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Buddhism, a religion and philosophy based on the teachings of the Buddha, Siddhārtha Gautama, of the Shakyas, whose lifetime is traditionally given as 566 to 486 BCE, gradually spread from India throughout Asia to Central Asia, Sri Lanka, Tibet, Southeast Asia, as well as to East Asian countries such as China, Korea, and Japan. It is classified as an Ārya dharma or a noble religion. It is one of the shramana religions existing today.

With approximately 376 million followers, Buddhism is a major world religion. Its adherents are called Buddhists. Buddhism is usually divided into two main branches: Theravada Buddhism and Mahayana Buddhism. The followers of Theravada Buddhism take the scriptures known as the "Pali suttas, vinaya and abhidhamma" (the Tipitaka/ Tripitaka) as normative and authoritative; the followers of Mahayana Buddhism base themselves chiefly on the "Mahayana sutras" (sutra/ sutta is generally a scripture in which the Buddha himself gives instruction), as well as their own versions of the vinaya. Whereas the Theravadins (followers of Theravada Buddhism) adhere solely to the Pali suttas and their commentaries. The adherents of Mahayana accept both the suttas and the Mahayana sutras as authentic and valid teachings of the Buddha, aimed at different types of person and different levels of spiritual attainment. For the Theravadins, the Mahayana sutras are works of poetic fiction, not issuing from the Buddha himself; for the Mahayanists, the Pali suttas (or "agamas", as such scriptures are also known) do indeed contain the basic, foundational teachings of the Buddha, while the Mahayana sutras articulate the Buddha's higher, advanced and esoteric teachings, reserved for the more aspirational Bodhisattvas. Hence the name Mahayana, lit, the Greater Vehicle, which has place for both common masses and more esoteric ones; some Mahayanins irrevantly refer to Theravada as Hinayana, lit, the Lesser Vehicle. This term is now widely seen as either inaccurate or derogatory. Where as the Theravadins called Mahayana as Pāpayāna, meaning, the Vehicle of Sin.

An alternative categorisation of Buddhism follows the major languages of the Buddhist canon, which exists in Pali, Tibetan, and Chinese collections. This would serve to divide East Asian Mahayana Buddhism from the Vajrayana form of Mahayana found in Tibet, Mongolia, and the Himalayas. In older works Zen is sometimes set out as a distinct category; this is rather contentious and ahistorical (analogous perhaps to a sometimes-encountered Quaker self-description as a third major wave of Christianity, after Catholicism and Protestantism).

The aim of Buddhist practice is to end the cycle of rebirth called samsara (Pāli, Sanskrit), by awakening the practitioner to the realization of true reality, the achievement of liberation (nirvana). To achieve this, one should purify and train the mind and act according to the laws of karma, of cause and effect: perform positive actions, and positive results will follow. Accordingly negative deeds have negative consequences. Eventually, however (from the Mahayana viewpoint), the conditioned realm of karma needs to be transcended altogether in the attainment of the ineffably blissful and utterly liberated state of Nirvana and Awakening.

Buddhist morality is underpinned by the principles of harmlessness and moderation. Mental training focuses on moral discipline (sila), meditative concentration (samadhi), and wisdom (prajñā).

While Buddhism does not deny the existence of supernatural beings (indeed, many are discussed in Buddhist scripture), it does not ascribe power for creation, salvation or judgment to them. Like humans, they are regarded as having the power to affect worldly events, and so some Buddhist schools associate with them via ritual.

What is a Buddha?

The term "Buddha" is a word in ancient Indian languages including Pāli and Sanskrit which means "one who has awakened". It is derived from the verbal root "budh", meaning "to awaken" or "to be enlightened", and "to comprehend". It is written in devanagari script as Template:Lang-hi and pronounced as /bυd-dhə/, where both "d" and "dh" are dentals, and "dh" is an aspirated stop.

The word "Buddha" denotes not just the historical Buddha Shakyamuni or Siddhartha Gautama who lived some 2,500 years ago, but a type of person, of which there have been many throughout the course of time. (As an analogy, the term "president" refers not just to one person, but to everyone who has ever held the office of presidency.) The historical Buddha is one member of the spiritual lineage of Buddhas, which extends beyond history into the past and into the indefinite future.

Shakyamuni Buddha did not generally claim any divine status for himself - although in some Mahayana sutras, he does declare that he is the "god above the gods - superior to all the gods" (Lalitavistara Sutra); he also did not say that he was inspired by a god or gods. He is instead Dharma (Ultimate Truth - variously construed by Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism) made manifest. A Buddha is anyone who has fully awakened to the true nature of existence, liberated himself from the cycle of birth, death and rebirth, has eradicated all negative qualities and developed all positive qualities, possibly including omniscience. (Buddhas do not claim to be omnipotent, unlike the God of Christianity, Islam or Judaism.) All sentient beings can free themselves from suffering as Gautama did, regardless of age, sex, or caste. The Mahayana and Theravada schools of thought differ on whether this includes animals as well; Mayahana Buddhism holds that, despite the incredible difficulties involved, animals can achieve enlightenment. In both Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism, however, the Buddha is viewed as one who, in past lives, had in fact been born as an animal at various times during his progress through Samsara. But only as a human being was he able to achieve full Awakening (bodhi).

In Mahayana Buddhism, the Buddha (transcending his mere physical form) is viewed as a boundless, beginningless and endless being, present in all times and all places, yet beyond the reach of logic or mundane conceptualisation. He is regarded as the very embodiment of ungraspable, eternal yet realisable Dharma - ultimate Truth or "Enlightenment" (bodhi). In essence, all perfect Buddhas are seen by Mahayana Buddhism as One in nature - all are salvational channels or vessels of Dharma.

The principles by which a person can achieve enlightenment are known as the Bauddhadharma, or simply—the Dharma, meaning (in this context) "law, doctrine, or truth".

Origins

As with any history so old, there are many different stories of how the Buddha came to be, Siddhārtha Gautama (Sanskrit सिद्धार्थ गौतम, pronounced as "sιd-dhα:rthə gautəmə"; in Pāli, Siddhattha Gautama) made his way to enlightenment. Since he belonged to the Shākya clan, he is also known as Shākyamunī.

One legend (the most commonly accepted by historians) has it that he was born around 566 BCE. His birthplace is said to be Lumbini in the Shākya state, one of a small group of old oligarchic republics in what is now Nepal. His father was the Shākya king Śuddhodana, and Siddhārtha lived in luxury, being spared all hardship.

The legends say that a seer predicted shortly after his birth that Siddhārtha would become either a great king or a great holy man; because of this, the king tried to make sure that Siddhartha never had any cause for dissatisfaction with his life, as that might drive him toward a spiritual path. Nevertheless, at the age of 29, he came across what has become known as the Four Passing Sights: an old crippled man, a sick man, a decaying corpse, and finally a wandering holy man. These four sights led him to the realization that birth, old age, sickness and death come to everyone, not only once but repeated for life after life in succession since beginningless time. He decided to abandon his worldly life, leaving behind his wife, child and rank, etc. to take up the life of a wandering holy man in search of the answer to the problem of birth, old age, sickness, and death.

