A tradition of thought and practice originating in India c.2500 years ago, and now a world religion, deriving from the teaching of Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama), who is regarded as one of a continuing series of enlightened beings. The teaching of Buddha is summarized in the Four Noble Truths, the last of which affirms the existence of a path leading to deliverance from the universal human experience of suffering. A central tenet is the law of karma, by which good and evil deeds result in appropriate reward or punishment in this life or in a succession of rebirths. Through a proper understanding of this condition, and by obedience to the right path, human beings can break the chain of karma. The Buddha's path to deliverance is through morality (sila), meditation (samadhi), and wisdom (panna), as set out in the Eightfold Path. The goal is Nirvana, which means the blowing out of the fires of all desires, and the absorption of the self into the infinite. All Buddhas are greatly revered, and a place of special importance is accorded to Gautama.
There are two main traditions within Buddhism, dating from its earliest history. Theravada Buddhism adheres to the strict and narrow teachings of the early Buddhist writings: salvation is possible for only the few who accept the severe discipline and effort necessary to achieve it. Mahayana Buddhism is more liberal, and makes concessions to popular piety: it teaches that salvation is possible for everyone, and introduces the doctrine of the bodhisattva (or personal saviour). As Buddhism spread, other schools grew up, among which are Ch'an or Zen, Lamaism, Tendai, Nichiren, and Soka Gakkai. Recently Buddhism has attracted growing interest in the West. The only complete canon of Buddhist scripture is called the Pali canon, after the language in which it is written. It forms the basic teaching for traditional Theravada Buddhism, but other schools have essentially the same canon written in Sanskrit. Mahayana Buddhists acknowledge many more texts as authoritative.
Underlying the diversity of Buddhist belief and practice is a controlling purpose. The aim is to create the conditions favourable to spiritual development, leading to liberation or deliverance from bondage to suffering. This is generally seen as involving meditation, personal discipline, and spiritual exercises of various sorts. This common purpose has made it possible for Buddhism to be very flexible in adapting its organization, ceremony, and pattern of belief to different social and cultural situations. Reliable figures are unobtainable, but there were over 360 million Buddhists estimated in 2004, and over 1000 million people live in lands where Buddhism is a significant religious influence.
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Practices and Attainment |
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Buddhism by Region |
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Comparative Studies |
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Buddhism (also known as Buddha Dharma (Pali: धमा Dhamma), "the teachings of the awakened one") is a dharmic, non-theistic religion, a way of life, a practical philosophy, and arguably a form of psychology. Buddhism focuses on the teachings of Gautama Buddha (Pali: Gotama Buddha), who was born in Kapilavastu in what is now Nepal, with the name Siddhārtha Gautama (Pāli: Siddhattha Gotama) around the fifth century BCE. Buddhism spread throughout the Indian subcontinent in the five centuries following the Buddha's passing, and propagated into Central, Southeast, and East Asia over the next two millennia.
Today, Buddhism is divided primarily into three traditions:
Theravāda (Sanskrit: Sthaviravāda), Mahāyāna, and Vajrayāna.Buddhism continues to attract followers worldwide, and it is considered a major world religion. Buddhism is the fifth-largest religion in the world behind Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and traditional Chinese religion, respectively. Buddhism is the fourth-largest organised religion in the world, and the monks' order Sangha is amongst the oldest organisations on earth.
When used in a generic sense, a Buddha is generally considered to be a person who discovers the true nature of reality through years of spiritual cultivation, investigation of the various religious practices of his time, and meditation.
Any person who has become awakened from the "sleep of ignorance" by directly realizing the true nature of reality is called a Buddha. According to Gautama Buddha, any person can follow his example and become enlightened through the study of his words ("Dharma") and putting them into practice, by leading a virtuous, moral life, and purifying the mind.
The aim of Buddhist practice is to put an end to the stress of existence.
Buddhist teaching encourages individuals to practice and verify the Buddha's teachings based on their own personal experience, and also after consulting with 'the wise'.
Doctrines
Numerous distinct groups have developed since the passing of Gautama Buddha, with diverse teachings that vary widely in practice, philosophical emphasis, and culture. However, there are certain doctrines which are common to the majority of schools and traditions in Buddhism.
