1. What is Buddhist enlightenment? Do you think there is "enlightenment"? If so, how is it attained? If not, do you think there is such a thing as any "religious attainment"?
2. Why did the Buddha abandoning family life for life in the forest? Was this action moral?
3. What did the Buddha's early teachers advocate and why did he deviate from the ways of these teachers?
4. Summarize the Buddha's realization/s.
5. Who/what is Māra? Is Māra important in the story of the life of the Buddha?
6. If Buddhists do not ground their ideas in theism or otherwise acknowledge the existence of a God, why should a Buddhist be moral? That is, according to Buddhists, is there a connection between living a moral life and religious liberation (nirvana)?
7. Generally, how did Buddhism change after entering China?
8. What does "samsara = nirvana" mean?
9. Is there a promise of transcendental bliss in an afterlife in early Buddhist tradition?
10. Who was Bodhidharma and what did he do?
11. Why was the Buddha at first reluctant to allow his aunt to join the sangha (monastic community)? Were his reasons good ones? Why did he change his mind? Should he have changed his mind?
12. What is Buddhism, what are the specific teachings of Buddhism and how does one "become a Buddhist"?
13. Why did the Buddha prohibit his followers from engaging in "speculative philosophy"?
14. What are the Four Noble Truths? Do you agree with them? Why or why not?
15. Why did Siddhartha's father order the roads to be cleared before his son left the palace?
16. What is a koan? What Buddhist tradition uses the koan?
17. What is the difference between Pure Land Buddhism and Zen Buddhism?
18. What is meant by the "marks of a Buddha"?
19. What is Buddha-nature? Where did this idea come from? How does it relate to early Buddhism?
20. What is Skill-in-means and how is it used in Buddhism?
21. What is a Bodhisattva?
22. There is a Chan/Zen saying, "If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him." What do you think this means?