Indian holy men (called sādhus), in those days just as today, often engaged in a variety of ascetic practices designed to "mortify" the flesh. It was thought that by enduring pain and suffering, the ātman (Sanskrit; Pāli: atta) or "soul" became free from the cycle of rebirth with its pain and sorrow. Siddhārtha proved adept at these practices, and was able to surpass his teachers. However, he found no solution to end all Suffering and so, leaving behind his teachers, he and a small group of companions set out to take their austerities even further. After six years of ascetism, and nearly starving himself to death with no success (some sources claim that he nearly drowned), Siddhārtha began to reconsider his path. Then he remembered a moment in childhood in which he had been watching his father start the season's plowing, and he had fallen into a naturally concentrated and focused state in which time seemed to stand still, and which was blissful and refreshing.

Taking a little buttermilk from a passing goatherd, he found a large tree (now called the Bodhi tree) and set to meditating. He developed a new way of meditating, which began to bear fruit. His mind became concentrated and pure, and then, after six years since he began his quest in search of a solution to an end of Suffering, he attained Enlightenment, and became a Buddha. This place is in the state of Bihar in India.

According to one of the stories in the Āyācana Sutta (Samyutta Nikaya VI.1), a scripture found in the Pāli and other canons, immediately after his Enlightenment the Buddha was wondering whether or not he should teach the Dharma. He was concerned that, as human beings were overpowered by greed, hatred and delusion, they wouldn't be able to see the true Dharma which was subtle, deep and hard to understand. Two gods, Brahma Sahampati and Indra, interceded, and asked that the Buddha teach the Dharma to the world, saying, "There will be those who will understand the Dharma". With his great compassion, the Buddha agreed to become a teacher. At the Deer Park near Benares in northern India he set in motion the Wheel of Dharma by delivering his first sermon to the group of five companions with whom he sought for enlightenment before. They, together with Buddha, formed the first sangha, the company of Buddhist monks.

In other versions of his life-story, the Buddha leaves home in the "prime of his youth", his parents weeping and wailing all the while.

The state of Shākya, where he was born, was an oligarchic republic at that time, so there was no royal family of which to speak. Therefore, it is believed that the Buddha's father was not a king in the sense of an absolute ruler, but rather an influential tribal figure. However, regardless of the details of his early life, the evidence strongly indicates that the Buddha was indeed a historical person living in approximately the same time and place in which he is traditionally placed.

It has also been suggested that the influence of Jain culture and philosophy in ancient Bihar may have given rise to Buddhism, although such views are not easy to ascertain. Buddhist scriptures describe various penances (tapas) undertaken by Gautama Siddhartha which appear identical to Jain penances (e.g., cupping the hands to consume alms, plucking of hair, the penance by five fires, etc. ). These penances were later renounced by Gautama as activities not leading to Nirvana (Final Liberation). Buddhist writings reflect that Jainism was an already established faith -- rather than a newly founded or reformist one -- by the time Buddha lived. Early Buddhists posited the existence of 24 previous Buddhas (Buddhas who walked the earth prior to Siddhartha Gautama, as established in the Buddhist text Mahavanso 1:100:1 among others) many of whose names are identical to those of the 24 Jain Tirthankaras and other traditional Jain figures. Suggesting close correlations between the teachings of the Jains and Buddha, the Majjhima Nikaya relates dialogues between Buddha and several members of the Nigantha (Jain) community, sometimes resulting in the latter's acceptance of Buddha as a teacher. (See also Jainism and Jainism and Buddhism)

In many instances, both philosophies continue to share similar Prakrit terminology for important themes and teachings but may differ significantly in interpretation and meaning. This method of teaching adopted by the Buddha points to the pragmatic aspect of Buddha's style of teaching wherein the Buddha uses words and terms that are familiar to the audience instead of introducing new and complex technical jargon. In this way, Buddhism sought to appeal to all walks of life.

Principles of Buddhism

The Three Marks of Existence

According to the Buddhist tradition, all phenomena (dharmas) are marked by three characteristics, sometimes referred to as the Dharma seals, that is anicca(impermanence), dukkha (suffering) and Anatta (no self)

Anicca

Main Article: Anicca

(Pāli; Sanskrit: anitya): All compounded phenomena (things and experiences) are inconstant, unsteady, and impermanent. (Practically) everything is made up of parts, and is dependent on the right conditions for its existence. Everything is in constant flux, and so conditions and the thing itself is constantly changing. Things are constantly coming into being, and ceasing to be. Nothing lasts.

The important point here is that phenomena arise and cease according to (complex) conditions and not according to our whims and fancy. While we have limited ability to effect change to our possessions and surroundings, experience tells us that our feeble attempts are no guarantee that the results of our efforts will be to our likings. More often than not, the results fall short of our expectations.

In Mahayana Buddhism, a caveat is added: one should indeed always meditate on the impermanence and changefulness of compounded structures and phenomena, but one must guard against extending this to the realm of Nirvana, where impermanence holds no sway and eternity alone obtains. To see Nirvana or the Buddha (in his ultimate Dharmakaya nature) as impermanent would be to indulge in "perverted Dharma" and would be seriously to go astray, according to the Buddha's final Mahayana doctrines. Other schools of Buddhism, however, feel uneasy with such a teaching.

Dukkha

Main Article: Dukkha

(Pāli; Sanskrit: duḥkha): "Whatever is impermanent is subject to change. Whatever is subject to change is subject to suffering" - The Buddha.

Striving for what we desire, we may experience stress and suffering. Getting what we desired, we may find delight and happiness. Soon after, the novelty may wear out and we may get bored with it. Boredom is a form of dissatisfaction (or suffering) and to escape from it, we divert ourselves from such boredom by indulging in a pursuit of new forms of pleasure. Sometimes not willing to relinquish objects that we are already disinterested in, we start to collect and amass possessions instead of sharing with others who may have better use in it than we do. Boredom is a result of change. Change of our interest in that object of desire that so captivated us in the first place.

If we do not get bored already, then change may instead occur in the object of desire. Silverware may become tarnished, a new dress worn thin or a gadget gone obsolete. Or it may become broken, causing us to grieve. In some cases it may get lost or stolen. In some cases, we may worry about such losses even before it happens. Husbands and wives worry about losing their spouses even though their partners are faithful. Unfortunately, sometimes our very worry and fear drives us to act irrationally, resulting in distrust and breaking up of the very relationship that we cherished so much.

While we like changes like becoming an adult when we are in our teens, we dislike the change called aging. While we strive for change to become rich, we fear the change of retrenchment. We are selective in our attitude towards the transient nature of our very existence. Unfortunately, this transient nature is unselective. We can try to fight it, just as many have tried since beginningless time, only to have our efforts washed away through the passages of time. As a result, we continually experience dissatisfaction or suffering due to the very impermanence of compounded phenomena.

Only in the realm of Nirvana - so Mahayana Buddhism insists - can true and lasting happiness be found. Nirvana is the opposite of the conditoned, the transitory and the painful (dukkha), so it does not result in disappointment or deterioration of the state of bliss. Nirvana is the refuge from the otherwise universal tyranny of change and suffering.