The Four Noble Truths
The Buddha taught that in life there exists dissatisfaction / suffering which is caused by desire and it can be cured (ceased) by following the Noble Eightfold Path (Sanskrit: Āryo 'ṣṭāṅgo Mārgaḥ , Pāli: Ariyo Aṭṭhaṅgiko Maggo).
The Four Noble Truths was the topic of the first sermon given by the Buddha after his enlightenment, which was given to the ascetics with whom he had practiced austerities.
The Four Noble Truths were originally spoken by Buddha, not in the form of a religious or philosophical text, but in the form of a common medical prescription of the time.
Many long-term practicing Buddhists, for instance, have been shown to have physically different brain structure, in areas associated with profound joy or spiritual happiness. A possible fusion of Buddhism and psychology can be seen clearly in publications by psychiatrists and psychotherapists, such as Mark Epstein's book, Thoughts Without a Thinker.
Nirvana
Nirvana is the extinguishment of all desire, delusion and ignorance.
The Noble Eightfold Path
| According to Buddha, if a person does not follow the goal of Total Realization, one lives one's life like a preoccupied child playing with toys in a house that is burning to the ground. |
The Noble Eightfold Path is the way to the cessation of suffering, the fourth part of the Four Noble Truths. In order to fully understand the noble truths and investigate whether they were in fact true, Buddha recommended that a certain path be followed which consists of:
Right Viewpoint - Realizing the Four Noble Truths (samyag-dṛṣṭi, sammā-diṭṭhi) Right Values - Commitment to mental and ethical growth in moderation (samyak-saṃkalpa, sammā-saṅkappa) Right Speech - One speaks in a non hurtful, not exaggerated, truthful way (samyag-vāc, sammā-vācā) Right Actions - Wholesome action, avoiding action that would do harm (samyak-karmānta, sammā-kammanta) Right Livelihood - One's job does not harm in any way oneself or others; directly or indirectly (weapon maker, drug dealer, etc.) (samyag-ājīva, sammā-ājīva} Right Effort - One makes an effort to improve (samyag-vyāyāma, sammā-vāyāma) Right Mindfulness - Mental ability to see things for what they are with clear consciousness (samyak-smṛti, sammā-sati) Right Meditation - State where one reaches enlightenment and the ego has disappeared (samyak-samādhi, sammā-samādhi)The word samyak means "turned to one point or against each other, universus or adversus;
Bodhi
Bodhi (Pāli and Sanskrit. awakening) is a title given in Buddhism to the specific awakening experience attained by Buddha. All schools of Buddhism recognise three types of Bodhi. They are Śrāvakabodhi (Pāli: Sāvakabodhi), Pratyekabodhi (Pāli: Paccekabodhi) and Samyaksambodhi (Pāli: Sammāsambodhi), the perfect enlightenment by which a Bodhisattva becomes a fully enlightened Buddha. The aspiration to attain the state of samyaksambodhi, known as the Bodhisattva ideal, is considered as the highest ideal of Buddhism.
Karma
In a discourse (A.N.
According to the Buddha the moral order rests on each individual and not on any divine being:
"Owners of their own Karma, O young man, are living beings heirs of their Karma, have karma as the wombs from which they spring, having Karma as their refuge. Cuulakammavibhaagasutta.)In Buddhism, Karma has a specific meaning quite different from other teachings.
Middle Way
The primary guiding principle of Buddhist practice is the Middle Way which was discovered by Gautama Buddha prior to his enlightenment (bodhi).
Refuge in the Three Jewels
Acknowledging the Four Noble Truths and making the first step in The Noble Eightfold Path requires taking refuge, as the foundation of one's religious practice, in Buddhism's Three Jewels (also called Three Treasures, Triple Gem, Triratna or Ratna-traya (Sanskrit), Tiratana (Pali), 三宝, Sānbǎo (Chinese), Sanbō or Sanpō (Japanese), 삼보, Sambo (Korean).
The Three Jewels are:
The Buddha: The Awakened One. The Buddha could also be represented as the wisdom that understands Dharma, and in this regard Gautama Buddha represents the perfect wisdom that sees reality in its true form.The Buddha presented himself as a model and beseeched his followers to have faith (śraddhā, Pāli saddhā) in his example of a human who escaped the pain and danger of existence. The Saṅgha, in this sense meaning the group of Buddhists possessing at least some degree of enlightenment, provides a refuge by preserving the authentic teachings of the Buddha and providing further examples that the truth of the Buddha's teachings is attainable. As Buddhism migrated to the West, a new usage of the word has emerged: the usage of the word "sangha" to describe a meditation group or any sort of spiritual community.
