Say what?

Ok, so this morning I was supposed to host a Grade 1 Study meeting and nobody showed up, so I decided to go through this year's material and compare it with last year's, and see if I could recycle some of the revision stuff to make a new set for this year.

I come to the blog and realise two things:

1. Materials and questions are the same. Yay. I proceed to send links to this year's people and hope they find them helpful.

2. My last post here was ALMOST A YEAR AGO.

Say what? How did that happen?

I am surprised, disgruntled and dischuffed.

I am, also, not quite sure how to break the drought. 

If anyone who liked my blog has some idea of something they want me to write about, please help me out.

Grade 1 Study Exam - 2016. Section B Q6-10

And here are the final five questions, completing the Grade 1 2016 series!

Grade 1 Study Exam - 2016. Section B Q1-5

Boy, I am struggling with this one!

As you MAY have noticed, I have already published all the other sections, but Section B is proving quite challenging.

Adding to this, that Blogger has recently turned into a monster of frustrating html quirks, and I am seriously considering migrating this blog to a less annoying platform (one that, say, I can actually access from my iPad and therefore update when I am on the go).

I have studied the section and decided on answers for all the questions, but I have found it quite complex to structure the answers following the guideline of including at least three points. I am not sure it is a very helpful guideline, and I personally found some questions a bit convoluted, but hey.

Here are the first five, the next five (concluding this series) will follow shortly.

As always, I have used the method of selecting passages from the material, copying them into my word processor and tweaking them to follow the answering guideline. In this case I have chosen to divide each answer into bullet points (which is one of the two ways they recommend to structure your answer). Based on the material, there is no word count for this section, but they mention one or two short sentences per point, so we are still talking of fairly concise answers.

Good luck and keep studying!

Grade 1 Study Exams - 2016. Section D

The History of SGI
All of your answers should be based on the material in Section D: The History of SGI.Write a maximum of 150 words in answer to each of the following questions.In the study exam, you will be set ve questions from this section.

D1  What is the difference between Soka Gakkai’s and Nichiren Shoshu’s interpretation of Nichiren Daishonin’s teachings?
The Soka Gakkai is dedicated to making Nichiren’s teachings effective and practical in the everyday modern world. It has always stressed that Nichiren Buddhism enables every individual, whether priest or lay believer, to develop his or her own innate Buddha nature. It has also stressed social engagement based on the bodhisattva ideal of taking action for the happiness of others towards the creation of a peaceful global society.The Nichiren Shoshu priesthood on the other hand is locked into an ancient ritualistic system, concerned to preserve its authority and jealous of its monopoly of certain sacred teachings, places and objects.Nichiren Shoshu has been more concerned with preserving traditional rituals, with a focus on the priests as intermediaries who are seen to be on a higher spiritual level than lay believers. In this sense it could be said to have lost sight of the original purpose and social mission of Buddhism.

D2  Why and how did Soka Gakkai work together with the priesthood after the Second World War?
Why? For the sake of the progress of Nichiren Buddhism and in the hope that they would help promote the common goal of establishing peace and happiness for the people. How? Soka Gakkai’s support for the priesthood included restoration of major buildings at Nichiren Shoshu’s head temple premises, construction of a new main head temple building and donation of land and a total of 356 branch temples. 

Grade 1 Study Exam - 2016. Section C

All your answers should be based on the material in Section C: Principles of Nichiren Buddhism in SGI.

Write a maximum of 200 words in answer to each of the following questions.

In the study exam, you will be set two questions from this section.

C1  What is the meaning of ‘establishing the correct teaching’? What is the meaning of ‘for the peace of the land’?

C2  What is Kosen‐rufu?

C3  What is the Soka Gakkai? 

Looks deceivingly simple, right?