Anatta

Main Article: Anatta

(Pāli; Sanskrit: anātman): In Indian philosophy, the concept of a self is called ātman (that is, "soul" or metaphysical self), which refers to an unchanging, permanent essence conceived by virtue of existence. This concept and the related concept of Brahman, the Vedantic monistic ideal, which was regarded as an ultimate ātman for all beings, were indispensable for mainstream Indian metaphysics, logic, and science; for all apparent things there had to be an underlying and persistent reality, akin to a Platonic form. The Buddha rejected all concepts of ātman, emphasizing not permanence, but changeability. He taught that all concepts of a substantial personal self were incorrect, and formed in the realm of ignorance. However, in a number of major Mahayana sutras (e.g. the Mahaparinirvana Sutra, the Tathagatagarbha Sutra, the Srimala Sutra, among others), the Buddha is presented as clarifying this teaching by saying that, while the skandhas (constituents of the ordinary body and mind) are not the Self, there does truly exist an eternal, unchanging, blissful Buddha-essence in all sentient beings, which is the uncreated and deathless Buddha-nature ("Buddha-dhatu") or "True Self" of the Buddha himself. This immaculate Buddhic Self (atman) is in no way to be construed as a mundane, impermanent, suffering "ego", of which it is the diametrical opposite. On the other hand, this Buddha-essence or Buddha-nature is also often explained as the potential for achieving Buddhahood, rather than an existing phenomenon one can grasp onto as being me or self. It is the opposite of a personalised, samsaric "I" or "mine". The paradox is that as soon as the Buddhist practitioner tries to grasp at this inner Buddha potency and cling to it as though it were his or her ego writ large, it proves elusive. It does not "exist" in the time-space conditioned and finite mode in which mundane things are bodied forth. It is presented by the Buddha in the relevant sutras as ultimately inexplicable, primordially present Reality itself - the living potency for Buddhahood inside all beings. It is finally revealed (in the last of the Buddha's Mahayana sutras, the Nirvana Sutra) not as the circumscribed "non-self", the clinging ego (which is indeed anatta/anatman), but as the ever-enduring, egoless Great Self or Dharmakaya of the Buddha.

The scriptural evidence of the Nikāyas and Āgamas is ambivalent with regard to the Buddha's reported views on the existence or otherwise of a permanent self (ātman/atta). Though he is clearly reported to have criticized many of the heterodox concepts concerning an eternal personal self and to have denied the existence of an eternal self with regards to any of the constituent elements (skandha) of a being, he is nevertheless not reported to have explictly denied the existence of a non-personal, permanent self, contrary to the popular, orthodox view of the Buddha's teachings. Moreover, when the Buddha predicates "anātman" (anatta) with regards to the constituents of a being, there is a grammatical ambivalence in the use of the term. The most natural interpretation is that he is simply stating that "the constituents are not the self" rather than "the constituents are devoid of self". This ambivalence was to prove troublesome to Buddhists after the Buddha's passing. Some of the major schools of Buddhism that developed subsequently maintained the former interpretation, but other influential schools adopted the latter interpretation and took measures to establish their view as the orthodox Buddhist position. One such proponent of this hard-line "no self" position was the monk Nagasena, who appears in the Questions of King Milinda, composed during the period of the Hellenistic Indo-Greek kingdom of the 2nd and 1st centuries BCE. In this text, Nagasena demonstrates the concept of absolute 'no self' by likening human beings to a chariot and challenges the Greek king "Milinda" (Menander) to find the essence of the chariot. Nagasena states that just as a chariot is made up of a number of things, none of which are the essence of the chariot in isolation, without the other pieces, similarly no one part of a person is a permanent entity; we can be broken up into five constituents - body, sensations, ideation, mental formations and consciousness - the consciousness being closest to the permanent idea of 'self', but is ever-changing with each new thought according to this viewpoint.

According to some thinkers both in the East and the West, the doctrine of "non-Self", may imply that Buddhism is a form of nihilism or something similar. However, as thinkers like Nagarjuna have clearly pointed out, Buddhism is not simply a rejection of the concept of existence (or of meaning, etc.) but of the hard and fast distinction between existence and nonexistence, or rather between being and nothingness. Phenomena are not independent from causes and conditions, and do not exist as isolated things as we perceive them to be. Philosophers such as ] stress that the lack of a permanent, unchanging, substantial self in beings and things does not mean that they do not experience growth and decay on the relative level. But on the ultimate level of analysis, one cannot distinguish an object from its causes and conditions, or even object and subject. (This is an idea appearing relatively recently in Western science.) Buddhism thus has much more in common with Western empiricism, pragmatism, and anti-foundationalism than with nihilism.

In the Nikāyas, the Buddha and his disciples are commonly found to ask in question or declare "Is that which is impermanent, subject to change, subject to suffering fit to be considered thus: 'This I am, this is mine, this is my self'?" The question which the Buddha posts to his audience is whether compounded phenomena is fit to be considered as self, in which the audience agrees that it is unworthy to be considered so. And in relinquishing such an attachment to compounded phenomena, such a person gives up delight, desire and craving for compounded phenomena and is unbounded by its change. When completely free from attachments, craving or desire to the five aggregates, such a person experiences then transcends the very causes of suffering.

In this way, the insight wisdom or prajñā of non-self gives rise to cessation of suffering, and not an intellectual debate over whether a self exists or not.

It is by realizing (not merely understanding intellectually, but making real in one's experience) the three marks of conditioned existence that one develops prajñā, which is the antidote to the ignorance that lies at the root of all suffering. From the "tathagatagarbha-Mahayana" perspective (which diverges from the Theravadin understanding of Buddhism), however, a further step is requred if full Buddhahood is to be attained: not only seeing what is impermanent, suffering and non-Self in the samsaric sphere, but equally recognising that which is truly Eternal, Blissful, Self, and Pure in the transcendental realm - the realm of Mahaparinirvana.

See also: three marks of existence

The Four Noble Truths

The Buddha taught that life was dissatisfactory because of craving, but that this condition was curable by following the Eightfold Path. This teaching is called the Four Noble Truths:

1. Dukkha: All worldly life is unsatisfactory, disjointed, containing suffering.
2. Samudaya: There is a cause of suffering, which is attachment or desire (tanha) rooted in ignorance.
3. Nirodha: There is an end of suffering, which is Nirvana.
4. Maggo: There is a path that leads out of suffering, known as the Noble Eightfold Path.

In Buddhism it teaches that suffering is caused by desire and want. The central theory of Buddhist philosophy that explains the cause of suffering is Pratītyasamutpāda (in Sanskrit). It is written in devanagari as प्रतीत्यसमुत्पाद and pronounced as "prətītyə səmυtpα:də". It means "the chain of causation", and further that everything in the world, including the soul, is only relative and momentary. The action is not independent but depends upon its cause, hence the famous Karma theory. The soul (not in the sense of an everlasting reality) goes through an eternal cycle of births and deaths because it undergoes through a series of following twelve :

1. Ignorance or Avidyā
2. Impressions or Samskāra
3. Consciousness or Vijñāna
4. Mind-Body Organism or Nāma Rūpa
5. Six Senses or ŞaDāyatana
6. Sense contact or Sparsha
7. Sense Experience or Vedanā
8. Craving or Tŗişhņa
9. Mental Clinging or Upādāna
10. Will to be born or Bhava
11. Rebirth or Jāti
12. Suffering or Jarā-maraņa.