Many Buddhists believe that there is no otherworldly salvation from one's karma. The suffering caused by the karmic effects of previous thoughts, words and deeds can be alleviated by following the Noble Eightfold Path, although the Buddha of some Mahayana sutras, such as the Lotus Sutra, the Angulimaliya Sutra and the Nirvana Sutra, also teaches that powerful sutras such as the above-named can, through the very act of their being heard or recited, wipe out great swathes of negative karma.
Śīla (Virtuous Behaviour)
Śīla (Sanskrit) or sīla (Pāli) is usually rendered into English as "behavioral discipline", "morality", or ethics.
sīla refers to overall (principles of) ethical behaviour.
The five precepts are not given in the form of commands such as "thou shalt not ...", but are training rules in order to live a better life in which one is happy, without worries, and can meditate well.
In the eight precepts, the third precept on sexual misconduct is made more strict, and becomes a precept of celibacy.
The three additional rules of the eight precepts are:
6.In Mahayana Buddhism, there is also a distinctive Vinaya and ethics contained within the Mahayana Brahmajala Sutra (not to be confused with the Pali text of that name) for Bodhisattvas, where, for example, the eating of meat is frowned upon and vegetarianism is actively encouraged (see vegetarianism in Buddhism).
Samadhi/Bhāvana (Meditative Cultivation)
In the language of the Noble Eightfold Path, samyaksamādhi is "right concentration". Almost all Buddhist schools agree that the Buddha taught two types of meditation, viz.
Once the meditator achieves a strong and powerful concentration (jhāna, Sanskrit dhyāna), his mind is ready to penetrate and gain insight (vipassanā) into the ultimate nature of reality, eventually obtaining release from all suffering.
Samatha Meditation starts from being mindful to an object or idea, which is expanded to one's body, mind and entire surroundings, leading to a state of total concentration and tranquility (jhāna) There are many variations in the style of meditation, from sitting cross-legged or kneeling to chanting or walking.
In Buddhist practice, it is said that while samatha meditation can calm the mind, only vipassanā meditation can reveal how the mind was disturbed to start with, which is what leads to jñāna (Pāli ñāṇa knowledge) vijñāna (Pāli viññāṇa awareness), prajñā (Pāli paññā pure understanding) and thus can lead to nirvāṇa (Pāli nibbāna).
Prajñā (Wisdom)
Prajñā (Sanskrit) or paññā (Pāli) means wisdom that is based on a realization of dependent origination, The Four Noble Truths and Noble Eightfold Path.
Initially, prajñā is attained at a conceptual level by means of listening to sermons (dharma talks), reading and sometimes reciting Buddhist texts and engaging in discourse. Gautama Buddha taught dharma to his disciples mainly through the mean of discourse or sermon, many attaining bodhi upon hearing Buddha's discourse.
Once the conceptual understanding is attained, it is applied to daily life so that each Buddhist can verify the truth of the Buddha's teaching at a practical level.
Buddhism Symbols
The eight auspicious symbols of Buddhism are:
the Conch Shell the Lotus the Wheel the Parasol (Umbrella) the Endless Knot the Pair of Golden Fishes the Banner Proclaiming Victory the Treasure VaseBuddhism after the Buddha
Soon after the parinirvāṇa (Pāli: parinibbāna, "complete extinguishment") of the Buddha, the first Buddhist council was held. In the first council, Ānanda, the Buddha's personal attendant was called upon to recite the discourses (sūtras, Pāli suttas) of the Buddha.
Early Buddhism
As the Saṅgha gradually grew over the next century a dispute arose regarding nine (subtle) points of discipline. A Second Buddhist Council (traditionally believed to have taken place 100 years after the Buddha's death) was held to resolve the points at dispute, and these were resolved.
These schisms occurred within the traditions of Early Buddhism, at a time when the Mahāyāna movement either did not exist at all, or only existed as a current of thought not yet identified with a separate school.
One of the basic schisms was between the Sthaviras and the Mahāsāṅghikas.
