Download The Three Jewels The Means 04-themeansthreejewelsandtrikaya

Buddhism
The Human Condition –
o The 3 Marks of Existence
o The 4 Noble Truths
oThe 1st Noble Truth (Life is Dukkha)
o The 2nd Noble Truth (Dukkha is caused by Tanha)
o The Life of the Buddha
The Goals o Karma
o The 3rd Noble Truth (You can stop Dukkha by stoping Tanha)
o Nibbana
The Means –
o The Three Jewels
o The Noble Eightfold Path / The 4th Noble Truth
oThe 5 precepts
oMeditation and Prayer
The Means
Three Jewels
The goals of existence are to
make progress towards
enlightenment and finally to
attain it.
How are the goals
achieved?
Through the
Means
• The Three Jewels are part of the means
The Three Jewels
• The Three Jewels are
the Buddha, Dhamma,
and Sangha
• Also known as Three
Refuges.
• The Dhamma could not
have been taught
without the Buddha, and
could not have been
followed without the
Sangha, so the three
are inseparable.
•
They are known as the Three
Refuges, because the Buddhist
promise of devotion says:
“I take refuge in the Buddha,
I take refuge in the Dhamma,
I take refuge in the Sangha.”
• Taking refuge is making a promise to be
devoted to the Buddha and his teachings.
• It is also a sign of the support structure of
the religion – a refuge is somewhere you turn
for security and guidance
Dhamma
• Can mean ‘teachings’ / truth / way / etc
• It is sometimes used to mean Buddhism
• Usually seen as Four Noble Truths and
Eightfold Path
• Scriptures can be dhamma
• Central to Buddhism
• Like a raft – to be used to reach
enlightenment
Sangha
•
•
•
•
Community of Buddhists
Specifically monks
Monks = bhikkus
Can become a monk for life, or just a
short time
• Monks live by 10 Precepts and many
other rules in Vinaya Pitaka scriptures
(laity only use 5 Precepts)
• Differences between monks and laity
will differ depending on school of
Buddhism