Game 2, Round 4: Miscellaneous -- Buddhism

1. The historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, was born in the sixth century BC, 
   in a village in what modern-day country? 

    Nepal (NOT India) 

2. The pre-eminent source of information about early Buddhism was compiled by various 
   monastic councils in the centuries after the Buddha's death, and eventually written 
   down on dried palm leaves. In what language was this canon written? 

    Pali (NOT Sanskrit)

3. According to Buddhist tradition, after attaining enlightenment the Buddha preached 
   his first sermon in an area called the Deer Park, near what northern Indian city, 
   regarded as holy in Hinduism? 

    Varanasi (accept Benares)  

4. Present-day Buddhism can be divided into three main branches; Zen Buddhism, for example, 
   is a sub-set of one of these branches. Name any one of them. 

    Mahayana (accept also "Great Vehicle") 
    Theravada (accept also "Hinayana" or "Lesser Vehicle") 
    Tantrayana (accept also "Vajrayana", "Tantric Buddhism", "Mantrayana") 

5. The Buddha taught a number of so-called Noble Truths regarding suffering. How many? 

    Four 

6. What is the Buddhist (that is to say, Sanskrit and Pali) term for the cycle of birth, 
   suffering, death, and rebirth that the Buddha's teaching attempts to put an end to? 

    Samsara 

7. Mahayana Buddhism holds that certain beings, despite reaching enlightenment, choose to 
   postpone their own attainment of Nirvana in order to help the unenlightened obtain liberation. 
   What is such a being called? 

    Bodhisattva 

8. Who was the colourful religious writer, sometime Episcopalian priest, and 
   psychedelic drug-taker who published "The Way of Zen" in 1957? 

    Alan Watts 

9. Speaking of Zen, what is the Zen term for enlightenment, in either Japanese or Chinese? 

    Satori (accept also Kensho); Wu 

10. What is the significance of Tenzin Gyatso in the world of Buddhism? 

   He is the (current) Dalai Lama