Following (or leading up to) the schisms, each Saṅgha started to accumulate an Abhidharma, a collection of philosophical commentaries on the discourse of the Buddha. However, as time went on and Buddhism spread further, the (perceived) teachings of the Buddha were formalized in a more systematic manner in a new Pitaka: the Abhidhamma Pitaka. Some modern academics refer to it as Abhidhamma Buddhism.
Buddhism spread slowly in India until the time of the Mauryan emperor Aśoka the Great, who was a public supporter of the religion. The support of Aśoka and his descendants led to the construction of more Buddhist religious memorials (stūpas) and to efforts to spread Buddhism throughout the enlarged Maurya empire and even into neighboring lands – particularly to the Iranian-speaking regions of Afghanistan and Central Asia, beyond the Mauryas' northwest border, and to the island of Sri Lanka south of India. These two missions, in opposite directions, would ultimately lead, in the first case to the spread of Buddhism into China, and in the second case, to the emergence of Theravāda Buddhism and its spread from Sri Lanka to the coastal lands of Southeast Asia.
This period marks the first spread of Buddhism beyond India. During this period Buddhism was exposed to a variety of influences, from Persian and Greek civilization, and from changing trends in non-Buddhist Indian religions – themselves influenced by Buddhism.
Establishment of Theravāda Buddhism (Southern Tradition)
In addition to the Edicts of Aśoka, Buddhist annals compiled at a later date offer a history of the Aśokan and post-Aśokan period.
The council also saw the formation of the saṅgha of the Vibhajjavāda ("school of analytical discourse") out of various schools of the Sthaviravāda lineage. However, these schools became influential in northwestern India and Central Asia and, since their teaching is found among the scriptures preserved by the Mahāyāna schools, they may have had some formative influence on the Mahāyāna.
It was long believed in Theravāda tradition that the Pāli language is equivalent to Māgadhī, the eastern dialect of the kingdom of Magadha spoken by the Buddha.
Rise of Mahāyāna Buddhism (Northern Tradition)
The precise geographical origins of Mahāyāna are unknown. Pictures within the wall of a stūpa representing the story of the Buddha and his previous reincarnation as a bodisattva were used to preach Buddhism to the masses.
Around 100 CE, the Kuṣāṇa emperor Kaniṣka convened the fourth Buddhist council and is usually associated with the formal rise of Mahāyāna Buddhism. This council is not recognised by Theravāda line of Buddhism. Instead, a set of new scriptures, mostly notably, the Lotus Sūtra, an early version of the Heart Sūtra and the Amitābha Sūtra were approved, as well as fundamental principles of doctrine based around the concept of salvation for the masses (hence Mahāyāna "great vehicle") and the concept of Buddhas and bodhisattva who embody transcendent Buddha-nature who strive to achieve such goal.
Emergence of the Vajrayāna
Mahāyāna Buddhism received significant theoretical grounding from Nāgārjuna (c.150 - 250 CE), arguably the most influential scholar within the Mahāyāna tradition.
After the end of the Kuṣāṇas, Buddhism flourished in India during the dynasty of the Guptas (4th – 6th century).
There are differing views as to just when Vajrayāna and its tantric practice started. In the Tibetan tradition, it is claimed that the historical Śākyamuni Buddha taught tantra, but as these are esoteric teachings, they were written down long after the Buddha's other teachings. China generally received Indian transmission up to the 11th century including tantric practice, while a vast amount of what is considered to be Tibetan Buddhism (Vajrayāna) stems from the late (9th-12th century) Nālandā tradition.
Decline of Buddhism in India and Central Asia
See also: Decline of Buddhism in IndiaBuddhism was established in the northern regions of India and Central Asia, and kingdoms with Buddhist rulers such as Menander I and Kaniska. Under the rule of tolerant or even sympathetic Greco-Bactrian and Iranian Achaemenid kings, Buddhism flourished. The rulers of the Kushāna Empire adopted Buddhism, and it continued to thrive in the region under the rule of the Turk-Shāhīs.
Buddhists were briefly persecuted under the Zoroastrian priest-king Kirder. Syncretism between Zoroastrianism and Buddhism had resulted in the rise of a 'Buddha-Mazda' divinity, which Kirder treated as heresy.
