Buddhism | Edexcel A-Level Religious Studies (9RS0)

Buddhism

198 questions
15 subtopics
Paper 4: the study of one religion of six
Paper 4

One of the six Paper 4 options.

The Buddha's life and teaching, the Four Noble Truths and the analysis of the person, the Pali canon and the Theravada and Mahayana traditions, meditation and monastic life, and Buddhism's encounter with the modern West.

Sample questions from Buddhism

Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.

The Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path

Explain what magga adds to the first three truths.

Show the answer
Magga is the practical answer: the Noble Eightfold Path of right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration. Without it the first three truths would state a problem and a hope with no method between them.
The Three Marks of Existence and the Five Khandas

What difference do the three marks make to how a Buddhist sees the point of living?

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They rule out one answer and supply another: nothing conditioned can be a final resting place, so a life spent securing possessions, status or even a self is built on a mistake. What a human life is for is reframed as awakening and the ending of craving, with compassion for others caught in the same predicament.
The Three Refuges: Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha

In what sense is the dhamma a refuge?

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Dhamma covers both the teaching and the truth it describes. Taking refuge in it means relying on that account of reality and on the path it prescribes, and Buddhists commonly say it is the dhamma, not the person of the Buddha, that actually protects, because it is what does the work when practised.
The Five Precepts

What does the fifth precept forbid, and why is it there when drinking harms nobody else directly?

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It covers intoxicants that lead to heedlessness. The usual reasoning is that it protects the other four, since a clouded mind is far likelier to break them, and that it works directly against the mindfulness the path is trying to build.
The Life of the Buddha and His World

What teachings does the life story itself illustrate?

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The four sights teach impermanence and dukkha; the failed asceticism teaches the middle way; the awakening teaches that liberation comes by insight and is available to a human being; the decision to teach illustrates compassion; and the death illustrates that even a buddha's body is impermanent.
The Tipitaka

What is M Meghaprasara's contribution?

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He produced a modern reference guide to the whole Pali canon, mapping its divisions, contents and available translations so that a reader can find their way around a very large and unevenly translated collection, and stressing that individual texts are best read in the setting of the collection they belong to.
Mahayana Buddhism

How does Mahayana extend the idea of a buddha?

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Beyond the single historical teacher. Mahayana speaks of countless buddhas in countless world systems, of buddhahood as the goal for everyone rather than for one figure per age, and of a buddha as accessible and active rather than simply gone. Devotion to figures such as Amitabha and to great bodhisattvas follows from this.
Buddhism in China and Japan: Pure Land and Zen

What did Dogen teach?

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That just sitting is not a means to awakening but its enactment, so that practice and realisation are not two things. He wrote at length and with great subtlety on impermanence, time and buddha-nature, which cuts against the popular picture of Zen as simply anti-intellectual.

The 15 subtopics

One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.

Subtopic	What it covers	Questions
The Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path	Recall questions on the Three Poisons, dukkha, tanha, cessation and magga, nibbana and parinibbana, the Threefold Way and the eight limbs, metta, karuna and khanti, Theravada and Mahayana readings, and Keown and Bodhi on ethics and the path.	20
The Three Marks of Existence and the Five Khandas	Recall questions on anicca, dukkha and anatta, the five khandas and the denial of a fixed self, rebirth and karma without a permanent agent, the rejection of a creator God, Mahayana extensions, and Buddhaghosa and T W Rinpoche on the aggregates.	14
The Three Refuges: Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha	Recall questions on taking refuge in the Buddha, dhamma and sangha, how the three depend on one another, what sangha includes, the refuges in worship and daily life, Theravada and Mahayana understandings, and Bodhi and Thanissaro Bhikkhu on going for refuge.	15
The Five Precepts	Recall questions on the Five Precepts as training rules, intoxicants and sexual misconduct, their positive counterparts, whether all breaches are equally serious, lay and monastic observance in Theravada and Mahayana, and Harvey and Bodhi on the precepts.	10
The Life of the Buddha and His World	Recall questions on the events of Gautama's life, the four sights, the rejection of asceticism and awakening at Bodh Gaya, the brahmins and samana groups, sacrifice, caste and kingship, and Armstrong's and Nanamoli Bhikkhu's accounts of the life.	13
The Tipitaka	Recall questions on the three baskets and their authority, how the canon was collected and fixed, the Vinaya, Sutta and Abhidhamma Pitakas, the debate over the Abhidhamma, the canon's use and status across traditions, and Keown and Meghaprasara.	12
Theravada Buddhism	Recall questions on Theravada and Nikaya Buddhism, its refusal of the three-vehicle scheme, Gautama, images and stupas, renunciation and the four stages to arahantship, its distinctive emphases and modern changes, and Gombrich and Gunaratana.	12
Mahayana Buddhism	Recall questions on the emergence of Mahayana, its expanded idea of a buddha, the trikaya and buddha-nature, images and stupas, its schools in their national settings, and Basham and the 14th Dalai Lama on Mahayana.	12
Meditation in Buddhism	Recall questions on the types of Buddhist meditation and their place in the Eightfold Path, samatha, vipassana and the jhanas, mindfulness of breathing, chanting, giving and study, lay and monastic practice, and Thanissaro Bhikkhu and Goldstein.	12
Buddhism in China and Japan: Pure Land and Zen	Recall questions on Pure Land belief and the nembutsu, self-power and other-power, Honen and Shinran, the key Chan and Zen figures and Dogen, indigenous influences and modernity, and Mochizuki and de Bary.	13
Triratna Buddhism in the West	Recall questions on Triratna's origins and central commitment, its handling of the lay and monastic divide and the unity of the sangha, the rules it sets aside, its success and reception, and Vajragupta and Coleman.	10
Women, Men and the Sangha	Recall questions on Mahapajapati Gotami, the eight garudhammas, the disputed and revived bhikkhuni lineage, options for women without full ordination, family life and changing roles, feminist approaches, and Salgado and Bartholomeusz.	13
The Bodhisattva Doctrine	Recall questions on the bodhisattva, Basham and Rahula on the ideal, the Lotus Sutra on the vehicles, skilful means and compassion, wisdom, the perfections and stages of the path, the ideal in Theravada, and merit transfer.	14
Ahimsa and Buddhist Attitudes to Violence	Recall questions on the First Precept and ahimsa, intention, vegetarianism and right livelihood, military service and Buddhist justifications of violence, the Pali sources and the Lotus Sutra, and the 14th Dalai Lama and Bartholomeusz on war and non-violence.	13
Buddhism in Contemporary Society	Recall questions on engaged Buddhism, tolerance and the truth claims of other religions, non-religious world views and internal diversity, interfaith dialogue, Buddhism's compatibility and tension with science, and the 14th Dalai Lama and Sri Dhammananda.	15

Buddhism is 198 of the 1,694 questions in the guide.Get the guide, £8

How the guide is worked

Answering a question from memory stores it far better than reading the answer again. The guide runs that as a fixed procedure on one subtopic at a time, about twenty minutes a session.

Step 1 · Closed book
Cover the answers. Work through one subtopic and write down what you can. Leave blanks where you have nothing.
Step 2 · Open book
Go back to the top. Read each printed answer and write it out in full, including the ones you had right.
Step 3 · Closed book again
Same questions, same order, from memory. The gap between pass one and pass three is the session result.

Read the full method, the return schedule and the research behind it.