mahayana forms of Buddhism. What are differences in
understanding the God and the interpretation of the Buddha? What is the role of a
Bodhisattva in Mahayana Buddhism? Discuss the primary focus of Pure Land
Buddhism. What is the role of a koan in Zen Buddhism? What is the color of the wind?
There are some similarities and dissimilarities between the Theravada and the Mahayana forms
of Buddhism. From the point of similarity one can observe that both these schools follow the
same Four Noble Truths and the concept of the Eightfold Path is the same in these two schools of
Buddhism. Moreover, both Theravada and the Mahayana forms of Buddhism reject the idea of a
supreme being who did create and govern this world. But there are some differences too between
these two forms of Buddhism. For the Mahayana Buddhists Bodhisattvahood leads to
Buddhahood but for the Theravadas Bodhisattvahood leads to Arahantship. Furthermore, unlike
the Mahayana Buddhists who did create numerous mystical concepts regarding the Bodhisattva,
the Theravada Buddhist form believes Bodhisattva as a human being dwelling within this human
society devoting entire life for the attainment of enlightenment for the ultimate wellbeing of the
world. For the Theravada school of Buddhism the only true Buddha is the historical Gautama
(Sakyamuni)...
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