Quick questions on Principal beliefs and sacred texts of Buddhism: HSC Studies of Religion

Buddhist life is framed by taking refuge in the Three Jewels (Triratna): the Buddha (the awakened teacher whose example shows that liberation is possible), the Dharma (his teaching, the truth he discovered) and the Sangha (the community of monastics and lay practitioners who preserve and live the teaching). These express the source, the content and the carriers of the tradition, and reciting the refuge formula is the entry point to Buddhist commitment across all schools.

The path to the cessation of suffering, often grouped into three trainings: wisdom (right view, right intention), ethical conduct (right speech, right action, right livelihood) and mental discipline (right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration). It is described as the Middle Way between sensual indulgence and harsh asceticism, and it is to be cultivated as a whole rather than as separate steps.

All conditioned things share three characteristics: anicca (impermanence), dukkha (suffering or unsatisfactoriness) and anatta (no fixed, permanent self). Insight into these three marks loosens craving and attachment and is therefore central to liberation. Anatta in particular distinguishes Buddhism from traditions that affirm an eternal soul.

Linked to the three marks is pratitya-samutpada (dependent origination): everything arises in dependence on conditions, and nothing exists independently. This is the philosophical basis for both anatta (the self is a process, not a thing) and the wider Buddhist vision of interdependence.