The Hinayana traditions first spread among the Turkic tribes before combining with the Mahayana forms during the 2nd and 3rd centuries BCE to cover modern-day Pakistan, Kashmir, Afghanistan, eastern and coastal Iran, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. Among the first of these Turkic tribes to adopt Buddhism was the Turki-Shahi who adopted Buddhism as early as the 3rd century BCE.
From the 4th Century CE on, Hindu dynasties had achieved preeminence elsewhere in India. By the 4th to 5th century Buddhism was already in decline in northern India, even though it was achieving multiple successes in Central Asia and along the Silk Road as far as China.
The Buddhist states of Central Asia were weakened in the 6th century following the invasion of the White Huns and Buddhism suffered as recorded by Xuanzang.
When Muhammad ibn Qāsim led the invasion of Sindh at the mouth of the Indus river, he was aided by some Buddhists in his campaign against their Hindu overlord, Rājā Dahir.
Western Central Asia was under the control of first Arab and then Persian Muslims from the 8th century CE on.
After the disintegration of the Abbāsid Caliphate, the Muslim Turks rose to prominence among the Persian emirates that emerged in Central Asia and Afghanistan.
The originally pagan Turkic tribes who lived in western Central Asia converted to Islām as they came to be increasingly influenced by Persian culture. Buddhism persisted, together with Christianity, Manichaeism, Zoroastrianism, and shamanism in areas to the east (modern Xinjiang) for several centuries, which did not become overwhelmingly Muslim until the 15th century CE; however, under the two-pronged onslaught Buddhism waned and over time Central Asia gradually became predominantly Muslim.
In 1215 Genghis Khan conquered Afghanistan and his horde devastated the local population indiscriminately; in 1227 after his death his conquest was divided and Chagatai established the Chagatai Khanate while Hulegu established the Il Khanate where Buddhism was the state religion across Muslim lands. In the Il Khanate, Hulegu and his successors Abaqa and Arghun also established Buddhism as the state religion but were hostile to the Muslims. however, when Ghazan came to power in 1295 and converted he reverted the state religion to Islam and the climate became hostile towards Buddhism. Today no stupas built by the earlier Mongol Khans survive, and after Ghazan's reign little mention of Buddhism can be found in Afghanistan and Central Asia.
Buddhists retained power in parts of northern India, in Kaśmīr and especially in Bengal, where the Buddhist Pāla kings ruled from the 8th-12th centuries CE. These last Buddhist strongholds played an important role in the evolution of the Vajrayāna and the transmission of that form of Buddhism to Tibet before they collapsed under assault from the Hindu Sena dynasty.
Elsewhere in India, Buddhism suffered from pressure by Hindu dynasties, such as the increasingly powerful Rajputs, as well as competition from a Hinduism that had gained ideological coherence and emotional vigor from such movements as Vedānta philosophy and Bhakti devotionalism. One symptom of increased Hindu confidence with regard to Buddhism was the identification of the Buddha as an avatāra of the Hindu god Vishnu – an identification which contradicted basic Buddhist understandings about the nature of a Buddha and of nirvāna.
In 1193, only a few decades after the fall of the Pāla kingdom, Muhammad Khiljī destroyed Nālandā, the great Buddhist university. Khiljī's march across northern India caused a precipitous decline in the fortunes of Indian Buddhism, as he destroyed Buddhist walled monasteries fortified by the Sena kings (which he thought were cities), killed the monks and burned their libraries.
After the Mongol invasions of Islamic lands across Central Asia, many Sufis also found themselves fleeing towards the newly established Islamic lands in India around the environs of Bengal. Here their influence, caste attitudes towards Buddhists, previous familiarity with Buddhism, lack of Buddhist political power or social structure along with Hinduism's revival movements such as Advaita and the rise of the syncretic bhakti movement, all contributed to a significant realignment of beliefs relegating Buddhism in India to the peripheries.
By the 13th century CE, Buddhism had become a marginal religion in central India; without a monastic infrastructure, Buddhism could not easily maintain its identity, and many Buddhists, especially in Bengal, were converted to Islām, Hinduism or left for the Himalayan foothills. In Kaśmīr Buddhism remained a significant religion down to the early 15th century, when it was displaced by Islām and Hinduism, except among the Tibetan peoples of Ladakh.
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 Himalayan regions with a primarily Tibetan population. The Newars of Nepal also retain a form of Buddhism that differs from the Buddhism of Tibet.
