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Eduqas GCSE Religious Studies · C120
Eduqas C120 · Human Destiny and Ethical Teaching Check the specification (PDF) (opens in a new tab)
Buddhist ethics connects how people live now with their future happiness, suffering and rebirth. Karma concerns intentional actions and their consequences. The motive matters: helping someone out of compassion develops a different state of mind from acting out of hatred or greed.
These consequences are not simply rewards or punishments imposed by a god. Actions shape habits and relationships. Someone who repeatedly responds angrily strengthens their anger and may cause suffering for themselves and others. Someone who repeatedly acts generously develops a less selfish way of living. Buddhists describe helpful actions motivated by compassion, generosity and understanding as skilful, and actions rooted in greed, hatred and ignorance as unskilful.
Buddhists believe that karma also conditions rebirth. Its effects extend beyond the present life into another life within samsara, the cycle of birth, death and rebirth. This does not mean that an unchanging soul moves from one body to another: the teaching of anatta denies a permanent, independent self. Rebirth involves continuity of causes and consequences rather than an eternal soul.
Following the Buddha’s teachings, the dharma, helps Buddhists develop positive karma and avoid negative karma. However, a better rebirth is not the final goal. Nirvana means liberation from samsara. Ethical conduct supports this goal alongside meditation and wisdom, which help overcome craving and the Three Poisons of greed, hatred and ignorance.
Karuna means compassion: recognising suffering and wanting to relieve it. It can lead a Buddhist to help someone in distress, support people experiencing poverty or care for an injured animal. Its concern extends to all living beings, not only friends or people who share the same beliefs.
Metta means loving-kindness: wishing oneself and others happiness and well-being without expecting anything in return. The distinction is useful: metta is a general attitude of goodwill, while karuna responds particularly to suffering. Wishing a friend well expresses metta; helping that friend when they are hurt expresses karuna.
These qualities change both behaviour and motivation. Responding to someone with kindness rather than hostility weakens hatred. Giving help rather than putting personal gain first weakens greed. Buddhists therefore see metta and karuna as ways to develop positive karma and reduce suffering, while working towards freedom from samsara.
Loving-kindness can be deliberately cultivated through metta bhavana, or loving-kindness meditation. A meditator may begin by wishing themselves well, then extend that goodwill to a friend, a neutral person, someone they find difficult and finally all beings. Including a difficult person matters: loving-kindness is not meant to depend on liking someone or receiving kindness back.
The Five Precepts, also called panchasila, turn ethical intentions into guidance for everyday life. They are voluntarily undertaken training principles, not commandments imposed by a creator god. They connect with sila, the morality aspect of the Noble Eightfold Path.
| Precept: avoid… | How it guides conduct and reduces suffering |
|---|---|
| Harming living beings | Practise non-harming, or ahimsa, by protecting life and avoiding violence or cruelty. |
| Taking what has not been given | Respect other people’s possessions rather than stealing or exploiting them. |
| Sexual misconduct | Avoid sexual behaviour that harms others, including betrayal or exploitation. |
| Harmful speech | Avoid lies, insults and malicious speech; use words truthfully and kindly. |
| Intoxicants that lead to carelessness | Protect clear judgement, because intoxication can make harmful actions more likely. |
The precepts involve the mind as well as outward behaviour. Avoiding an attack is important, but cultivating goodwill also addresses the hatred behind the wish to attack. Similarly, resisting theft helps restrain greed. Ethical training is therefore more than appearing respectable: it aims to change the motives that produce suffering.
‘To avoid all evil, to cultivate good, and to cleanse one’s mind – this is the teaching of all the Buddhas.’ — Dhammapada 183
The three parts bring the lesson together. Avoiding evil includes refraining from harmful actions through the Five Precepts. Cultivating good includes actively developing compassion, loving-kindness and generosity. Cleansing the mind involves weakening greed, hatred and ignorance through practices such as meditation.
The teaching therefore goes beyond simply not doing harm. A Buddhist also seeks to develop positive qualities and transform the mental states behind their actions. These practices support positive karma and progress towards liberation.
