Buddhism Depth Study

In SoR II you study three religious traditions in depth. Two are examined in Section II (15 marks each, a short-answer question in three parts, usually about 2–3, 4–5 and 8 marks) and one in Section III (a 20-mark extended response of about 800 words). You must use a different tradition for Section III. Each depth study has three parts, and any of them can be examined in either section:

• Significant people and ideas: the contribution of ONE significant person or school of thought, other than the Buddha, to the development and expression of Buddhism, and its impact.
• Ethics: the principal ethical teachings, applied to ONE of bioethics, environmental ethics or sexual ethics.
• Significant practices: ONE of pilgrimage, temple puja or Wesak, and how it expresses Buddhist beliefs.

Prepare one person or school, one ethical area and one practice in real depth, and know the others well enough for multiple-part questions.

Every part of the depth study comes back to a few core beliefs. Use Buddhist terms (Pali forms are given here; Sanskrit forms such as _nirvāṇa_, _karma_ and _dharma_ are also fine).

• The Three Jewels (Refuges): the Buddha, the Dhamma (teaching) and the Sangha (community).
• The Four Noble Truths: suffering (_dukkha_), its cause in craving (_taṇhā_), its cessation (_nibbāna_), and the path (the Noble Eightfold Path).
• The three marks of existence: impermanence (_anicca_), unsatisfactoriness (_dukkha_), not-self (_anattā_).
• Karma and rebirth: intentional actions (_cetanā_) shape future experience in this and later lives within the cycle of _saṃsāra_.
• Dependent origination (_paṭiccasamuppāda_): everything arises in dependence on conditions, so nothing exists independently.

Texts to know

The Dhammapada; the _Mahāparinibbāna Sutta_ (the Buddha's last days, the four pilgrimage sites); the _Karaniya Metta Sutta_ (loving-kindness); the _Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta_ (the first teaching on the Four Noble Truths); for Mahayana, sutras such as the Lotus Sutra and the Heart Sutra.

The question always asks about development (how Buddhism grew or changed as a tradition) and expression (how Buddhists live, worship and practise), and often about impact (how much difference it made). Choose one and know dates, works and effects.

How to write about impact

A high-band response does more than retell a life. Organise it around areas of impact (for example: survival of the tradition, ethics, dialogue, politics), give evidence for each, and judge the extent: Who was affected? How lasting was it? Were there limits? For the Dalai Lama, for instance, his influence is greatest in Tibetan and Western Buddhism; Theravada Buddhists follow their own teachers, and the question of his succession (he stated in July 2025 that the institution will continue) remains politically contested.

Principal ethical teachings

• The Five Precepts: refrain from harming living beings, taking what is not given, sexual misconduct, false speech, and intoxicants that cloud the mind. They are training rules taken on voluntarily, not commandments from a god.
• The Noble Eightfold Path: wisdom (Right View, Right Intention), ethical conduct (Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood) and mental discipline (Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, Right Concentration).
• The Brahmaviharas: loving-kindness (_mettā_), compassion (_karuṇā_), sympathetic joy (_muditā_), equanimity (_upekkhā_).
• Karma and intention: the moral quality of an action depends on the intention behind it.
• Mahayana: the bodhisattva ideal and the six perfections (generosity, ethics, patience, effort, meditation, wisdom).
• The Vinaya: the monastic code, with many more rules for monks and nuns.

There is no central authority in Buddhism, so on most issues you should present the main position and then note diversity.

Applying the teachings

A good ethics answer moves from the teaching to the reasoning to the position, and shows how adherents apply it.

Pilgrimage

The four main sites, recommended in the _Mahāparinibbāna Sutta_, are linked to the Buddha's life: Lumbini (birth), Bodh Gaya (enlightenment under the Bodhi tree), Sarnath (first teaching in the Deer Park) and Kushinagar (final passing away). Pilgrims circle stupas clockwise, prostrate, make offerings, chant and meditate.

Beliefs expressed: the Buddha as a human being who reached enlightenment, so enlightenment is possible for others; impermanence (the Buddha's death); faith in the Three Jewels; merit-making; the journey as a picture of the spiritual path.

Temple puja

Puja is devotional practice at a shrine: bowing three times (to the Three Jewels), chanting the refuges and precepts, and making offerings of flowers, light and incense. In Mahayana temples it may include chanting sutras, mantras or the name of Amitābha.

Beliefs expressed: respect and gratitude to the Buddha as teacher (not worship of a creator god); impermanence (wilting flowers); wisdom dispelling ignorance (light); virtue spreading (incense); cultivating wholesome mental states and merit.

Wesak

Wesak falls on the full moon of Vesakha (usually May). In Theravada Buddhism it commemorates the Buddha's birth, enlightenment and final passing away. Buddhists visit the temple, take the refuges and precepts (many keep the Eight Precepts for the day), offer _dāna_ to the Sangha, listen to Dhamma talks, meditate and light lanterns. East Asian Mahayana communities celebrate the Buddha's birth on dates set by their own calendars (8 April in Japan; the 8th day of the 4th lunar month in Chinese and Korean communities), often bathing a statue of the infant Buddha; Tibetan Buddhists observe Saga Dawa. The UN recognised the Day of Vesak in 1999.

Worked example

_Explain how temple puja expresses Buddhist beliefs about the Buddha. (4 marks)_

Start with the belief, then the evidence from the practice. Buddhists regard the Buddha as a fully enlightened teacher, not a god, and puja expresses respect and gratitude rather than worship of a creator: bowing three times honours the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha. Offerings express his teaching: flowers that fade recall impermanence, which he taught, and light symbolises the wisdom of his enlightenment. Chanting the refuges affirms trust in the Buddha as a guide on the path. Finally, Buddhists believe puja cultivates wholesome states of mind that generate merit, reflecting the teaching on karma.

• Calling the Buddha a god or saying Buddhists worship him as a creator.
• Treating the precepts as commandments with punishments.
• Telling a significant person's life story without linking it to development, expression and impact.
• Describing a practice step by step without saying which beliefs each step expresses.
• Speaking as if all Buddhists hold one position on an ethical issue.

• 8-mark questions (Section II) are marked in bands. Aim for about a page that links each point back to the question, with Buddhist terms used accurately.
• Section III questions often include a quotation. Engage with it directly, agree, disagree or qualify, and keep a line of argument from introduction to conclusion.
• Use evidence: a text (the Dhammapada, the _Mahāparinibbāna Sutta_), a date, a named teacher, a specific ritual.

• Religion and Peace: Buddhist teachings on peace (the Dhammapada, the Karaniya Metta Sutta, meditation) build on this depth study.
• Australia post-1945: the growth of Buddhism through immigration (2.4% of Australians in 2021).
• Religion and Non-Religion: Buddhism as a non-theistic tradition in comparisons of worldviews.