Main Traditions
Buddhist schools are usually divided into two main branches: Theravāda Buddhism and Mahāyāna Buddhism. Vajrayāna is sometimes named as a third, but is more commonly considered a form of Mahāyāna Buddhism.
Another way of categorizing Buddhist schools follows the major languages of the extant Buddhist canons, which exist in Pāli, Tibetan (also found in Mongolian translation) and Chinese collections, along with some texts that still exist in Sanskrit and Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit.
Despite the differences, there are common threads to almost all Buddhist branches:
All accept Gautama Buddha as their teacher.Theravāda
Theravāda is Pāli for "the Doctrine of the Elders". The ultimate aim of practice, according to Theravāda Buddhism, is the attainment of freedom from suffering. Theravāda teaches that this experience of suffering is caused by mental defilements like greed, aversion and delusion, while freedom can be attained though putting into practice teachings like the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path.
The Theravāda school bases its practice and doctrine exclusively on the Pāli Canon and its commentaries. The Sutta collections and Vinaya texts of the Pāli Canon (and the corresponding texts in other versions of the Tripitaka), are generally considered by modern scholars to be the earliest Buddhist literature, and they are accepted as authentic in every branch of Buddhism.
Theravāda is the only surviving representative of the historical early Buddhist schools.
Mahāyāna
The Mahāyāna (Sanskrit: "Great Vehicle") branch emphasizes infinite, universal compassion (maha-karuna), or bodhicitta - the selfless, ultra-altruistic quest of the Bodhisattva to attain the "Awakened Mind" (bodhicitta) of Buddhahood so as to have the fullest possible knowledge of how most effectively to lead all sentient beings into Nirvana. The Mahayana can also on occasion communicate a vision of the Buddha or Dharma which amounts to mysticism and give expression to a form of mentalist pantheism or panentheism (God in Buddhism).
In addition to the Tripitaka scriptures, which (within Mahayana) are viewed as valid but only provisional or basic, Mahāyāna schools recognize all or part of a genre of Mahayana scriptures. Mahāyāna Buddhism shows a great deal of doctrinal variation and development over time, and even more variation in terms of practice.
Native Mahāyāna Buddhism is practiced today in China, Japan, Korea, Sri Lanka and most of Vietnam. The Buddhism practiced in Tibet, the Himalayan regions, and Mongolia is also Mahāyāna in origin, but will be discussed below under the heading of Vajrayāna.
Vajrayāna
The Vajrayāna or "Diamond Vehicle" (also referred to as Mantrayāna, Tantrayāna, Tantric Buddhism, or esoteric Buddhism) shares the basic concepts of Mahāyāna, but also includes a vast array of spiritual techniques designed to enhance Buddhist practice. Vajrayāna Buddhism exists today in the form of two major sub-schools: Tibetan Buddhism and Shingon Buddhism.
Intellectualism and Buddhist worldview
In his lifetime, Gautama Buddha had not answered several philosophical questions. On issues like whether the world is eternal or non-eternal, finite or infinite, unity or separation of the body and the self, complete inexistence of a person after nirvana and then death, nature of the Supreme Truth, etc, the Buddha had remained silent.
In numerous Mahayana sutras and Tantras, the Buddha stresses that Dharma (Truth) and the Buddha himself in their ultimate modus cannot truly be understood with the ordinary rational mind or logic: both Buddha and Reality (ultimately One) transcend all worldly concepts. The Buddha in the self-styled "Uttara-Tantra", the Mahaparinirvana Sutra, insists that, while pondering upon Dharma is vital, one must then relinquish fixation on words and letters, as these are utterly divorced from Liberation and the Buddha. The Supreme Buddha, Samantabhadra, states there:
"The mind of perfect purity [i.e.
Also later, the famous Indian Buddhist yogi and teacher mahasiddha Tilopa discouraged any intellectual activity in his 6 words of advice.
Buddhist missionaries, however, often faced philosophical questions from other religions whose answers they themselves did not know. Abhidharma, Buddhist philosophy and Reality in Buddhism.
Buddhist texts
Buddhist scriptures and other texts exist in great variety. Different schools of Buddhism place varying levels of value on them.
