A recent trend in the teaching of Religious Studies in schools is to present each of the world religions as a distinct world view. The Buddhist world view is summarized by the tradition in a number of frameworks. The most important are:

Samsara and nirvana. The distinction is made between ‘conditioned existence’ which is the domain of ‘samsara’, and the unconditioned state known as ‘nirvana’ or enlightenment. The nature and functioning of samsara are addressed in more detail on this website in the section on the Wheel of Life.

The Three Marks of Existence, or Three Characteristics of Existence, define the experience of conditioned existence. The Three Marks are: (1) change and impermanence, (2) suffering and (3) no self.

Death and rebirth. Buddhist thought understands the existence of all beings as occurring in cyclical time in the same way as there are cycles in nature. Every death is followed by a new existence, and the cycle is endless until one eliminates karma and mental afflictions. In samsara, death and rebirth are unavoidable but in the unconditioned state of nirvana or enlightenment both have been overcome and no longer occur involuntarily.

The Four Noble Truths. The Four Truths or Realities of spiritually noble beings provide a structured outline of Buddhism in its entirety giving a spiritual perspective on (1) the nature of life, (2) the causes of suffering, (3) the unconditioned state that is free of suffering, and (4) the practical methods used on the spiritual path to bring about transcendence from conditioned existence and its attendant pain and misery.

In accordance with current educational guidelines on introducing religions as world views, the materials on this site encourage critical inquiry from different perspectives and present a variety of angles into each topic following a multi-disciplinary approach.