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Buddhism is the religion and philosophy based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama (Sanskrit; in Pali, Siddhattha Gotama), who lived between approximately 563 and 483 BCE. This religion originated in India and gradually spread throughout Asia, to Central Asia, Tibet, Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia, as well as the East Asian countries of China, Mongolia, Korea, and Japan.
The Buddha
Buddha is a word in the ancient Indian languages Pali and Sanskrit which means one who is awake. It is related to the word Bodhi which means to awaken.
Origins
Legend has it that the Buddha to be, Siddhartha Gautama, was born around the 6th century BCE. His birthplace is said to be Lumbini, which is in present day Nepal, although in ancient India, it was part of the Kingdom of Magadha. His father was a king, and Siddhartha lived in luxury, being spared any hardship. The legends say that a seer predicted that Siddhartha would either become a great king, or a great holy man, and this led to the king trying to make sure that Siddhartha never had any cause for dissatisfaction with his life. However, at the age of 29, while being escorted by his attendant Channa, 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, as they are called, led him to the realization that birth, old-age, sickness and death came to everyone, not only once but repeated for life after life in succession for uncounted aeons. He decided to abandon his worldly life, leaving behind his wife and child, his privilege, rank, caste, and 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. It is said that he stole out of the house in the dead of night, pausing for one last look at his family, and did not return there for a very long time. Indian holy men (sadhus), in those days just as today, practiced a variety of ascetic displines designed to 'mortify' the flesh - it was thought that by enduring pain and suffering, the atman or soul became free from the round of rebirth into pain and sorrow. (This was an early form of proto-Hinduism, nowadays called Brahmanism.)
Siddhartha proved adept at these practices, and was able to surpass his teachers. However, he found no answer to his problem and, leaving behind his teachers, he and a small group of companions set out to take their austerities even further. He became a skeleton covered with skin, surviving on a single grain of rice per day, and practiced holding his breath. After nearly starving himself to death with no success (some sources claim that he nearly drowned), Siddhartha 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. Perhaps this would provide an alternative to the dead end of self-mortification?
Taking a little buttermilk from a passing goatherd, he found a large tree (now called the Bodhi tree) under which he would be shaded from the heat of the mid-summer sun, and set to meditating. This new way of practicing began to bear fruit. His mind became concentrated and pure, and then, six years after he began his quest, he attained Enlightenment, and became a Buddha. This meant that he had discovered a way to be free from the troubles of the world.
Historically speaking there are some problems with this story. Firstly, there are other stories of his life which do not exactly match - another story has the Buddha leaving home in the "prime of his youth", and with his parents weeping and wailing. Secondly, we know from other sources that the country of Magadha where he was born was a oligarchic republic at that time, so there was no royal family. However the story is a powerful one and its historical accuracy has not been central to its ability to inspire Buddhists for two and half millennia.
What is a Buddha?
A Buddha is a human being who has awakened to the true nature of universal cause and effect reality, whose insight into the true nature of reality has totally tranformed them beyond birth, death, and subsequent rebirth. A Buddha is not a god in the monotheistic sense of a creator god, and Buddhism traditionally does not emphasize importance in relying on a creator god. Buddha is a title of recognition rather than a personal name. In fact, all schools of Buddhism recognise multiple Buddhas in the past and future.
A Buddha is someone who has (re)discovered the principles by which birth, old-age, sickness, death, and the resultant suffering can be finally overcome. These principles are known as the Buddhadharma, or simply the Dharma. Although the Dharma itself exists outside the confines of space and time, knowledge of the Dharma can be lost. Anyone can attain what the Buddha attained regardless of age, gender, or caste. However, since the Buddha is the one who discovered enlightenment afresh in our time for himself without an enlightened teacher, the Buddha is held in high esteem. His teachings are the main focal point of refuge for Buddhists due to his having attained realization unassisted.
Principles of Buddhism
Buddhist faith is centered around three core concepts called the Three Jewels or Triple Gem. These are the Buddha (the Enlightened teacher), the Dharma (the teaching of the Buddha, therefore, in Buddhist terms, the truth) and the Sangha (which in this context means the Arya-Sangha or community of Enlightened individuals). Every Buddhist vows to take these as their refuge, and also to live by the Five Precepts. Monks take additional precepts.
The Five Precepts
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I undertake the precept to refrain from destroying living creatures.
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I undertake the precept to refrain from taking that which is not given.
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I undertake the precept to refrain from sexual misconduct.
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I undertake the precept to refrain from incorrect speech.