Buddhism says that each of these causes gives effect to the next, until the twelfth gives rise to the first. This cycle of births and deaths cannot be severed until one attains Nirvana.

Note that the names are given in Sanskrit and their English meanings are only approximate.

The Noble Eightfold Path

Main article: Noble Eightfold Path

In order to fully understand the noble truths and investigate whether they were in fact true, Buddha recommended that a certain lifestyle or path be followed which consists of:

1. Right Understanding
2. Right Thought
3. Right Speech
4. Right Action
5. Right Livelihood
6. Right Effort
7. Right Mindfulness
8. Right Concentration

Sometimes in the Pāli Canon the Noble Eightfold Path is spoken of as being a progressive series of stages through which the practitioner moves, the culmination of one leading to the beginning of another, but it is more usual to view the stages of the 'Path' as requiring simultaneous development.

The Eightfold Path essentially consists of meditation, following the precepts, and cultivating the positive converse of the precepts (e.g. benefiting living beings is the converse of the first precept of harmlessness). The Path may also be thought of as a way of developing śīla, meaning mental and moral discipline.

Practices of Buddhism

Refuge in The Three Jewels

Budl, on a "footprint" of the Buddha, 1st century CE, Gandhara.

Buddhists seek refuge in what are often referred to as the Three Jewels, Triple Gem or Triple Jewel. These are the Buddha, the Dharma (or Dhamma), and the "noble" (Sanskrit: arya) Sangha or community of monks and nuns. While it is impossible to escape one's karma or the effects caused by previous thoughts, words and deeds, it is possible to avoid the suffering that comes from it by becoming enlightened. In this way, dharma offers a refuge. Dharma, used in the sense of the Buddha's teachings, provides a raft (method) and is thus a temporary refuge while entering and crossing the river. However, the real refuge (of enlightenment) is on the other side of the river.

To someone who is seeking to become enlightened, taking refuge constitutes a continuing commitment to pursuing enlightenment and following in the footsteps of the people who have followed the path to enlightenment before. It contains an element of confidence that enlightenment is in fact a refuge, a supreme resort. Many Buddhists take the refuges each day, often more than once in order to remind themselves of what they are doing and to direct their resolve inwardly towards liberation.

In all forms of Buddhism, refuge in the Three Jewels are taken before the Sangha for the first time, as a part of the conversion ritual. However, the personal choice for taking ones' life-path in this direction is more important than any external ritual.

It is good to note that in Buddhism, the word "refuge" should often not be taken in the English sense of "hiding" or "escape"; instead, many scholars have said, it ought be thought of as a homecoming, or place of healing, much as a parent's home might be a refuge for someone. This simple misunderstanding has led some Western scholars to conclude that Buddhism is "a religion for sticking one's head in the sand", when most Buddhists would assert quite the opposite. On the other hand, the main goal of Buddhism is to escape from the suffering of cyclic existence. Some translators also translate it as "taking safe direction".

See also: Three Jewels

The Five Precepts

Buddhists undertake certain precepts as aids on the path to coming into contact with ultimate reality. Hence, they are also known as Training rules. Laypeople generally undertake (at least one of) five precepts. The Five Precepts are not given in the form of commands such as "thou shalt not ...", but rather are promises to oneself: "I will (try to)...".

The five precepts are:

1. To refrain from harming living creatures (killing).
2. To refrain from taking that which is not freely given (stealing).
3. To refrain from sexual misconduct.
4. To refrain from incorrect speech (lying, harsh language, slander, idle chit-chat).
5. To refrain from intoxicants which lead to loss of mindfulness.

This difference stems from the rationale behind them. While other religion institutes commandments and is based on the wishes or commands of a divine being, Buddhist precepts are based more on common sense that the Buddha highlights to Buddhists. Just as we would not want to be killed, others, cherishing their own life would not want to be killed. Hence we should not engage in harming or killing others. The same rationale applies to the second, third and fourth precepts.

The fifth and last precept involving refrain from intoxicants is unique in that the act of taking intoxicants itself is commonly not seen as an immediate or direct harm towards others. Instead it may serve as the catalyst for further acts of transgression against others in terms of either a single or possible combination of any of the first four precepts. The daily news will ascertain for us that there are daily crimes and accidents around the world that result from the consumption of alcohol or other forms of intoxicants, many of which could have been avoided if only this training rule was observed.

In addition to the indirect effects of intoxicants is the direct impact that intoxicants have, of dulling the mind. Mindfulness, a central teaching in Buddhism, builds upon our ability to train our mind and develop it to its fullest potential of enlightenment, whereas taking of intoxicants runs counter to that and impedes mindfulness by allowing dullness and heedlessness of the mind.

The other distinguishing feature of the Buddhist precepts is that they are wider-ranging in implication than the "commandments" of some other religions. The first precept, against killing, for example, forbids the killing of animals as well as humans (but see #Vegetarianism). Furthermore, in Mahayana Buddhism, the Buddha indicates how all-inclusive the injunction against killing is, saying (in The Scripture of Brahma's Net):

"Disciples of the Buddha, should you yourself kill, wilfully cause another to kill, encourage someone to kill, extol killing, take pleasure in seeing killing take place, deliberately wish someone dead, intentionally cause death, supply the instruments or means for killing, cut off a life even when sanctioned by law, that is, participate in any way in killing, you are committing a serious offense warranting exclusion. Pray, do not intentionally kill anything whatsoever which has life."

It should also be noted that the literal, and possibly original, meaning of the third precept covers more than the now generally standard meaning "sexual misconduct" and actually involves refraining from "wrong indulgence in all sensory pleasures".

In some schools of Buddhism, serious lay people or aspiring monks take an additional three to five ethical precepts, and some of the five precepts are strengthened. For example, the precept pertaining to sexual misconduct becomes a precept of celibacy. Fully ordained monks and nuns of the Theravada school also observe 227 and 311 patimokkha training rules respectively.

See also: Pancasila and Buddha Statues of Bamiyan

Meditation

Buddhist meditation, meditation used in the practice of Buddhism, "includes any method of meditation that has Enlightenment as its ultimate aim"Template:Fn. The closest word for meditation in the classical languages of Buddhism is bhavana or "mental development"Template:Fn.

The main methods of Buddhist meditation are divided into samatha (tranquility meditations) and vipassana (insight meditations).

The samatha meditations includes anapana (mindfulness of breathing) and the four brahma-viras of which mettā bhāvanā (development of loving kindness) is the most often practiced one. The vipassana meditations includes contemplation on impermanence, the six element practice, and contemplation on conditionality. Samatha meditations usually precede and prepare for vipassana meditations.

Each of the five basic methods (in bold) is an "antidote" to one of the five mental "poisons".