Soon after the death of the Buddha, the first Buddhist council was held; The goal of the council was to record the Buddha's sayings – sūtras (Sanskrit) or suttas (Pāli) – and codify monastic rules (Vinaya). Ānanda, the Buddha's personal attendant, was called upon to recite the discourses of the Buddha, and Upāli, another disciple, recited the rules of the Vinaya. Both the sūtras and the Vinaya of every Buddhist school contain a wide variety of elements including discourses on the Dharma, commentaries on other teachings, cosmological and cosmogonical texts, stories of the Buddha's previous lives, and lists relating to various subjects.
The Theravāda and other Nikāya schools believe that the texts of their canon contain the actual words of the Buddha. Other texts, such as the Mahāyāna sūtras, are also considered to be the word of the Buddha, but were transmitted either in secret, via lineages of mythical beings (such as the nāgas), or came directly from other Buddhas or bodhisattvas.
The followers of Theravāda Buddhism take the scriptures known as the Pāli Canon as definitive and authoritative, while the followers of Mahāyāna Buddhism base their faith and philosophy primarily on the Mahāyāna sūtras and their own versions of the Vinaya.
Whereas the Theravādins adhere solely to the āgamas and their commentaries, the adherents of Mahāyāna accept both the agamas and the Mahāyāna sūtras as authentic and valid teachings of the Buddha, designed for different types of persons and different levels of spiritual penetration. For the Mahāyānists, in contrast, the āgamas do indeed contain basic, foundational, and, therefore, relatively weighty pronouncements of the Buddha, but in their view, the Mahāyāna sutras articulate the Buddha's higher, more advanced and deeper doctrines, reserved for those who follow the exalted bodhisattva path. The "Great" of "Maha-yana" is indeed typical of much of this version of Buddhism - from the physical bigness (lengthiness) of some of the Mahayana sutras and the vastness of the Bodhisattva vow (to strive for all future time to help free other persons and creatures from pain), to the numbers of beings who are sought to be saved (infinitudes), to the (in some sutras and Tantras) final attainment of the Buddha's "Great Self" (mahatman) in the sphere of "Great Nirvana" (mahanirvana).
Unlike many religions, Buddhism has no single central text that is universally referred to by all traditions.
Over the years, various attempts have been made at synthesizing a single Buddhist text that will encompass all of the major principles of Buddhism.
Dwight Goddard collected what he felt was a representative sample of Buddhist scriptures- along with other classics of Eastern philosophy, such as the Tao Te Ching- into his Buddhist Bible in the 1920's.
Present state of Buddhism
Estimates of the number of Buddhists vary, but the most common figure today is between 350 and 400 million.
Theravāda Buddhism, using Pāli as its scriptural language, is the dominant form of Buddhism in Southeast Asia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and India. Mahāyāna forms of Buddhism that use scriptures in Chinese are dominant in most of China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam as well as the Chinese communities around the world, especially within Indochina and Southeast Asia as well as in the West. Vajrayāna Buddhism, using the Tibetan language, is found in Tibet and the surrounding area of India, Bhutan, Mongolia, Nepal, Tibet/China, and the Russian Federation. Poland, Denmark, Greece and the Russian Federation are the first European countries to recognize Buddhism as an official religion. The Indian Buddhist Movement is a revival of Buddhism in India.At the present time, the teachings of all three branches of Buddhism have spread throughout the world, and Buddhist texts are increasingly translated into local languages. 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. In the West, Buddhism is recognised as one of the growing spiritual influences. (see Buddhism in the West)
See also Buddhism by country
Buddhist Culture and Art
Comparative Study
Buddhism is a fertile ground for comparative studies with different beliefs, philosophy, science, history, and various other aspects of Buddhism. In term of doctrine, dependent origination is Buddhism's primary contribution to metaphysics. On the other hand, Buddhist emphasis on the Middle way not only provides a unique guideline for ethics but it has also allowed Buddhism to peacefully coexist with various local beliefs, customs, and institutions in adopted countries for most of its history.
List of Buddhism related topics in comparative studies
Buddhism and Hinduism Buddhism and Eastern teaching (Buddhism and East Asian teaching) God in Buddhism (Buddhism and monotheism) Christianity and Buddhism Buddhist philosophy (Buddhism and Western philosophy) Buddhist Ethics (Buddhism and ethics) Buddhism and science (Buddhism and science) Buddhism and Schism
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