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I undertake the precept to refrain from intoxicants which lead to carelessness.
The Four Noble Truths
The Buddha's teaching at his first sermon was that of the four noble truths.
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Duhkha: All worldly life is unsatisfactory, disjointed, suffering.
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Samudaya: There is a cause of suffering, which is attachment or desire.
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Nirodha: The possibility of the cessation of suffering, which is the elimation of attachment and desire.
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Marga: The path that leads to the cessation of suffering, which is called the Noble Eightfold Path.
The Noble Eightfold Path
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Right Understanding
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Right Thought
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Right Speech
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Right Action
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Right Livelihood
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Right Effort
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Right Mindfulness
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Right Concentration
Sometimes in the Pali Canon the Eightfold Path is spoken of as being a progressive series of stages which the practioner moves through, the culimnation of one leading to the beginning of another, but it is more usual to view the stages 'Path' as being able to be developed simultaneously. However without right understanding it would not be possible to really develop the other limbs of the path.
The Path may be grouped into three sections which correspond to another traditional list known as the Threefold Path: wisdom (1,2); morality (3,4,5) representing actions of body speech and mind; and concentration or meditation (6,7,8). It may also be divided into vision (1), and transformation (2-8), with 2-4, and 6-8 representing transformation of self, and 5 representing transformation of the world around us through work.
See also: Noble Eightfold Path
The three marks of Conditioned Existence
According to the Buddhist tradition all phenomena (dharmas) are marked by three characteristics, sometimes referred to as the Dharma Seals:
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Anatta (Skt. anatman): All things are not-self; without an unchanging permanent essence. Atta (Skt Atman) is the Hindu conception of a soul which is a unchanging permanent essence. Reincarnation is literally the soul putting on a new body. However the Buddha challenged this notion, not on a theoretical basis, but on a purely pragmatic one. The soul cannot be found in the body, it is neither the whole body, nor part of it, neither is it the mind or part of the mind. If the soul were permanent and unchanging, then no change would be possible (this is similar to Zeno's paradoxes).
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Anicca (Skt. anitya): All things and experiences are inconstant, unsteady, and impermanent. Everything is made up of parts, and is dependent on the right conditions for its existence. Everything is in flux, and so conditions are constantly changing. Things are constantly coming into being, and ceasing to be. Nothing lasts.
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Dukkha (Skt. duhkha): because we fail to truly grasp the first two conditions, we suffer. We desire a lasting satisfaction, but look for it amongst constantly changing phenomena. We perceive a self, and act to enhance that self by pursuing pleasure, and seek to prolong pleasure when it too is fleeting.
Other principles and practices
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Meditation or dhyana of some form is a common practice in most if not all schools of Buddhism, for the clergy if not the laity.
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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 (pratitya-samutpada). A skillful or good action brings positive retribution, while unskillful or bad actions bring negative retribution. 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.
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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. Enlightenment breaks this cyclical existence (samsara).
The Three Vehicles
Since the Buddha's time, Buddhism has been practiced in three major forms. The word used for these forms is yana or vehicles. Each yana sees itself as representing the true, original teachings of the Buddha, although some schools believe that the dialectic nature of Buddhism allows its format and trappings to adapt over time in response to changing circumstances.
The three vehicles include, first, the Theravada, or "Way of the Elders", the most conservative school, which recognizes only the oldest recorded scriptures. The Theravada sect is the only surviving remnant or descendent of the Shravakayana or Hinayana (the latter is a derisive term usually used to describe the ancient non-Mahayana schools). Theravada is practiced today in Sri Lanka, Burma, Laos, Thailand, and portions of Vietnam and Malaysia.
The second vehicle is the Mahayana, or "Great Vehicle", which emphasizes universal compassion and the selfless ideal of the bodhisattva. In addition to the Theravada scriptures, Mahayana schools recognize all or part of a genre of scriptures that were first put in writing around 1 AD. Mahayana is practiced today in China, Japan, Korea, and portions of Vietnam.
The third vehicle is the Vajrayana or "Diamond Vehicle", which, while sharing many of the basic concepts of Mahayana, also includes a vast array of spiritual techniques designed to enhance Buddhist practice. The purpose of Vajrayana, also known as Tantric Buddhism, is to harness the individual's various energies in the most efficient way possible in order to seek enlightenment. In addition to the Theravada and Mahayana scriptures, Vajrayana Buddhists study an arcane body texts called the Buddhist Tantras.
