Buddhism
Buddhism items test the Four Noble Truths, the marks of existence, dependent origination, and the doctrinal differences among Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana. Expect questions that require explaining rebirth without a self.
The core doctrine
The Four Noble Truths: dukkha, its arising in craving (samudaya), its cessation (nirodha), and the path (magga). The Eightfold Path comprises right view, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness and concentration. The three marks are anicca (impermanence), dukkha (unsatisfactoriness) and anatta (no fixed self). The five aggregates are form, feeling, perception, formations and consciousness. Dependent origination runs through twelve links from ignorance to birth, aging and death. Nirvana is the extinguishing of craving and aversion, not annihilation and not heaven.
Branches
Theravada, the teaching of the elders, uses the Pali canon, upholds the arhat ideal, and dominates Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia; vipassana is its characteristic meditation. Mahayana adds the bodhisattva ideal, sunyata or emptiness as argued by Nagarjuna, and schools such as Chan/Zen, Pure Land and Tiantai. Vajrayana, dominant in Tibet, uses tantra, mantra, mudra and mandala with lama lineages.
Practice
Three refuges in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha; the five precepts against killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying and intoxication; monastic vinaya; samatha and vipassana meditation; metta, loving-kindness.
Worked example
If there is no self, who is reborn? Reasoning: anatta denies a permanent, unchanging ego but not causal continuity. Rebirth is the continuation of the aggregates and the stream of consciousness conditioned by karma, like one flame lighting another. Nothing transmigrates, yet the process continues, which is precisely what distinguishes Buddhism from the Hindu atman doctrine.
Traps that cost marks
- Calling nirvana a heaven or a state of nothingness.
- Treating Theravada as lesser; the term Hinayana is polemical and Mahayana-coined.
- Assuming a creator god; most Buddhism is non-theistic.
- Missing that karma operates without a self.
- Placing Zen outside Mahayana; it is a Mahayana school.