Mahayana Buddhism emphasises Buddha nature, the potential to attain enlightenment and become a buddha. Developing this potential requires cultivation rather than merely believing that it exists. The Six Perfections, or paramitas, develop the compassion and understanding needed for buddhahood and the bodhisattva path of helping other beings towards enlightenment.
| Perfection | Meaning and cultivation |
|---|---|
| Generosity — dana | Give without expecting a reward. This may involve sharing food, time, protection or the Buddha’s teachings, rather than clinging to possessions or personal advantage. |
| Morality — sila | Live ethically according to the dharma, including practising the Five Precepts. This makes compassion visible in conduct. |
| Patience — ksanti | Respond patiently to difficulties and other people rather than with anger. Accepting the reality of dukkha, suffering and unsatisfactoriness, helps a person persevere when life is difficult. |
| Energy — virya | Sustain effort and dedication to the path. Studying, meditating and acting ethically require perseverance over time. |
| Meditation — dhyana | Develop concentration and understanding through meditation, supporting the cultivation of the other virtues. |
| Wisdom — prajna | Understand the nature of reality, including sunyata, or emptiness: things lack a fixed, independent existence. This challenges attachment to a separate, permanent self. |
The perfections work together. Giving may develop generosity, but patience is needed when helping someone is difficult, energy is needed to continue, and wisdom helps challenge selfish attachment. Meditation supports the understanding and mental discipline behind these actions.
Ethical conduct, generosity and meditation are important in both Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism. The distinctive emphasis here is the Mahayana cultivation of these six virtues to realise Buddha nature and develop compassion and wisdom for the benefit of all beings.
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Dhammapada 183: ‘To avoid all evil, to cultivate good, and to cleanse one’s mind – this is the teaching of all the Buddhas.’
Connect its three parts with restraint, positive ethical action and mental cultivation.
Dana, sila, ksanti, virya, dhyana, prajna: generosity, morality, patience, energy, meditation and wisdom.
Cultivated together to develop compassion and understanding, realise Buddha nature and attain buddhahood. Wisdom includes understanding sunyata, not believing that nothing exists.
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Link an ethical practice to its purpose: explain how it reduces suffering, develops positive karma or weakens greed, hatred and ignorance.
Use Dhammapada 183 to support an explanation, rather than adding the quotation without explaining its relevance.
Distinguish a favourable rebirth from nirvana: positive karma benefits future lives, but liberation means freedom from samsara itself.
Identify the Six Perfections particularly with Mahayana Buddhism; the Five Precepts, metta and karuna are important across Buddhist traditions.
Karma
Intentional actions and their consequences; Buddhists believe these affect suffering and happiness in this life and future lives.
Rebirth
The arising of a new life after death, conditioned by karma, without an unchanging soul passing between lives.
Samsara
The cycle of birth, death and rebirth, characterised by suffering and unsatisfactoriness.
Nirvana
Liberation from greed, hatred and ignorance, and from the suffering of samsara.
Karuna
Compassion: concern for suffering and the wish to relieve it.
Metta
Loving-kindness: goodwill towards oneself and all other beings, wishing them happiness without expecting a reward.
Metta bhavana
The cultivation of loving-kindness, usually through meditation.
Five Precepts (panchasila)
The five Buddhist ethical training guidelines: avoid harming living beings, taking what is not given, sexual misconduct, harmful speech and intoxicants that cause carelessness.
Three Poisons
Greed, hatred and ignorance: the harmful mental states Buddhists seek to overcome.
Six Perfections (paramitas)
Generosity, morality, patience, energy, meditation and wisdom: virtues cultivated in Mahayana Buddhism to develop compassion and understanding and attain buddhahood.
Buddha nature
The potential to attain enlightenment and become a buddha, emphasised in Mahayana Buddhism.
Sunyata
Emptiness: the teaching that things lack an independent, fixed existence; it does not mean that nothing exists.
Put your knowledge into practice — try past paper questions for Religious Studies
Karma
Intentional actions and their consequences; Buddhists believe these affect suffering and happiness in this life and future lives.
Rebirth
The arising of a new life after death, conditioned by karma, without an unchanging soul passing between lives.
Samsara
The cycle of birth, death and rebirth, characterised by suffering and unsatisfactoriness.
Nirvana
Liberation from greed, hatred and ignorance, and from the suffering of samsara.
Karuna
Compassion: concern for suffering and the wish to relieve it.
Metta
Loving-kindness: goodwill towards oneself and all other beings, wishing them happiness without expecting a reward.
Metta bhavana
The cultivation of loving-kindness, usually through meditation.
Five Precepts (panchasila)
The five Buddhist ethical training guidelines: avoid harming living beings, taking what is not given, sexual misconduct, harmful speech and intoxicants that cause carelessness.
Three Poisons
Greed, hatred and ignorance: the harmful mental states Buddhists seek to overcome.
Six Perfections (paramitas)
Generosity, morality, patience, energy, meditation and wisdom: virtues cultivated in Mahayana Buddhism to develop compassion and understanding and attain buddhahood.
Buddha nature
The potential to attain enlightenment and become a buddha, emphasised in Mahayana Buddhism.
Sunyata
Emptiness: the teaching that things lack an independent, fixed existence; it does not mean that nothing exists.