History of the Schools
Three months after the passing of Gautama Buddha, The First Council was held by the Sangha. At this point, no conflict about what the Buddha taught is known to have occurred, so the teachings were divided into various parts and each was assigned to an elder and his pupils to commit to memory. These groups of people often cross checked with each other to ensure that no omissions or additions were made.
By the Second Council, one hundred years later, it was not the dharma that had been called into question but the monks' code of rules or vinaya. This resulted in the formation of the Sthaviravādin and Mahāsanghika schools. Opinions differ on the cause of the split: the Sthaviravādins described their opponents as lax monks who had ceased to follow all the vinaya rules, while the Mahāsanghikas argued that the Buddha had never intended a rigid adherence to all the minor rules. After this initial division, more were to follow. Schism in early Buddhism was typically not on points of doctrine (orthodoxy), but in the area of practice (orthopraxy). So if two schools shared a vinaya, but were in dispute over doctrinal matters, it was not unlikely that they would continue to practice together. However, if one group disputed the vinaya of another, this would often prevent common practice.
In the 3rd century BC the Third Council occurred, where small sects called into to question not only the vinaya but the details of the Dharma. The chairman of the Council, Moggaliputta Tissa, compiled a book called the Kathavatthu, which was meant to refute the heretical, false views and theories held by some sects. Moggaliputta's views were of course disputed by his opponents. The version of the scriptures that had been established at the Third Council, including the vinaya and the Abhidhamma commentaries, was taken to Sri Lanka by the son of Emperor Ashoka. There it was eventually committed to writing in the Pali language. The Pali Canon remains the only complete set of Shravakayana scriptures to survive, although fragments of other versions exist.
Between the 1st century BC to the 1st century AD, the terms Mahayana and Hinayana were first used in writing, in, for example, the Lotus Sutra. During and after the 2nd century AD, the Mahayana vision became clearly defined in the works of Nagarjuna, Asanga, Shantideva, Ashvagosha, and Vasubandhu.
Around the 1st century AD, Buddhism spread from India through successive waves of merchants and pilgrims. It reached as far as Arabia to the west, and eastward to southeast Asia, where the first records of Buddhism date from around 400AD. Mahayana Buddhism established a major regional center in what is today Afghanistan, and from there it spread to China, Korea, Mongolia, and Japan. In 475, the Indian monk Bodhidharma travelled to China and established what became the Zen school. During the first millennium AD, monks from China such as Yijing and Xuanzang made pilgrimages to India.
At one time, different Turkic and Tocharian groups along the northern fringe of East Turkestan (modern Xinjiang in western China) adhered to the Theravada school as well various syncretic mixtures of Christianity and Buddhism. However, Buddhism there was supplanted by the introduction of Islam around 1000 AD.
Vajrayana also evolved at this stage carried from from India to Tibet around 800 AD by teachers such as Padmasambhava and Atisha. There it initially coexisted with native belief systems such as Bön, but later came to largely supplant or absorb them. A form of esoteric Vajrayana known as Shingon was also transmitted to Japan, where it continues to be practiced, by the priest Kūkai.
There is still an active debate as to whether or not Tantrism was initially developed within Buddhism or Hinduism. Buddhist literature tends to predate the later puranic Tantras, and there is some evidence to suggest that the basic structure of tantra depends upon the Buddhist philosophical schools.
See also: Timeline of Buddhism
Scriptures
The Buddhist canon is distinguished from that of many other major religions in the fact that it is, in principle, an open canon. Since it is a basic tenet of the tradition that anyone may become enlightened, it is also possible for new authoritative sermons to be delivered and recorded. The Buddhist canon of scripture is known in Pali as Tipitaka:, and in Sanskrit as Tripitaka. Tripitika literally means "Three (tri-) Baskets (pitika)" and refers to the three main divisions of the canon, which are:
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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 material.
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The Sutta Pitaka (Skt. sutra-pitaka), containing discourses of the Buddha.
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The Abhidhamma Pitaka (Skt. abhidharma-pitaka), containing a philosophical systematization of the Buddha's teaching, including a detailed analysis of Buddhist psychology.
The various schools of Buddhism tend to work within a distinctive group of texts, with some measure of overlap. During the first couple of centuries after Sakyamuni the Buddhist teachings were transmitted orally, but around the 1st Century CE they began to be written down. A very important surviving canon from the earliest period is the Pali Canon, named after the language in which it was memorised (Pali did not have an alphabet of it's own). It was preserved in Sri Lanka, by the Theravada school. Full versions of the original text and English translations are now readily available on the Internet.