Buddha-dhatu ("Buddha-Principle", "Buddha-nature")

The Buddha's Mahayana doctrines contain a set of "ultimate" (nitartha) teachings on the immanence of a hidden, deep-seated reality within all sentient beings which is linked to the eternality of the Buddha and Nirvana. This immanent yet transcendent essence is variously called, in the key tathagatagarbha sutras which expound it, the Buddha-dhatu ("Buddha-element", Buddha-nature) or the Tathagatagarbha. This Buddha-dhatu is empty of all that is contingent, changeful, painful and impermanent. In the Nirvana Sutra, it is called by the Buddha the "True Self" (to distinguish it from the "false" worldly self made up of the five skandhas). It is no less than the unfabricated, uncreated, uncompounded, immaculate, immortal, all-knowing, radiantly shining Principle of blissful Buddhahood - the very Dharmakaya,/ Dhammakaya法身. This Tathagatagarbha / Buddha-dhatu, inherent in all beings, can never be destroyed or harmed, and yet is concealed from view by a mass of obscuring mental and moral taints within the mind-stream of the individual being. Once the Buddha-dhatu is finally seen and known by the faithful Buddhist practitioner, it has the power to transform that seer and knower into a Buddha. The doctrine of the Tathagatagarbha / Buddha-dhatu is stated by the Buddha of the Mahaparinirvana Sutra to be the "absolutely final culmination" of his Dharma.

Other principles and practices

• Meditation or dhyāna of some form is a common practice in most if not all schools of Buddhism, for the clergy if not the laity.
• Central to Buddhist doctrine and practice is the law of karma and vipaka; action and its fruition, which happens within the dynamic of dependent origination (pratītya-samutpāda). Actions which result in positive retribution (happiness) are defined as skillful or good, while actions that produce negative results (suffering) are called unskillful or bad actions. These actions are expressed by the way of mind, body or speech. Some actions bring instant retribution while the results of other actions may not appear until a future lifetime. Most teachers are, however, quick to point out that though it may be a result of someone's past-life karma that they suffer, this should not be used as an excuse to treat them poorly; indeed, all should help them and help to alleviate their suffering, leading to them working to alleviate their own suffering.
• Rebirth, which is closely related to the law of karma. An action in this life may not give fruit or reaction until the next life time. This being said, action in a past life takes effect in this one, making a chain of existence. The full realization of the absence of an eternal self or soul (the doctrine of anatta (Pāli; Sanskrit: anātman)) breaks this cycle of birth and death (samsara).
• God: The Buddha was not satisfied with the concept of one Almighty God (Ishvara, lit., the Supreme Lord) as in orthodox Hinduism. Buddha said that the ever-changing world goes on as per the rules of Pratītya-Samutpāda. Also, the hypothesis of God would raise philosophical problems, like why is the world ever-changing and full of sorrow, and why at all did He create the world? If He created the world for any intension, this would be against His self-perfection. Yet at another instance, the Buddha had claimed that "the Supreme Reality is indescribable and inutterable". In this sense, it is better to call Buddhism agnostic. The existence of demigods is recognized. However, in practice, Karma had taken the place of God in Theravada, and the Buddha himself is venerated like God in Mahayana.

Vegetarianism

The first lay precept in Buddhism is usually translated as "I undertake the precept to refrain from destroying living creatures." Many see this as implying that Buddhists should not eat the meat of animals. However, this is not necessarily the case. There is a division of view within Buddhism on the need for vegetarianism, with the majority of schools of Buddhism rejecting such a claimed need and with most Buddhists in fact eating meat. A minority of Mahayana Buddhists, however, strongly oppose meat-eating on certain scriptural grounds.

In the Pali version of the Tripitaka, there are number of occasions in which the Buddha ate meat as well as recommending certain types of meat as a cure for medical conditions. On one occasion, a general sent a servant to purchase meat specifically to feed the Buddha. The Buddha declares that "meat should not be eaten under three circumstances: when it is seen or heard or suspected (that a living being has been purposely slaughtered for the eater); these, Jivaka, are the three circumstances in which meat should not be eaten, Jivaka! I declare there are three circumstances in which meat can be eaten: when it is not seen or heard or suspected (that a living being has been purposely slaughtered for the eater); Jivaka, I say these are the three circumstances in which meat can be eaten." (Javika Sutta) The Buddha, on one particular occasion, specifically refuse suggestions by a monk to institute vegetarianism in Sangha. According to Kassapa Buddha (a previous Buddha of legend not Shakyamuni Buddha) "aking life, beating, wounding, binding, stealing, lying, deceiving, worthless knowledge, adultery; this is stench. Not the eating of meat." (Amagandha Sutta). There were, however, rules prohibiting consumption of 10 types of meat. Those are humans, elephants, horses, dogs, snakes, lions, tigers, leopards, bears and hyenas because these animals can be provoked by the smell of the flesh of their own kind.

Theravada commentaries explain the Buddha was making distinction between direct destruction of life and eating of already dead meat. Moreover, they point out that any act of consumption would involve proxy killing including farming of crops so idea that meat eating amount to proxy killing while eating vegetable does not is ignorance. For this reason, they discourage gluttony or any other act of craving which lead to over consumption. However, some Therevadan monks suggest that it is possile to make some case for vegetarianism starting from brahmavihara. Interestingly, that is how Mahayana Buddhism makes the case for vegetarianism.

There is no mention of Buddha endorsing or repudiating vegetarianism in surviving portions of Sanskrit Tripitaka. Moreover, no major Mahayana sutras explicitly declare that meat eating violates the first precept. However, certain Mahayana sutras vigorously and unreservedly denounces the eating of meat, mainly on the ground that such act violate bodhisattva's compassion. The sutras which inveigh against meat-eating include the Nirvana Sutra, the Shurangama Sutra, the Brahmajala Sutra, the Angulimaliya Sutra, the Mahamegha Sutra, and the Lankavatara Sutra, as well as the Buddha's comments on the negative karmic effects of meat consumption in the Karma Sutra. In the Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra, which presents itself as the final elucidatory and definitive Mahayana teachings of the Buddha on the very eve of his death, the Buddha states that "the eating of meat extinguishes the seed of Great Kindness", adding that all and every kind of meat and fish consumption (even of animals found already dead) is prohibited by him. He specifically rejects the idea that monks who go out begging and receive meat from a donor should eat it: "... it should be rejected ... I say that even meat, fish, game, dried hooves and scraps of meat left over by others constitutes an infraction ... I teach the harm arising from meat-eating." The Buddha also predicts in this sutra that later monks will "hold spurious writings to be the authentic Dharma" and will concoct their own sutras and lyingly claim that the Buddha allows the eating of meat, whereas in fact (he says) he does not. A long passage in the Lankavatara Sutra shows the Buddha speaking out very forcefully against meat consumption and unequivocally in favor of vegetarianism, since the eating of the flesh of fellow sentient beings is said by him to be incompatible with the compassion that a Bodhisattva should strive to cultivate. In several other Mahayana scriptures, too (e.g. the Mahayana jatakas), the Buddha is seen clearly to indicate that meat-eating is undesirable and karmically unwholesome.

