Mahayana Buddhism
one of the two major traditions of Buddhism, now practiced especially in China, Tibet, Japan, and Korea. The tradition emerged around the 1st century AD and is typically concerned with personal spiritual practice and the ideal of the bodhisattva.
Quiz: Mahayana Buddhism
- Question 1 of 15
1.
The Madhyamaka (‘Middle-Way’) school of Mahayana Buddhism is regarded as the elucidation of the philsophy of which corpus of texts?
Correct
Wrong — Correct Answer – Prajñaparamita sutras
The Prajñaparamita sutras, dating from the 1st century CE and afterward, are traditionally said to be the word of the Buddha concealed for later discovery.
- Question 2 of 15
2.
Which of the following is NOT an English cognate of the Sanskrit words deriving from the root jña, e.g. vijñana (‘consciousness’) and prajña and jñana (both ‘wisdom’).
Correct
Wrong — Correct Answer – Igneous
Similarly, “prajña paramita sutra” is cognate, in its entirety, with “knowledge/gnosis paramount suture”. In other words, discourse on the perfection of wisdom. “Igneous” is cognate with Sanskrit “agni” (fire).
- Question 3 of 15
3.
Finish the second line of the following verse.
“Whatever is dependently co-arisen
That is explained to be __________.
That, being a dependent designation,
Is itself the middle way.”Correct
Wrong — Correct Answer – Emptiness
If you guessed “impermanent” you are wrong with regard to the words, but pretty close with regard to the meaning. Translation from the Tibetan by Jay Garfield.
- Question 4 of 15
4.
The previous verse, from the XXIVth chapter of the “Mulamadhyamakakrika” (or “Madhyamakasatra”), is one of the most essential of the entire text. Who is the author of this seminal text?
Correct
Wrong — Correct Answer – Nagarjuna
The founder of Madhyamaka (if there is any), Nagarjuna is traditionally said to have retrieved the Prajñaparamita sutras from the serpent beings (nagas) into whose hands the Buddha entrusted them for safe-keeping.
- Question 5 of 15
5.
In modern scholarship, what hasn’t Madhyamaka philosophy been interpreted as?
Correct
Wrong — Correct Answer – Idealism
Most early European scholars interpreted Madhyamaka as a form of nihilism; Nietzsche is a good example and more recently T. Wood. Robert Magliola and C. W. Huntington have offered deconstructive readings. B. K. Matilal interprets Madhyamaka as Kantian idealism. For better and for worse, numerous other comparisons are available in modern scholarship.
- Question 6 of 15
6.
In the first chapter of his commentary on Nagarjuna’s “Madhyamakasatra”, Candrakirti criticizes his Buddhist compatriots Dignaga and Bhavaviveka. However Candrakirti does NOT rebuke Bhavaviveka for which of the following reasons?
Correct
Wrong — Correct Answer – His views on emptiness
In the “Prasannapada”, Candrakirti repudiates Bhavaviveka’s use of autonomous inferences (svatantra anumana), accusing him of being intoxicated with the logic of argumentation. Candrakirti affirms Buddhapalita’s adherence to reductio ad absurdam arguments (prasanga). This divergence became known in Tibet as the Svatantrika-Prasangika distinction. However, there is no unequivocal evidence that Candrakirti believed Bhavaviveka’s view on ultimate truth was mistaken.
- Question 7 of 15
7.
The doctrine of the two truths is distinctive of Madhyamaka philosophy. The two truths are paramarthasatya (ultimate truth) and samvrtisatya (universal truth). According to Candrakirti’s analysis in “Prasannapada”, there are three definitions of samvrti. Which of the following is NOT one of them?
Correct
Wrong — Correct Answer – Own-being
For Candrakirti own-being, or svabhava, is nonexistent in both truths.
- Question 8 of 15
8.
According to a famous verse by Nagarjuna, emptiness mistakenly understood is not a good thing. He likens it to a spell mistakenly cast and what else?
Correct
Wrong — Correct Answer – A snake wrongly grasped
“By a misperception of emptiness
A person of little intelligence is destroyed.
Like a snake incorrectly seized
Or like a spell incorrectly cast.”Translation from the Tibetan by Jay Garfield.
- Question 9 of 15
9.
According to Nagarjuna emptiness is NOT which of the following?
Correct
Wrong — Correct Answer – Nonexistence
Emptiness is not nihilation but the fact that phenomena are nothing more than a matrix of causes and conditions devoid of self, independence and permanence. What do not exist are the ostensible objects of mental imputation which are nothing more than reified constructs.
- Question 10 of 15
10.
The Yogacara school of Mahayana philosophy, also know as Vijñanavada and Cittamatra, is often characterized as a Buddhist brand of what?
Correct
Wrong — Correct Answer – Idealism
A small but persistent number (from Classical India to contemporary scholarship) have argued that Yogacara must be distinguished from Cittamatra (‘Mind-Only’), the latter being crude idealism, the former being a development of Madhyamaka philosophy.
- Question 11 of 15
11.
Which of the following is NOT one of the three natures according to Vasubandhu?
Correct
Wrong — Correct Answer – Buddha nature (tathagatagarbha)
According to standard accounts of the Yogacara system, the imagined nature is dualistic, objectifying thought and its content; the dependent nature is the fact that the objects imputed by the imagined nature are merely mind; and the perfected nature is the purification of the imagined nature (duality) from the dependent nature (nonduality) through the recognition of the lack of objectivity of the contents of thought.
- Question 12 of 15
12.
The perfected nature is which of the following?
Correct
Wrong — Correct Answer – The absence of the imagined nature in the dependent nature.
As before.
- Question 13 of 15
13.
Which of the following figures is NOT commonly associated with Yogacara school of Buddhist philosophy?
Correct
Wrong — Correct Answer – Jñanagarbha
Jñanagarbha was an eighth century Svatantrika Madhyamika. Maitreya is regarded as the future Buddha, to whom five Yogacara works are attributed. There is some debate between scholars of Buddhism as to whether Asanga in fact authored these texts or whether there was an historical figure by the name Maitreya under whom Asanga studied. Dharmapala and Sthiramati were later proponents of Yogacara.
- Question 14 of 15
14.
Although Yogacara is generally regarded as one form of idealism or another, it is also credited with the development of Buddhist logic as well as for having made major contributions to logic and epistemology in South Asia in general. However the two major figures associated with these developments are not Vasubandhu and Asanga. Who are they?
Correct
Wrong — Correct Answer – Dignaga and Dharmakirti
Another topic of much debate in Buddhist scholarship, medieval and modern, is the ontological commitments of Dignaga and Dharmakirti. Their texts are sometimes regarded as Sautrantika or Yogacara in view, while others have argued that they sought to provide Buddhists in general with formidable logical and epistemological methods regardless of ontological commitment.
- Question 15 of 15
15.
Santaraksita and his student Kamalasila, seminal figures in the reinvigoration of Buddhism in Tibet, are major figures in the synthesis of various schools of Indian Buddhist philosophy that would come to characterize Tibetan Buddhism. According to Tibetan doxography, what is the appropriate denotation of their position?
Correct
Wrong — Correct Answer – Yogacara-Svatantrika Madhyamaka
sadhu sadhu sadhu