Concerning the Mahayana canons, probably the best surviving canon is the Tibetan canon, split into those texts attributed to be authored by Buddha (Kanjur), and those texts which are understood to be commentaries by Indian practioners (Tenjur). Every sutra of the Pali canon is found within the Kanjur.
The appearance of the new Mahayana tradition brought with it a collection of texts also declared to be the actual sermons of the Buddha. These include the Perfection of Wisdom (paramita) Sutras, and Vaipulya (expanded) texts such as the Avatamsaka Sutra (Flower Ornament), as well as the Lotus Sutra, Vimalakirti Sutra, Nirvana Sutra, etc. which were translated into Tibetan and Classical Chinese, and are also now read in the West.
The Esoteric Vajrayana tradition also has a distinctive set of texts that it studies, including the Tantras.
The Mahayana canon further expanded after Buddhism was transmitted to China, where new texts were composed for the purpose of adapting the Indian tradition to the East Asian philosophical mindset. Many of these works would be adjudged to be spurious. Others gained acceptance into the canon by being passed off as Indian translations. These texts are known as Chinese Buddhist apocrypha. Other new texts, such as the Platform Sutra (attributed, probably falsely, to a monk named Huineng) and the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment were accepted as bonafide scriptures even though their Chinese provenance was well known. In the course of the development of Korean Buddhism and Japanese Buddhism, indigenous texts from those countries also attained canonical status. For example, in Korea, some of the writings of Jinul, and in Japan, works such as Dogen's Shobogenzo.
Buddhism in specific regions
Relations with other faiths
Some Hindus believe that Gautama is the 9th incarnation of Vishnu, and in the religion of Shintoism, he is seen as a Kami. The Baha'i 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 conversion to Christianity. Some Muslims believe that Gautama Buddha is Dhul-Kifl, one of the prophets mentioned in the Qur'an.
Buddhism in the modern world
According to statistics from adherents.com, estimates of the number of Buddhists vary between 230 and 500 million, with 350 million as the most commonly cited figure.
The rise, expansion, spread and decline of Buddhism in India
In Northern Asia, Mahayana remains dominant in China, Japan, Korea, Mongolia and Vietnam. Theravada dominates Southeast Asia, including Burma, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand, as well as Sri Lanka. Vietnam is the only Southeast Asian nation where Mahayana dominates, largely due to the proximity and cultural influence of China (see also: Confucianism).
In the later half of the 1800s, Buddhism (along with so many other religions & philosophies) came to the attention of West, including American east coast intellectuals such as Henry Thoreau, who translated a French copy of a Buddhist Sutra into English. Western scholars began to learn Asian languages and translate Asian texts. Officially, in 1899, the first Westerner (by the name of Gordon Douglas) was ordained in the Theravada tradition of Buddhism in Myanmar. Religious enthusiasts enjoyed the to-them exotic and mystical tone of the Asian traditions.
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 along the rail lines.
The cultural reevaluations of the Hippie generation in the late 1960s and early 1970s included a renewed interest in Buddhism, proclaimed by some of them as a natural path to awareness and enlightenment. Many people, including celebrities, traveled to the East in pursuit of gurus and foreign philosophy. In the 1990s, Buddhism became the fastest growing religion in Australia, in contrast to the steady decline of traditional western beliefs (see Christianity).
While in the West, Buddhism is regarded often as exotic and anti-establishment, in East Asia, Buddhism is regarded as familiar and part of the establishment. Buddhist organizations in East Asia often are well funded with donations from the wealthy and power. This in some cases has led to criticism that some Buddhist monks and organizations are too closely associated with the rich and powerful and are neglecting their duties to the poor.
A feature of Buddhism in the West has been the emergence of groups which, while they draw on traditional Buddhism, are in fact an attempt at creating a new style of non-sectarian Buddhist practice. The Shambala group set up by Chögyam_Trungpa is one example, and the FWBO by Sangharakshita is another.
Well-known Buddhists today include Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama and Thich Nhat Hanh.
Major Subtopics
See also: Ahimsa-- being -- Bodh Gaya -- Dalai Lama-- Dharma -- Eastern philosophy -- Hinayana -- Jainism -- List of Buddhists -- Mahayana -- Middle way -- Nonviolence -- Om -- sentience -- Taoism -- Trikaya -- Universal Dialectic --Universal Vehiclism-- Vinaya
External links
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A Study of Buddhism in Contrast to Christianity (From a Western Christian perspective)