Some suggest that rise of monastery in Mahayanan tradition to be a contributing factor in the emphasis on vegetarianism. In the monastery, food was prepared specifically for monks. In this context, large quantities of meat would have been specifically prepared (killed) for monks. Henceforth, when monks from the Indian sphere of influence migrated to China, as of the year 65 CE, there they met followers who provided them with money instead of food. From those days onwards Chinese monastics, and others who came to inhabit northern countries, cultivated their own vegetable plots and bought food in the market. This remains the dominant practice in China, Vietnam and part of Korean Mahayanan temples.

In Tibetan Buddhism, strong emphasis was placed on number of esoteric sutra which were transmitted from Northern India. In these sutras, it is clearly stated that the practice of Vijrayana would make vegetarianism unnecessary. In fact, a number of tantric texts frequently recommend alcohol and meat though most do not take such passages literally. The Tibetan position is that it is not necessary to be vegetarian if one practice Vijryana but it is necessary to be vegetarian if one practices Mahayana path. In fact, Dalai Lama and other esteemed lamas invite their audiences to adopt vegetarianism when they can. When asked in recent years what he thinks of vegetarianism, the 14th Dalai Lama has said: "It is wonderful. We must absolutely promote vegetarianism." (His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Buddha Heart, Buddha Mind, 2000)

Japan initially received Chinese Buddhism through Korea in 6th century. And in 9th century, Emperor Saga made a decree prohibiting meat consumption except fish and birds. This remained the dietary habit of Japanese until the introduction of European dietary customs in 19th century. In the same period, two Japanese monks (Kukai and Saicho) introduced Vijryana Buddhism into Japan and this soon becomes the dominant Buddhism among the nobility class. In particular, Kukai, who founded Shingon sect of Japanese Buddhism, declared that strict observation of viyana code to be unnecessary. During 12th century, number of monks from Tendai sects founded new sects (Zen, Pure Land and Nichiren) of Buddhism, further de-empasising the aspect of vegetarianism.

In the modern world, attitudes toward vegetarianism vary by location. In the Theravada countries of Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka, monks are bound by the vinaya to accept almost any food that is offered to them, often including meat, while in China and Vietnam monks are expected to eat no meat. In Japan and Korea, some monks practice vegetarianism, and most will do so at least when training at a monastery, but otherwise they typically do eat meat. In Tibet, where vegetable nutrition is historically very scarce, and the adopted vinaya was the Nikaya Sarvāstivāda, vegetarianism is very rare, although the Dalai Lama and other esteemed lamas invite their audiences to adopt vegetarianism when they can.

The overall situation regarding vegetarianism is that the Theravadins generally affirm that there there is no evidence at all in the Pali Canon that the Buddha forbade meat-consumption or advocated vegetarianism - rather, the opposite; for Theravadins, eating meat is not seen as contrary to Dharma in any way. Likewise, many followers of Mahayana Buddhism (including monks) also eat meat despite the emphatic denunciation of the practice found in some major Mahayana sutras. Part of the reason is that there are in excess of 130,000 Mahayana sutras and the position on vegetarianism depends on one's position regarding the authority of any particular sutra. Japanese Zen, for example, relies on very few sutras. They consider the act of meditation to be paramount in pursuit of enlightenment. The Japanese Pure Land put a heavy emphasis on the Pure Land sutras and aim to achieve enlightenment by reincarnating into the Pure Land where one's enlightenment is assured. Therefore, vegetarianism holds very little relevance for them. The Vajrayana of Tibet and the Japanese Shingon sect consider that tantric practice makes vegetarianism unnecessary. In the West, of course, a wide variety of practices are followed. Lay Buddhists generally follow dietary rules less rigorously than monastics. Overall, it can be said that the debate over whether Buddhists should ideally be vegetarian or not continues.

Buddhist religious philosophy and branches

Main Article: Buddhist religious philosophy

Buddhism has evolved into myriad schools that can be roughly grouped into three types: Nikaya, Mahayana, and Vajrayana. Of the Nikaya schools, only the Theravada survives.

Each branch sees itself as representing the true, original teachings of the Buddha, and some schools believe that the dialectic nature of Buddhism allows its format, terminology, and techniques to adapt over time in response to changing circumstances, thus validating dharmic approaches different from their own.

See also: History of Buddhist schools

Buddhism after the Buddha

Main article: History of Buddhism

Buddhism spread slowly in India until the powerful Mauryan emperor Ashoka converted to it and actively supported it. His promotion led to construction of Buddhist religious sites and missionary efforts that spread the faith into the countries listed at the beginning of the article.

From the 1st century BCE Buddhism started to emerge, receiving influences "from popular Hindu devotional cults (bhakti), Persian and Greco-Roman theologies which filtered into India from the northwest" (Tom Lowenstein, p63). Some of these influences appear on the artistic plane with the Greco-Buddhist art of Gandhara. Mahayana then expanded into Central Asia and to Eastern Asia.

After about 500 CE, Buddhism showed signs of waning in India, becoming nearly extinct after about 1200 CE. This was in part due to Hinduism's revival movements such as Advaita and the rise of the bhakti movement. Over time, the local Buddhist populations gradually assimilated into Islam, hence the concentration of South Asian Islam in the far west and east of the Subcontinent.

Elements of Buddhism have remained within India to the current day: the Bauls of Bengal have a syncretic set of practices with strong emphasis on many Buddhist concepts. Other areas of India have never parted from Buddhism, including Ladakh and other areas bordering the Tibetan, Nepali and Bhutanese borders.

Buddhism also remained in the rest of the world although in Central Asia and later Indonesia it was mostly replaced by Islam. In China and Japan, it adopted aspects of the native beliefs of Confucianism, Taoism and Shinto respectively. In Tibet, the Tantric Vajrayana lineage was preserved after it disappeared in India.

Principal schools of Buddhist philosophy

In his lifetime, Gautam Buddha had not answered several philosophical question. On issues like whether the world is eternal or non-eternal, finite or infinite, unity or separation of the body and the soul, complete inexistence of a person after nirvana and then death, nature of the Supreme Truth, etc, the Buddha had remained silent. Hence the Buddhist missionaries often faced philosophical questions from other religions whose answers they themselves did not know. So later Buddhists made various interpretations of Buddha's teachings and formed four major schools of thought.

• Shūnyavāda of the Mādhyamikas: this is a Mahayana school, popularized by Nagarjuna and Ashvaghosha. According to the Mādhyamikas, there is a supreme indescribable substance—Shūnyatā (lit., voidness)—which is neither true nor false. Everything in this world arises from this voidness. Hence the world is false as compared to the Shūnyatā. This concept somewhat resembles the Brahman of Advaita Vedanta philosophy of Adi Sankara. (However, Shankara had condemned Shūnyavāda to be "contradictory to all valid means of knowledge".)
• Vijñānavāda of the Yogāchāras: this is another Mahayana school, propounded by Asanga and Vasubandhu. According to them, only the consciousness (Vijñāna) is true, and all objects of this world external to the mind are false. They believe in an absolute, permanent consciousness (similar to a soul) called Ālaya Vijñāna. This branch became famous in China, Tibet, Japan and Mongolia.
• Bāhyānumeyavāda of the Sautrāntrikas: this is a Theravada (Hinayana) school which believes in the existence of both consciousness and material objects—but believes that the external objects can only be percieved indirectly through inference by our mind (Indirect Realism).
• Bāhya-Pratyakshavāda of the Vaibhāshikas: this is another Theravada (Hinayana) school—based on an ancient Buddhist conference in Kashmir, which also believes in the existence of both consciousness and material objects (as composed of atoms). They believe that external objects are known through direct perception (Direct Realism).

