Principal beliefs and sacred texts of Buddhism: HSC Studies of Religion

What this dot point is asking

NESA wants you to outline the principal beliefs of Buddhism and show how its sacred texts and writings record and communicate those beliefs. Treat Buddhism accurately and respectfully, name the central teachings, and connect each to where it is recorded. This is Preliminary (Year 11) content from the Buddhism Religious Tradition Study, not one of the three HSC depth study parts (a significant person or school of thought, ethics, and a significant practice). It is not set as a separate HSC question, but HSC questions reward you for linking a practice or an ethical teaching to the beliefs and texts on this page, so it is the foundation for every Buddhism depth study answer. The two verbs matter: "outline" the beliefs, then "demonstrate" the link between belief and scripture, so a strong answer never lists teachings in isolation from the writings that carry them.

The answer

The Three Jewels

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 Four Noble Truths

The foundation of Buddhist teaching, set out in the Buddha's first sermon at Sarnath (the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta):

• Dukkha. Life involves suffering and unsatisfactoriness, from obvious pain to the subtle dissatisfaction of impermanent things.
• Samudaya. Suffering arises from craving (tanha) and attachment, a thirst for pleasure, existence and non-existence.
• Nirodha. Suffering can cease when craving is extinguished.
• Magga. The way to its cessation is the Noble Eightfold Path.

The Four Noble Truths are diagnostic: they name the illness, its cause, the possibility of a cure, and the treatment.

The Noble Eightfold Path

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.

The three marks of existence

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.

Dependent origination

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.

Karma, rebirth and nirvana

Intentional actions (karma) have consequences that shape rebirth within samsara, the cycle of birth, death and re-becoming. The quality of intention, wholesome or unwholesome, determines the karmic result. The goal is nirvana, the extinguishing of the "fires" of greed, hatred and delusion, the end of craving, and therefore the end of suffering and of rebirth.

Key extracts from the Tripitaka

The syllabus asks you to "examine extracts" that demonstrate the principal beliefs. These short passages from the Sutta Pitaka of the Pali Tripitaka (translated by Bhikkhu Sujato on SuttaCentral) are reliable to quote:

The syllabus also names the Lotus of the Good Law (the Lotus Sutra, central to many Mahayana schools) and the Tibetan Book of the Dead (the Bardo Thodol, a Vajrayana guide to the intermediate state between death and rebirth). Quote them only from a translation you have checked.

The Lotus of the Good Law and the Tibetan Book of the Dead

• The Lotus Sutra (Saddharmapundarika Sutra, "the Lotus of the Good Law" or "of the True Dharma") is one of the most influential Mahayana scriptures, central to Tiantai (Tendai) and Nichiren Buddhism. It teaches that the three "vehicles" are really one vehicle (ekayana) leading all beings to Buddhahood; that the Buddha teaches through skilful means (upaya), illustrated by parables such as the burning house, in which a father lures his children out of danger with the promise of carts; that the Buddha's life is immeasurably long; and, in its chapter on Avalokiteshvara, that the bodhisattva of compassion helps all who call on him. It demonstrates the Mahayana beliefs in universal Buddha-nature and the bodhisattva path.
• The Tibetan Book of the Dead (Bardo Thodol, "liberation through hearing in the intermediate state") is a Vajrayana text attributed to Padmasambhava and said to have been revealed in the 14th century by Karma Lingpa. A lama reads it to the dying and the dead to guide the consciousness through the bardo between death and rebirth, urging recognition of the clear light of the mind. It demonstrates beliefs in impermanence, karma and rebirth, and the possibility of liberation at death. Its English title comes from W. Y. Evans-Wentz's 1927 edition.

The unique features of the three schools

How sacred texts record these beliefs

Buddhism has a large body of scripture rather than a single book, reflecting its spread across cultures and languages.

• The Tripitaka (Pali Canon). Literally the "three baskets": the Vinaya Pitaka (monastic discipline), the Sutta Pitaka (the discourses of the Buddha, where teachings such as the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path are recorded) and the Abhidhamma Pitaka (systematic philosophical analysis of doctrine). Preserved orally for centuries before being written in Pali, it is the core scripture of Theravada Buddhism.
• Mahayana sutras. Later texts revered in Mahayana traditions, such as the Lotus Sutra (the universality of Buddhahood) and the Heart Sutra (the emptiness, sunyata, of all phenomena), which develop teachings on compassion, the bodhisattva ideal and emptiness.
• Commentaries and teachers. Living writings and the words of teachers continue to interpret the canon, keeping the tradition's beliefs intelligible to each generation.

These writings record the Buddha's teaching, preserve it across generations and provide the authoritative basis for belief and practice.

In one sentence

Buddhism's principal beliefs, the Three Jewels, the Four Noble Truths and Eightfold Path, the three marks of existence, karma, samsara and nirvana, are recorded in the Tripitaka and developed in the Mahayana Lotus Sutra and the Vajrayana Tibetan Book of the Dead, so every Buddhist practice and ethical teaching can be traced back to a belief and a text.

Try this

Q1. Examine the belief of anatta. (3 marks)

• What the marker wants. No permanent self; the five aggregates; SN 22.59; how it differs from belief in an eternal soul.

Q2. Outline the importance of nirvana in Buddhism. (3 marks)

• What the marker wants. The goal of the path; the end of craving and rebirth (SN 38.1); not a place.

Q3. Identify the importance of the Tripitaka, the Lotus Sutra and the Tibetan Book of the Dead. (6 marks)

• What the marker wants. Each text's school, content and the beliefs it records, with one example each.