Scriptures

The Buddhist canon of scripture is known in Sanskrit as the Tripitaka and in Pāli as the Tipitaka. These terms literally mean "three baskets" and refers to the three main divisions of the canon, which are:

• The Vinaya Pitaka, containing disciplinary rules for the Sangha of Buddhist monks and nuns, as well as a range of other texts which explain why and how rules were instituted, supporting material, and doctrinal clarification.
• The Sutta Pitaka (Pāli; Sanskrit: Sutra Pitaka), containing discourses of the Buddha.
• The Abhidhamma (Skt: Abhidharma) or commentary Pitaka, containing a philosophical systematization of the Buddha's teaching, including a detailed analysis of Buddhist psychology. Though the Theravādin Abhidhamma is well preserved and widely known, it should be noted that a number of the early Eighteen Schools each had their own distinct Abhidharma collection with virtually no common textual material.

During the first few centuries after Gautama Buddha, his teachings were transmitted orally, but around the 1st Century CE they began to be written down. A given school of Buddhism will generally have its own distinctive canon of texts, which will partially overlap with those of other schools. The most notable set of texts from the early period is the Pali Canon, which was preserved in Sri Lanka by the Theravāda school. The sutras it contains are also part of the canon of every other Buddhist sect. Full versions of the original text and partial English translations are now readily available on the internet.

The appearance of the Mahāyāna tradition brought with it a collection of new texts, composed in Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit, many of which were also described as actual sermons of the Buddha. These include the Perfection of Wisdom Sutras, the Avataṃsaka, the Lotus Sutra, the Vimalakīrti Sutra, and the Nirvana Sutra. Many of the Mahayana sutras were translated into Tibetan and classical Chinese and are also now read in the West.

The Mahāyāna corpus of sutras further expanded after Buddhism was transmitted to China, where the existing texts were translated, and new texts were composed for the purpose of adapting the Indian tradition to the East Asian philosophical mindset. Some of these works are considered by modern scholars to be spurious. On the other hand, there were texts, such as the Platform Sutra and the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment that did not pretend to be of Indian origin, but are widely accepted as valid scriptures on their own merits. Later writings include the Linji Lu of Chan master Linji. In the course of the development of Korean Buddhism and Japanese Buddhism, further important texts were composed. These included, for example, in Korea, some of the writings of Jinul, and in Japan, works such as Dogen's Shobogenzo.

Arguably the most thorough compilation of Mahayana works is found in the Tibetan canon. This is split into those texts attributed to be authored by the Buddha (Kanjur), and those texts which are understood to be commentaries by Indian practitioners (Tenjur). Vajrayāna practitioners also study the Buddhist tantras.

Recently an important archaeological discovery was made, consisting of the earliest known Buddhist manuscripts, recovered from somewhere near ancient Gandhara in northwest Pakistan. These fragments, written on birch bark, are dated to the 1st century and have been compared to the Dead Sea scrolls in importance. Donated to the British Library in 1994, they are now being studied in a joint project at the University of Washington.

Relations with other Eastern faiths

Some Hindus (primarily in the northern regions of India) believe that Gautama is the 9th incarnation (see avatar) of Vishnu; there are accounts of the Buddha as an incarnation of Vishnu that are pro- and anti-Buddhist (i.e., either that Vishnu "really meant" what he said while incarnated as Buddha or that he was intentionally tricking those who follow unorthodox doctrines). This is not a majority view, however. The avatar theory came into existence in approximately the 9th century CE.

Traditionally, there has been a sharp distinction between Buddhism and what is today called "Hinduism"; this distinction is more accurately between Astika and Nastika philosophies, that is, philosophies in India which either affirmed the Vedas as divinely revealed scriptures or else regarded them as fallible human inventions. Thus Buddhism is theoretically a heresy vis à vis orthodox Indian philosophy, though there are many syncretic or ecumenical tendencies within either group which are accepting of the beliefs and practices of the other. Most modern Hindus deeply revere Gautam Buddha.

In the Japanese religion of Shintoism Buddha is seen as a Kami (god). The Bahá'í Faith states he was an independent Manifestation of God. Siddhartha Gautama is thought to have been sanctified by the Roman Catholic Church as Saint Josaphat based on a mistaken account of his life that made him out to be a Christian convert. Some Muslims believe that Gautama Buddha is Dhul-Kifl, one of the prophets mentioned in the Qur'an.

Jainism is an ancient religion and school of thought that predates Buddhism. One of its two most revered teachers, Mahāvīra (599 - 527 BCE) according to Jains, though "some modern scholars prefer 549-477 B.C."), was possibly a senior contemporary of the Buddha whose philosophy, sometimes described as dynamism or vitalism, was a blend of the earlier Jain teacher Pārśvanātha's order and the reforms instituted by Mahavira himself. Dialogues between the Buddha's disciples and Mahāvīra are recorded in Jain texts, and dialogues between Mahāvīra's disciples and the Buddha are included in Buddhist texts.

The relationships between Taoism (Chinese folk religion still popular today) and Buddhism are complex, as they influenced each other in many ways while often competing for influence. The arrival of Buddhism forced Taoism to renew and restructure itself and address existential questions raised by Buddhism. Buddhism was seen as a kind of foreign Taoism and its scriptures were translated into Chinese with Taoist vocabulary. Zen (Chan) Buddhism in particular holds many beliefs in common with philosophical Taoism.

Confucianism also has much in common with Buddhism, and historically, people have practiced both. Some would argue however, that Confucianism is in fact not a religion, but a philosophy. Whatever the case, Buddhism shares many commonalities with Neo-Confucianism , which is Confucianism with more religious elements. In fact, the ritual of ancestor worship normally practiced by Confucianists, has been adapted to Chinese Buddhist beliefs.

Buddhism in the modern world

Buddhism has the characteristics of what would be expected in a cosmic religion for the future: It transcends a personal God, avoids dogmas and theology; it covers both the natural and the spiritual, and it is based on a religious sense aspiring from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity.

Albert Einstein

Estimates of the number of Buddhists vary between 230 and 500 million, with 350 million as the most commonly cited figure.

In northern Asia, Mahāyāna remains the most common form of Buddhism in China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia, (parts of) Indonesia and Singapore. Theravāda predominates in most of Southeast Asia, including Burma, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand, as well as Sri Lanka. It has seats in Malaysia and Singapore. Vajrayāna is predominant in Tibet, Mongolia, portions of Siberia and portions of India, especially those areas bordering Tibet. Kalmykia, while geographically located in Europe, is culturally closely related to Mongolia and thus its Buddhism is more properly grouped with Asian than with Western Buddhism.

While in the West, Buddhism is often seen as exotic and progressive; in the East, Buddhism is regarded as familiar and part of the establishment. Buddhist organizations in Asia frequently are well-funded and enjoy support from the wealthy and influential. In some cases, this has led critics to charge that certain monks and organizations are too closely associated with the powerful and are neglecting their duties to the poor.

Buddhism and the West

Occasional intersections between Western civilization and the Buddhist world have been occurring for thousands of years. Perhaps the most significant of these began in 334 BCE, early in the history of Buddhism, when the Macedonian king Alexander the Great conquered most of Central Asia. The Seleucids and the successive Greco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek kingdoms established an important Hellenistic influence in the area, which interacted with Buddhism. The conversion to Buddhism of the Indo-Greek king Menander (155-130 BCE) is described in Indian sources (the Milinda Panha), and echoed in Western ones (Plutarch).

In the latter half of the 19th century, Buddhism (along with many other of the world's religions and philosophies) came to the attention of Western intellectuals. These included the pessimistic German philosopher Schopenhauer-- who encountered Buddhism, and Eastern thought in general, after having devised a philosophical system of considerable compatibility, and the American philosopher Henry David Thoreau, who translated a Buddhist sutra from French into English. Western spiritual seekers were attracted to what they saw as the exotic and mystical tone of the Asian traditions, and created esoteric societies such as the Theosophical Society of H.P. Blavatsky. The Buddhist Society, London was founded by Theosophist Christmas Humphreys in 1924.

At first Western Buddhology was hampered by poor translations (often translations of translations), but soon Western scholars such as Max Müller began to learn Asian languages and translate Asian texts.

In 1880 a committee comprised of Ven Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala Thera (Chairman), Ven. Migettuwatte Gunananda Thera, Don Carolis Hewavitharana (father of Anagarika Dharmapala), Andiris Perera Dharmagunawardhana (maternal grandfather of Anagarika Dharmapala), William de Abrew, Charles A. de Silva, Peter de Abrew, H. William Fernando, N. S. Fernando and Carolis Pujitha Gunawardena (Secretary) designed the International Buddhist flag to celebrate the revival of Buddhism in Sri Lanka and (Theosophist) Henry Steel Olcott made suggestions for modifying it . Its stripes symbolise universal compassion, the middle path, blessings, purity and liberation, wisdom, and the conglomeration of these. The flag was accepted as the International Buddhist Flag by the 1952 World Buddhist Congress.

In 1899 Gordon Douglas became the first Westerner to be ordained as a Buddhist monk.

The first Buddhists to arrive in the United States were Chinese. Hired as cheap labor for the railroads and other expanding industries, they established temples in their settlements along the rail lines. See the article on Buddhism in America for further information.

During the 20th century the German writer Hermann Hesse showed great interest in Eastern religions, writing a book entitled Siddhartha. American beat generation poet Jack Kerouac became a well-known literary Buddhist, for his roman-a-clef The Dharma Bums and other works. The cultural re-evaluations of the hippie generation in the late 1960s and early 1970s led to a re-discovery of Buddhism, which seemed to promise a more methodical path to happiness than Christianity and a way out of the perceived spiritual bankruptcy of Western life.

Many of these 'seekers', traveling to Asia in pursuit of gurus and ancient wisdom, first encountered Buddhism in Nepal or northern India through contact with Tibetan monks who had fled the Chinese occupancy in 1959. Within a few years Tibetan lamas such as Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Geshe Ngawang Wangyal and the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, were invited to teach in the West.

In addition to this a number of Americans who had served in the Korean or Vietnam Wars stayed out in Asia, seeking to understand both the horror they had witnessed and its context. A few of these eventually ordained as monks in the Theravadan tradition, and upon returning home became influential meditation teachers establishing such centres as IMS in America.

Another contributing factor in the flowering of Buddhist thought in the West was the popularity of Zen amongst the counter-culture poets and activists of the 60's, due to the writings of Alan Watts and D.T. Suzuki. Since that time Buddhism has become the fastest-growing religion in Australia and many other Western nations.

A distinctive feature of Buddhism has been the continuous evolution of the practice as it was transmitted from one country to another. This dynamic aspect is particularly evident today in the West. Chögyam Trungpa, the founder of the Shambhala meditation movement, claimed in his teachings that his intention was to strip the ethnic baggage away from traditional methods of working with the mind and to deliver the essence of those teachings to his western students. Another example of a school evolving new idioms for the transmission of the dharma is the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order, founded by Sangharakshita. Lama Surya Das is a prominent Western-born teacher continuing to bring the teachings of Buddhism to Westerners.

Some, mainly American convert Buddhists including Jack Kerouac, are recently incorporating Jesus into Buddhism. They claim that Jesus is a bodhisattva in that he achieved a very high degree of enlightenment and power.

See also

Buddhism

• Buddhists
• History of Buddhist schools
• Buddha
• Buddhism by country
• Buddhist terms and concepts
• Buddhist texts
• Cultural elements of Buddhism
• Faith in Buddhism
• God in Buddhism
• Nirvana
• List of Buddhist topics
• List of Buddhists
• Kilesa

Related systems and religions

• Eastern philosophy
• Hinduism
• Jainism
• Taoism

References and Links

The following below are the references, footnotes and external links pertaining to the articles of Buddhism, Buddhists and Buddhist religious philosophy.

References

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• Thich Nhat Hanh (1974), The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching, Broadway Books ISBN 0767903692.
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• Walpola Rahula (1974), What the Buddha Taught, Grove Press ISBN 0802130313.
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• Yin Shun, Yeung H. Wing (translator) (1998), The Way to Buddhahood: Instructions from a Modern Chinese Master, Wisdom Publications {{citation}}: |author= has generic name (help) ISBN 0861711335.

Footnotes

1. The Perennial Dictionary of World Religions. Keith Crim, editor. Harper & Row Publishers: New York, 1989. 451.

External links

• Buddhism in the Theravada tradition - Scriptures and practical meditation teaching from the Tradition of the Elders.
• Buddhist Search Directory The world largest Buddhist directory with full functional search and graphical thumbnail preview.
• The Buddha And His Dhamma the Buddhist Bible by 20th century Indian Buddhist Revivalist Bodhisattva Dr. B. R. Ambedkar
• BuddhaChat.org - A Buddhists Learning Community.
• DharmaWeb.org
• Buddhism - A Brief Introduction for Westerners
• FAQ about Buddhism from Access to Insight
• Beginning Buddhism FAQ
• Buddhism in London www.meditateinlondon.org.uk
• SoYouWanna convert to Buddhism?
• BuddhaNet
• "Treasury of Truth" illustrated "Dhammapada."
• A View on Buddhism
• E-Sangha Buddhism Forum
• The Buddhist Channel a news source.
• Buddhist Views
• DharmaNet
• Buddhist Studies WWW Virtual Library: the Internet guide.
• Friends of the Western Buddhist Order
• Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies
• International Dictionary of Buddhism (Seems to contain only romanised terms)
• "Nirvana Sutra" full text and appreciation of the sutra.
• ReligionFacts.com on Buddhism facts, glossary, timeline and articles.
• UrbanDharma
• A Study of Buddhism in Contrast to Christianity Christian-Buddhist dialogue
• Vipassana Meditation Website Worldwide organization offering courses in Vipassana Meditation, derived from the Maha-Satipatthana Sutra.

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• Buddhism
• Religious faiths, traditions, and movements